Its been a shameful last week for Indian cricket. If before this, the Indian Premier League (IPL) was looked at with a mix of scorn (for its absurdity) and awe (for its ability to generate cash), now sadly only the scorn and absurdity is left.

The revelations of spot-fixing and betting with high profile players and team owners being involved leaves a lot of fans in India heartbroken and leaves the world to point and say that they were right all along and the IPL is simply built around cronies and is for the commercial interests of an endowed few handpicked and chosen by those in power at the Boar of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the riches sporting body in the world. And the most corrupt and opaque. 

The media is having a field day. They can smell a witch-hunt faster than most. Every day we are bombarded by new revelations, new allegations and new debates on TV with anchors acting as judge, jury and executioner. Not that I am saying they are wrong, but India is becoming the centre for kangaroo courts and the media isn’t helping.

The BCCI cronies are on the back foot. Even their staunchest supporters, including their panel of former players - now commentators, are being forced to speak in terms of ‘wait and watch’ rather than dismiss any wrong-doing. Politicians are now involved, the ones not in on the BCCI’s corrupt action of course, saying that the IPL should be shutdown and the BCCI must be strongly regulated. By who? Them? I would rather not have that situation either.

The losers in this? The country, the sport and the fans. T20 cricket and perhaps Indian cricket will forever be linked with corruption, fixing and betting. The world knows that India can’t putting on a sporting event without it being corrupt (Commonwealth Games anyone?) and the fans will now view everything in the sport cynically (a lot already do). I don’t know if there is a way back here.

IPL is tainted. Its soiled and damaged. Beyond repair maybe. Unless there is major surgery, the brand and all its riches cannot be saved. That is sad. But more of this nonsense and the sport of cricket may well sink with it. And that would be even sadder.

6Cricket, Indian Premier League, BCCI, Betting, Spotfixing, CSK, Sreesanth,

Yahoo is buying Tumblr. $1.1 billion is the price. Nice deal for Tumblr but it does leave all us on using the service worried about what Yahoo will do with it. 

Honestly though, Yahoo are in such trouble at the moment, they would do well to use Tumblr as their main brand and rebrand the rest of the company like this blogging site.

Just lets not have any Yahoo-esque logo rebranding…

6Yahoo, Tumblr, Acquisition,

Ding Dong! Fergie is finally gone. And while everyone who supports a team other than Manchester United is still celebrating, I thought it would be interesting to give my perspective on his glittering career.

I am not a Man United fan. I am a Liverpool Fan. Lifelong. And so I do not like Alex Ferguson. I hate him. For twenty years I have seen him get the better of us (and mostly everyone else) and its not something I or any other Liverpool fan has enjoyed. He has indeed loved sticking the boot into us. Its not a secret that he arrived at United in 1986 wanting to ‘Knock Liverpool of their bloody perch’. Now I don’t necessarily agree he did, (I think we rather slid off it when Dalglish quit and Souness destroyed the boot room and bought some rather substandard rubbish) but he never let anyone climb back onto that perch when he ascended to the top.

Sure there were battles with Wenger, Mourinho, Benitez but Fergie pretty much obliterated everyone in sight. His record speaks for itself and the teams he built at United (6? 7?) were world-class. 26 years. Over a quarter of century. Its an amazing achievement to be a top flight manager for that much time and totally rebuild sides that win regularly so many times.

United have had the benefit of cash and Fergie has always delivered with it. Generally his track record of bringing in that one or two players has been excellent - from Keane to Cantona and from Ferdinand to Van Persie. He of course was backed by a brilliant academy system that produced a conveyor belt of English talent - Beckham, the Nevilles, Scholes, Giggs, Sharpe and all the way up to now with Welbeck and Cleverly. He has built a legacy at United. And it will take time for anyone to dismantle it.

Or will it? Moyes comes in now and for me its a clean slate from next season in the Premiership. United need to find their feet and Moyes will want to establish himself. Yes, the working parts are all there for him, but as we at Liverpool saw in 1991-92, things can go wrong pretty quickly. I doubt it. Moyes is a solid manager but the reason for my optimism is that he is not Fergie.

So I will finish as I started. I hated Alex Ferguson. He was a whiney, arrogant, bully that pushed the boundaries of sportsmanship and the rules to the limit. But those were not the biggest reason I hated him. I hated him because he was a single-minded, obsessive winner. And he managed THAT other club. Enjoy your retirement Fergie. You will always have my grudging respect.

6Manchester United, Alex Ferguson, Retirement, Football, English Premier League, Sports,

What’s more disgusting than another giant scam like Coalgate? Seeing Sajjan Kumar being acquitted in the 1984 riots case! Justice denied again to the victims of political atrocities in India. Just a disgrace.

Congress has no right to paint Narendra Modi and the BJP as their own leaders are coloured with same brush. This government cannot lose credibility. How can you lose something you have not had for about 3 years. Time to go. Time is up.

6India, Politics, Sajjan Kumar, 1984 Riots, Coalgate, Congress, UPA 2,

Go watch. Enjoy the best Iron Man of the series.

6Iron Man 3, Marvel, marvel cinematic universe, Movies, superheroes,