Sad for Shane, sad for Jonty, even sadder for us

Malcolm Grey, President of the ICC is aptly named. Facing the massive girth of Tony Greig, he looked particularly lugubrious, especially when talk turned to the ICC''s drug policy. "Shane Warne is a magnificent cricketer," Grey said greyly. "But he has this knack of getting into trouble."
Trouble, yes. What kind, no one was saying, beyond the fact that Warney had taken diuretics.No one asked which. Answer: hydrochlorothiazide and amiloride, in case you want to impress someone. No one asked why easily available formulation generally used to reduce weight should be on the ICC''s banned list at all. The answer, in case you want to impress again, is that they are often used as masking agents for other drugs. So Wonderful Warney may have been more guilty than it''s been let on.
Whatever the circumlocutions, it is a shame about Shane. Who didn''t look forward to watching this rather rotund, very overweight, but deeply cerebral bowler as he walked in (rather than ran in) to bowl? He is (was) the quintessential practioner of the spinner''s art, testing the batsman with each ball with variations of flight, length and turn. The leg break turned prodigiously, the googly often went unread and the flipper hurried through disconcertingly. Leg spinners before Warne — even the best ones — were regarded as wicket-takers, but expensive wicket-takers.
Warne changed all that to such an extent that even to a rampaging Sachin Tendulkar in a World Cup match in Mumbai''s Wankhade, he could bowl a maiden. He knew that at 33, this was his last World Cup, and he wanted to go out in style, perhaps repeating his last World Cup final feat of being named Man of the Match. Now he is just a couch potato, a bit like you and me.
There is another premature lament too for Jonty Rhodes, again so appropriately named. There have been other great fielders in past World Cups — and there are other great fielders in the present one too, but Jaunty Jonty is (was) a class apart. His ability to dive full stretch and stop a full-blooded square cut was distinguished by his ability to judge the bounce as he flung himself to his right or to his left (he favoured both sides).
The ball may have been scorching the earth, or bouncing high, but Jonty''s palm would wrap itself firmly round it, as if guided by a homing device. No wonder every batsman in the world froze, like a rabbit caught in car headlights, waiting to see if the ball (at least this once) was going to beat Jonty. It never did. Sad for Jonty, sad for Shane, even sadder for all of us.
The Sony Max Tarot card reader is an elegant lady with an equally elegant pack of cards. What did the cards say about the match between England and Pakistan? Pick a card for England, she said, and pick a card for Pakistan. Voila! England would try very hard to win this match. And Pakistan? Why Pakistan would try hard too! And what about Shoiab Akhtar? What did his card say? It said, she said, that he was really keen to do well.
Funny. I too have a pack of cards which tells the same tale. And it says so, for every team, for every player, for every game.