Shoaib Akhtar sent home from Twenty20 World Cup

Pakistan + Cricket = Comic Relief
Shoaib Akhtar Timeline: A tale of intrigue, injuries and incidents

"Shoaib Akhtar's troubled career has taken yet another twist following the Pakistan board's decision to send him back from the World Twenty20 after a dressing-room scuffle in which he was alleged to have hit fellow fast bowler Mohammad Asif with a bat." -Cricinfo

Not a ball bowled and he's already done something stupid. This guy needs a shrink. In the past he has taken drugs, been showcased for chucking, feigned injury while bowling (and then gone out to bat as though nothing was wrong), left a camp without permission and injured his own teammate. He is a fantastic representative of the illness that ails his country in general. The saga continues...

Wanted: new superheroes to rank with ageing best

Is there a dearth of young cricketing talent?

"According to the LG ICC rankings, of the world’s top 15 Test batsmen, only Kevin Pietersen is under 29. On the same day ten years ago, only Steve Waugh of the top eight batsmen was over 29. Eight of the present top ten bowlers are in their thirties. In September 1997, seven of the top ten were under 30. And of the top ten ranked batsmen and bowlers in one-day international cricket, only Lasith Malinga, the Sri Lanka pace bowler, is under 25." -Andy Zaltzman for The Times

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More 2008 US Presidential Election Fun

-Which US Presidential candidate do you best match?
-A tabulated chart showing where all the candidates stand on all the key issues
-Political Compass of all the Presidential candidates

Not surprisingly, my two best matches were Dennis Kucinich (90%) and Mike Gravel (81%), followed by, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson (both 68%). My highest matched Republican was not surprisingly Ron Paul (36%), while the lowest matches were with Tommy Thompson and Mitt Romney, both 3%. I then tried it again by voting strongly conservative, and this time there were three Republicans tied for top spot: Duncan Hunter, John McCain and Mitt Romney with 88%. Ron Paul also scored high with 56%, crudely confirming my feeling that while he is liberal on some issues, he is strongly conservative on many others.

Also, check out Kucinich's London-born wife. She's hot and 31 years younger than him! (Kucinich is two years older than her dad!)

Free Online TV (especially LIVE sports)

myP2P

Sorry I didn't share this earlier. Some of you may have SopCast, but I was recently introduced to TVU which is even better. TVAnts has CNN Radio and the CNN channel itself. I haven't tried a couple of the other P2P softwares yet but with what I've got already, you can watch the US Open LIVE (unfortunately it's not English commentary) and more importantly for me now, the Rugby World Cup LIVE with English commentary! It's been fantastic to watch the first game, even though I'm still trying to come to grips with the rules. It would've been better if I'd watched the game with someone who could explain the rules as we went along. I think I could have a lot of it down from just one game. What I have noticed though is that there's been a lot more kicking going on than I'd seen before, and I must've been right because the commentator said the same thing about the Argentines a few minutes later. :)

You can also watch a LOT of LIVE football action with this link. It's how I've been able to catch up with most of the LIVE Premiership action this season, and once their seasons are underway, you can even watch Bundesliga, La Primera Liga and Serie A matches. It's a godsend for sports fans. On a good day, there's even LIVE cricket. Oh, and last week they showed the World Athletics Championships in Osaka LIVE as well. But it was in Chinese commentary so I just muted the channel and turned on some lovely European classical music. It was interesting to say the least, watching the 100m sprinters waltz to Chopin and Telemann.

Rugby World Cup, Match 1 (Pool D)

France 12 - 17 ARGENTINA

What a start to the World Cup! Argentina dominated the initial proceedings and were soon 9-3 ahead after three penalties. Then France broke loose, but the Argentines intercepted the ball beautifully somewhere near the halfway line and produced the only try of the match. It was an exquisite passage of play and temporarily knocked the stuffing outta the French. They never really recovered, though they did come back hard in the 2nd half, but not enough to force a win. Argentina are ranked 6th in the world so you can't really call this an upset*, but to defeat the French at home (in front of 80,000 mad supporters in the Stade de France), and that too in the World Cup is a great achievement. Especially since no less an authority as pappubahry has predicted Les Bleus (do they call themselves that in rugby as well?) to win the whole thing! Ireland are also in the same group, so it'll be interesting to see how things shape up. An easy outing for England tomorrow as they take on the Yanks. I still can't believe I can watch the World Cup for free, LIVE and online!

So much sport to choose from tomorrow. England plays the USA in the Rugby World Cup. England plays India in the final ODI of their 7-match series, which is currently tied 3-all. England play Israel in a football European Championship qualifying match, and there's the US Open Men's Semifinals and Women's final! And all taking place, at some point, at the same time! Looks like the internet radio will get the cricket, the manual radio will get the football and I'll be playing the tennis and rugby on separate internet channels. Take that TiVo!

(* Apparently Argentina have defeated France in 4 of their last 5 matches, and even their last loss (in France?) was by a solitary point!)