Not cricket!

Die-hard cricket lovers, getting bored by the lull between the Sri Lanka series and the forthcoming Australian one, may be disappointed with this post. Because there is not much in it about cricket.

There are several other sports in which Indians have been excelling of late - not just at home but across the world.

It started with Abhinav Bindra's shooting gold at the Beijing Olympics.  What followed on his arrival back to India exemplified the old phrase 'from the sublime to the ridiculous'. People who didn't have the foggiest about what particular event brought Abhinav his gold medal, started falling over each other trying to garland him and announce cash rewards!

Sania Nehwal had also performed well in the Beijing Olympics but had succumbed in the quarters. Her win at a badminton tournament in Taipei should come as a moral booster (her subsequent first round loss in Japan notwithstanding).

Young Pankaj Advani won the World Billiards championship at Bangalore with a victory over the formidable Geet Sethi in the quarters. Pankaj has also qualified to participate in the upcoming World Snooker Championship at Austria.

Then came the announcement of the Rest of India cricket team for the Irani trophy, and notable for their absence were Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly. While the media went to town announcing the end of the road for Sourav, a namesake - Saurav Ghoshal caused ripples in the squash world by winning a tournament in France after beating a higher ranked opponent in the final. The reason Saurav Ghoshal had entered the tournament was because he had never been to France before and wanted to see the country! Hope he continues to bring glory to India.

Last, but not the least, is the evergreen Leander Paes, who won the Mixed Doubles title with Cara Black at the US Open tennis - his 8th grand slam doubles title.

There is a common thread in all the five champions - they participate in non-contact sports. My theory about this is that Indian parents do not like to risk injuries for their children lest it interfere with academics.

Even though Vijay Kumar and Suresh Kumar got bronze medals at Beijing in boxing and wrestling, the track record of Indians in contact sports is dismal. A FIFA ranking of 151 in football and non-existent ranking in basketball are cases in point.