Controversially Whose?

          So the inimitable Shoaib Akhtar is back in the limelight, for the wrong reasons yet again. This time it's not for tampering with the ball or hitting a teammate but writing a spiteful book.
          The Pakistani speedster claims that Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid are not match-winners. And that the Little Master was afraid of him. It is quite human to be perturbed by a bowler of that pace, but is rather strange to score 99 international centuries and not win matches for your country, in Tendulkar's case. Maybe Akhtar cannot bear that his rival from a rival nation is a century away from history and regarded as an all-time great alongside the legendary Sir Donald Bradman and has to taint his name in some way.
          Akhtar also states that all bowlers tamper with the ball. There have been many highly successful bowlers who are good fair people who would not resort to cheap tactics. Personally, I find it strange that one is allowed to apply saliva but not dirt on the ball, but even so one man cannot speak for a whole community of bowlers.
          Possibly he is missing all the attention and front-page hogging and has tried a stunt again. He has been pleading people to buy the controversial book and they have. The book has been selling well, probably due to the publicity.
          The point of an autobiography is to narrate your life story and make it accessible to the public, not to spite fellow cricketers and hog the limelight. That seems to be Shoaib Akhtar's idea in releasing Controversially Yours, post a career littered with problems and subsequent bans.

Stick vs Bat

          For a much-needed change, the Indian hockey team has earned more pride than the more famous, wealthy and followed cricket team. While the latter came crashing to earth in England, the former triumphed in the Asian Hockey Champions League in Ordos, China. Our national sport finally seems to be seeing a ray of hope.
          I won't go into the reasons for the trouncing in England, where the Men in Blue came home with nothing but some wins against county sides, it being accepted that injuries and tiredness overcame the side. Not one of the five one-dayers was a full 100 overs - one was abandoned, one was a Duckworth-Lewis tie (not something I have witnessed in thirteen years of life on Earth) and three were claimed by England, again Duckworth-Lewis all. It still beats me how 240 in 40 overs is better than 306 in 50. The run-rate of the former is 6.0 while the latter's is 6.12.
          Contrastingly, a young Indian team travelling to Ordos as underdogs clinched the title, days after their nation was denied the rights to host the World Champions Trophy and consequently failed to qualify. When the national game in in the news, it is seldom without controversy - the players were to be paid a meagre 25,000 rupees as a cash reward - which is less than what one earns after answering four questions on Kaun Banega Crorepati. It is also a small fraction of what the cricketers were paid after their World Cup win back at home, with the states vying to pay higher amounts to the players from their state.
          While the ball-and-stick men fight for a more respectable amount, the ball-and-bat men fly home to feature in the big-cash Champions League Twenty20. I believe it won't be won by any of the tired Indian teams but one of the energized foreign sides. Only time will tell.