Have all the best teams in the world qualified for Fifa’s quadrennial showpiece? No, if one goes by the ranking table of the world football governing body. Notable absentees include Croatia (ranked 9), Russia (11) and Egypt (13). Norway, Israel, Ukraine, Romania and the Czech Republic are the other teams that have failed to

The second biggest sporting show of the universe after the Olympic Games — the football World Cup — will kick off at Johannesburg’s futuristic Soccer City Stadium on June 11.

The Viswanathan Anand juggernaut keeps rolling. His opponents have run out of ideas. The phone at his parents’ residence works overtime and the door gets a knock every half-an-hour. Journalists are in search of new superlatives. This man must be Sergei Bubka in disguise, as he keeps raising the bar.