Mohammed Ali's death - In my younger days, Ali was a hero to me. But later, when I started reading more and more about him, my thoughts changed. I felt he was a great fighter alright, but his image was built around marketing himself, a la M S Subbulakshmi. Maybe we have to give him credit for showing the world that sportsmen could be marketed as a Brand. Ali was perhaps the first true Marketing Brand.
Dunga being Sacked as Brazil Coach - Dunga was a World Cup winning Captain, and a solid defender, but frankly he is not the right Coach for Brazil. He is dour, defensive minded and packs his side with defensive mid fielders. True, he doesn't have the talent some of his predecessors had, but that is not an excuse. He was a failure first time around, and he is a failure now. I still wonder why Brazil is not looking at Zico as an option.
Dhoni's pig headedness - The whole purpose of taking a second string team to Zimbabwe was to test the bench strength, and Zimbabwe has been underwhelming to say the least. But what is baffling is Dhoni being adamant in retaining the same team for all the three ODIs, with the exception of Fazal replacing Karun Nair for the final ODI, and refusing to change the batting order to give Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhan a go in the second ODI. The pace bowling trio of Bumrah, Sran and Dhawal has delivered in the first 2 ODI. At least one or two of them could have been rested for the final match. Likewise Rahul has had two good knocks. His place could have been given to another reserve batsman. Frankly, it is time for Dhoni to step down from the Captaincy of ODI and T20 teams.
Indian Cricket Coach Selection - At last Anurag Thankur is doing something right by inviting applications for the post of Indian Cricket Coach in a transparent manner. Even he must have been surprised at the number of applicants. Sad to see Dravid not applying, but I presume he is more keen to work with U-19 boys, which is not a bad idea. Also, he might be waiting for Dhoni to retire, having played under him. Kumble throwing his hat into the ring is a welcome surprise, and I do tend to back him than either Shastri or Sandeep Patil
Euro 2016 - The first round of group matches were quite exciting. Lot of attacking football which is a welcome change, as Europeans tend to play a bit dourly as a rule. It was fun to see little Island pricking the vanity of Ronaldo, an A1 self centred egotist if any. Germany looked good, and so did Croatia. Italy was technically superb. Things will get more lively in the subsequent rounds.
