NY Times dismisses the myth that Latin America is rapidly moving to the left or center-left, at best - ignited by Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

If you're looking for happiness, go and live in Denmark.

It is the happiest country in the world while Burundi in Africa is the most unhappy, according to a report by a British scientist released Friday.

So, what does happiness mean to you? Undoubtedly, being happy and measuring happiness (rtf file) is not that easy.

"Happiness is determined more by one's state of mind than by external events. Success may result in a temporary feeling of elation, or tragedy may send us into a period of depression, but sooner or later our overall level of happiness tends to migrate back to a certain baseline." - The Art of Happiness by the 14th Dalai Lama

"Happiness is not a simple thing. There are many levels. In Buddhism, for instance, there is a reference to the four factors of fulfillment, or happiness: wealth, worldly satisfaction, spirituality, and enlightenment. Together they embrace the totality of an individual's quest for happiness." - ibid

The Dalai Lama has also written a book - Genuine Happiness: Meditation as the Path to Fulfillment

--

"If it makes you happy... it can't be that bad" crooned Sheryl Crow.

In an increasing trend, men lead meaningful lives with no jobs or ambition

Instead of heading to work, Beggerow, 53, fills his days with diversions: playing the piano, reading histories and biographies, writing unpublished Western potboilers in the Louis L'Amour style - all activities once relegated to spare time. He often stays up late and sleeps until 11 a.m.....

Read more at the article.. no, its not from The Onion!

Every now and then, one reads about some interesting person who you read about and say.."Hmm...." or "Wow...". So, I hereby begin a series called...well..not "Hmm..Wow.."... but for now, uncreatively titled - 'People.'

---

Reading the wiki entry for the 2nd king of the Qajar dynasty, the ruling family of Persia from 1781 to 1925, Fateh Ali Shah Qajar, nephew of the the eunuch king & founder of that Persian dynasty, Mohammad Khan Qajar.. I read this....

Sarah Shahi, an Iranian Actress, is actually the great-great-granddaughter of Fateh Ali Shah Qajar of the Iranian Qajar dynasty from her father's side.

Aahoo Jahansouzshahi, whose Americanized name is Sarah Shahi (born January 10, 1980 in Euless, TX) is an American actress, model and former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader of Iranian descent. Shahi was named #90 on the Maxim magazine "Hot 100 of 2005" list; she moved up to #66 in 2006.

From royal lineage in Iran and a COwboys cheerleader, Maxim model, and Hottest woman list in the US... she sure must not find favor with the Iranian mullahs ;)

Via wikipedia... comes some information and understanding about Iran.

• History of Iran ...of the last 250-odd years 
• Zand dynasty (1750–1794) 
• Qajar dynasty (1781–1925) 
• Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979) 
• Iranian Revolution (1979) 
• Provisional Government (1979–1980) 
• Islamic Republic of Iran (1980– )

Do read...

Discharging an Arabic linguist -- despite critical need for translators -- because he's gay - The Idiocy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

I put this under the Religion label because I see no other reason for such ridiculous illogical decisions. Religious illogic (tautology there?) is the only fallacy that goes unquestioned.

A snapshot of English domestic season action this week..

Sussex didn’t get robbed afterall and play Warwickshire today, with Mushtaq Ahmed, and Yasir Arafat, not chosen for the second test.

Ganguly is playing in the Northamptonshire match that started this week and so I presume he has recovered from the blow to his face but he failed miserably again (out for 9), with big knocks by SD Peters (178), wicket-keeper DJG Sales (225) and Lance Klusener (124*) helping Northamptonshire to 660/5 declared. Five bowlers have been used in just the first 19 overs but not Ganguly yet as Essex have so far inched their way to 64/2.

David Hussey continued his fine form this season with a superb 150, his second successive hundred in Championship matches, as Nottinghamshire amassed 397 in just 98 overs on the first day against Lancashire at Nottingham. The visitors had Notts in all sorts of trouble at 107 for 5 with Dominic Cork and Tom Smith cutting through the top order. Hussey refused to be dictated to and smashed 150 in 177 balls with 22 fours and a six. He was indebted to Mark Ealham (83) who stuck with him for three hours, and together the pair put on 226 for the sixth wicket to hand the momentum back to Nottinghamshire. – via

VS Solanki did not find a place in the English side either but made a brilliant century against Derbyshire and helped Worcestershire chase down Derbyshire’s first innings total of 351 with ease, despite Graeme Hick failing with just 8 runs. Matt Mason, who took Worcestershire to an unlikely win over Gloucestershire last week with a 8 wicket haul, had another 5 wicket haul when Derbyshire batted. Looks like when you play Worcestershire, if Zaheer won’t get you, Mason will!

2nd test began today at Old Trafford, historically England's bogey-ground and one where they "seek to score their first win against Pakistan at Old Trafford. Three of the four Tests between the two sides have been drawn while Pakistan won by 108 runs in 2001 to draw the series 1-1."

Pakistan 93/4 (26.0 ov)
Pakistan won the toss and elect to bat first.

For England, Dalrymple released from the squad and Panesar, 'a cricketer so one-dimensional he might as well be a cartoon strip', was retained

For Pakistan, an interesting team selection decision, as they drop Salman Butt and made wk and batsman Kamran Akmal open, like has successfully done in ODIs before. However, Pakistan's opening parthernship woes continue as both openers failed, falling to Harmison, with Akmal for 4 and Imran Farhat for 0. And then just now 2 more very important wickets of Yousuf and Younis- one apiece by Panesar and Harmison, have put Pakistan in a spot of trouble...

Looks like Inzi has a big job ahead of him.. he scored 114 and 85 in his last Test there in 2001 but today only has the company two very contrasting style all-rounders' Razzaq and Afridi to get the job done - though right now, he has Javed Miandad's nephew, Faisal Iqbal at the crease with him...

Recent overs 1 4 . . . 4 | . . . W . . | W . . . . 3

Despite its many injury woes, England has made a major dent here, thanks to Harmison. But unlike in test 1 against Sri Lanka and the first test of this series, will England be able to drive home the advantage or will they falter when it comes to putting pressure on the opposition and let them get back into the game? We'll have to wait and see..

---

holy #$#... ..even as I wrote mail below, Faisal (3) and Inzi (0) got out...

26.5	Panesar to Faisal Iqbal, OUT, and there it is! Brilliant stuff from Panesar. Landed every ball on a sixpence and left the pitch to do the rest. This one jumped and Faisal's attempted cut is steered into Jones' gloves. England are flying
	Faisal Iqbal c Jones b Panesar 3 (10b 0x4 0x6) sr: 30.00

27.1	Harmison to Inzamam-ul-Haq, OUT, That. Is. Massive. Inzamam - he of the nine fifties in a row - is gone for a duck and it was a snorter! Leapt off a length, took the splice and looped to Kevin Pietersen at backward point. Pakistan have lost four wickets in a flash and England are rampant
	Inzamam-ul-Haq c Pietersen b Harmison 0 (3b 0x4 0x6) sr: 0.00

Recent overs

W . . . . 3 | . . . . W . | W . . . . . | 4 . .

Pakistan is dead in the water now at Pakistan 97/6 (29.1 ov)...expect a slow boring innings from Razzaq and expect Afridi to try to hit out of the hole and get out early!

---

Like I wrote above..

32.3	Panesar to Shahid Afridi, OUT, and there it is! Flatter and wider outside off stump, and another massive hoon from Afridi. Whirls his bat twice in his followthrough, but it makes no difference as Pietersen at point clings onto the steepler. Pakistan are in tatters!
	Shahid Afridi c Pietersen b Panesar 15 (16b 2x4 1x6) sr: 93.75
32.2	Panesar to Shahid Afridi, no run
32.1	Panesar to Shahid Afridi, SIX, well, that's only to be expected, but it was huge nonetheless! Powerful stride, hammered down the ground over long-on for a maximum. Monty won't mind this though ...

and a few balls later..

33.6	Harmison to Umar Gul, no run, right behind the ball to end the over. 11 overs, six maidens, five for 15. He won't beat his 7 for 12 against West Indies, but he could come mighty close at this rate
33.5	Harmison to Mohammad Sami, OUT, and that's the five-fer! Harmison's first since Lord's last summer, and it was a routine length delivery, steered into Strauss's midriff at second slip. Never quite in line with the ball, and who can blame him?
	Mohammad Sami c Strauss b Harmison 1 (7b 0x4 0x6) sr: 14.28
Harmison's field: three slips, two gullies, point, short leg, mid off, long leg. Attack, attack, attack

and like I said..an isolated 4 just now aside, Razzaq has expectedly gone into a shell...is now on 10 in 29 balls. (still better than 1 in 29 balls like Yuvraj had batted during recent WI series. ;))

---

The bottom 5 for Pakistan got out in a quicker hurry than top 5...as they collapse to 119allout - thanks to the helpful conditions landing Harmison with enviable bowling figures of 13-7-19-6 (not quite the 7 for 12 he managed at the Sabina Park to get West Indies allout for 47 but close!) and Panesar grabbing 3 wickets for 21 runs in 7.4 overs.

Fall of wickets 1-4 (Imran Farhat, 3.5 ov), 2-9 (Kamran Akmal, 5.6 ov), 3-90 (Mohammad Yousuf, 24.4 ov), 4-90 (Younis Khan, 25.1 ov), 5-93 (Faisal Iqbal, 26.5 ov), 6-93 (Inzamam-ul-Haq, 27.1 ov), 7-112 (Shahid Afridi, 32.3 ov), 8-113 (Mohammad Sami, 33.5 ov), 9-118 (Abdul Razzaq, 37.1 ov), 10-119 (Danish Kaneria, 38.4 ov)

Cricinfo commentator says: "The pitch here is under the spotlight and it does not look to be good enough for a Test. The sideways movement is fine, but the bounce is too inconsistent. Panesar’s third ball crept along the ground while others have flown head high. If this was a county match the pitch inspectors would be heading up the M6."

England have made it to 22/0 in 7 overs without any damage so far, with Sami and Umar Gul not making the same dent that Harmison did with the new ball this morning....

---

England end the day on top..

Scorecard at stumps on day 1:
Pakistan 119
England 168/2 (49 ov)
England lead by 48 runs with 8 wickets remaining in the 1st innings

Read the Day 1 Bulletin at Cricinfo

Alistair Cook looks set for yet another century to follow the one in the first test at Lords.... is batting on a sedate 65.

Dangerman Pietersen looks set with 38 in 49 balls..

Meaningless historical factoids aside (of the 70 Tests staged at Old Trafford, the captain winning the toss has batted on 62 occasions) aside and since 1990, the ground has the highest % (53.8%) of draws among all test venues in England!), Inzi's decision to bat first after winning first will be debated, just like Dravid's wrong call after the Mumbai test against England earlier this year. Inzi surely must be rueing the decision to bat first on a pitch that "offered a greenish tinge, tennis-ball bounce, a decidedly slippery surface with variable bounce"

But the day of course belonged to Harmison, proving that past performance (Old Trafford isn't Steve Harmison's happiest hunting ground in England. He's taken just seven wickets in two Tests at an average of 36 and a strike-rate of 61.4 at the venue. Among grounds in England, Harmison has a worse record only at Edgbaston, where he averages 68.2 and has a strike-rate of 96.6.) is no indication of what can happen in the future!

Like the Cricinfo bulletin says, 'All the talk before this Test revolved around England's non-firing pack-leader who, at Lord's - and in the preceding one-day series - so clearly lacked rhythm and pace. Today, he returned to his best.'

Carnage ensued after the (lunch) interval as Pakistan lost 8 for 29 in 45 breathless minutes....(Pakistani batsmen lose their marbles, writes Osman Samiuddin)... and unlike Harmison, who came out of hiding today and Panesar, who showed his panache, the Pakistani bowlers too did not use the conditions and pitch to their benefit. Again, from the Cricinfo match report for the day..

Clearly this pitch is not a five-dayer. Yet Pakistan's opening bowlers, despite gaining the vital wicket of Trescothick so cheaply, rather wasted the new ball. Neither Sami nor Umar Gul showed the required discipline on a pitch which really ought to suit them: on several occasions, wide deliveries zooted through to the wicketkeeper. Although Strauss received a dose of fortune on five when, slashing at Sami, he found Imran Farhat, who much like his catching performance at Lord's, dropped it. Thereafter the bowling was wayward; had they attacked the stumps instead of attempting to bowl like the wind, the zooters might have caused England greater problems.

