The constant drone of cheap and tuneless plastic horns is killing the atmosphere at the World Cup.

Where are the loud choruses of “Oooohhsss” from enthralled crowds when a shot scorches just wide of the goalpost? And the sharp communal intake of breath, the shrill “Aaahhhhss,” when a goalkeeper makes an acrobatic, match-winning save? Or the humorous/moving/offensive football chants and songs?  Mostly, they’re being drowned out by the unrelenting water-torture beehive hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm of South African vuvuzela trumpets. Damn them. They are stripping World Cup 2010 of football’s aural artistry.  Vuvuzela apologists – a few more weeks of this brainless white noise will perhaps change, or melt, their minds – defend the din as simply part of the South African experience. Each country to its own, they say. When in Rome, blah, blah, blah.  Which would be fine if this was purely a South African competition. Fans could then legitimately hoot away to their hearts’ content while annoying no one other than their immediate neighbors.  But this is the World Cup, a celebration of the 32 nations that qualified and of all the others that did not but which still play and love the game. Hosting planet football brings responsibilities. At the very least, South Africa should ensure that the hundreds of millions of visitors who come in goodwill to its door, both in person and via the magic of television, do not go home with a migraine. How many TV viewers who long for a more nuanced soundtrack to go with the show have already concluded that the only way to enjoy this World Cup is by pressing mute on their remote?  In Tweeting “No offense to the vuvuzela posse but, man, it’s a bit much,” seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong was not alone.  Attending or watching a match should be a feast for both the eyes and the ears. Those two senses work better together, each augmenting the other.  Sounds should ebb and flow like tides with the fortunes on the field. That adds to the drama. Fans reacting with their voices to action on the pitch, to events in the stadium and to each other’s sounds, songs and chants are part of football’s theater.  A sudden crowd silence can also tell a story – perhaps of the heartbreak of a late, defeat-inflicting goal or of the collective shock of seeing a player horribly injured by a bad tackle. Sometimes, you should even be able to hear a coach bark orders from the touchline or players shouting at each other for the ball.  There are stadium sounds other than vuvuzelas at this World Cup – just not enough of them. They are being bullied into submission by the trumpets’ never-ending screech.  In Rustenburg there were scattered unison chants of “In-ger-land, In-ger-land,” a few bars of “God Save the Queen” and the occasional “USA! USA!” when England played the United States on Saturday night. But vuvuzelas ultimately won the battle of the bands. They and the result – a disappointing 1-1 tie – silenced England’s fans, who usually are among the best-drilled noisemakers in football.  More→

Just like that, the Kansas City Wizards became one of the best-supported soccer clubs not only in MLS but the world over.

With a single transaction — the formal signing of India’s star soccer player, Sunil Chhetri, in March — the Wizards gained the firmest of footholds in the second-most populous country on the globe. The club’s Facebook page is now red-hot and media requests have poured in at all hours of the night.

Chhetri’s native country is known more for spicy food and computer technicians than for exporting soccer players — and despite numbering an estimated 1.1 billion citizens, India has only 20 Olympic medals to its name, the lowest count per capita in the world. Nevertheless, the 25-year-old Indian forward is a Kansas City Wizard.

But the signing of Chhetri, lest you be fooled, was anything but a marketing ploy. A team lacking in attacking fortitude, highlighted by Kei Kamara’s circus miss against the Los Angeles Galaxy two weeks ago — which made the foreign press — has designs on Chhetri’s prolific ways.  Unlike many of his countrymen, Chhetri has a pedigree in the sport. His mother played for the Nepal national team with her twin sister before she was married at 18 and had to quit. His father, also Nepalese, played in the Indian army. More→

 Wenlock & Mandeville

Carlo Ancelotti, in his first season as manager of the English Premier League’s Chelsea, guided the soccer club to the title Sunday with an 8-0 win over Wigan, a match in which Didier Drogba, above, scored three goals. Mr. Ancelotti had never worked outside of Italy, and his English was initially rudimentary, but the London club, despite failing to invest heavily in the summer, delivered its first league title since 2006, scoring an incredible 103 goals along the way. And, next weekend, Chelsea has a chance to win the F.A. Cup as well, as unheralded Portsmouth awaits in the final. Across Europe, plenty of managers with new clubs saw success this season. Of the 20 managers who finished first or second in the top 10 European leagues, no fewer than 13 were in their first season in charge. More→

Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi believes that the third season of T20 cricket extravagenza would generate revenue of $ 1 billion.

Modi is happy the way fans are following the league which is attracting a large number of advertisers across the world.

“The tournament is still on and we have not reached the final number… Yes, it will be more than a billion dollar (about Rs 4,700 crore) this season … last season we did USD 450 dollar.

Modi feels that as long as the fans keep coming to IPL, the league’s brand value would increase and hence the revenue.

Revenue for Sony, the official broadcaster, alone would be about Rs 700 crore to Rs 800 crore, he said brushing aside the criticism that the advertising rates for the IPL’s third season were very high.

“There may be some advertisers who feel that way but there are lot many others who are willing to join us,” he said pointing out that the huge success of the tournament in terms of TV viewership would certainly entice the advertisers.

“There is no other sporting event across the world generating more eyeballs than the IPL,” he said, adding that the league was virtually in every part of the world through either broadcasters of through the Internet – via YouTube.

