Questions: Can performance enhancing drugs enhance the performance of cricketers? Is cricket like athletics? Can a batsman bat better, score faster, or notch up a century or two under the influence of performance enhancing drugs? Can a bowler bowl faster, spin more, or pick up more wickets? Can a fielder dive around and stop unstoppable balls? Given the vagaries of the game, can drugs be used to good effect in Test cricket? Or is Twenty20 cricket, with its shortness, speed and accent on power over short bursts, tailormade for a grand entry of drugs into the gentleman's game?

The South African cricketer (he's considered the new fast-bowling ace) has a way with words. In an interview this weekend with the London Observer, he told this story:

'I remember then we had a break and the coach said I'd have to play for the Titans in Bloemfontein. Have you ever been to Bloemfontein? I said to my roomie, Paul Harris [South Africa's left-arm spinner], "Oh, I don't want to go through this." He said, "You know we don't want to be here. You'll have to bowl them out." I took 14 wickets and the match was over in two-and-a-half days.'

[Source]

* Remember what he said about his time with the Bangalore Royal Challengers of the new Indian Premier League: "The IPL was only four overs a game and it was like a paid holiday. You only had to work if you felt like it, which is probably why we finished second last." He later apologized.

Although Yusuf is the older one, Irfan made his Test debut in the Second Test against Australia at the Adelaide Oval in December 2003. He was introduced as a left-arm fast-medium swing bowler, reminding some of the legendary Wasim Akram of Pakistan. Irfan improved his batting skills to become a bowling all-rounder. This was the birth of 'Irfan Pathan' the Indian pride after the renowned all-rounder and former skipper Kapil Dev. How did Irfan Khan become Irfan Pathan? Shamim Bano, his mother, laments "Tum logo ne uska naam badal diya hai" (you media people have changed his name). Does it matter? It suits him, anyway.

Yusuf Pathan, the elder brother (half-brother) is a hard-hitting right handed batsman and a right-arm off-break bowler. He was selected for the Indian Squad for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship, held in South Africa in September 2007. He made his Twenty20 international debut in final against Pakistan. His performance was hardly noteworthy, but India pulled off the last ball victory and the rest is history. Yusuf Pathan became a part of history-making win for India. Subsequently, because of a good domestic season, he was signed by the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League for $475,000. In the 2008 IPL season, Yusuf scored 435 runs and took 8 wickets. Shane Warne, the captain for Rajasthan Royals, placed great faith in Yusuf Pathan. He was the Man of the Match in the final against Chennai Super Kings. Yusuf Pathan has arrived.

Researching Harish Thawani or Nimbus in a few hours is not possible, yet I want to put it up on my Blog for future investigation. Let my readers know that we have another potential Indian billionaire in the making. The flamboyant 47 years old, is an economics graduate from Bombay University. No celebrated alumnus of Harvard or Stanford, Harish Thawani is the son of a development manager with the Life Insurance Corporation of India. In other words, a true son of the soil. Thawani worked as an Accounts Executive with Lintas Advertising, ASP (Advertising & Sales Promotion) and finally with Chaitra Leo Burnett.

Harish Thawani founded Nimbus Communications in 1987, as an advertising agency, producing and marketing serials on Doordarshan. He shot to fame with a slickly produced superhit serial, Muqabla. He was soon forgotten as there was not much excitement on Doordarshan those days. Thawani came back to prominence in 1992 with World Cup Cricket. He bought the rights for India.

The cricket world is making full use of the popularity the game is now enjoying by announcing the conformation that a cricket champions league will take place this year. This follows hot on the heals of the world wide success and appeal that the IPL generated.

While soccer has enjoyed a champions league for a long time, with the best teams and best players from the European leagues taking part, and the prize the most sought after in club football, cricket has been slow to join the band wagon. No longer is this the case, and should the event prove to be as successful as hoped it will no doubt be here for the long term.

The event has been confirmed for either India or the Middle East, and should take place over 10 days, featuring 15 matches, in around about September/October this year. There will be a large cash prize for the winners, but teams finishing second, third and fourth will also be rewarded handsomely.

