NEWS » India point of view - the BCCI admitted

The 17th-ranked Purdue basketball team will attempt to win its third November tournament in the past eight seasons Wednesday night when the Boilermakers face Auburn in the Cancun Challenge championship game.And if coach Matt Painters team wins, the Boilermakers will have beaten a Southeastern Conference opponent in each of those three events title games.Purdue (3-1) defeated Tennessee in the 2009 Paradise Jam in The Virgin Islands when current Auburn coach Bruce Pearl was coaching the Volunteers. The 2015 Boilermakers defeated Florida in the Hall of Fame Tipoff title game in Connecticut.Now, Painter will attempt to get the best of Pearl again after Auburn defeated Texas Tech 67-65 in Tuesdays first semifinal, and Purdue pulled away from Utah State, 85-64.Boilermaker center Isaac Haas scored a career-best 26 points against Utah State, guard Dakota Mathias added a career-best 25 on 9 of 10 field goal shooting and power forward Caleb Swanigan had 15 points.Dakota had a great night, and Isaac was just as good on the interior, taking his time, Painter said. A lot of people who have some size arent used to doubling. When they go and double, its tough for them when they get there late. Trouble happens.Against Utah State, Isaac did a good job of waiting and taking his time. I thought Caleb did, too. Both of those guys really had a good night Tuesday.Painter is hoping to get just as much perimeter help from Mathias against Auburn as he got against Utah State.The more you can make other teams pay -- getting them in foul trouble, playing against their backup bigs -- and then being able to step up and hit some 3s will really help us set our defense more, Painter said.The more consistent we can get on the offensive end, they constantly are going to be going against a set defense, which is what you want.Mathias said Haas and Swanigan help create open shots for Purdues perimeter players.They are so good when they get doubled or triple-teamed, being able to pass out of it, Mathias said. I think especially Isaac has improved.When teams double our big men, weve got guys on the perimeter who can move around the horn and make shots. That is tough to guard.Auburn improved to 4-0 for the second time in the last 10 years. In Mustapha Heron and Danjel Purifoy, the Tigers had two freshmen reach double figures in each of their first four games for the first time since Scott Pohlmam during the 1997-98 season.Beating Texas Tech was a great win for our program and a great win for our kids, Pearl said. Texas Tech is an NCAA caliber team. I thought we stopped guarding in the second half, but hey, I would rather learn and win than learn and lose.While Pearl starts three freshman and two sophomores, he is happy to have fifth-year graduate student point guard Ronnie Johnson, who was Purdues starting point guard as a freshman and sophomore before transferring to Houston to play for Kelvin Sampson.After earning an undergraduate degree in the spring, Johnson opted to move again -- this time to Auburn.Swell Flaske Liberty . -- Jimmy Walkers first PGA Tour trophy came with a special gift tucked inside. Swell Flaske . There are some early surprises in the race for the Hart Trophy, but two of the contenders are the leagues biggest stars over the past decade. There are many more players in contention for the awards than just the three that Ive named, and a good or bad week can easily alter the landscape, but through the first 20 or so games of the NHL season, this is how the awards races look to me. http://www.swellflaskenorge.com/swell-flaske-marmor.html . Calgary scored on the first shift, and Michael Cammalleri scored twice as the Flames cruised to a 5-2 win over the Washington Capitals on Saturday. Swell Flaske Norge .com) - The Pittsburgh Penguins placed forward James Neal on injured reserve Tuesday. Swell Flaske Marmor . Tests earlier this week revealed a Grade 2 left hamstring strain for Sabathia, who was hurt in last Fridays start against San Francisco. Its an injury that will require about eight weeks to heal. He finished a disappointing campaign just 14-13 with a career-worst 4.When the time comes to look back on James Andersons career - and that time might not be so far away - the options for highlights packages will be plentiful.There have been many magical spells and memorable matches. There was the dream debut, the impeccable performance in Kolkata (2012), the first ten-for (against Pakistan at Trent Bridge in 2010) and the unplayable spells against Sri Lanka earlier this year. And thats before any mention of the numerous Ashes-defining performances, such as the destruction of Edgbaston 2015, the determination of Nottingham 2013 and the relentlessness of Melbourne and Adelaide in 2010.But maybe it was a far less-heralded spell that typifies Anderson. A spell that left him with one of the great unwanted records in cricket.In December 2013, England reached Perth with their grip on the Ashes hanging by a thread. While Anderson - and his fellow seamers - had bowled admirably in the first innings of both the previous two Tests, Englands batsmen had been blown away by Mitchell Johnson and their fielders had failed to hold on to a succession of crucial chances. As a result, Anderson et al had been forced into the field again without the rest required for full recovery.By the time the Adelaide Test was at its halfway stage, it had become clear that the pillars of the best England side in living memory were crumbling. Broken in body or mind, they looked dispirited and disunited. Australia had something special in Johnson and England, their tools worn out, knew they were beaten.It was hot that week in Perth. Hell, its hot every week in Perth, but that