It will take another such spectacular collapse or a great fightback, the likes of which Sri Lanka put up in the first test against England earlier this year, for Pakistan to avoid a loss here!

---

No time to blog about day 2 and day 3...but what a disaster for Pakistan as they lose within 3 days by an innings and 120 runs. Steve Harmison shines again with 5 wickets in the 2nd innings, with Panesar getting the rest. On the 50th anniversary of Laker's 19-wicket haul, England found an unlikely pair in Harmison and Panesar picking up 19 of the 20 Pakistani wickets between them! Osman Samiuddin writes about Pakistan's struggle against left-arm spinners

Read rest of the details about the match at Cricinfo's home for the match.

Day 3
Bulletin - Panesar turns the screw
Andrew McGlashan - From cult hero to national hero
Osman Samiuddin - Trouble in the left-arm front
Quotes - Strauss hails ruthless England
Roving Reporter - Pakistan's fans desert the stands

Day 2
Bulletin - Bell and Cook show their class
Osman Samiuddin - Gul rises above the expectations
Andrew McGlashan - Batting battle heats up
News - Harmison and Farhat injuries
Gallery

Day 1
Bulletin - Harmison's six of the best
Andrew McGlashan - Harmison comes out of hiding
Osman Samiuddin - Pakistan lose their marbles
Andrew Miller - Panesar's cool panache
Gallery

---

---

In the other test that began today... as I expected, Sri Lanka, always the powerhouse at home, where Murali is GOD, is right on top...

Scorecard at stumps on day 1:
South Africa 169
Sri Lanka 128/2 (26.0 ov)
Sri Lanka trail by 41 runs with 8 wickets remaining in the 1st innings

Somehow, this series does not excite me as much as the one between England (with all its injuries and pre-Ashes hype) and mercurial and also injury-ridden Pakistan does.

A methodical manner of attack
Ashwell Prince's first day at the helm could not have been worse: he failed with the bat, South Africa were bundled out for a record low and then his bowlers, after being teased by the success of a double-strike with the new ball, where flayed to all corners of the Sinhalese Sports Club.

Moody hails Murali and Fernando
An expectedly upbeat Tom Moody, the Sri Lankan coach, hailed his bowlers for cleaning up South Africa for a paltry 169, adding that the pitch was likely to get slower as the match went on. Mickey Arthur, his South African counterpart, admitted to some opening-day nerves but blamed his batsmen for an "ordinary" display.

---

And no time ofcourse to blog about this match either... record-breaking feats and all! Read details at Cricinfo's home for the match:

Sri Lanka 756 for 5 dec (Jayawardene 374, Sangakkara 287) beat South Africa 169 (Muralitharan 4-41, Fernando 4-48) and 434 (Rudolph 90, Boucher 85, Muralitharan 6-131) by an innings and 153 runs
Scorecard

Day 5
Bulletin - Murali wraps it up for Sri Lanka
Verdict - Destroying with patience
Gallery - Murali spins South Africa to defeat
Quotes 'Credit should go to the bowlers' - Jayawardene

Day 4
Bulletin - Prince leads South Africa's fightback
Verdict - Grim fight for survival
Quotes 'We have a good chance of saving the game' - Rudolph
Gallery - South Africa hang on to fight another day

Day 3
Bulletin - Records tumble as Sri Lanka sit pretty
Verdict - Perfection personified
Quotes 'I am happy with what I have achieved' - Jayawardene
Stats - Colossal collaboration
Gallery - Jayawardene and Sangakkara create history

Day 2
Bulletin - South Africa wilt against Jayawardene & Sangakkara
Verdict - No respite for the South Africans
Tests - Partnership Records
Gallery - The Jayawardene-Sangakkara show

Day 1
Bulletin - Sangakkara builds SL advantage
Verdict - A methodical manner of attack
Quotes - Moody hails Murali and Fernando
Gallery - Sri Lanka dominate on opening day
News - Health and family take priority over cricket for Atapattu

Preview
Preview -Sri Lanka head into first Test without Vaas

---

---

Like in the preview I wrote before the first test, focus before the 2nd test is again on the injuries!

The injury list on both sides keeps growing...

For England, even those coming off the list and seemingly ready for the 2nd test (the irreplaceable Mr. Flintoff) going back on, with plans for more surgeries and return dates for others (Vaughan) keeps getting pushed by months, leaving talk about a return merely speculative at this point in time!

Now, even Liam Plunkett added to England injury list and is ruled out of next two Tests

Jamie Dalrymple, England's only shining star in the recent ODI drubbing by Sri Lanka, gets added to the test squad; hopes are that he can glue England together

For Pakistan:

Good news is that Younis Khan is back in the groove (though this report from 10 days back lumped him along with Asif and Malik as doubtful for second Test; the former two are indeed out and have gone back to Pakistan) but Younis will likely play the 2nd test and this should go a long way in further strenghtening their batting but their woes on the bowling side continue..

Bad news for Pakistan continued with the replacement bowler called in for an injured Mohammad Asif having to go back due to personal reasons - Rao Iftikhar leaves squad after father's death.

And now... an injury scare for Afridi

Not sure what the update on Razzaq is...who missed the practice game between the first and second test due to back spasms.

News on those on the injured list is that..

Naved-ul-Hasan, previously ruled out of the test series, is not to undergo surgery as the medical specialists apparently changed their diagnosis.

Shoaib's return remains imminent, as always even as he trains with Warwickshire though Bob Woolmer has said that Shoaib will not be rushed back (rightly so!) Shoib remains boastfull and cocky as ever, boasting that he will be a yard quicker on his return. He still does not get it... control combined with raw pace is what will make him successful - not raw pace alone!

In the meantime, will Yasir Arafat or maybe even Mushtaq Ahmed come to Pakistan's rescue, wonders Osman Samiuddin.

Note: In trying to look for the Cricinfo profile for Yasir Arafat, I found there are many different Arafats born in Pakistan and Bangladesh in the 1980s that have played cricket. Two thoughts about this interesting observation. Firstly, I did not realize that Arafat is a common Bangladeshi/Pakistani last name. And secondly, looks like the Palestinian leader, Yaseer Arafat was really popular in these countries...with so many parents naming their sons after him.

Bangladesh

Arafat Salahuddin (Arafat Salahuddin, 1984- )

Arafat Sunny (Arafat Sunny, 1986- )

Raihanuddin Arafat (Raihanuddin Arafat)

Yasin Arafat (Yasin Arafat, 1987- )

Pakistan

Arafat Fiaz (Arafat Fiaz)

Yasir Arafat (Yasir Arafat, 1982- )

Yasir Arafat (Multan) (1984- )

Ok..enough recap of the injuries - its becoming a full-time job just to keep track of the injury merry-go-round.

---

The legendary guitarist from Mali, Ali Farka Toure, lauded as the King of the African Blues, the Godfather of Desert Blues, and the King of Sahara, passed away earlier this year. (Obituaries from BBC, NYT, Guardian, NPR, and various bloggers and online sites & forums remember him fondly.)

Thanks to BBC's World Music Audio Archive, listen to a great tribute show here (real player download)

Following the death of the mighty Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure, Lucy Duran and Andy Kershaw presented a special tribute to their friend. The programme includes some of the desert bluesman's essential tracks, as well as material from the BBC's own archive, and contributions from Ali's friend and producer Nick Gold.

You can isten to a number of clips featuring Ali Farka Toure's music on NPR's All Songs Considered, including an interview (real player download) with his long-time producer, Nick Gold (also the man who bought us the Buena Vista Social Club). Nick describes his journey to Nikafune near Timbaktu to record the album, Niafunké.

Apparently...

...forsaking fame in Europe and the US, which came aplenty, Ali Farka Toure retired in the 1990s from all travel and music recitals abroad, instead developing and spending the remainder of his life developing his farm in Nikafune. He refused to travel to he US to even produce albums and apparently even did not travel to the US to get his Grammy, famously saying..."I don't know what a Grammy means but if someone has something for me, they can come and give it to me here in Niafunke, where I was singing when nobody knew me.")

Ali Farka Toure enjoyed his life in Niafune.

"Africa is my source of inspiration, my home base, my joy".
Contrary to many African artists, Ali Farka Touré was never tempted to exile himself in the West, during the seventies and eighties when the expansion of World Music drew many of them to Europe. Quite the contrary. This musician, whose musical culture is impressive, respected and revered throughout the world, is truly closer than any other to his own land, Mali. To such a degree that today, after winning over the international music scene with his sensitive, inspired blues, he now spends most of his time farming.

Markus James visited Ali Farka Toure in Mali in January 2006, a few weeks before Ali's passing, and shares his thoughts about his long-time friend and inspiration.

Reviewing his album, Savane, released posthumously earlier this month, Robin Desenlow of the Guardian, writes:

There may be other recordings of his that have yet to be released (including sessions with the world's finest kora player, Toumani Diabaté, recorded at the time of their memorable concert together at the Barbican last year), but this is the last solo album by the best-known and best-loved guitarist in Africa, and it's simply outstanding. He described it as "my best album evera" and he was absolutely right. Even compared to the much-praised earlier work by Mali's "godfather of the desert blues", this is a set that's remarkable for its sheer variety and passion, along with the expected but still thrilling guitar work, and some less predictably fine vocals.

And Charlie Gillett reviewing the album, Savane, in the Observer wrote:

The great bluesman's posthumous album is the finest of his career. Remember him this way.

Farka Toure won his second Grammy earlier this year for Heart of the Moon, BBC's Album of the Year* (hear Hawa Dolo from this album) and his collaboration with Toumani Diabaté, the great African kora player, having won one for Talking Timbaktu, a collaboration with American guitarist, Ry Cooder, in 1994.

*The BBC review had this to say about the album: "It sounds like an established partnership made in heaven"..

Earlier Reviews in The Guardian
02.07.2005: Ali Farka Touré/Toumani Diabaté, Barbican, London
24.06.2005: CD: Ali Farka Touré commit; Diabaté, In the Heart of the Moon
12.11.2004: CD: Ali Farka Toure, Red & Green

Other links of interest:

Ali Farka Toure- Live In Niafunke
Afropop makes the pilgrimage to visit Grammy Award winner Ali Farka Toure in his beloved hometown of Niafunke on the banks of the Niger River in northern Mali. In this sublime set, Ali plays acoustic with musical mates on the njarka (one string violin), and the gurkel (two string instrument w/metal piece for buzz) and calabash (gourd used for percussion). Ali talks about what family and his community in Niafunke mean to him. Listen to the selection of his songs at the above link or via podcast.net.

Read an interview with Ali Farka Toure

And last but not least, see these videos via YouTube:

Ali Farka Toure with Corey Harris
Ali Farka Toure part 1
Ali Farka Toure part 2
Ali Farka Toure part 3
Ali Farka Toure part 4
Ali Farka Toure part 5
Ali Farka Toure part 6

Oh yeah..... like a sex machine...

One of my favorite compositions - Dave Brubeck Quarter plays Take Five. Amazing playing on the alto saxophone by Paul Desmond, who wrote this piece.

And Guitar Heaven...

, shockwave-flash@http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/2BUrYDJszsrguvQ5" href="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/2BUrYDJszsrguvQ5" id="">

And its coming up on midnight....time to go to bed - plan to fall asleep listening to this genius!

Letter from the heartland of America reflecting what more and more Americans feel.. *
One day, we will wish Bush was never elected

Ok..Ok...maybe Montana is hardly the Republican red-state in the heartland of America - the stereotype most people associate with the state is more of being a state with an anti-establishment streak - although there obviously are some conservative right-wingers in Montana too, like this other letter about 'declining morality' to the editor adequately proves!

The first letter reminds me of a sticker I recently saw at an airport. It said.. "Don't blame me. I voted for Kerry" (in the 2004 elections.)

Also, speaking of wingnuts, the heartland is not the only place you find them! Just this week, the mayor of the New Jersey city of Bogota got his panties in a bunch over a Spanish ad by Mcdonalds.

