Back to square one....

1. Back at Hyderabad after spending an extended Diwali weekend at home. The spiralling aviation fuel costs meant that I no longer had the luxury of travelling via air. The drawling train ride was a major bore. Getting back to work right after such a long trip is not an exciting prospect. The journey home is never too long, but the one back from home, definitely is.
2. The weekend at home was terrific fun. Spent some quality time with Mom, Sis and her kids. And catching up with friends at Coimbatore is one event I always look forward to.
3. The forthcoming 10-15 days are going to be hectic at work.
4. I am almost through with Steve Waugh's 'Out of my Comfort Zone'. No doubt a marathon effort, considering the mammonth size of the book (reminded me of my Fluid Mechanics textbook - it never failed to give me the blues at college), but it is well and truly worth it. An amazingly well written autobiography by one of the greatest exponents of the game. Planning a post on this, when I find time.

Shoaib Akhtar switches to Major League Baseball...

... after testing positive for Nandrolone, a performance enhancing drug, during the ICC Champions Trophy, and due to the repeated reports of his questionable action, the fastest chucker in the world decided to take up a sport in which chucking was official and the offer from Pittsburgh Pirates to be their number 1 pitcher was just the boost that his sagging career wanted. Speaking to newspersons, he was quoted as saying "I want to bowl as many balls as possible for the Pirates", which clearly shows he is not entirely comfortable with the baseball terminologies yet. No wonder the other teams in the league cannot wait to face up to him!!!

Like only ICC can

The BCCI has decided to include Mohammad Azharuddin in a list of prominent cricketers and officials that it plans to honour in a function next month. The ICC, apparently is not amused.

"The ICC has a zero tolerance zone to corruption and we'd like our members to have a similar zero tolerance in this matter," ICC spokesman Brian Murgatroyd told The Associated Press on Friday.

Surprising, considering the fact that Shane Warne and Herschelle Gibbs who have admitted accepting money from bookies, are still allowed to smell the green. And one should not forget Warnie's partner in crime, the graceful Mark Waugh. All that these guys needed to shell out was a pittance as penalty.

To be fair to the BCCI - whom I am not a great fan of, in a lot of other issues - it has dealt with the matchfixing cases in India pretty severely. It meted out strict punishments to Azhar, Jadeja (who was undoubtedly a star in the making)and other also-rans like Ajay Sharma who cashed in.

I think, the ICC just produced a crosscourt backhand, that Roger Federer would be proud of!!!