The competition will be made up of the domestic T20 finalists from England, Australia, India (the IPL) and South Africa. Englands T20 competition has just begun and only the two teams from their series are yet to be decided. The finalists there will join Western Australia and Victoria from Australia, the Rajasthan Royals and Channai Super Kings from India as well as the Dolphins and Titans from South Africa.

There are still some finer logistical points to work out, such as which team players who feature in more than one of the competing teams will turn out for. Albie Morkel for example is eligible for both the Titans and Channai and could have his county team Durham involved as well. The right thing would be for him to turn out for his home domestic team - the Titans, but because he is contracted as an overseas player for both Channai and Durham, they will lay claim to him as well. Money may talk louder than morals, as it often does, and don't be surprised if Morkel is told to play for Channai over the Titans.

Should the competition prove to be a success than future series should involve teams from Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and the West Indies, bringing all Test playing nations into the loop. However with issues over lack of calender time to fit it in, it is likely that they may keep it small, meaning that perhaps only the champions of the domestic competitions and not both finalists will take part in a bigger event.

For now the news is a welcome one for domestic cricket and cricket in general.

This blog post would be incomplete without a mention of one of the quirky promos of 10 ka Dum showing Salman Khan doing the 'in'famous towel dance with some participant.

Indian Cricket League was set up with a Rupees 100 crores corpus fund with prize money of one million US dollars, for the winning team in the first tournament scheduled for November 30, 2007. Some famous international cricketers were invited on July 24, 2007 to sign the most lucrative deal to play for ICL. Brian Lara, former West Indian Captain, Jason Gillespie from Australia, Andrew Hall and Justine Kemp from South Africa, Imran Farhat, Abdul Razzaq, Taufiq Umar and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan from Pakistan and many cricketers from other countries signed-up to play for ICL. Former Indian Skipper Kapil Dev, Kiran More, Tony Greig and Dean Jones were hired to run the league.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) immediately reacted and refused to recognise the ICL. To counter the ICL, the BCCI announced its own version called the Indian Premier League to play Twenty20 cricket tournament from April18, 2008.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) supported the BCCI decision and refused to recognise ICL as an official league. Other boards from Test playing nations went along with BCCI and imposed bans on their players to participate in rebel Indian Cricket League. In December 2007, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) banned those Pakistani players who appeared in the ICL, from playing their national and international cricket. This decision provoked  worldwide condemnation.  Imran Khan  and  Javed  Miandad  criticised the  PCB decision.

Breaking News: Pakistani cricket player Mohammad Asif has been arrested in Dubai when banned drugs were found in his possession!

The fast bowler who was playing for Delhi Daredevils in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) was taken in to custody at the Dubai International airport while he was returning to Pakistan from Mumbai via Dubai. He has been charged with contraband!

It has now been learnt that he had large quantities of opium in his possession.

The PCB would brief the media about the situation later on today.

The arrest is just the latest controversy to hit Pakistan's troubled cricket team over the last two years.

Asif was banned for one year after he tested positive for the steroid nandrolone in October 2006. Fellow paceman Shoaib Akhtar was banned for two years on the same charge.

Pro 40 will be scrapped, as many hoped, to make way for two Twenty20 competitions, as far as I can make out after 11 hours at work.

Firstly, there is the EPL (clever name, eh?), which will have a two-division structure. Each division would feature 10 teams, meaning there will be two 'open' slots for overseas teams as well as the existing 18 counties.

In addition, there will be a separate Twenty20 League, exclusively for the counties. Matches will be played 'primarily on Friday nights in July and August', and the competition will feed into the Champions League. Precisely why this is needed in addition to the 'EPL' is not entirely clear.

If this is confusing, let Giles Clarke explain it for you.

This is pretty much what I expected, given the overwhelmingly negative response to the radical MCC-backed plan for IPL-style city-based franchises to replace the counties. Whether the new league(s) will live up to the hype, we will have to wait and see.

The fact that the MCC is heavily involved with the proposal, however, means that things will get interesting from here on in. Further developments are awaited with interest.

What is the solution? It is not fiddling with the rules to make it 'more exciting'. It is not playing an awful defensive shot and getting bowled out. The solution, perhaps, is a World Test Championship, perhaps with two tiers. Or maybe it's a phenomenal series just around the corner - maybe, just maybe, even one that's going on right now....