Mayor Steve Lonegan (R) of Bogota, New Jersey is ' calling for a McDonald's boycott if the fast-food chain does not take down a Spanish-language billboard advertising iced coffee.' Lonegan said the dvertisement is ' offensive' and 'divisive' because it sends a message that Hispanic immigrants do not need to learn English. ' The true things that bind us together as neighbors and community is our belief in the American flag and our common language.' - via ThingProgress.com

Does he hear himself? Its scary indeed if what he says makes logical sense to him! So much for those damn liberals from the blue states on the coast, huh! I say that tongue-in-cheek... in response to red-state rantings...er.. opinions and allegations about the Godless liberals and the immorality of the blue states (“the anti-God Left who have been using America’s courts to impose an anti-religion, anti-family agenda on America.” ) as contrasted against the morality of the Christian faith (Book review) & and the fundamentalism.. er.. conservatism of the red states. Anyone espousing such a holier-than-thou attitude is often times found to have more skeletons in their closet than the person they point their fingers at (whats the old saying about "When you point one finger at another, note that three point towards you!').

The hypocrisy of the so-deemed 'Red State' allegations aside, Red State/Blue State distinctions make no sense to me although some people have come up with very incriminating data showing the divide spills over to such topics as minimum wage too. However, if you choose a hundred factors across the different states, then I think it is inevitable that data for some variable will fall out across these lines, especially when for a country as big as the US. Also, there are many other social and economic reasons and other long existing differences in viewpoints of urban & rural communities that can explain the same data but then I suppose all political leaning can also be attributed to a number of social and economic factors! I'm going around in circles now... but all in all.. I like the idea of a purple America ;)

And speaking of holier-than-thou bastards... I was trying to find info about this mayor of some city in Washington who was embroiled in a sex-scandal last year... had meant to blog about him last year (maybe I did! Dont remember!) ...and lo..what a coincidence...found that he died over the weekend!!

The former mayor of Spokane, Washington, who was booted out of office last year after a sex scandal, died on Saturday of cancer, his family said in a statement released by a Seattle hospital. In December Spokane residents voted to recall the conservative politician following reports that he had offered city jobs to young men in hopes of having sex with them. The former Boy Scout leader had been a prominent Republican political figure and leading state legislator until 2003, when he resigned to run for mayor of Washington's second-largest city. While a legislator, West had co-sponsored a bill that would have made it a crime for unmarried teenagers to have sex, and often opposed gay rights proposals. The Spokesman-Review said West trawled gay Web sites, and the newspaper quoted three young men who said they had communicated over the Internet with West and had been offered city jobs or positions by him. (Also read: the Spokesman-Review editor Steve Smith's side of the story.)

In any case, rot in hell..hypocrite!

Mayor's in cities of Washington have historically been bigoted morons, I guess.... found this tidbit while google-searching the Spokane mayor story - In 1885 the then Tacoma mayor Jacob Robert Weisbach deemed the Chinese “a curse” and a “filthy horde.”)

Related: My rants against Religious Dogmas in a blog post compilation that I keep adding to from time to time!


* Also read another such rant against Bush... this one in an interview with Mike Wallace (of 60 Minutes fame):

Q. President George W. Bush has declined to be interviewed by you. What would you ask him if you had the chance?
A. What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world? In your background, Mr. President, you apparently were incurious. You didn't want to travel. You knew very little about the military. . . . The governor of Texas doesn't have the kind of power that some governors have. . . . Why do you think they nominated you? . . . Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that the country is so fucked up?

Hard to believe Wallace used such language. Unfortunately I do not have the link to the above interview but I found it referenced at this blog post. Maybe the blogger just made that up in the midst of exam-week?


Meanwhile, Cheney is as popular as a rock-star in Wyoming.. but outside of Wyoming, you better not criticize the guy!

Steve Howards encountered Dick Cheney in Beaver Creek, Colorado and decided he would not pass up the opportunity to let him know he disapproves of the administration's Iraq policies. 10 minutes later he was arrested by Secret Service for "assaulting" the vice president.

Is this the Soviet Union or what? Sounds like a snippet out of a Milan Kundera novel or something!!!

No.. not talking about the song, Heatwave, written by brothers Brian and Edward Holland and originally performed by Martha & The Vandellas, with a 1975 remake by Linda Ronstadt reaching #5 on the Top 40 charts.

Musical trivia aside, this is a very serious topic and one that concerns me a lot. I keep a compilation of articles on the subject at my post on Global Warming & The Environment but thought I'll blog separately about the recent heatwave in the US (affecting people from California to St. Louis to Boston, not to mention deaths due to hottest temperatures in a decade in always-hot Phoenix; and not to forget the heatwave that is killing many in Europe, with temperature records being broken in many countries), I think 2006 looks set to break the hottest-year records set last year (see 2005 Recap below). (Reuters analyzes - Is the heatwave in Europe and the United States due to climate change? Well....all I can say is that scientists have predicted this based on modeling of emissions and other human-related causes.)

Europe heatwaves 'soon routine' 14 Dec 04

Emissions double heatwave risk 1 Dec 04

Update: Indeed.. enroute to another record breaking hot year! The first Half of 2006 is indeed the warmest on record for the United States.

---

Firstly, here are some tips on how to deal with a heatwave

Coping with a heatwave
Red Cross - Heatwave
Arizona Heatwave Website
State of Florida - Guide to beating the Heat
National Weather Service Heat Index Table

Heat Index Map
High Temp Map

Also read: Dying Alone, An interview with Eric Klinenberg, author of Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago ... about the 1995 heat wave in Chicago which killed atleast 600 people.

---

The Union of Concerned Scientists of USA (ucsusa) have spoken vociferously about this issue... but little is being done as the Bush administration continues its practice* of dissing global warming as an unproven theory...

Global average surface temperatures pushed 2005 into a virtual tie with 1998 as the hottest year on record. For people living in the Northern Hemisphere—most of the world's population—2005 was the hottest year on record since 1880, the earliest year for which reliable instrumental records were available worldwide. The year 2005 exceeded previous global annual average temperatures despite having weak El Niño conditions at the beginning of the year and normal conditions for the rest of the year.

.....

Because most global warming emissions remain in the atmosphere for decades or centuries, the energy choices we make today greatly influence the climate our children and grandchildren inherit. We have the technology to increase energy efficiency, significantly reduce these emissions from our energy and land use, and secure a high quality of life for future generations. We must act now to avoid dangerous consequences.

Also at the ucsusa link,

Global Warming Science

Global Warming Solutions

Global Warming 101

Global Warming Human Fingerprints

Record Temperatures 2005

Global Warming FAQ

Science of Global Warming

Past, Present, and Future Temperatures: the Hockeystick FAQ

Abrupt Climate Change FAQ

Hurricanes and Climate Change

Recognizing Forests' Role in Climate Change

Climate Change in Key Regions

California Global Warming Impacts

Global Warming in New Hampshire

Gulf Coast Ecological Heritage at Risk

Great Lakes Communities and Ecosystems at Risk

Arctic Climate Impact Assessment

Climate Change in the Hawkeye State

Early Warning Signs of Global Warming

Causes

Each Country's Share of CO2 Emissions

The impacts of land use on climate change

Recognizing Forests' Role in Climate Change

Resources

Sound Science Initiative

Global Warming Materials for Educators

Crichton Thriller State of Fear

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Skeptic Organizations

Global Warming FAQ

---

*A renowned expert from NASA had warned last year that data on global warming has been 'screened and controlled' by the Bush administration. And now the news is out... indeed, a Bush aide softened greenhouse gas links to Global Warming. Read the Rick Piltz Memo (pdf) and read about how Philip Cooney as chief of staff for White House Council on Environmental Quality repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming. "The issues raised therein go far beyond the mere fact that a political appointee has been editing the language of scientific reports; rather, it appears that the whole U.S. government climate change science program has been corrupted through systematic political interference. " Particularly glaring is "the administration's decision to send the U.S. National Assessment of climate change impacts, a groundbreaking scientific report completed late in the Clinton administration, "into a black hole.""

---

2005 Recap

World Temperatures Keep Rising With a Hot 2005

2005 warmest on record in north
The global increase is 0.48 Celsius, making 2005 the second warmest year on record behind 1998, though the 1998 figure was inflated by strong El Nino conditions.

2005 was Australia's hottest year on record
CO2 'highest for 650,000 years' 24 Nov 05

Regional model for global warming 23 Nov 05

Mercury rising 27 Oct 05

Arctic ice 'disappearing quickly' 28 Sep 05

Carbon dioxide continues its rise 31 Mar 05

---

My blogpost compilation on the subject is at - Global Warming & The Environment

A man who had a penile implant to cure impotence is 'rising to the occasion' whenever his neighbour opens his garage doors. In a call to BBC Radio Merseyside the man claimed the remote control for his neighbour's garage was on the same frequency as the electronic device in his groin.

[...] He said: 'Every time my neighbours park their 4x4 I get an erection. It's embarrassing.' - via India Uncut

---

In what must surely be one of the summer's more bizarre events, hundreds of people are expected to gather in a hall in central London on August 5 to pleasure themselves in aid of charity. Prizes will be on offer for those who clock up the most orgasms and those who can masturbate the longest - the current record, according to the organisers, is a chafing eight-and-a-half hours. (Related link: Masturbate-a-thon 2006) - Also via India Uncut

---

Less shocking or less of a WTF, are these two news articles of events organized by people... the first understandable as an indulgence for many and the latter as a lifestyle choice for some...

A field of dreams - Pornutopia!

and

From an Amish to a swinger...thats quite a change! Ran into her story at this Yahoo! article about the swinging convention in Las Vegas (aaah..this is what they mean by 'What happens in LV, stays in LV! ;))

---

and other "news" from India - all mostly gleaned through Amit Varma's blog, India Uncut

Reality-TV like sensationalism ran rampant in India over the weekend...

Boy rescued after two days in well First a TV tamasha as millions watched the drama unfold live on Indian television ....then a bigger tamasha as politicians try to get free footage from the 'event'...

Loo allowance: Hike in salaries, laptops and now fancy toilets - the Jharkhand politico's desire for perks seems boundless with the government now sanctioning Rs 1,50,000 for each legislator to upgrade the toilets in his house.

"Show me Vajrasana": That's what Oscar Fernandes, a member of the Congress Working Committee, reportedly asked a candidate he was interviewing for "a post in the National Student's Union of India (NSUI), the student body of the Congress." - via India Uncut

Vaastu Shastra: That's the latest battleground between M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa. The lady isn't happy with where she sits in the state assembly, and is blaming the gent of using Vaastu Shastra to determine who sits where. - via India Uncut

Sit erect, right now -- via India Uncut

Why? Well, because Mallika Sherawat is doing something. Consider these incredible lines from Indiatimes:

Whatever she does, it makes you sit erect. Whatever she wears, it titillates you. Her intention is clear to make your attention pin-pointed on her sensual parts. She is sultry Mallika Sherawat, who always says it script demands. [Sic, naturally.]

And finally...
Every dog gets his day in court.. Veerappan's dog in court!!! - also via India Uncut

I am currently reading My Sister, Guard Your Veil; My Brother, Guard Your Eyes by Lila Azam Zanganeh.

Will try to write a detailed review later but for now..here is an excerpt from the introduction by the editor, Lila Azam Zanganeh, to give you an idea about the book.

'The gap between the multifaceted realities of Iranian political and cultural life and the simplified image one is often fed by politicians and mainstream media alike remains mind-boggling.' The book aims at closing that gap by offering a wide ranging look at Iran from the perspective of some the country’s most astute observers and commentators and strives to open a 'series of vibrant perspectives on concealed Iranian realms.' - Adapted from the Levantine Cultural Center's Uncensored Iranian Voices page.

The book includes some well-known and some not-so-well-known Iranian personalities like:

• Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran^
• Marjane Satrapi, author of graphic novel, Persepolis 1 and 2 and Embroideries*
• Celebrated filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami $
• Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, Oscar-nominated for House of Sand and Fog & acted in the 4th season of the hit sitcom, 24)... 
  

Read a more detailed review of the book and also hear Zanganeh weigh in on the growing tension between the U.S. and Iran on the Tavis Smiley show on NPR.

---

^ Azar Nafisi - Author of Reading Lolita in Tehran converses with Robert Birnbaum of The Identity Project.

Transcript of interview with Nafisi on PBS

Interview with Nafisi at Powell Books

Audio Interview with Nafisi on NPR's The Connection.

---

* Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi talks about why Iranians don't think sex is sinful, the hypocrisy of American saber-rattling over Iran, and why George Bush and the mullahs are "the same."

Couple of interview with Satrapi

An Iranian Girlhood - Time magazine on Persepolis

AsiaSource Interview

Audio interview at Coastal Carolina University

Audio interview on NPR

---

$ Abbas Kiarostami Interview
Transcript of Kiarostami's conversation with Bill Horrigan, the curator of media at the Wexner Center.

