The beautiful game, for you Muamba

I exist at the heart of the parochial, divided, club-driven world of football.
I would rather watch Manchester United play Barcelona, than India play any cricket final.
That is the kind of passion football can exert.
However, even I have been moved by the uniting of the oft-divided world of football fans and players behind Fabrice Muamba – the Bolton player who suffered a heart attack on the pitch and is still in critical condition.
From Manchester to Madrid, the unity in show of support for Muamba, a small-time player, is the reason why football is called the beautiful game.

Fixed!

In the week Rahul Dravid retired, The Sunday Times reminded us all that we are fooling ourselves if we believe cricket to be free of match-fixing.
Worse still, India is at the heart of the fixing.
The most revealing story came from Victor Chandler, one of the biggest bookmakers in the world.
In an interview with The Guardian, he said his company does not take big bets on cricket matches. “We know they know more than us,” he said.
I stopped following cricket when the match-fixing scandal first broke to claim Azharuddin and taint Kapil Dev.
I stand vindicated.