First, the cheerleaders were forced to dance in jogging pants and T-shirts, resembling someone who just got out of bed rather than entertainers, but even those costumes were deemed ‘too risqué’, as you could still make out the dancers’ wrists and necks, which was far too provocative.

The Burkhas solve this issue, allowing the spectators to only see the eyes of the cheerleaders. “We think this is more appropriate. Our children should not be subjected to the naked wrists of women dancing like whores at a family sporting event,” complained one politician. “And sure, a few of them will probably die from heat stroke every match, but at least we don’t risk seeing any skin. Now if I can just get them to wear these goggles so they can’t hypnotize the boys with their eyes, then we will be truly safe.”

Online casinos are a great way to relax, play some casual online roulette. Try your luck on the slot machines, or play poker against players from all over the world. Online betting is the new craze online, experience your favorite sports like never before!

Owned by drinks company UB Group, the Kingfisher brand is best known as a beer in the UK, while it is the leading domestic beer in India the brand has also been stretched to an unlikely sector – air travel.

This week Kingfisher Airlines is expected to make Heathrow its first long haul destination. Despite rising oil costs and the pressures that are being brought to bear on all airlines, Vijay Mallya, Chairman of both UB Group and Kingfisher Airlines is bullish and believes that now is the time to look at adding international destinations.

Having recently bought the franchise for the Bangalore Royal Challengers, a cricket team in the highly successful Indian Premier League, Mallya is clearly astute as he proved in 2007 when he purchased the distiller Whyte and Mackay. However, at first glance this move is difficult to understand, due to high taxes and fuel prices (Indian aviation fuel prices are up to 70% higher than other international hubs) Ernst & Young expect the industry’s losses to total US$ 700 million, compared to US$ 500 million a year earlier.

Despite this there is an upside, India’s airports handled 90.4 million passengers in 2006, compared with 68 million the previous year. Consequently India’s airports are going through major upgrades – US$ 2 billion is being spent on upgrading Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, Bangalore's opens soon and Hyderabad’s new international airport has already opened, in addition, 30 non-metro airports are to be modernised by 2010.

And it isn’t just the airport infrastructure that is looking better, Ernst & Young estimate that the market grew at a compound rate of 25% over the last four years, and predict future growth of 16% in the next two years. When you consider that some estimates suggest that 40% of passengers are first time flyers there is clearly scope for further growth if as expected increased wealth makes air travel more accessible to more people.

In these conditions consolidation is guaranteed and having already acquired Air Deccan, another domestic rival, Kingfisher Airlines are clearly playing the long game and plan to become an increasingly international carrier.

"The worst thing is I wasn't even allowed to talk. Can you imagine, me not talking?"

Preity can't stop chuckling.

Rejuvenated she's raring to get back to films.

"I didn't realize how much I had been put behind. I've so much pending work. Four films are at different stages of completion. I've to immediately start dubbing for Harr Pal and Heroes. Then I leave for the world tour with the Bachchans."

In Heroes she stars with one of her favourite co-stars Salman Khan for whom she has agreed to do an item song in the Salman-Kareena starrer Main Aur Mrs Khanna.

Preity corrects me. "It's Salman's home production. And he is a buddy. But it's not an item song, really. It's an interesting cameo. And I've agreed to be in the film because the director Prem Soni is a dear friend. And since Salman has played Prem so often, let's just say this one is for Prem."

After shooting and editing the Punjabi film Heaven On Earth Deepa Mehta says Preity is the best actress she has ever worked with.

Preity bursts into delighted chuckles. "I love Deepa for that. When she signed me for the film she told me she wanted the actress, not the star. That sounded so corny. But when I reached Toronto to shoot Heaven On Earth I knew exactly what she meant. I'm dying to see the complete film."

Looking back on the IPL experience Preity sighs, "It was one helluva learning experience. It was also very annoying to hear rubbish like 'Preity sat on a cricketer's lap'.

Does it make any sense for me to make a public spectacle of myself? I mean that's hardly me. I don't sit on people's laps. "

But the fall out has been more positive than anything else. "I learnt a whole new definition for the concept of on- field bonding. See, as a film actor I've always worked in a team. But not in this way.