Abbas Kiarostami Critical analysis of landmark international and independent cinema

Guardian Unlimited Film Interviews Abbas Kiarostami

---

Also by Lila Azam Zanganeh

Americans Return from Afghanistan
Relatives of victims of Sept. 11 create a relief fund in Afghanistan for casualties of U.S. bombings.

Not at One With Nature
Lila Azam Zanganeh discusses a skeptical Parisian's perspective on the great American outdoors.

Literary Cafés
The two most popular Literary Cafés have different ways of bringing poetry (and prose) to the people.

Women in Afghanistan
The United Nations marked International Women's Day with a conference on Afghan women, with guests Kofi Annan and Laura Bush.

Russian Mafia
Lila Azam Zangeneh reports on why the Russian mafia is no longer thriving in New York City.

La Boheme, But Few Bohemians
Lila Azam Zanganeh wants to know why New York lacks avant-garde opera

Lila Azam Zanganeh discusses Giorgio Fabre's new book about the relations between Hitler and Mussolini. (Also appeared in NYT, Nov 7, 2004)

Out of Africa (June 2005; NYT, free subscription required) What is a literature that does not exist? One that takes root far from an emigrant writer's native land, where his work is barely read, if at all? Togo's best-known writer, Kossi Efoui, addressed this remarkable paradox of his continent's literary heritage when he asserted, ''For me, African literature is something that does not exist.''

Succès de Scandale
Lila Azam Zanganeh American readers have long felt guilty about loving Lolita. As Vladimir Nabokov's nymphet heroine turns 50, Lila Azam Zanganeh traces the impact of a novel that has become both an icon and a cultural cliche. (She is currently at work on a book about Vladimir Nabokov.)

---

Axis of People: Arguments Against Us and Them, a discussion about Why They Don't Hate Us with author Mark LeVine, Middle East historian and widely noted as "a leader of the new generation of scholars of the modern Middle East and Islam, Globalization, and Popular Culture, and an award winning musician who has performed with some of the greatest artists around the world."

“Mark LeVine proposes a different way of thinking about "us" and "them" in the Middle East: instead of seeing a "clash of civilizations," he calls for historical understanding and the creation of an 'axis of empathy.' This is a necessary and illuminating work.” — John Wiener, Professor of History, University of California, Irvine.

This book offers a groundbreaking exploration of the roots of the current conflict between the United States and the Muslim world. LeVine argues that the idea that most Muslims hate the United States or the West is a useful fabrication that helps fundamentalists on both sides to maintain political, economic or cultural power in their societies through the spread of what LeVine calls an Axis of Arrogance and Ignorance. He also offers a critique of the works of writers and others who have been crucial in the "branding of Islam" as a source of violence and backwardness in today’s world. Against such views, he advocates an Axis of Empathy as the only strategy that can bring about a long-term solution to the current situation.

Coincidences or in other words - just goddamn plain luck (good and bad!)

The one that got away....didn't!

A golfer hits three holes-in-one at the same hole on the same course on three consecutive Saturdays

Watch this video - Baseball ball hits the passerby in the head. A funny baseball game incident or accident, based on whose viewpoint you consider ;)

meowwwww....

Ganguly hits out at Dalmiya
Former Indian captain releases scathing email

I don't expect loyalty from Ganguly - Dalmiya

A filmi fight scene followed soon thereafter with dialogues going back and forth of..... tune kis maa ka doodh piya hai... jis plate mein khaaya ussi mein tuka.... and so on and so forth. (Oh..ok. .I made that up ;))

Actually... there are indications that this may spiral out in a very different direction..

Nevertheless, there are several suspicious circumstances surrounding the e-mail, for instance the
address that it was sent to, the grammar and spelling errors in the e-email (sic! oh the irony!) and the fact that it has not been signed....

And so maybe we can expect a reply from ganguly tomorrow saying.. 'No.. I never wrote that e-mail... my brother Snehashish made it up... and that leads us to another filmi story of the fall-out of two brothers...the older one jealous of his younger's cricketing successes (and even the most rabid Ganguly opponent has to admit, there have been quite a few in the past) and so on....

Btw, all this has come out in the media on a day when Ganguly was struck in the face by a bouncer and forced to retire hurt while playing for Northamptonshire against the touring Pakistani side. He had not gotten a chance to bat in the first outing as they had declared at 269/3 and made a measy 5 in 18 balls before having to retire.

Shahid Nazir removed Bilal Shafayat, Rikki Wessels and Usman Afzaal as Northamptonshire slumped to 43 for 5 second time around. However, that wasn't the only damage he inflicted as a bouncer struck Sourav Ganguly in the face and forced him to retire hurt on 5.

More about this match at my blog.

Looks like the mystic was wrong after all... July 15th has come and gone..his luck ain't changing ;)

So much for Ganguly returning to form playing in English county - his reflexes have probably slowed down.. he never could play the rising ball too well... he made 0 and 2 in an earlier match, played a decent knock in an ODI match (71 in 106 balls), failed with the bat and shone with the ball in a 20/20 match, and was hit by a boucer today.... not really a way to fight his way back into the Indian side for the 2007 World Cup... huh? ;)

Maybe thats why he's now trying to curry favor with Powar by distancing himself from Dalmiya, huh? :)

---

And another minor cat-fight between old friends brewing..

Sachin, don't be afraid of failure - Sanjay Manjrekar

Sachin hits back at Manjrekar's criticism
Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar has responded to Sanjay Manjrekar's article in a newspaper in which where the former Mumbai captain had said that Sachin should not be afraid of failure. Moreover, Manjrekar has also said that the timing of Sachin's injury breaks at times was questionable.

---

Meanwhile the saga behind the CAB election and Dalmiya saga continues.. (articles via Cricinfo)

BCCI-CAB Tussle

Bindra accuses Dalmiya of betraying Ganguly

Chappell has acted against the rule book, says Dalmiya

Dalmiya calls for Ganguly's inclusion

Dalmiya to appear before Disciplinary Committee

War of words between Dalmiya and BCCI intensifies

Dalmiya is now being challenged on his home turf.

---

Ta Mok, Khmer Rouge Head Facing Genocide Trial, Dies

These are the people that they thought of when they coined the hindi phrase: 'dharti pe bhoj'! Or as my mom might say....Good riddance to bad rubbish!

Before today, all I had heard about Hari Kunzru is that he is British-born but of 'Indian-origin' and that he writes very different imaginative novels.

I had heard of him when he wrote his first book, The Impressionist, a few years ago and recieved a £1.25 million advance for it!! (Review of The Impressionist and an interview).

Just learned that the "The Impressionist was named as the winner of the 5,000 John Llewellyn Rhys award, the second oldest literary prize in Britain, but for the past 15 years it has been sponsored by The Mail on Sunday. Kunzru rejected the award, citing the newspaper’s ‘editorial policy of vilifying and demonising refugees and asylum seekers’. Kunzru demanded that the paper donate the prize money to the Refugee Council."

Also his author bio at contemporarywriters.com mentions that : In 2003, Hari Kunzru was named by Granta magazine as one of twenty 'Best of Young British Novelists'.

Apparently he has two more books since viz. Transmission in 2004 (Review) and more recently a book of short stories, Noise, that that I had not heard about untill I just saw Jai Arjun Singh's review of the same.

Also read this piece of fiction, Beyond The Pleasure Principle, from him in the Guardian. Very difficult reading...not for light reading at 10.30 in the night, for sure. I'll have to try to read it again some other time!

1. Looks like the Bangladesh tour to Zimbabwe and Kenya is on..... after some concerns that it may not happen at all as Kenya could not raise the money required for this series! The five-ODI series in Zimbabwe starts on July 29th and will be followed by a 3 ODI series in Kenya in August. (Note: A Bangladesh-A side, which had a few players who have played for the national side, just finished a tour of Zimbabwe and beat the Zimbabwe-A team 5-0 in the ODIs but drew the 3 4-day matches 1-1, with Bangladesh wininng the first game by 7 wickets, weather preventing a gripping finale in the 2nd game, and a inspired 7-wicket Zimbabwe victory in the third game.

However, calling a win against Kenya and Zimbabwe glory is a stretch... although historically, amazingly it has been Kenya who has come out on top though the last time they played in March 2006, Kenya was overwhelmed 4-0.

Bangladesh confident of overseas glory in Africa

---

2. Like he (or anyone) has a choice...

Agarkar ready to live life with twists and turns

But atleast it is good to see that after being dropped for the test series in WI inspite of being the senior-most and the best bowler during the ODI series, he has been chosen in the Indian side for the RSA-SL tri-series.

---

3. A new beginning...here's wishing him lots of luck with his new role as ICC match referee. Hopefully he carries it out with more aplomb than his stint as a commentator!

Javagal Srinath to officiate in Sri Lanka - RSA test series

---

4. Duly deserved (Dravid) and also if Sania Mirza could get the Arjuna award after 1 year of good tennis, certainly Yuvraj & Pathan deserve it too! Kudos!

National Awards for Cricketers
Rahul Dravid can well be the second cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar to win the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award after the BCCI nominated the Team India captain for country's highest sports award. BCCI has also nominated emerging allrounder Irfan Pathan and dashing southpaw Yuvraj Singh for the Arjuna award for the year 2005-06.

(Note: Per the article, other than Tendulkar, other sportspersons winning the prestigious Khel Ratna aware include - chess wizard Viswanathan Anand, the first recipient, cue ace Geet Sethi, Olympic medallist lifter Karnam Malleswari, mercurial hockey forward Dhanraj Pillay, All-England title winning shuttler Pullela Gopichand, star long jumper Anju Bobby George and the country's first Olympic silver medallist, post-independence, marksman Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.)

Note: Sportstar has an interview with Rahul Dravid, after the historic win in West Indies.

---

5. Never read the newsgroup rec.sports.cricket (RSC)... because I do not have the patience for flame wars and mindless rabid rambling from cricket fans and so my two main sources for cricket news (in addition to regular mainstream newspapers online) are Cricinfo and Prem Panicker's great blog. However, I landed up at the RSC webpage today and noted this interesting post there..

First mention of Cricinfo on RSC

Apparently, the first post that referenced Cricinfo on RSC was posted on Thurs, Apr 8 1993 8:24 am by someone called ColdPom. We've come a long ways, baby!!!

---

6. Man of the Match awards stats from Cricinfo. Two guesses for who comes out on top!

And finally...to end this blogpost, three funny quotes from Cricinfo's Quotable Quotes ..

If one-day cricket was pyjama cricket, then Twenty20 is underwear cricket."
Navjot Sidhu waxes eloquent, but he doesn't stop there...

"This cricket is like a burger, you can have it once a week but for a whole meal, you need to return to Test cricket. More than once a week, and it will give you a tummy ache"
Underwear or burgers? Sidhu strives to capture the essence of Twenty20.

"In the circumstances, I felt I should oblige. She was a lovely mature lady, and quite ample. In fact, Muttiah Muralitharan would have had plenty of room to sign his name."
David "Bumble" Lloyd was rather taken aback when a former Sussex Ladies cricketer asked him to sign her cleavage with a felt-tip pen. Apparently, if he agreed, she stood to earn £200 for charity

---

Good news for Australia, Bad news for England.

Two marathon knocks by Aussie openers in two different matches - one a shoo-in to partner Hayden in the Ashes this November; the other unlikely to play, unless injuries intervene.

First up, a record-breaking triple century by Langer in the Somerset vs. Surrey match, where Somerset piled up a mammoth 688/8d. At stumps on day 2, Surrey trail by 614 runs with 8 wickets remaining in the 1st innings.

Langer rewrites the record books

Justin Langer's marathon innings for Somerset against Surrey at Guildford finally ended when he lofted Ian Salisbury to Neil Sarkar in front of the press tent at long-on. Langer had made 342 off 416 balls in a stay of ten hours and 18 minutes. In all, he hit 43 fours and two sixes. Langer resumed this morning on 234, but found scoring harder than he had done on the first day. It might have been that batting for six hours in blistering heat yesterday had sapped him of energy, or that the bowlers were invigorated by a light breeze today, but while yesterday he unleashed a string of well-timed drives and sweeps, today was more laboured.

He had already broken the record for the highest innings at Guildford, and this morning he passed Viv Richards' record for the highest score for Somerset (322). He was within one shot of Charlie McCartney's 345 - the highest by an Australian in England - when he fell. It is the seventh biggest innings in the County Championship.

