N Ananthanarayanan

India can boast of taking a major stride in Formula One after Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella drove from pole to second on the podium at the Belgium Grand Prix on Sunday.

The first points for the team owned by India's liquor and airlines baron Vijay Mallya was a pleasant surprise, the team having failed to make an impact since it was launched ahead of the 2008 season.

The Indian media lapped up the news, indicating that F1's popularity in India will only grow more rapidly as Indian fans gradually embrace the team as theirs.

Although home fans would have hoped an Indian driver had produced the achievement, India would still celebrate Fisichella's success.

Indian F1 hopes were given a huge boost when Narain Karthikeyan was signed up by Jordan in 2005. However, an uncompetitive car and his lack of experience at the highest level meant India's first F1 driver stayed very briefly in the limelight.

Karthikeyan's subsequent role as a tester for Williams pushed him behind the scenes and he has now moved to the A1 Grand Prix, the world cup of motor racing, with his Formula One hopes all but over.

The Force India podium could not have come at a better time, as India gear up to stage an inaugural Grand Prix in 2011.

It comes after local media revealed this week that the sports ministry had refused a request to remit $36.5 million by JPSK Sports, the private company building the race track near New Delhi,  to the Bernie Ecclestone's British-based Formula One Administration.

The sports ministry felt Formula One was more entertainment and less sport and rejected the company's request, but Mallya believes the decision, due to India's exchange control regulations, is unlikely to prevent the 2011 Grand Prix.

Force India's success will definitely lift the mood in Mallya's camp as he was facing questions about the future of the team due to issues in his businesses.

However, Mallya can take credit for shuffling the management and taking direct charge of affairs earlier in the season, having refused to bow to sentiment while choosing the drivers.

He picked Fisichella to use his experience, alongwith German Adrian Sutil, ignoring Karthikeyan as well as the promising Karun Chandok.

In the end, few would have missed the irony. England, their feeble limited overs credentials torn apart after their opening defeat against Netherlands, knocking out holders India from the World Twenty20 with a brilliant execution of strategy.

India were pipped by three runs as England handed them their second defeat in the Super Eights on Sunday, eliminating them from the race for a semi-final berth.

West Indies, another team usually on the receiving end for their inconsistency, had caught the top order batsmen napping with short-pitched bowling to defeat India in their opening Super Eights fixture.

England proved they were quick learners with a near-perfect execution of a similar drill, leaving India struggling as they began chasing what appeared an achievable target of 154.

The hugely popular Indian team have turned villains overnight among fans and media back home. The Indian media has attacked skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who led the team to an unexpected win in 2007, for shuffling the team for the crunch game, for his leadership and his subdued batting.

There had been worries the players would be fatigued after the month-long Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament. Explosive opener Virender Sehwag was then ruled out due to a shoulder injury and finally England bowlers perfectly executed their plans.

England are aiming for the unthinkable now, a semi-final spot if they can defeat West Indies on Monday.

Do India deserve heavy criticism or should we put their failure down to the unpredictable nature of cricket's shortest format?

Picture of India's Yusuf Pathan by Philip Brown

Now that India's explosive batsman Virender Sehwag has been ruled out of the World Twenty20 with a shoulder injury, at least the media have one less thing to obsess about.

The journalists travelling with the team in England had been trying to find out why Sehwag did not play, and more importantly did not open the batting, in the warm-up games or the first group fixture against Bangladesh.

Some pundits reckoned Sehwag, the vice-captain who had expressed his preference to bat in the middle-order despite his huge success as an opener, had clashed with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The captain, expected to talk up India's chances on the eve of the first game on Friday, instead paraded the entire team before the media, read out a prepared statement criticising speculation of a rift and trooped out.

The board then stayed silent until news of his injury trickled out on Tuesday.

Did the Indian board, hoping that Sehwag recovered quickly for an injury sustained in the IPL, want to keep it under wraps?

If India had openly taken an injured player, it would have complicated things if Sehwag didn't recover and the defending champions had approached the ICC to permit a replacement.

Wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik is taking his place in the squad but how badly will Sehwag's absence affect the team?

His explosive batting would have provided the early momentum while his off-spin would have been useful as captains have turned to slow bowlers to deny batsmen the pace needed to slog boundaries.

The Delhi Daredevils IPL team captain has a cool head on his shoulders which would have been handy for Dhoni if games in the later stages had built up to frenzied finishes.

For now, talented youngster Rohit Sharma appears to be easing into Sehwag's shoes as the opening partner for Gautam Gambhir.

In the end, should Sehwag -- with two test triple hundreds as an opener -- have spoken at all about his desire to bat down the order so close to the tournament?

And should the Indian team management have come out in the open about Sehwag's injury to avoid speculation?