Asked about an independent brand consultancy valuing Brand IPL at at USD 4.13 billion, more than double from last year, Modi said that it was not done by the organisation and “it is indeed valuation given to us by outsiders.”

Brand Finance, which came out with IPL brand’s latest valuation, said that the brand alone has risen significantly, providing tremendous economic value to its owner – BCCI.

It said this demonstrates the exponential value of IPL and the Brand potential in a cricket loving country like India and other global cricketing countries. Although the English Premier League is valued much higher at USD 12 billion, the IPL’s valuation has risen above USD four billion in just three years, Brand Finance pointed out.

In terms of brand value or valuation there could be bigger sports club in the West but most of those have negative cash flow, Modi said and pointed out that the English Premier League, though it commands a very high brand value, was facing a USD 800 million deficit.

“Here, we are talking about cash flow and it is growing to grow in future at IPL,” he said, while detailing the dynamics of financing of IPL franchises.

Modi said that the IPL teams had no load on them and “we are providing infrastructure and stadium free of cost.”

Asked about predictions that IPL could not sustain, Modi retorted: “Let them (cynics) say anything. I know the numbers. I know the game. I have delivered. We will continue to deliver.”

The success of IPL hinged on the capacity to draw huge crowds, a fact that need not be proven again and again, he said, adding that other factors included that teams were equally placed in terms of finances and capacity to buy the players.

“The level playing field between the teams would make the event more interesting,” he said and added that another factor for the success was that the revenue would be proportionate to the number of matches that are played.

This season there are 60 matches and the number would go to 90 by next year and, therefore, the revenue would increase on a pro-rata basis, he said.

To see Lalit checkin out Zinta see More→

Force India’s point-scoring spree continued unabated as Adrian Sutil drove a flawless race, keeping 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton at bay, for a fifth place finish to earn 10 invaluable points from Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

Teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi, who scored points in both the previous races this season, was less fortunate as the Italian retired on lap 12 with a suspected throttle problem.

Indian Formula One driver Karun Chandhok finished the race 15th, ahead of Hispania teammate Bruno Senna.

Sebastian Vettel won the race and it was a Red Bull one-two with Mark Webber following him to the chequered flag.

After failing to score point in the first two races this year, Sutil started the race fourth on the grid and drove a faultless race to open his account.

Force India chairman Vijay Mallya said ideally both the cars should have scored points but he had no complaints.

“Three races and three times in the points, I am absolutely delighted,” Mallya said.

“Adrian had a strong race, keeping a cool head under pressure when a charging Lewis Hamilton was right on his tail. Once again we’ve proved the pace of our car and our ability to really mix it in the midfield. It was disappointing not to have two cars in the points, but it is overall very positive that we can race hard and score points entirely on merit,” he added.

Sutil, on his part, said he was happy to stave off pal Hamilton’s challenge to finish fifth.

“The race was exciting and fifth place in the end was a great achievement.

“It was always very close with Lewis just behind in the closing stages but I knew that if I didn’t make any mistakes I wouldn’t have any problems, so it was just trying to concentrate,” he said.

“I had to push, of course, but it was under control. I think we can now carry this forward to China. We are still a good top 10 competitor and we need to continue like this – Q3 and a few points each race would be great at this stage in the season,” added the German.

Meanwhile, Karun was pleased having finished the second race on the trot.

“I am very, very happy to have finished my second race today after our difficult debut in Bahrain,” Karun said.

“I kept out of trouble and pitted on lap 17. On lap 45, I had a tricky moment, passing Jarno Trulli’s Lotus. A great thank to the team who did a fantastic job. To finish was very difficult today but I am happy to have done it,” said the Chennai lad.

When the new Formula-1 season gets underway in Manama/Bahrain (12-14 March 2010), it will mark the debut of the most spectacular and powerful Official F1TM Safety Car of all time. The job of the new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, which will be launched on 27 March 2010, is to ensure maximum safety in Formula 1. The “gullwing” model replaces the SL 63 AMG, which was used as the Official F1TM Safety Car in 2008 and 2009. As in the last two years, the C 63 AMG Estate will be used as the Official F1TM Medical Car for the coming season. For 14 years AMG has continuously provided the Official F1TM Safety Car and the Official F1TM Medical Car in the top flight of international motorsport.

At a Thai restaurant in Islamabad, after the first day’s play in the final Test in 2004, Rahul Dravid politely declined to stay for dessert, saying he needed to sleep because he had to bat the “whole day tomorrow”. Not early, not in the morning; the whole day.

It led to a few involuntary sniggers at the dinner table, but Dravid had chosen his words carefully. Ten not out overnight, he was unbeaten on 134 when stumps were drawn the following evening. And then, for good measure, he batted almost the whole of the next day as well, finishing on a career-best 270. It wasn’t the most attractive knock, and not nearly his most fluent — in fact, at 12 hours and 20 minutes it was the longest innings by an Indian player ever — but Dravid had ensured, almost single-handedly, that India won their first Test series in Pakistan. More→

Designed by Hermann Tilke, the architect behind many of the recent grand prix circuits, including in neighboring Bahrain, the Yas Marina Circuit is 3.4 miles long and has 21 turns. “It looks like it will be quite a demanding circuit for the drivers as there are over 20 corners in the lap — and some of them look very challenging,” said the Renault driver Fernando Alonso earlier in the week. Alonso and the other drivers got their first on-track taste of Yas Marina during practice this morning.

BBC Sport has a great 3-D animation of Yas Marina Circuit here.