Also read: 1st day bulletin - Langer turns up the heat (There is a pun in the title, refering to a record breaking hot temperature on this day - 'where a few miles to the east the highest July temperature (was) recorded in the UK (36.3 degrees)'

Update: Wow... Surrey caught up with Somerset's monumental score of 688/8 decl., getting to 717 allout with Mark Ramprakash making 167, Ricci Clarke hitting a double ton (214), and Azzar Mahmood missing out on a century (98), with a couple other 50s from ex-England cricketers Butcher and Salisbury.

---

Interesting... I just noted that Kumble is playing for Surrey and made his 'debut' for this season in this match, but didn't flatter anyone with figures of 36-3-127-1 in the mammoth Somerset innings.

And twin big centuries from Phil Jacques, who if you made his debut in tests when Langer was injured and got a chance in ODIs because Katich was injured. He did not make a big mark in the tests (with a 66 against lowly Bangladesh, in a match where even Gillespie got a 200, being the highlight) but he made a record-breaking 94 in his ODI debut (highest for Australia on ODI debut) but was dropped soon thereafter when the injured players were fit enuf to be included in the team! Note that Phil also hit a double century (202) last month against Northamptonshire , in a match which Worcestershire won by an innings and 222 runs!

He's knocking at the doors of Aussie selectors again for selection in the Ashes with a monumental 240 in the first innings and another century (117) in the 2nd innings against a good India-A side in the Top End series ongoing in Australia! I doubt he will be chosen for the Ashes series but he is a good prospect for Australia in the near future after the likes of Langner and Hayden retire. The India-A team managed only 254 in their first innings, chasing the huge Australia-A score of 461/4 decl., and Australia-A chose to bat again and made a rapid-fire 278/7 in a mere 48 overs. India-A, set an almost impossible target of 482, has started well making 117/0 in 33 overs, with 67 by Robin Uthappa and 40 by Gautham Gambhir but will have to last out the entire last day to avoid defeat (or maybe make an unlikely 365 runs without losing 10 wickets in the day to fashion a great victory!)

---

Dinesh Mongia is back in the Indian ODI team for the tri-country ODI series with Sri Lanka and South Africa, starting in Colombo ...no Dambulla.... no Colombo (damn politics!!), on August 14th.

Admittedly, the guy had a few good knocks playing for Leicestershire in the English county this summer and so there are a few supporters of his (in BCCI and outside of it!!) who lobbied for him to get yet another chance in the Indian ODI side - so he can come and ruin it with his so-deemed "all-round abilities"!!

Mongia's selection - a case of short-term pragmatism - CricInfo.com

But despite calls from various quarters for the recall of Kumble and Zaheer Khan, both of them can continue their stint in English county for the time being. Poor Zaheer Khan, whose English county exploits have been more legendary and consistent (another 5-wicket haul this week, just 2 wickets in the second, as Matt Mason's 8 wicket haul took Worcestershire to an unlikely win over Gloucestershire!) does NOT get the nod, apparently because of not being in favor with Greg Chappell. Oh well... ;(

Venugopal Rao, captain of the India-A team, misses out after not making any big-bang impression in the many chances he has gotten so far, though like Robin Utthappa - the other dropped player from the ODI side that toured WI, he remains a likely prospect for the future. Surely there is little room for him today in the middle order, some bowling skills notwithstanding.... what with the likes of Raina, Kaif, Yuvraj, and Dhoni strengthening the middle-order. Looks like the plan is to open with Dravid again... and for that, I am a little miffed at Utthappa being dropped.

The tragedy of being Uthappa - Hindustan Times, India

There are a few other batsmen knocking on the selector's doors with consistent performances in domestic and first-class cricket like Shrikar Dhawan, Ravi Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma (and maybe T P Singh, making quite an impact in the Top End series currently on-going in Australia) but I hope they do not get added to the list of those domestic cricket heroes whose time never comes (In recent times, S. Badrinath comes to mind, though some could argue he still has some time on his side but I think it is unlikely that he will ever represent India in tests or ODIs) And there are others like S. Sriram and Reetinder Sodhi, whose time has come and gone. And players like Parthiv Patel and KKD Karthik also has a low chance for return to the Indian side now that Dhoni-mania has taken over the country in the last 6 months

I thought the same was true for Dinesh Mongia and we would not see him again...but alas! And despite my initial reservations on Utthappa, I think he has done quite well so far in the limited chances he has gotten and should have been persisted with as an opening partner for Sehwag. Also, even if the powers-that-be think that Gautam Gambhir
has been given enough chances, he too is a good prospect for ODIs and should have been groomed for the World cup, even if his performances to date in international cricket have not lived up to the dizzying heights expected based on his first-class and domestic cricket performances.

---

Update - July 24, 2006:

Clandestine trip awaits Indians
Preparatory team-bonding camp away from the scrutiny of the media and fans begins with three-day trip to secret location

Interesting..!

"Greg King, the fitness trainer, said that there was more to keeping the venue a secret than keeping the media away. He suggested that it had everything to do with taking players out of the comfort zone. "The camps we've had have been pretty similar," he said, making it clear that more than yoga, gym work and bleep tests awaited the players."

Wow..quite a hectic schedule - almost feels like the conditioning camps and training itself will tire them out - but what do I know about training for a competitive sport ;)

The team will be away for three days, and will return to Bangalore on July 29. The following day, the players will be put through their paces, and various parameters ranging from body-fat index to overall aerobic strength will be assessed. After training at the National Cricket Academy on July 31 and August 1, the players will disperse for a short break before the cricket-skills camp that begins here on August 6. Greg Chappell, currently on vacation in the United States, is expected to reach Bangalore two days before the start of the camp.

Bye-Bye Nehra ;) Do not think we'll ever see him playing for India again..

Also joining the 15-man squad will be Lakshmipathy Balaji, Murali Kartik, Dinesh Karthik and VVS Laxman, who haven't found a place in the team for Sri Lanka. Ashish Nehra, currently playing in England, was also expected to join the second camp, but the board has now decided to let him continue with his Minor Counties stint.

---

Northamptonshire vs. Pakistan match (between 1st and 2nd test) started today.... I know Akhtar & Asif are injured and Sami, the big hope for the series, looks out-of-sorts so far on this tour...but WHO are these bowlers playing for Pakistan in this match!!!! The four main bowlers playing for the Pakistani's are Jannisar Khan, Samiullah Khan, Shahid Nazir; and Arshad Khan!!! I thought Rao Iftikhar Anjum was called in as a replacement for Mohammad Asif (who went back home with Shoib Malik) but he isn't even playing!! I think the bowlers likely to play the 2nd test (Sami, Anjum, Umar Gul) could have done with some practice, though their marathon man, Kaneria could obviously do with a break and a lack of over-exposure. No need to overbowl and get injured but atleast play and get into the groove..!!

No wonder Northamptonshire piled up 260/3 in 62 overs and declared.. with 2 of the 4 Northamptonshire batsmen on display being of Pakistani origin - BM Shafayat (30) and Usmaan Afzaal (71*)!!!

Even batting-wise, other than Younis Khan, who didn't play the first test due to a knee injury but is now fit and in fact captaining the side in this match, their main players like Inzi, Kamran Akmal, Afridi, and first test double centurion Yousuf are taking it easy between tests and Razzaq is resting a possible back injury!! So, the only likely players from this warm-up match to play in the 2nd test are the opening batsmen, who indeed need some practice!! The bad news for Pakistan though is that Salman Butt and Imran Farhat failed again with just 4 runs apiece though Taufeeq Umar, flown in last week in place of Shoib Malik, is batting on 29.

Anyways..this match is just a filler till next Thursday, when the 2nd test begins in Manchester and so it is likely this match will peter out into one of little significance and we may find the English cricket media entertaining itself with uncalled for merciless digs and pointed witty articles against the Pakistani cricketers (particularly Inzi) in the meantime!

Update - July 20, 2006: Things turned around for Pakistan today as their bowlers did themself some good by bowling out Northamptonshire for 140 in the 2nd outing after a not-so-good batting performance (250 allout) in response to the first innings 260/3 piled up in quick time by Northamptonshire. Pakistan now have a chance for what should be a facile win tomorrow...

Pakistanis 250 for 9 dec (Younis 58, Wigley 5-77) and 24 for 0 (Butt 15*, Farhat 9*) need 136 more runs to beat Northamptonshire 269 for 3 dec and 140 (Nazir 3-33)

One would think we live in freaking Iran or China (Wiki entry)!!!!

India curtails blog access, by Somini Sengupta, NYT
The government has directed local Internet service providers to block access to a handful of Web sites that are hosts to blogs.

Obviously, there is outrage over this…read more at these three posts by Amit Varma's and links therein..

Also read: No way you can block blogs!

---

Oh.. the hypocricies... more of the same... oh..i'm so 'chaste'...shoo..you dirty mind!!!!

India to get 'chaste' Big Brother

I do not buy the ridiculous this-is-so-against-our-culture argument!! (NOT!!) And don't even show them this or they'll ban flickr too!! Lets all just put our head in the sand, curb all freedoms, become despo-desis, or just close our eyes, ears, and stop the damn brain and go take vanvaas like some of our cultural forefathers did, huh? ;)

Not that I watch nor want to watch 'Big Brother' (or any other reality show) on TV nor vouch for it being good TV for India or elsewhere.. but the various antics of these holier-than-thou moral police in different parts of India does rankle me! Besides the obvious question of 'Who defines obscenity?', statements like 'Participants will be told to keep their hands to themselves' just found so inane! :)

Less than 20 days ago, this report..
Asia tsunami warning system ready 28 Jun 06

And then this...

Indonesia death toll passes 500 19 Jul 06
Tsunami kills dozens in Indonesia 17 Jul 06

As tsunami death toll tops 500, Indonesians are still nervous
19 Jul 06

The Pacific tsunami system is OBVIOUSLY 'not ready' !!!!

No.. it is not more of the now routine Bushisms... this time it is Bush's thoughts on the Middle East crisis (links to my earlier post on this), as played out (video via ThinkProgress.com) by an open mike at the G-8 summit. SkyNews has a full transcript.

Open mic catches Bush expletive on Middle-East Crisis
An open microphone caught President Bush in an unguarded moment Monday as the escalating crisis in the Middle East prompted him to use an expletive in a conversation with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Bush and Blair were unaware that an event at the Group of Eight summit was a photo opportunity, with media representatives present. Blair later turned off the microphone. The president was expressing frustration at the United Nations' stance on the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon. Apparently not expecting an open mike to pick up his remarks, Bush told Blair: "See the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over."

Also read: Bush at the summit: 4 minutes of candor / Amid Pomp, Bush Is Pumped and Chat Is Candid

Forget the verbiage he used (journalist & blog discussions on how to report it aside, I do not think it is such a big deal but one has to smirk at the irony of it all as US broadcasters consider censoring Bush, thanks to the stupid legislature passed in Bush's conservative-pandering term!) but the bottom line is that the guy is clueless on foreign policy (or for that matter on domestic policy too!!)

(Note to self: Daily Show with Jon Stewart must have had a field day with this ... will have to dig out what he had to say :) Update: Here it is... Jon Stewart jokes about Bush swearing)

Following links found via a post at the Blinq blog by Daniel Rubin, reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

• Post at the Blogenlust says:

It’s not the “shit“, it’s the “insouciant air.” Wow, shock of all shocks, politicians swear?

The point of the video is that the President doesn’t exactly convey a good grasp of the situation, and he’s listening to Blair as though he was off his ADHD meds: all the interruptions, acting like he’s not paying attention while he talks, etc.

• And as Ezra Klein writes, there-in lies the problem:

Given the relative opacity of Bush's thoughts on the situation, the frank discussion offered a fair amount of insight and a couple nuggets of news ....
.... Bush believes it within the Syrian government's power to calm the conflict. Theoretically, that should have major implications for American diplomacy and, possibly, policy..

• And Prof. Juan Cole thinks the conversation reveals enough about the president's thinking to worry:

So, the whole blow-up is Syria's fault, for putting Hizbullah up to making mischief. No reference to Israeli actions in Gaza. No reference to, like, the wholesale destruction of Lebanon by the Israeli air force. And no blame for the Lebanese government of Fouad Siniora. And Bush thinks that Nasrullah of Hizbullah takes direct orders from Damascus. And he thinks that if Bashar al-Asad orders Hizbullah to stop firing its little katyushas and give back the two Israeli soldiers, everything will suddenly settle down.

