Blog Posts by Prem Panicker

He walks to the top of his mark and stands there, the ball a whirring blur as he tosses it from his bowling hand to his left.

He surveys his field and with shouted word and eloquent gesture repositions them, moving them around in incremental inches until he gets them just so, with all the precision of a master of the geometry of bowling, one who knows exactly what he is going to bowl and precisely how the batsman will react to that delivery.

A pause, and then his arms swing back, like those of a swimmer launching into a back-stroke; he bounces through his brief run-up and swings into his delivery stride. The images are synonymous with 'effort' — the blurred swing of bowling arm and impossible rotation of the wrist; the mouth opened wide in a rictus of effort and the impossibly bulging eyes as they follow the trajectory of the ball he has just released; the eyes narrowing as they track the batsman's response; the mouth forming smiles that speak volumes — a wry smile when the

Ever kicked a football, even for fun? If yes, how would you like to sprain your ankle, perhaps even cause lasting damage to the delicate bones of the foot, kicking the specimen pictured here [Courtesy soccerballworld.com] — especially after the leather has gotten a good soaking thanks to rain, and attained the weight and general consistency of cast iron?

This New York Times slideshow is indicative of how much thought and effort has gone into the development of the ball down the years, culminating in today's Jabulani — a design marvel that reduces the number of 3D panels from 14 to eight, thus reducing the number of seams and increasing the striking surface while adding the Aero Grooves technology to improve the ball's aerodynamics to help improve accuracy.

Or take the boot: When un-fancied Germany upset the Magical Magyars, the two-time unofficial world champion Hungarian side, in the 1954 World Cup final, one of the side stories related to the special boots the Germans used.

There is only one Pele, one Maradona, and there can be only one Messi! The first two names are synonymous with legends, but Messi has still got a lot to prove to join the list of all-time greats. He is a legend in the making. Today, as Messi turns a year older and a lot dearer, expectations go higher. Barca's super kid's birthday coincides with the World Cup and if Argentina wins the World Cup, there couldn't be a better birthday gift for him. Sadly, Argentina's star player hasn't netted a goal yet; still, Messi fans around the world have faith in him. Though he hasn't able to score so far, Messi made some great assists in Argentina's matches against S Korea and Greece. In the match against Greece, we saw Messi glide past the defenders towards Palermo who was there at the right moment to net the ball as Messi's shot rebounded after touching the bar.

Fame is a boon and a curse the same time. Off  the field, it earns you stardom. But even stardom comes with its own share of

Wimbledon, the most famous tennis championship, may see Swiss tennis star Roger Federer lift his record seventh title after a tiring outing at the Roland Garros (and a scary opening match at Wimbledon). While Fedex is determined to net his seventh, Oxfam is eyeing the 100,000 pounds that comes with it.

In 2003, Nicholas Newlife from Kidlington staked 1,520-pounds with odds of 66/1 for Federer to win seven Wimbledon titles before 2020. Roger has already won six Wimbledon titles, and a seventh will see the bet produce a payout of 101,840 pounds for Oxfam.

Newlife died in February 2009 leaving the entire estate to Oxfam, which included the outcomes of the series of outstanding bets he had placed with William Hill between 2000 and 2005.

Legendary Pete Sampras has already suggested that Roger Federer could win 10 Wimbledon titles and going by his strong desire, the prediction cannot be termed unrealistic and many 'Nicholases' can afford to place bigger bets.

The Swiss player has

The story goes back to when I was very young. Thirty days after I was born, my parents took me to the ancestral home in Calicut, and there I stayed in the care of my grandparents till age eight. That was when my parents figured I was old enough to not be a 'nuisance', a burden to two professionals whose minds were set on developing their respective careers. And so I was taken away from the care of my grandparents, and began living with my parents in Madras.

Neither mom nor dad had much time for me — both worked crazy hours and when they did get home, they were more intent on catching up with each other. Their interaction was largely restricted to pro forma inquiries about my schoolwork, a pat on the head and an exhortation to 'run along and play' — a parental edict I was only too happy to comply with. We are talking seventies here: a time when life was a lot less complicated. We didn't have psychologists prosing on about how childhood neglect would produce warped adults;

Sport comes to us in boxes — the perimeters of our TV screens or the boundary lines of fields and courts. As much as I enjoy what goes on inside those boxes, I've always had the urge to bust out of them. I've always had the feeling that the most compelling and significant story was the one occurring beyond the game — before it, after it, above it or under it, deep in the furnace of the psyche. Conventional journalism couldn't always carry me up to those rafters or down to those boiler rooms, so I had to break out of a few of my own little boxes as well.

That quote is from Gary Smith, one of my favorite sports writers of all time [a previous post, with some great samples of his writing, here]. And that is what I keep looking for in the sports books I read — stories that are anchored in the sport in question, but ones that still manage to 'bust out of' those boxes, to look above, before, beyond; to probe the 'furnace of the psyche'.

If there is one commonality between the books listed

[Joga Bonito, the beautiful game, showcases not merely great soccer but also some fine, at times compelling, writing. This post brings together a random collection of the best on the web -- and for many of these links, I am indebted to Twitter friends Supriya Nair, Gobbeldyspook, Bedathur, Kripesh, Siva KG, Nipen Mody, RK, Ant Sims, Ashish Chandorkar, Subhac, Sunny, Chigateri, Shom Biswas and others. If you are not following these people, do -- good sources for stories, information, insight et al].

#1. An often rehashed story, especially when the World Cup rolls around, is of how India almost — almost — made it to the World Cup once, only to be stymied because, poor us, we played barefoot and the organizers mandated boots on feet. A related story is of how we almost — almost — made it to the World Cup, but were, woe is us, stymied by our own poverty, and didn't play in the global arena because we couldn't afford the fares and related expenses.

In a story titled Barefoot in

Besides live coverage of various sports, ESPN also has segments devoted to extreme sports — and in my book, none is more 'extreme' than the annual Scripps Howard Spelling Bee. [This year's live coverage is hosted by Chris Harrison; besides on TV, you can follow the simulcast live on ESPN's website and also through the Scripps Twitter feed here].

Precocious kids learning dictionaries-full of words they will likely never again use in their lifetime was not my idea of spectator sport. I'd watched the live telecast in 2003 — but that was work. I was in New York at the time, and working for India Abroad, a newspaper owned and operated by Rediff. The paper was focused on the daily doings, the triumphs and occasional tragedies of Indian Americans; the Bee that year, as in fact has been the norm every year through the 2000s, was packed with kids from the community, so I watched as part of our coverage.

Sai Gunturi of Dallas, Texas, won the title that year, making it two in a row as