If you had given India any chance to win the Champions Trophy when the tournament began a little over three weeks back you deserve an award for prescience and impeccable crystal gazing.

Two weeks into the Champions Trophy and India look easily the best side in the tournament. This does not mean that the title is guaranteed. Indeed even a place in the final has still to be earned.

In England for the Champions Trophy for the past 10 days I have been relieved of the carpet-bombing that continues in the Indian media about the spot-fixing scam.

Undoubtedly the two best teams in this year’s IPL will contest the final at the Eden Gardens. But in the context of all that has transpired over the past 10-12 days in which the murky underbelly of cricket in India has been exposed, this is now of academic interest.

It can’t be a pleasant experience for BCCI president N. Srinivasan to be rudely yanked out of his holiday in Kodaikanal and confronted with a spot-fixing scandal that has sullied not only the name of the board but also the country.

It’s been a high-octane IPL this year, what with six teams still jostling for placings in the points table. Only four, of course, qualify for the play-offs, so the next few days should be exciting.

There can be no light if there is no darkness but — as at the start of the year — too many dark thoughts and controversies have surrounded Indian cricket in the last few weeks of 2012 as the team was unexpectedly pushed on to the back foot by a determined England team led by the marvellous Alastair Cook.

The late 1990s, diligent followers of cricket will remember, was a turbulent period in the sport. Murmurs of match-fixing and betting, which had always been around, gathered momentum till it erupted i

Saina Nehwal’s splendid victory in the Denmark Open marks her out as perhaps the country’s outstanding sportsperson this year.

Apart from the bronze at the London Olympics, this was her fourth title

Sachin Tendulkar’s lack of runs — more pertinently the manner in which he has been dismissed — has been the talking point of this series. Is this just a blip or something more far-reaching is the moot