It is an astonishingly simple-minded view of the situation, painted in black and white and making assumptions about who is who's puppet and what the Israeli motivations are. Israel doesn't appear as a protagonist. It is purely reactive. Stop provoking it, and it suddenly stops its war.

Since Israel is just being provoked and has no ambitions of its own, in this reading, it is useless to begin with a ceasefire. That treats the two sides as both provoking one another. Here, only Hizbullah matters, so you lean on Syria to lean on it, and, presto, peace breaks out.

It is a little window into the superficial, one-sided mind of the man, who has for six years been way out of his depth.

Another funny quote from the G8 summit.. this via 1115.org

Winning friends and influencing people:

“I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world, like Iraq where there’s a free press and free religion, and I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia would do the same,” Bush said.

To that, Putin replied, “We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy that they have in Iraq, quite honestly.”

That's what I called OWNED!

Coach Greg Chappell, who publicly said that the all-rounder was not considered because he had lost his confidence, would do well to realise that the mindset of the Indian fast bowlers has insecurity as its core in spite of the tremendous hard work put in by them to reach the top, writes Makarand Waigankar in Sportstar. Its a good piece..read it in its entireity.

Also, in this month's Cricinfo magazine, Siddhartha Vaidyanathan tracks the decline of Irfan Pathan from the new Akram to India's fifth-choice bowler in the recently concluded India-West Indies test series.

What does the man himself have to say...
Irfan Pathan believes his disappointing performance on the recent tour of West Indies was just a minor setback and he is confident of returning to his best form soon.

Now that the first test has ended in a rather tame draw (see Simon Hughes comments in the Telegraph below), its time to look forward to the 2nd test that starts at Old Trafford on July 27th ...and like I wrote earlier, who comes out on top in that test will all depend on which side is strengthened more by people coming off their respective injured list by then...

All indications are that Andrew Flintoff will be back to lead England in the second test... though he failed in his first-class comeback against Kent at Canterbury, falling for merely 4, 'while trying to cut a ball that was a fraction too close for him.' on the opening day of Lancashire's County Championship . But England still need Flintoff really badly...because, to quote the above article... "The final day at Lord's showed how much England are waiting for Flintoff to return, as Strauss played it very safe with his four-man attack and never really pushed for victory...."

Update - July 18, 2006: Flintoff fared much better bowling, when he claimed 2 early Kent wickets after Lancashire got allout for 218. Kent were 130/4 at stumps on day 1, with Flintoff having enviable bowling figures of 10-3-16-2, clean bowling the Kent captain and knocking hard on the English selector's doors, Robert Key and South African national side discard, van Jaarsveld, lbw.

Update - July 20, 2006: Flintoff injury scare for England - Andrew Flintoff is in doubt for the second Test against Pakistan after feeling discomfort in his ankle during his comeback match for Lancashire, against Kent, at Canterbury. RIDICULOUS.... big blow for England if he is not fit by next Thursday!! The match was a close one, with Kent escaping with a 2-wicket win. Flintoff had figures of 19-4-45-2 in the first innings, made a quickfire 37 in 49 balls in the second outing, and didn't bowl much in the 2nd outin (4-0-11-0) because of the injury scare.

---

Found this at the Cricinfo Surfer

The first Test draw was more of a sparring match than a proper bout writes Simon Hughes in The Telegraph.

The tempo suited the original heavyweight, Inzamam-ul-Haq, who does everything at his own leisurely pace. He prepared for his innings before play with the kind of net you associate with the village players of Hambledon. No pads, no gloves, and stroke a dozen gentle half volleys back to the bowler before heading off for a cup of tea...He ambled to the wicket, his beard and rotund form making him look like a latter-day WG. His first-innings dismissal had had the essence of Grace, too, Inzi getting his legs in a bit of a tangle, then looking round in disbelief at the disturbed stumps. You almost expected him to mutter the Urdu for "Strong wind today umpire, isn't it?"

...a good interesting description of Inzamam for sure, for who has not seen Inzy look 'lazy' and uninterested in his approach (not an inspiring sight as a captain, for sure!). Thanks to his weight and girth, he always looks like he is ambling around and he even gets runs the same way.. without too much oomph and without packing a whallop but before you know it and with hardly a swashbacking shot, he reaches 50+ regularly (25 100s and 44 50s in tests; 10 100s and 83 50s in ODIs!). Quite a character, albeit, an unassuming one, in cricket..

Also, from the same Cricinfo Surfer entry, another article that takes wide-ranging swipes at Pietersen and Panesar, the so-deemed spin options for England and in doing so, also takes a side-swipe at Inzi :)

England's newest pair of spinners - Panesar and Pietersen - are definitely not their secret weapon for the Ashes, despite Panesar confounding Iqbal with his first ball after lunch and Pietersen claiming his first Test wicket with a bit of Hollywood.

The Times article hyperlinked above has this to say about Pietersen & Panaser..

Take Panesar first. This is a man whose foibles have endeared him to all in rapid time. It is the way he strides across the turf with the ease of a sinner negotiating the river Styx that is part of it. And the way he throws the ball. One return from deep prompted an apology to Liam Plunkett. Had it been anyone else, Plunkett might have wondered if its trajectory had been interrupted by a low-flying pigeon.

On Saturday, he (Pietersen) grabbed his first Test wicket when he rolled an off break down to Kamran Akmal and it was all a bit Hollywood. Yesterday, he threw himself around the outfield and bowled a few overs but was merely party to the eventual whimper of the denouement. But while Panesar had 27 overs to add match-winner to his cultish assortment of accolades, Pietersen had a mere five. He has said that he plans to become a true all-rounder, but at present he is a batsman with a party trick.

And this about Bucknor & Inzi.

Steve Bucknor is not an umpire to make rash decisions, preferring to light a metaphorical cigar, retire to the drawing-room of his mind and mull it over before lifting a finger. Lift he did, though, and in came Inzamam-ul-Haq with his equally lugubrious approach. That sequence of Panesar, Bucknor and Inzamam had as much in keeping with a slumber party as top-class sport, but it was hope-and-glory time. Panesar may feel unlucky but can take solace in the fact that a lack of agility has never hindered Inzamam, who reached his half-century while exuding his customary air of hibernating bear. And Panesar will surely get better and calmer as he gets older.

ouch!

Actually, English media seems to be having a field day picking on Inzamam....even when criticizing a 'utterly self-absorbed' Strauss for getting Bell run-out, the dig is at Inzi! Here is what Martin Johnson had to say in The Telegraph, in an article titled, ' England batsmen add flakiness to their 99s' and seemingly criticizing the English side!

You could say that Bell was unlucky to be run out by a direct hit from Inzamam, which is cricket's equivalent to being killed by a falling meteor while out walking the dog on Dartmoor. If International Cricket Council regulations permitted, the Pakistani captain would employ a butler to do his fielding for him. Some would say it is Inzy's impersonation of a man awaiting his first Pimm's of the evening on a colonial porch which is responsible for Pakistan not looking particularly fired up.

And the same article has this choice words about the Pakistani bowling attack or the semblance thereof, in the absence of Shoib Akhtar and though I agree with the point that the bowling attack is weak, I do not see what the correlation to Inzi's agility is...

The Rawalpindi Express is being repaired in a siding and the new-ball attack is being shared by a couple of goods trains.

The pretty-out-there analogies do not end there..

The sight of Brett Lee steaming in at Andrew Flintoff last summer is not quite the same as Umar Gul mincing up to bowl at Strauss. In gladiatorial terms, it is the equivalent of Nero inspecting his feline collection and selecting a couple of domestic tabbies to take on the Christians.

And last but not least... this about the 'arch-conservative' British manager and the 2nd inning English declaration..

The England coach could replace himself on the balcony with a model from Madame Tussaud's without anyone noticing, and his instincts (not unreasonably, some would argue) are to take out an insurance policy against defeat before heading for the poker table. The only chance of an England declaration would have been an incident similar to one that happened at his former county, Glamorgan, many years ago, when the press box was sited right next to the players' balcony. When a journalist emerged to shake pencil-sharpener shavings from his handkerchief, the batsmen - to the mortification of the Glamorgan captain - promptly walked off.

Nice anectodal story and arguably less harsh words for the English coach then those reserved for Inzi and co. Anyways, the last laugh will be had on the ground and not in the English media circles...so, lets see how the rest of the series plays out!

Another interesting anectodal story...this one from this daily summary of the first test from the current stand-in captain, Strauss..

Off the field most of the boys' attention has been taken by the news that Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake are staying at the same hotel as the England team. No-one managed to spot the Hollywood couple this evening, but there are bound to be countless hours spent by a few of the boys hanging around reception over the next couple of days, hoping to spot Ms Diaz in particular.

Now we know why the English side was distracted and once again, like in the first test against Sri Lanka, unable to aggresively push for a win. He ends, on day 5, with this sentence...

No more sightings of Cameron Diaz but we have seen more than enough of Kamran Akmal and Yousuf.

Maybe Madonna will come visit Manchester, huh? And already giving up frustrated? Its only the first test, Strauss... am sure there is lot more of Akmal, Yousuf, Inzi and even Younis to come... and maybe even Shoib Akhtar by the end of the series but one can never be too sure about that!! :)

---

After the recent big knock by Chris Read in the warm-up match before the first test (Also read Andrew Miller's article in Cricinfo, titled 'Iron fist in a silk glove', written after that swashbacking century (150 in 196 balls), expectedly there are calls to dump the English wicket-keeper, Geriant Jones for Read. If you remember, Read was dropped because it was thought that though he was a better keeper than Jones, Jones was a better batsman. Ironically, since that time, Jones' batting has slided downwards while Read's has only gotten better..as indicated in some of the articles mentioned below.

Jones chemistry no longer working, writes Rick Broadbent in The Times, with this sarcastic-laden diatribe against the man..

His 18 improved on his averages in his last two Test series and also helped him to a world record. Jones has now gone longer than anyone else, 45 Test innings, without getting a duck. The previous mark had been set by Australia’s Jim Burke and had stood unbeaten for nigh on 50 years. Oh, and it was his 30th birthday too. So congratulations, Geraint. Progress, a world record and a cake. Not a bad day’s work.

And then..

Alas, that just shows how numbers can get in the way. The truth was that his main achievement on a lustrous Lord’s day was to press Chris Read’s case for inclusion in the team. ...... In most walks of life this would have been regarded as Jones’s foray into the last chance saloon. And he trashed the place too. .... ones’s form with the bat no longer mitigates against his erratic wicketkeeping, and so you have the metaphorical scales that pits his supposedly better stroke-play against Read’s better handling.

ending the article..

There are two conclusions to be drawn from this. First, if Read, who was dropped for his batting, cannot get into the side on the back of an unbeaten 150, he may never do. Second, if Jones cannot score on a good pitch against a tiring Pakistan attack, well you know the rest. Having been on borrowed time, he should expect a visit from the bailiffs.

David Hopps of the Guardian is no fan of Jones either...with this dig at Jones..

When Geraint Jones came into bat yesterday, Kaneria's smile was so pronounced that any Hollywood star who happened to be passing by would have sued their orthodontist. Kaneria must have heard the one about Jones being good in the dressing room. "Well, he would be wouldn't he, he spends such a long time in it."

ending, with this interesting snipe at Jones and an interesting snippet involving the Pakistani coach during the test.

He is all or nothing, and at the moment he is nothing.

Nothing was something that Bob Woolmer, Pakistan's coach could identify with. He was at nets two hours before start of play, laying out enough cones for an M1 controflow, placing his rope ladders and his fielding mitts. About 40 minutes later, for reasons as yet confused, no Pakistan player had turned up. He collected up his wares and left. There are times when even one of the worldís foremost coaches can look like a Betterware salesman on a bad day.

But there are fans of Jones... Broadbent's article above mentions that Paul Downton, the former England Test wicketkeeper, believes that it has "not been categorically proved that Read is a better keeper at Test match level, but it is hard to prove anything if not allowed one’s day in court. There are arguments for persisting. Read’s test average is 15, continuity is a great thing and Jones is popular."

