Well, the season ended gloriously for Ferrari and Raikkonen. After finishing second in the Championship, twice (2003, 2005) the “Ice-man” from Finland was able to celebrate his championship on the podium on Sunday. The controversial season which has seen so many court battles, added further drama. It has been announced that McLaren are appealing a FIA ruling on fuel irregularity with both Williams and BMW. If the FIA rules in favor of McLaren (which I highly doubt), Hamilton will be crowed champion. I am not sure how any of you will feel about this, but in a way it is typical of this season and will only be the perfect (read controversial) way to end the season. I hope FIA throws the appeal out of the window, not because I am against Hamilton winning it, but it will be unfair!

One way or another, pile on the controversy.

1. Alonso is definitely leaving McLaren.

2. Massa is staying with Ferrari.

3. Can’t wait!!!!

Can this season get any more exciting? After all the controversies thro’ the season we finally get to the final race in Interlagos, Brazil. It has been a about 20 years since three drivers are in a position to win the championship going into the last race. 7 points separate Hamilton, Alonso, and Raikkonen. Hamilton had a rare dnf in Shanghai, and dropped serious points, surely what a bad time to do it. He was in a position to wrap up the championship with a win, but I am not complaining.

It would probably be a really really long shot to expect Raikkonen to win it, but I will  have my fingers crossed nonetheless. It has been a while since McLaren had a bad day out in the track and it will be wishing for too much to expect that in the last race of the season. The odds are definitely with Hamilton and I expect him to be crowned champion come raceday.

The off-season will make for interesting read.

1. Is Alonso staying with McLaren? I expect him to leave.

2. Is Massa staying with Ferrari? I think he probably will…but, could we entertain thoughts on a possible Alonso move to Ferrari. Will that be juicy or what?

3. How is the new Indian owned Spyker team going to do? This probably concerns only me and a billion others.

Just when I thought this season cannot get more bizarre, there could be more twists before we see an end to this controversial season.

1. Reports suggest that the “spy row” may not be over just yet. Nigel Stepney, the Ferrari engineer who set the ball rolling in the first place has accused Ferrari of being in possession of privileged information as well. There was also a brief report that McLaren could be suing Benneton over similar accusations. I am pretty confident that this is going to blow over and also confident that the off season is going to bring in a LOT of new regulations into effect.

2. Hamilton could be facing point deduction and penalties for what is being described as bad driving practice behind a safety car. Apparently, there is video evidence to prove that it was his driving that caused Vittel to crash into Webber. If this is the case, there will be a whole new twist to the season. I cannot wait for this season to be over!

It is quite a disturbing fact. Is it me or has there been a sudden increase in the number of arrests/criminal charges against NCAA football athletes this year? Mack Brown, generally known for running a tight ship at Texas has had five people in the team suspended and arrested at various times this season. Missouri, Arkansas, Louisville, OSU, Michigan, FSU and the list goes on. Have the law enforcement units in these towns suddenly got stricter? On the one hand you have coaches pleading that their players are “student-athletes” and should be sheltered, while so many of them are being charged with various criminal offenses. There has to be a tougher crack down from NCAA and teams have to be strict about dismissing these individuals.

India beat Pakistan in the finals of the shortened format of the game to be crowned champions. It does not get better than that. 4 balls, 6 runs and 1 wicket in hand….oh the tension. Well, India came up trumps.

Factoids that fascinate (only) me:

1. This is the first piece of silverware India has collected 24 years after winning the ODI World cup in England.

2. India maintain their unbeaten record against Pakistan in any World cup match.

3. India had played just one, that’s right one match in this format prior to this competition.

4. It was nice to see India and Pakistan (both embarrassingly exit the WC in the group stages) in the finals to prove their cricketing presence. Both were not expected to do well in this format.

5. Pakistan lost only twice in the whole tournament and they were both to India.

I quite like this format of the game. It is short, exciting and has a bit of everything in it. I would hope the powers to be decide to hold this tournament every two years instead of the usual four and also involve more fringe nations to make the sport global. With the setting up of the “illegal” Indian Cricket League (ICL) and BCCI starting its own “official” version we can see more games in this format in the near future (I will some day get around to writing about these two leagues).

Great day for Indian cricket. The absence of Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly was never felt and this was a great stage for the youngsters to show their maturity….welcome to Uthappa, Sharma, Singh, et al. Australia visit India in a weeks time and lets hope India continue on their winning ways.

I have been thinking about the current football scoring system for a while now. The more I think about it the more I am convinced that it could do with a bit of fixing. There needs to be more incentive for teams to score goals, after all that is why you play the game. How about this? If you win the match you still get three points. If you draw the match you get one point if it is a goalless draw and two points if it involves goals.

At the moment there are a lot of teams (especially the bottom quarter) who are happy to have all eleven players defending to pick up the point. If you are a good team you will find a way to win but, if there was an incentive for the bottom teams to score goals, it might change the complexion of the game. They might still be happy to sit back and pick up one point instead of dropping three, but think of the middle and late part of the season when each point can make a difference. If you have a three tier point system there are more permutations possible.