PHOTO: Virender Sehwag of the Delhi Daredevils hits the winning runS against Kings XI Punjab in their 2009 Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 cricket tournament match in Cape Town, April 19, 2009. Behind is Kings XI Punjab's Kumar Sangakkara. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

In an ideal world Twenty20, cricket's newest and shortest format, should be hailed as the perfect way forward for a game still played by barely 10 teams at the highest level.

The World Twenty20 which begins in England on Friday is expected to draw huge crowds and television audiences, pointing to the galloping popularity of the three-hour game, the sporting equivalent of a Hollywood action flick rather than the Bollywood drama of a five-day test.

Twenty20 is drawing new and younger audiences, at stadiums and in living rooms in front of TV sets. Last year, it triggered the Indian Premier League (IPL), the multi-million dollar franchise event with players from many countries which resembles other major professional sports like soccer and NBA.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) says it is pleased to own three versions, the 50-over game being the other, but betrays nervousness that Twenty20 could gobble up the other two in the near future.

The ICC has said it wants Twenty20 to be played more at the domestic level. Its CEO Haroon Lorgat said last week it would keep a tight leash on T20 on the international stage.

Some fret that upcoming players could soon lose the skill and temperament essential to even survive five-day tests.

So should fans laud Twenty20 or worry about what cricket could lose in the long term?

Many other games such as tennis, table tennis and volleyball have all benefited after being tweaked for the sake of TV, gaining more exposure and endorsements.

Twenty20 also appears the best bet for cricket to reach America. The ICC has even asked U.S. cricket officials to start a tournament on the lines of IPL to counter an unauthorised American Premier League planned to launch soon.

The short game is throwing up many new players, quashing the initial argument that unless one had the skill honed in the longer version, the player may not survive the latest slam-bang format.

Will Twenty20 change the world cricketing order in the near future? Will test and one-day cricket bow to it? It's unlclear how long will we have to wait for a definitive answer.

PHOTO: England's Ravi Bopara (R) and West Indies' Denesh Ramdin during the ICC World Twenty20 warm-up at Lord's in London June 3, 2009. REUTERS/Philip Brown

A billion fans in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka -- all test nations -- have used the game of cricket as a balm for their myriad problems.

That myth was exploded on Tuesday after gunmen wounded six Sri Lankan players after firing heavy weapons as their team bus wound its way towards the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore to start the third day's play in the second test.

While the players apparently escaped without serious injuries, at least eight Pakistanis lost their lives and a local umpire was critically wounded.

Cricket will never be the same again in the region.

Sri Lanka's tour had itself come in the shadow of violence after the Indian government, its bilateral relations with its neighbour nosediving after the deadly November militant attacks in Mumbai, refused permission for its team to tour Pakistan in January-February.

The island team stepped into the breach, with Pakistan desperate for test cricket and money, having gone over a year without five-day games.

Former skipper Inzamam-ul Haq betrayed the helplessness of cricket administrators in Pakistan, unable to believe that militants, to draw global attention, could have targeted their favourite game.

"Such an attack on a sub-continent team means other teams will simply refuse to come," he told a television channel.

Inzamam's comments showed the realisation that the attackers had wiped out cricket's healing touch in one go. 

Even at the peak of the ethnic strife in Sri Lanka, cricket teams or even media covering matches never felt threatened, although bombs have gone off in capital Colombo leaving teams such as New Zealand and South Africa shaken and abandoning their tours.

Players have never been targets and many were confident the kind of deadly attacks on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics would never be repeated.

So has the attack finally dashed Pakistan's hopes of staying on as a joint-host of the 2011 World Cup alongside India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka?

Pakistan seemed to nurse hopes even when the International Cricket Council (ICC) postponed the Champions Trophy last year with five of the eight teams set to boycott due to security fears. They then shifted the second most important one-day event in February out of Pakistan.

Although the influential Indian cricket board has largely stood by their Pakistan counterparts, attacks such as the one in Mumbai and Lahore have meant governments and security experts of the ICC have taken charge.

With teams such as Australia, New Zealand and England already refusing to travel to Pakistan, will the attack be the last straw for sub-continent teams in the years to come?

It looks like Pakistan cricket is set for a long winter.

PHOTO: Sri Lankan cricket team members prepare to board a Pakistani military helicopter at the Gaddafi stadium after the shooting in Lahore March 3, 2009. REUTERS/Syed Mujtaba

For a slideshow of photos on the shooting, please click here.

Indian tennis is enjoying a wonderful run with three strong performances underlining the quality of their young players.
 
First it was the refreshingly energetic Somdev Devvarman who raced to the final of the Chennai Open, raising big hopes for India with their stalwarts Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes into their mid 30s.
 