John Stern in The Times, argues that although it is hard to find a Jones fan lately (apparently, "Cricinfo.com received an inquiry recently, disbelieving the stat that Geraint Jones was the fastest England wicketkeeper to reach 100 Test dismissals. The correspondent signed his or herself, “a Chris Read fan, Nottingham”.") and despite the fact that 'Read’s increased batting capability for Nottinghamshire has coincided with a decline in Jones’s effectiveness, so the knives are not just out, they are being regularly sharpened,' and the fact that 'other than Jones’s one Test century against New Zealand in his third England appearance two years ago, his most significant innings was the 85 he made, in tandem with Andrew Flintoff, during the first innings of last year’s Trent Bridge Test. Since then Jones averages 19 in 10 Tests, with two fifties,' and the fact that Read, since being dropped from the English side two years ago has '2,357 first-class runs for Nottinghamshire and England at an average of 50.2, with seven hundreds and 16 fifties,' the feisty Jones still holds the advantage over Read and has the all-important support of the English coach, Duncan Fletcher, although 'it is believed that the other selectors, David Graveney and Geoff Miller, favour Read."

And to come full circle, here is a cut-n-paste from Andrew Miller's article which I started with..

What he says - "I'm not trying to make any sort of statement, I'm just trying to play good cricket. A criticism in the past was that I got out too often in the 60s and 70s, but this year my conversion-rate when I've got in has been pretty good. The only reason I was axed was a lack of runs, and in the last two years I've done a lot of work to get my batting up to scratch." Speaking at Canterbury after his century against the Pakistanis, Read is philosophical about England experiences.

What they say- "Chris has done really well, but we have selected Geraint Jones because we believe he is the best wicketkeeper. What he brings to the team is what we want at the present time. Geraint Jones is our man, and we will give him our full support." Well that's that then. England's chairman of selectors, David Graveney, brooks no equivocation.

What you might not know - For all the talk of Jones's superior batting, Read's first-class record stands very much up to scrutiny. In 167 matches, Read has scored 6632 runs at an average of 31.43, with nine hundreds and 36 fifties. Jones, in a shorter career, has 2757 runs from 67 matches, and his average (32.82) is not significantly greater. In addition, he has just four hundreds to his name - although one of these came in just his third Test. And there, one supposes, is the rub.

What the future holds - He's getting used to biding his time, but whether his time comes again depends entirely on Jones' form and fitness in the coming months. As one of England's few remaining Ashes winners, Jones is unlikely to be axed ahead of the rematch Down Under but another unconvincing winter, and it could be time to ring the changes come the spring of 2007. At the age of 27, he is entering his prime. And unlike many of his competitors for the role, he has a career's worth of experience already under his belt.

Enuf said for now... I think they will stick with Jones for the Pakistan series but depending upon what the outcome of this series is, Read may get a look-in for the much-hyped Ashes series this November.

---

Some recent articles about Pakistani cricketers, past and present..

Imran Khan was more than just Pakistan's cricket captain. He was a warrior, an ambassador and a playboy of the Western world. But after retirement and divorce from one of Britain's most glamorous heiresses, he is dedicating his life to saving his country from political corruption. Tim Adams, of the Observer, travelled to his secluded villa to talk to him about his mission.

The most alluring figure at Lord's was Imran Khan, writes Mark Nicholas.

- via Cricinfo's The Surfer blog

---

Guess who is being written about...

He trades mainly on his ferocious hitting - his strike rate of 86 is well clear of anyone else who has scored 1,000 Test runs - but he bowls whippy leg-breaks with the mind-set of an angry fast bowler

If you guessed Afridi, you are correct. In an article titled, 'From supercharged leg-break to swish of the bat Afridi ensures there is never a dull moment', Lawrence Booth writes in the Guardian, goes on to write..

Among spin bowlers perhaps only Shane Warne has more to say to the batsmen. When Afridi is not running an impatient hand through his luxuriant mane, he is generally chuntering at anyone who has had the temerity to steal a single, or throwing his hands up in pantomime-dame despair as a brisk leggie rips unjustly past the outside edge. On Friday he sent down an 80mph bullet to Monty Panesar, which may have been Test cricket's fastest leg-break since Bill O'Reilly called it a day in 1946. It raised eyebrows and oozed irritation. There may be more irritation to come.

Read the whole article here.

---

And in addition to Afridi, two other batsmen who have been a thorn in the English side (historically as well as in the just concluded first test) are Mohammad Yousuf (previously known as Yousuf Youhana) and Inzamam ul Haq. The same two, and moreso Younis Khan have also been un-moveable against India also.... and there does not seem to be any easy clues about how to get them out in this article in the Telegraph, where ex-English test cricketer and captain, Mike Atherton writes:

To get an insider's view on the weaknesses of Inzamam and Yousuf I asked Ramiz Raja, the former Pakistan opening batsman and now commentator, how best to dismiss these two batsmen. He thought for a while and then said 'run them out'. The problem for England is that I'm sure he was being serious.

---

A mystery (for me atleast) about Pakistani cricket: Why has Misbah-ul-Haq not gotten another chance to play for Pakistan yet? I have seen him consistently play well in first-class matches, be it in domestic cricket in Pakistan or even against international sides... note his recent swashbacking knock in a 20/20 match against New Zealand. Along with Hazan Raza and Bazid Khan, (son of the illustrious Majid Khan and grandson of M Jahangir Khan, who played four Test matches for India in the 1930s and, after Partition, made an important contribution as a player, administrator and selector to the development of cricket in Pakistan), Misbah-ul-Haq seems like a great talent who didn't make the most of the few opportunities that came his way and now can't seem to find a place in the relatively strong Pakistani middle order (or maybe its another case of the omnipresent politics that wrecks cricketing fortunes in the Indian sub-continent.)

---

3 recent news snippets regarding the ever-controversial Shoib Akhtar.

1. Shoaib Akhtar to tie knot soon
Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has decided to cut down on his pace not the bowling kind but rather of his lifestyle. In an interview to a website the flamboyant speedster said that he plans to settle down within the next few months. Akhtar though refused to name his bride saying that the matter was too personal to be discussed in the media. The Pakistani bowler has been asked by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to take time off following an ankle injury.

2. The agony, the ecstasy, the comedy
Cricinfo Magazine - Osman Samiuddin takes a vicarious ride on the weird and wonderful Shoib Akhtar rollercoaster.

3. Nice below the belt here at this blog post on Panicker's site.. ouch! ;)

PCB will help 55(!?) bowlers from their domestic teams to rectify their suspect actions. Well, the thing that raises the eyebrow is not that PCB will help them in rectifying their actions. The thing that raises the eyebrow is that there are 55 bowlers in PAK who have suspect actions. I mean, for a country to have 55 bowlers with suspect actions, it would mean that nearly every domestic team in PAK has about 2-3 bowlers with suspect actions. THAT says a lot about the upcoming crop of bowlers there. And I also wonder who their role model is.

UPDATE - July 20, 2006: Indications are that Shoib Akhtar will return for the 3rd test at Headingley... but we'll see about that then... as we are seeing with Flintoff (see above), who we thought was ready for the 2nd test, there are many a slip between now and when the test side is announced. The 3rd test is too far out...between now and then, Akhtar might get injured again! :)

---

An interesting comparison of Mohammad Yousuf and Inzamam ul-Haq's statistics at the same stage of their test careers i.e. after 67 tests, which is what Yousuf has now played. The thread has this tidbit about Yousuf..

His first 19 Tests were all within 2 years (and a bit) of his debut date which would indicate that he got a much better run than most young Pakistanis do! His average at the end of these was a paltry 32, and he had a solitory ton against Zimbabwe to his name. Yet, he was persisted with. Just as a matter of interest, his next 48 Tests to date have yielded 16 centuries, at an average of 61 - an excellent track record; this run started from his 20th and 21st Tests, when he scored those memorable back to back hundreds against a rampant Curlty, Courtney & Co in the Caribbean.

Andrew Miller celebrates Yousuf's streak of good scores in the past year, noting that a series of good scores from Pakistan's new MoJo, which includes consecutive double tons against England (the first a 223 in the 3rd test of the English tour of Pakistan early this year and the recent 202 at Lords in the first test of the Pakistan tour of England - nine matches against England have realised 1019 runs, including four centuries in 15 innings at the impressive average of 67.93.) have led to an enviable average of 83.38 in the eight matches since his conversion from Christianity to Islam last year.

---

As the saying in India goes, "der aaye duroost aayein"...

Indian board (finally) embraces Twenty20
Yielding to ICC pressure, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to introduce Twenty20 cricket in the domestic circuit from the coming season.

Also, women are also getting into Twenty20 cricket… with the first women's Twenty20 to be played between New Zealand and Australia, in Australia.

Read my earlier posts on 20/20 Cricket
Future of Cricket
Future of Cricket - revisited

Day 1: England has won the toss and decided to bat at Lords this morning.

Quite a recovery by England orchestrated by Collingwood and Cook ... appears that Pakistan just doesn't have the bowling strength at all, with no wickets claimed in the 2 sessions after lunch! An unlikely swashbacking innings from Collingwood, (who is usually cautious, circumspect, and more a grinding kind of batsman rather than a Pietersen-like dashing strike-rate-of-80 kind of batsman) and another great knock by newbie, Alistair Cook, (who impressed with a debut century in the Nagpur test during the India tour earlier this year) have ensured that England end the day in a strong position at 309/3. Coincidentally, Collingwood's maiden century also came in that match...though his finest hour probably came last year during the Pakistan tour with knocks of 96 and 80* in the Lahore test; although once he got out, the rest of the English side collapsed like a pack of cards and England lost that test handsomely by an innings and 100 runs!

So, at the end of day 1, the English batsmen have shown that they are in form and capable of putting up an imposing target and much less likely to be dismissed twice by a toothless Pakistani bowling attack. Also, Pakistan has a very mediocre batting line-up, with the relatively inexperienced Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Faisal Iqbal being the top 3 in the absence of Younis Khan & Shoaib Malik. . (In fact, in a two-part feature at Cricinfo, Osman Samiuddin talks about Pakistan's opening conundrum and argues that not since the Aamir Sohail - Saeed Anwar combination, has Pakistan enjoyed a good steady opening pair! ) Their middle order consisting of Inzi, Afridi, Youhana er Yousuf Mohammad, multiple centurion wicket keeper, Kamran Akmal, and Abdul Razzaq however is strong although Razzaq and Afridi are not quite known for consistency and big innings in tests.

Osman Samiuddin, at the end of Day 1, also laments the Pakistani fielding prowess (or rather, lack thereof!)- historically and in today's play, where atleast 5 chances went abegging. He also has some strong words for the toothless Pakistani bowling attack, except Razaaq, for whom he has words of praise, writing..

Mohammad Sami returned with a broody new crop but the same old result. Like his hair his confidence looked shorn and you really wonder just how he has gone from what he was (match-winning Test debut, Test and ODI hat-trick, serious pace, lovely floppy hair) to the meek figure he cuts now. Umar Gul apparently went to the same barber though he had a better time of it than Sami.

Who knows, had both followed the lead of Abdul Razzaq, who by growing his traditional crop into the beginnings of a fantastic eighties mullet - how many wickets they would have ended up with. Razzaq was not only the most hirsute bowler on display, he was Pakistan's best by some distance. His pace was as nippy as it once used to be and his accuracy was complemented by some clever variation. When he needed to cut and seam he did and when he needed to find reverse swing, he did that too.

In any case, it may be that Pakistan are not the favorites after all and maybe England can indeed reverse the recent trend in tests against Pakistan (Since 1983-84, Pakistan have won six and drawn one; England's only moment of glory during this period came in 2000-01, when they snatched a twilight win at Karchi to seal the series 1-0.)

Like in the recent England-Sri Lanka series, where SL came into the test series bashed by the media as a insipid team that was most likely going to be walked over by England, but defied the doomsayers and came out on top in the tests as well as the ODIs, ...and England, playing for the first time at home after the Ashes victory, turned out a lackluster performance in the tests and went from bad to worse in the ODIs, with the situation only made worse by the many injury woes, it may happen that this time around Pakistan is the one on the back-foot and England gets into a groove and moves into the drivers seat - atleast in the tests. (The ODI games is quite another story and in addition to Pakistan being a better ODI team, the Pakistani bowling and batting will most likely be strengthened by the time the ODIs roll around or most likely even before that in the test series itself. )

After day 1, it certainly looks like England won't be a roll-over afterall and this first day may indeed set the tone for the series. Of course, the Pakistani side is always a real mercurial one and everything may change in one session tomorrow. Day 1 may not be not a true indication of how the series will turn out since remember that Sri Lanka had a torrid time on days 1 and 2 of the first test but turned it around quite nicely over the 3 tests. That said, Pakistan sure has a monumental task ahead of them in this test at least if they want to be the team pushing for a win!