I feel this will keep the teams bunched up a bit more, making each week (especially towards the end of the season) more exciting. This used to a problem with Formula-1 a few years ago when the winner of a GP would pull away by 4 points from the second place man. Since changing, the seasons have been a lot closer with the final races playing a big part in deciding the winner. Similarly, this could change the Premiership as well with higher incentive to play for a win every week. Now, if I can find a way to convince the FA to listen to me….you say “Good luck”…I say “Thanks”

The first games of the group stages kicked off and it was a rather lackluster affair. Liverpool struggled against Porto thro’ the whole 90 minutes and came away with a lucky 1 point. The facts that interested me are these:

1. Porto looked really good moving the ball. They did not air it out and were able to string together some nice possessions in a night where Liverpool could hardly keep the ball for more than three touches. They looked extremely sluggish and played away from the ball. It seemed for the most part that Porto had 2 players for every opponent and played with a lot of energy and urgency.

2. If Porto had one good striker the story would have been different. They repeatedly threatened outside the box with Quaresma and Bosingwa posing all sorts of problems for the company of Babel, Pennant, Arbeloa and Finnan (Pennant was rather frustrated and was sent off with 30 minutes from the last whistle). They made a vaunted back four look rather pedestrian.

3. Statistics – the final possession of 50% each does not do justice to how the game was played out. Liverpool had to wait 87 minutes for their only corner of the game. I don’t remember Nuno (GK) having to touch the ball the whole of the second half, let alone having to save anything.  Giving up the ball with very little pressure, bad passes and clearing were the norm for the night.

The result should have been anything but 1-1 and LFC probably knows it.

Elsewhere, Chelsea drew with Rosenborg 1-1  (They are a Norwegian club if you are wondering) at home. Real Madrid and A.C. Milan won 2-1 against Werder Bremen and Benfica respectively.

Arsenal V Sevilla tonight should be more entertaining.

Seriously, what is it with Rafa? Liverpool drew 0-0 with Portsmouth and for most part it was the team from Pompei who looked threatening. I have two thoughts regarding this: First, team selection. It was expected that Rafa would rotate his starting 11 each week. What was unexpected was the nature of the changes. Why would he bench Torres, Gerrard, Babel, Kuyt and Mascherano while starting Sissoko and Crouch. The England national team which will almost play anyone upfront decided not to play Crouch. I have never been convinced of Crouch’s capabilities and seriously question his performances. I think Gerrard and Torres should have been given the nod ahead of Sissoko and Crouch. I hope Rafa gets ruthless and plays the best team. If that makes the likes of Crouch and Sissoko unhappy, so be it. Rather them than me!

This brings me to the second point. How good is Liverpool really? They definitely showed a strong performance against Chelsea, but if you disregard that for a minute, they beat up on not-so-good Sunderland and a rubbish Derby county. Their season opening win against Villa was a close one if we remember. So, thus far they have played 1 good side, 2 decent sides and 2 very bad sides. They have come away with 3 wins and 2 draws, and but for the Villa game it could have been 3 draws. Are we then to gather that they were great against the poorer sides and still have a ways to go? Is the real Liverpool the one that showed up against Chelsea or the one we saw on display today? Something to chew on.

McLaren were stripped of their constructors points for the season while the drivers were allowed to keep theirs. They were also penalized a record $100 Millon. I am sure this is not the last we are going to hear about this. McLaren will quite surely appeal this and it will be sad if the constructors title is decided in the courts. As it currently stands Ferrari win the constrictors title. Racing continues this week at Spa and I am sure there will be a lot of distractions to go with it.

Taking an early day off work yesterday, my mates and I, drove down to London to watch England beat Russia 3-0 in the Euro-2008 qualifiers at the Wembley (new) stadium. The last (and only) time I was at the Wembley was for a Metallica concert and we decided we had to go back for a footie match.

It was a wonderful atmosphere and a cracking first half as well. Owen found the back of the net twice in the span of 25 odd minutes as England played at a high tempo. Emile Heskey was superb at retrieving anything in his vicinity and in the air. Barry had a great game with a nice cross that set up the first goal and was fantastic in mid-field as well. Micah Richards once again worked hard and worked well in the back. All three of them made an excellent case for their continued inclusion in future squads. Steve McLaren should be breathing a big sigh of relief after he had to take a gamble following injuries to Rooney, Lampard, Neville and Hargreaves. He can pat himself on the shoulder.

Second half was a little disappointing. England seemed to have gone into a slumber as whatever they were fed during half-time took effect. This resulted in a few close chances for Russia and a lot of “you got to be kidding” plays from England. They settled down for the final 20 minutes and kept up the pressure on the Russians. The final goal from Ferdinand sealed the deal….and victory to England.

It was a good performance and they are almost playing like a team instead of a bunch of talented individuals. Three more games (though they have to play Russia away and Croatia as well) to go and England should fancy their chances of qualifying.