Here on the field I was hands-on. I loved the Sri Lankan and Australian boys. Some of the Australians would hardly utter a word. I specially had to make an effort to make the younger inexperienced Indian players comfortable.

Now I know that having bonded together in spite of being from different spaces they'd understand the team spirit much better."

Preity was openly and unabashedly demonstrative during the games. " I showed my emotions spontaneously as I always have. I hugged players when I wanted to. I cried and I cheered when I wanted.

If that was misconstrued by some, so be it. I was having a good time while learning so much about cricket and human behaviour. As for the spoilsports they can't be helped.

There were people whom I thought to be friends who cribbed about not being invited to the matches. Arrey, do I invite people for my films? The IPL experience made me realize who my friends are."

Yes, there was a sense of loss when her Mohali team lost at the pen-ultimate match in Mumbai.

But Preity defends her team stoutly. "It was that Murphy's Law at work. Something somewhere is bound to go wrong. And it did. But I can't say my team played badly at Mumbai. We did go right up to the semi-finals. And that was no mean achievement. Next time we'll go right to the top."

Next time is a distance away. "A lot of planning has to be done for the next IPL matches. The first time was a huge learning experience. And we need to make sure we don't make the same mistakes again.

I also need to learn how to avoid getting crowded. This time I nearly lost an eye in the jostling. But I thoroughly enjoyed the IPL experience.

I've always been a warm person. Being on the field with the boys made me understand the importance of solidarity on the job.Yeah I guess it has made a maturer person."

The game itself was a classic, following on from the first match between the sides in the competition, which was decided on a bowl-out, and is arguably responsible for the massive popularity of the format on the subcontinent.

Despite claims at the time that Twenty20 wouldn't overtake 50-over ODIs, the abolition of the 50-over game looks closer than ever...

With the potential for county players to make more from domestic Twenty20 than their Test counterparts do from the longer form of the game, the structure of international cricket faces upheaval. Certainly, developing a winning Twenty20 will become more attractive to county sides than developing players for England.

These are certainly interesting times for cricket.

When it comes to sports, the action never stops. As soon as the Premiership, Champions League and the Indian Premier League came to a close, we have the Euro 2008. So, who are my favourites? Well, this time, i just want to relax and watch the matches and not worry about the results. 3 of my favourite teams are in Group C - Netherlands, Italy & France.

I have got an exam on Tuesday and am yet to open the books. Heck, football is more important. Yay ;)

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The 3rd Test of England vs New Zealand started today at Trent Bridge in Nottingham and it wasn't long before England were in deep Trent water at 85 for 5. I guess like any other England fan, I look at the top 6 English batsmen and think, that though it looks a touch defensive, on their day they should be able to post good totals. However, that's 'on their day' and if doesn't come against as lightweight attack as the Kiwis have, it could be a blue moon in daylight before it does happen. For my money England have really missed the aggressive impetus that Marcus Trescothick used to give at the top of the order since he retired. I dread to think what a South African attack will do to our batsmen later on this summer. At least Pietersen and Ambrose showed what was required and though they got out towards the end of the day, 273 for 7  is a great recovery considering the English post-lunch blues. If the home team can eke out another 40 or 50 runs, they should be confident of holding New Zealand to something short of that total when they come out to bowl.

Across the Atlantic in the Caribbean, Australia are finding a West Indies side that are at least up for the fight which is more than could be said on their tour of England last year, when they apologetically rolled over for a 3-0 defeat. In truth since that low point, West Indies Test match performances have improved in recent months with a win against South Africa in Port Elizabeth, a win against Sri Lanka in Port of Spain and genuinely competing with Australia for the first four days of the 1st Test at Sabina Park before capitulating on the last day. They have a battery of decent quicks, Taylor, Powell and Edwards supported by Bravo and a rock in their batting lineup, Chanderpaul, for others to rally around. Some decent batsmen to support 'Tiger', Sarwan and Gayle and a spinner would give them a better balance. So are the Aussies wobbling? I wouldn't believe it, sure most of the marque names of the past decade have gone, but don't believe for one second that the Aussies are about to relinquish their throne. Well done West Indies I say.