Then 16-year-old Yuki Bhambri belied his lean frame but underlined his top ranking to claim the Australian Open boys' singles title.

The Delhi boy is aiming to move on to the men's circuit at the earliest, showing the understanding that the professional tour is where one needs to establish oneself.
 
Sania Mirza then claimed her first senior grand slam title, winning the mixed doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi, which gave him his 11th grand slam title win.
 
For Mirza, the title will be really sweet, coming as she is after a frustrating period due to a wrist injury.
 
The performances by the trio shows the potential Indian tennis has as it looks into the future.
 
But is India capable of building a strong line-up and then a steady stream of players who can back up the main national stars?

The militant attacks in Mumbai have shaken, saddened and angered people across the world, not just in India. It has thrown up so many issues which go way beyond winning and losing as seen on a sports field.

The Indian cricket board have worked hard to resurrect action on the field by persuading England to agree to return to complete a two-test series, offering all support to allay fears of their players for their safety.

The Indian media have been busy reporting the aftermath of the attacks and there has been furious debate in the British media whether it is proper for the England players to return to India this soon.

Whether sports should go on in turbulent times has been debated for ages. At the 1972 Munich Games, Olympics chiefs decided the show would go on despite Palestinian gunmen killing 11 Israeli athletes and officials.

Cricket teams are refusing to travel to Pakistan because of security concerns by teams in the wake of many suicide bombings.

Some even doubt whether the sub-continent can hold the 2011 World Cup.

Should cricket go on in India in the middle of the latest crisis? Can Indians turn their minds to their first love?

Last week’s Singapore Open triumph once again revealed Jeev Milkha Singh’s talent, temperament and burning desire to excel.

Singh kept his cool in the final few holes despite major winners Padraig Harrington of Ireland and South African Ernie Els breathing down his neck, both one good putt away from forcing
a playoff.

Title number three for the year came despite requiring the physio’s attention for a stiff neck and back. The pain did not stop him from becoming the first million-dollar man in a single season in the fast-growing Asian Tour. This has virtually made sure he will top the money list for a second time, after claiming the 2006 Order of Merit.

Singh, regarded as the pioneer among India’s professional golfers, finished tied ninth in this year’s U.S. PGA Championship on an Oakland Hills Country Club, Michigan course dubbed  “The Monster” by Ben Hogan.

A huge achievement for Indian golf, it was drowned in the celebrations that followed the success of another Chandigarh sportsman. Shooter Abhinav Bindra it was, who won India’s
first individual Olympic gold medal within hours of Singh’s excellent finish.

Into the top 50 in the world ranking, Singh is expected to figure in all four majors next year.

Will 2009 be the year when India's own Singh emulates his Fijian namesake Vijay Singh by bagging a Major?

Has the meltdown begun for Australia’s triumphant cricket team? That is the big question. It was not just India handing them a record 320-run defeat, the match also showed up a flat Australian team who were well behind from start to finish.

Australia are suffering much more by the retirements of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist than they would admit. Their replacements have come nowhere near making an impact on the game.

Their leading batsman Matthew Hayden has repeatedly failed and express paceman Brett Lee was so bad he was not given a bowl an entire session in the Indian second innings in Mohali.

Australia’s meticulous planning has also been called into question.

Their batsmen fell to the swing bowling of Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma while their bowlers have struggled to find any movement.

Captain Ricky Ponting admitted his team were outplayed in Mohali and was confident the number one test team would bounce back. A week’s break is expected to help the tourists pick up the pieces but will they really be a force in the Delhi test starting on Oct. 29?

India are favourites to win the Delhi test and clinch the series.

Is this Australian side capable of finding the answers?

Abhinav Bindra's first-ever individual Olympic gold medal for India has showed his countrymen they can now on dare to succeed at the greatest sporting stage.

His victory in the 10m air rifle after a tense finish on Monday spoke volumes about his composure and has given his team mates the confidence they can go on and claim more medals in Beijing to shake off the unwanted tag as a "one-medal" nation.

While Bindra's success is being toasted as a great sporting moment in India, it will also go a long way to help prove the country is much more than a cricketing nation.
His triumph ironically came on a day when the cricketers slumped to an eight-wicket defeat in Colombo, handing hosts Sri Lanka a 2-1 series victory following another batting debacle.

So, will Bindra's effort inspire cricket-mad Indians to look beyond cricket and push them to excel in other sports?

Overnight leading golfer Jeev Milkha Singh, in superb form this season, almost did the unthinkable after he finished in the top 10 of a major when he tied for ninth in the USPGA championship.

Much needs to be done in terms of sports administration and infrastructure, but have the seeds of future success beyond the cricketing fields been sown?