week was ferociously, absurdly, breathlessly hot. In the press box - actually a tent that might have been designed as an effective method of torture (or an oven) - laptops had to be placed in the fridge as they overheated and at least one person fainted. If the Fremantle Doctor exists, he wasnt taking calls.Out in the middle, Anderson was trying to pick up the slack left by his colleagues. Through no fault of his own, Stuart Broad was off the field - and on crutches - having sustained a blow on the foot while batting. Graeme Swann had just been thrashed for 22 in an over - his last over in international cricket, as it transpired - and was coming to the conclusion that all his guile and experience could no longer conceal the fact that his exhausted elbow no longer allowed him to gain the dip and turn he once could. Tim Bresnan, for all his goodwill and efforts, was not the bowler he had been in 2010-11 - elbow operations do that to a bowler - and Ben Stokes was, at that stage, an unsophisticated batting allrounder. So Alastair Cook turned to his old friend Anderson. Anderson had opened the bowling for England that fourth morning. Just as he had bowled the final over on the third evening. After a couple of fruitless overs, Cook took him out of the firing line, knowing that he was too precious to use in such a hopeless cause. Australias lead was already around 450. The game had gone; the Ashes were going with it.But then Swann was thrashed for 22 in that over, Stokes was taken for 9 and the new ball became available. Where else could Cook turn? His strike bowler had become his stock bowler and was then required to be a strike bowler again. As ESPNcricinfo noted, Anderson was the sports car used to transport scaffolding. By the end of the series, he had bowled more overs than any other bowler.His reward? He was thrashed for 28 in an over by George Bailey. Thats the same George Bailey whom Anderson had famously clashed with in the Brisbane Test. George Bailey who, while at short-leg, had been having a few words with Anderson as he prepared to face Johnson, whereupon Anderson mentioned that a fellow in his fiirst Test might like to pipe down and earn the right to an opinion.ddddddddddddMichael Clarke, supporting his team-mate, strode in and told Anderson to prepare for a broken f****** arm. There are no rights and wrongs in there; its just history and context. Being smashed around like this by Bailey was adding insult to injury. No bowler has conceded more from an over in Test history.Its not much of a reward for answering his captains call, is it? Its not much of a reward for his fitness, his commitment, his loyalty to his captain and team. He deserved better. But as Clint Eastwood put it, deserve has nothing to do with it.Some see it as Andersons most heroic performance; some his lowest ebb. Theres no reason it cant be both.Perhaps there are similarities with his early arrival in India? Thats not to say this is a mission destined to fail. Not at all. History has taught us better than that.The point is more that, as in Perth, this is an episode that demonstrates Andersons remarkable character. It is an episode that demonstrates his unstinting desire to represent his country, to help his old friend Cook, and his competitive streak.Some bowlers, looking at the India line-up and the pitches they can expect to find, would look at this tour, exhale and wonder if their injury might not have been rather well timed. They might not malinger, but they certainly wouldnt push the recovery process as far as Anderson has. They would make sure they are fully recovered and look to return on the early summer surfaces of England, on which Anderson is still peerless. They wouldnt send videos of themselves bowling to the coaches to prove their fitness. They wouldnt arrive on tour three Tests before the medics originally said they would. They wouldnt push themselves in the gym, at his age and with his reputation, to go on a tour where he seemingly has so much to lose and so little to gain.Anderson has nothing to prove in India. He was magnificent in 2012. Series-defining good.But he was 30 then and hes 34 now. The window between injuries seems to be closing. The pace seems to be diminishing. The spirit is willing, but the body? The sword outwears its sheath; the soul outwears the breast. He found little swing in 2012 but hit the pitch hard enough to gain just enough seam movement to trouble the batsmen. Can he still do that?There is context here, too. India are spoiling to take Anderson down. The incident with Ravi Jadeja at Trent Bridge in 2014 was never satisfactorily resolved from an India point of view - the BCCI admitted at the time they saw their attempt to have Anderson banned as a service to world cricket - and they are passionately motivated to repay the trouble he has given them on the pitch and the abuse they allege he has given them both on and off it.But Anderson doesnt fear that. Instead, he seems to relish the battle. He is desperate to throw himself into a series where the ball wont swing, there wont be any pace and when his own powers would appear to be on the wane. He is as hungry to represent England as he was as a teenager; determined to go the extra mile and risk his personal reputation for the good of the team.You can see why Cook wants him. He knows that, whatever the match situation, he will have someone prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder with him. He knows that, however bad things are, he can rely on Anderson. When times are tough, these things matter.Whatever happens in the next few weeks - and it seems as if Anderson is going to have to wait until the third Test, at least, before he wins a recall - its hard not to admire Jimmy Anderson. ' ' '