---

Did not get to cover Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4... but read about the exciting cricket on these days at Cricinfo.

Day 4
Bulletin - Strauss century puts England in charge
Andrew Miller - Old favourite helps Strauss find his feet
Gallery

Day 3
Bulletin - Yousuf special keeps Pakistan afloat
Osman Samiuddin - Hot shots, cool heads
Andrew Miller - Yousuf bosses an uneven contest
Gallery

Day 2
Bulletin - Collingwood leads dominant England
Kamran Abbasi - Inzi's zombies beat surrender
Osman Samiuddin - Kaneria - The Marathon Man
Andrew Miller - Bell too keen to cut and run?
Gallery

Day 1
Bulletin - England make Pakistan pay
Osman Samiuddin - Haircuts and howlers
Andrew Miller- Collingwood steps out of the shadows
Gallery

Also read the following articles
Bell too keen to cut and run?

Harmison will be the key, says Woolmer

Inzi’s zombies beat surrender

Old favourite helps Strauss find his feet

Pakistan's Marathon Man

---

Day 5: Should be an interesting day's cricket! England has declared at 296/8 and set Pakistan a tough target of

At 8.30am EST ... the scorecard reads..

England 528/9d & 296/8d
Pakistan 445 & 43/2 (16.0 ov)
Pakistan require another 337 runs with 8 wickets remaining..

Matthew Hoggard removed Salman Butt with the first ball of Pakistan's second innings after England set the visitors an unlikely 380 to win at Lord's....

0.1

Hoggard to Salman Butt, OUT, swinging into the left-hander, a little dibbly dobbler raps Butt on the pads who gets too far across, a huge and throaty appeal from Hoggard and Simon Taufel gives him. Oooh, very, very tight decision. Replays suggest it just clipped the leg stump. Brilliant start for England Salman Butt lbw b Hoggard 0 (1b 0x4 0x6) sr: 0.00 Here's Faisal Iqbal who lasted just two balls in Pakistan's first innings

12 overs later... a Hoggard double boosts England's victory bid

12.3 Hoggard to Imran Farhat, OUT, Hoggard angles that at the lefthander who can only fend a tihick edge into Collingwood's reliable hands at third slip. High fives and hugs all round for England - that's a massive boon for them just before lunch Imran Farhat c Collingwood b Hoggard 18 (33b 4x4 0x6) sr: 54.54 Pakistan's double centurion, Mohammad Yousuf, strides in 12.4 Hoggard to Mohammad Yousuf, FOUR, off the mark immediately with a boundary. Comes forward to meet the ball, with a lovely, if uppish, clip through midwicket

A Pakistani victory looks less and less likely, though an Inzi-Afridi special might change that! Inzi has apparently hit 8 f50_ scores in a row against England now! (Against England, he has scores of 53, 72, 109, 100*, 97, and 69 in the first innings of this test - all from the 2005-2006 season) and had 114 and 85 in the last test played before this season - June 2001 in Manchester, with England losing by 108 runs.)

For the time being though...saving wickets is the order of business and so, expect some defensive batting...

Current partnership 10 runs, 3.3 overs, rr: 2.85 (Mohammad Yousuf 10, Faisal Iqbal 0)

---

At 10.30 am EST, the scorecard reads:
England 528/9d & 296/8d
Pakistan 445 & 140/3 (43.0 ov)
Pakistan require another 240 runs with 7 wickets remaining

Panesar nails Yousuf to enliven match, says the Cricinfo headline... but Faisal Iqbal is making amends for his first inning duck (48* in 141 balls!) and with Inzi at the crease (11 in 24 balls), England still cannot really smell any whiffs of victory yet! There are 38 overs left and a draw is most likely unless the Pakistan middle order collapses. Another test with an exciting 5th day's play and a tight post-tea session is likely... which is good for test cricket, even if in the end it may result in a draw (like the couple tests in the India-WI series with similar results.) Viva test cricket...

35.5 Panesar to Mohammad Yousuf, OUT, great ball, Monty has the breakthrough! The change back to the Nursery End has done the trick. Pitches on leg and it spins a touch and would have gone on to hit middle-and-off. Panesar bounces up and down, skipping like it’s the first day of spring. Or something. Mohammad Yousuf lbw b Panesar 48 (62b 8x4 0x6) sr: 77.41 Inzamam-ul-Haq comes to the crease Huge roars for the crowd favourite, Panesar – and he receives a standing ovation for his efforts

---

Update - 10.45am EST: Damn.. I just wrote about Faisal Iqbal making amends and he got out right after that..

43.4 Panesar to Faisal Iqbal, OUT, gone, Monty strikes again! There was big turn off the bat as the batsman presses forward to defend and a thick outside edge flies low to Cook at second slip, who grips on with one hand

Faisal Iqbal c Cook b Panesar 48 (143b 6x4 1x6) sr: 33.56 Pakistan 141/4... More huge cheers. Interesting amounts of turn and pop being found here. Four fielders around the bat - the pressure is on and Monty comes back round the wicket

Up to Inzi to save the day now...with help of Kamran Akmal, Afridi, and Razzaq... interesting it is Razzaq, who can play real dour defence, who has come in to bat at the fall of the 4th wicket.

---

Update: Noon EST ..The match is slowly petering out to a draw.

England 528/9d & 296/8d
Pakistan 445 & 177/4 (64.0 ov)

Pakistan require another 203 runs with 6 wickets remaining
Minimum overs remaining today 17.0

After scoring 27 runs in 18+ overs.. Inzi suddenly wakes up..

62.3	Pietersen to Inzamam-ul-Haq, FOUR, Inzy has awoken; Pietersen drops this short and Inzamam smacks it over deep midwicket this time
62.2	Pietersen to Inzamam-ul-Haq, FOUR, turns outside off again but Inzamam is far too classy, rocking back on his stumps, playing the ball away from his body through deep extra cover for four. Great shot

But back the tuku-tuku, so to speak...
Recent overs . . . . . . | . 4 4 . . 1 | . . . . . . | . .

The post-tea sessions in the recent drawn WI-India tests were far more interesting than this drab affair today... even Cricinfo commentators are preparing to close shop with this announcement..

On the final day, if both captains (the batsmen at the wicket may act for their captain) accept that there is no prospect of either side achieving a victory, they may agree to finish the match after (a) the time for the commencement of the last hour has been reached OR (b) there are a minimum of 15 overs to be bowled, whichever is the later.

---

Update: 12:30pm EST
Well..well..well... with 6 overs in 15 overs highly unlikely, Pakistan steps it up a little bit..
Recent overs . . 4 . . . | 4 3 . 1 . 1 | 4 . . . . .

.. but the match heads to a draw nonetheless but not before Inzi cruises to his 9th consecutive 50+ innings (56*) against England in the process. An unbeaten boring 73 run partnership in almost 30 overs between Razzaq and Inzi ensured that England did not make any more inroads after the two wickets that Panesar took in the afternoon session.

Match drawn
England 528/9d & 296/8d
Pakistan 445 & 214/4 (73.0 ov)

Cricinfo Reviews: Yousuf adds steel to style | England miss a chance
Overall, a good test, with Pakistan and England matched up well... not sure any one team has come out on top at the end of test 1. We'll have to see how they fare in the 2nd test, due to start at Manchester on July 27th (with a Northamptonshire v Pakistan 4-day match in between). It will all depend on which side is strengthened by people from their injured list by then...

---

Some benefits from merging the men's and women's cricket administration bodies in India...

Women's cricket recieves a major boost
In what is a major fillip to women's cricket, the Indian board has decided to provide full financial support for their upcoming tour of England. The women's team is to play two Tests and five one-dayers besides a Twenty20 game on their visit to England from August 5 to September 1. They were also scheduled to play two limited-overs games against Ireland before the series against England. The Women's Cricket Association of India also received a major boost with its secretary Subhangi Kulkarni being appointed cricket coordinator of the Asian Cricket Council.

Details on English tour:

India women name squad for England tour – Mithali Raj retained as captain.

England women name two uncapped players - England have named two uncapped players to face India. Sarah Taylor and Lynsey Askew are in line for their debuts against a strong Indian side

MCC announces free tickets for India ODI
The MCC took the decision to not charge for admission to the first one-dayer on 14th August in a bid to encourage a large attendance. They are also hoping that children will go along to watch, with the match being in the school holidays. Charlotte Edwards, an MCC member herself, will lead England as they attempt to avenge their ODI series defeat in India this winter. The Lord's game is the first of three one-dayers which, as last year, are sandwiched between two Tests. There is also a Twenty20 curtain raiser at Derby, which kicks the series off on August 5th.

Update - July 25, 2006: Indian women in England and Ireland 2006 The Indian women's team left Mumbai on Monday (July 24) for a six-week tour of England and Ireland

---

Previous posts on Women's Cricket - 1, 2.

Some changes in venues and other politics since my original post on the announcement of the 2011 World Cup being awarded to Asia.... here is a brief recap.

India to host 2011 World Cup final
Pakistan and Sri Lanka will host the semi-finals, while Bangladesh gets the opening ceremony!

New Delhi alloted 2011 World Cup finals
A new state-of-the-art stadium in New Delhi will host the finals of the 2011 World Cup, the Indian cricket board (BCCI) announced. This will be the first stadium owned entirely by the board, said Lalit Modi, vice-president of the BCCI.

---

And speaking of the world cup, here is a 'prediction' from our own Bhajji ;)

Spinners the key for World Cup: Harbhajan

Harbhajan Singh, the Indian spinner, has predicted that slow bowlers will be
the key in next year's World Cup. Coming off a lengthy tour of the Caribbean,
Harbhajan's analysis was that the pitches had become spin-friendly and that
India's experience there would come in handy in 2007

Also in this article... one funny unexpected answer to a question the media posed and another duh-obvious canned answer! :)

Asked whether Sanath Jayasuriya, fresh from a superb one-day showing in the last two weeks, would pose a problem for India in the forthcoming series, beginning August 14, Harbhajan's reply was a confident: "Our Sachin is also coming back to respond to Jayasuriya."

On the Champions Trophy to be hosted by India later this year, Harbhajan remained confident. "Our pool will be the toughest as both Australia and England will be in our pool," he said. "But of course, we will have benefit of home ground and crowd support."

Also, read this interview with Bhajji from earlier this month.

---

And remember the 'bribe' the BCCI promised the West Indies board (my blogpost), in return for their vote for the 2011 World Cup to the Indian subcontinent?

Well..well..well... what a comic disaster the logistics of trying to arrange for this series have been... even though the series was given the official stamp of approval and legitimacy by the ICC!

ICC approve of West Indies, India deal
The International Cricket Council has given its blessing to the new profit-sharing agreement, which will see the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the Indian board (BCCI) exploiting the lucrative American market.

West Indies and India to discuss logistics in June
India and West Indies to play in USA
US grounds not ready for India-Windies ODIs
Asian market may not interest West Indies
India and West Indies to meet in Canada
West Indies players could boycott India ODIs
West Indies scramble to arrange alternative series
Canada decline to host ODI series

Related article by Sambit Bal, Cricinfo editor regardin the ICC's expansionist dream - Leave Americans to baseball and the other side of the argument - Give America a chance

---

No.. not talking about Free Willy..the tragic story of the attempts to free the lovable dolphin (I say tragic despite the feel-good stories portrayed in the series of three movies about the dolphin because Keiko ultimately 'died in Norwegian coastal waters where he remained after millions of dollars and a decade of work failed to coax him back to the open sea') .. but am talking about free will and the freedom of man to choices.

I was looking for some reading to refresh my readings from the mid-90s on existentialist thinking on the topic of 'free will' and I found this great summary, in response to a question at Google Answer.

The question was: We have free will, and that can be defined as freedom of choice. Lifeis Belief and choice. So where do our choices come from? (ALL OF THEM)

Instead of reproducing the great answer here... I direct you to the thread.

More about Free Will later... (do not ask again... there is no one called Will who is captive! :))

... but in the meantime, you can peruse this exhaustive guide to Philosophy or read the entry on Free Will at the absolutely wonderful Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (though strangely this other Internet Encylopedia of Philosophy does not have entries on existentialism!)

I saw some amazing pictures by a Boston-based photographer, Laura McPhee at an exhibition titled River of No Return at the MFA in Boston yesterday. Incidentally, McPhee also had a exhibition at the