Last week, France beat the Republic of Ireland to make it to the FIFA world cup in South Africa next year, consequently preventing the Irish from qualifying. However, France’s victory was highly controversial given that their winning goal was made possible by Thierry Henry’s hands.
I just watched LIVE, the 12-round demolition of Miguel Cotto by Manny Pacquiao earning Manny the WBO welterweight title. Manny created history by winning a seventh world title in an unprecedented seventh weight division.
Manny was simply superb – very lively, darting in and out, punched with lightning speed and accuracy and although he stepped up in weight, it did not show one bit.
I watched the David Haye Vs Nikolai Valuev WBA Heavyweight title fight a couple of hours ago. There was a lot of hype before the fight billed as “David Vs Goliath”, given the whopping 7 stone weight difference and significant height difference between the two boxers.
Today, the inaugural Airtel Champions League Twenty Twenty (CLT20) kicked off with the first match played between the Royal Challengers Bangalore (India) and the Cape Cobras (South Africa). The Cape Cobras won the match with some exceptional batting by Jean-Paul Duminy, scoring an unbeaten 99 of 52 balls.
With the T20 format becoming wholesome entertainment, I guess the Cricket Administrators took a cue from the UEFA Champions League and created CLT20.
I just watched the welterweight fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Márquez. Floyd was returning to the ring after a hiatus of 21 months, but it seemed as if he never took a break from boxing. The fight was entirely one-sided with Floyd dominating throughout and making the current WBA and WBO lightweight champion Marquez look ordinary.
A couple of days ago, after Sri Lanka thrashed New Zealand in a test match played in Sri Lanka (primarily due to Muralitharan’s exceptional bowling), Mark Richardson (former Kiwi batsman) resurrected the issue of “Murali chucking the ball by going beyond the 15-degree”.
Typically, with yet another “chucking claim” from a non-Asian affiliated with the game, Asians will be quick to react that such claims provide more evidence for the negative bias against Asian cricket teams.
My Oh My !! Usain Bolt is Superman. I have been keenly following the world’s best sprinters since I was a kid, followed the Olympics and World Athletic championships closely, always knew who the fastest man in the world was and the world record time for the 100m.
I have been converted!!! When Twenty20 (T20) arrived on the cricketing scene, I was very quick to dismiss it as wham-bam cricket, a doom for bowlers, etc. I enjoyed watching the formats of the game already existing before T20 arrived – One-Day Cricket and Test Cricket.
The Proteas have successfully defended the title of “chokers” in their semi-final match against Pakistan in the ICC World T20 2009 tournament today.
At the post-match presentation, Graeme Smith dismissed a question alluding to his team being chokers by saying that he didn’t believe that’s the case and it was just that Pakistan was better on the day.
In the recent crucial ICC World T20 match between India and England which finally saw the defending champions India being knocked out of the T20 World Cup, Harbhajan Singh pulled out of his delivery stride a couple of times. In the final over, when bowling to Foster, Harbhajan pulled out of his delivery stride just before delivering the third ball of the over.
Another weekend, another exciting boxing match – Ricky Hatton Vs Manny Pacquiao. I thought I would be watching the fight right now instead of blogging, but Manny blew away the “Hitman” in just 2 rounds and here I am. I stayed awake all night to watch this fight LIVE and although I predicted a Manny victory prior to the fight, I am surprised at the clinical and emphatic manner in which Manny finished off Hatton.
As with the Hatton-Mayweather Jr., fight, a lot of hype was built up around the “new” Hatton for his fight with Manny.
I was disappointed when I came to know that no UK TV broadcaster agreed a deal to telecast the Froch-Taylor match LIVE. Well, ITV stepped in at the last moment to telecast the matcvh “as LIVE” around 18 hours after the fight. Fortunately, Omnisport streamed the fight LIVE for £9.95 and I booked the fight just minutes before punch-off!
I purchased the Khan Vs Barrera fight on Sky Box Office and looked forward to a good night’s fight with a glass of Ballantine’s and some fried swordfish.
Among the undercard fights, I quite enjoyed the Enzo Maccarinelli Vs Ola Afolabi (left photo) for the interim WBO cruiserweight title.