I can't end a review of the week without commenting on the IPL finals. After Punjab threw it away in the semi, to my mind it could only be Warne's Rajahastan Royals to win the title, albeit I thought they might do it a bit more comfortably than leaving it until the final ball of the match. Credit should go to their opponents Chennai for making the match one that ebbed and flowed right up to the last over, in grave contrast to the one-sided semi finals. My personal favourite moment of the semis was watching batsman after hapless batsman trying to slog Warne away and failing as he turned the ball at right angles off the pitch!

When the tournament started and I heard fresh retirees and great players such as Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Shaun Pollock had failed to resist the temptation of the megabucks and the exposure offered by IPL, I worried for them in spite of not being a fan of theirs. OK, except for a soft corner for Pollock may be. I was pretty sure they would get walloped all over and be clueless about how to handle this beast of a game with shorter boundaries, bigger muscles, better bats and ruthless batsmen who would be considered heroes if they lasted 50 to 60 balls. But come the end of IPL, they are the ones laughing all the way to glory and I am the one left bemused and applauding real genius.

Unlike the flopped experiment of Brian Lara and the rival ICL, where Lara didn't seem bothered enough to adapt his game to the situation, these guys were just magnificent. Just take a look at their stats.

Warne played 15 games and picked up an amazing 19 wickets at an economy rate of 7.77, apart from superbly marshaling a bunch of not-so-big names (at least until the tournament was over) to the title. McGrath played 14 games and picked up 12 wickets conceding just 6.61 an over. And Pollock, unarguably the "gentlest" of the lot, picked up 11 wickets from 13 games at a miserly 6.54 per over, and was the skipper of the Mumbai Indians in the turbulent period post Harbhajan Singh's slap-gate and Tendulkar's late entry - incidentally the period when they most of their games. That puts them 10th, 4th and 2nd best on the economy rates stakes of bowlers who bowled at least 40 overs. And incidentally, another wily old warrior who one may have thought wasn't suitable for the wham-bam methods of Twenty20, Muthiah Muralitharan also did wonderfully well, picking up 11 wickets in 15 games at just 6.96, easily the best among spinners who bowled at least 20 overs. Compare this to an average run rate of about 8.3 in the tournament and you know what I mean.

Obviously, these guys know their cricket so well that the form of the game is merely just another minor detail to be factored among other details such as the pitch, the wind, the match situation, the batsman and the field placement, as they run into bowl.

Permit me to add a phrase to a tired and worn cliche, particularly in Indian cricket commentary boxes. Form is temporary, class is permanent and genius transcends the form of the game.

While PCB and Pakistan's Ambassador to Pakistan are 'hopeful' for a positive way out of this situation, a lawyer has already been appointed to assist the cricketer.

There are conflicting statements with regards to whether Asif is merely being kept in custody on suspision or there actually has been a charge and arrest made against him. As news of his 'arrest' has spread through out the media like wild-fire, the Pakistani ambassador, Ahsan Ullah Khan has stated various claims of charges lodged and charges dropped against the player as untrue and baseless.

There is no question of charges against Mohammad Asif being dropped (by UAE authorities) when no charge has been filed against him as yet!

IPL has already said that, if found guilty, Asif will not be a part of their future campaigns and he could very well face a life ban from professional cricket as well.

Another day in the life of one of our star cricketers!

Gulfnews has just reported that the drug charges against Pakistan cricketer Mohammad Asif for which he was taken in to custody yesterday have been dropped and he is set to fly out from Dubai soon. The 25-year-old pacer was detained at Dubai International Airport on charges of possessing illegal drugs while returning to Pakistan on Sunday after playing for Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League.The Pakistan Consulate in Dubai is to make an official statement soon. Details about the tests conducted on him have not been revealed. According to Dubai customs officials, Asif was caught with 0.24gm of an illegal substance in his wallet. This substance was also sent for laboratory tests.

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It was certainly the most entertaining match of the entire IPL season. I always supported Rajasthan Royals, and now everyone can see that I had supported the best team.

The trophy looked very beautiful and it was designed very well.  Both teams performed greatly in the field but in the end, the 1.2 USD reward goes to the Royals.

Shane Watson was announced the Man Of The Tournament. He is a great all-rounder.

Shawn Marsh was the holder of Orange Cap while the Purple Cap was held by Sohail Tanvir.

Guess what I am thinking of?

Picture Courtesy Ankit