Llorne Howell Sports blogger www.irg.co.nz

Cricket is front page news here as one would expect. The Royal Challengers Bangalore has just made the semis for the Champions League, so India is pleased about that. I think they expected all three teams to make the semis.

What is noticeable is the standard of the fielding, fitness and running between wickets of the Aussie, Sth African and NZ sides. Our level of training seems to be on a higher level, or simply the players work harder.
In the Times of India on Saturday I read an article which said cricket conditioning is moving to a new level due to T20. This was from a physical trainer for one of the IPL sides. He explained how they trained. He said it is no longer long slow laps of a field for fitness, but power and speed work.
Having been at the NZ Cricket Academy in 1995 I can say we were doing this elementary training even then and way before that. I was submerged in a spa pool to ascertain my fat levels - which were too high.
Result, straight to the dietician. Result. Wine, or spirits with soda, and absolutely no beer, more vegetables. more fibre etc etc ...
With Canterbury in the early 90s Terry Lomax coached us on sprint techniques and we used boxing trainers to try and increase foot speed. Of course we were also doing all the standard conditioning training leading into the season. So you can see how far ahead NZ was at that stage.
The other news gaining massive publicity is the Commonwealth Games debacle.
This is just a very common example of corruption in Indian politics. It is a real shame for the hard working Indians who have no connection at all to this super elite. The actions of the politicians unfortunately reflect on all Indians which is not really their fault.
How does it work? Huge deals are done where a certain amount of money will be spent on the games or related projects.
Who gets the projects? Do American, Aussie or NZ sport and construction firms with a proven history of good work and completing projects on time get a sniff? No, the deals are done behind closed doors and the friends of friends get the contracts.
As such, mistakes and timing issues due to inexperienced management happen. For instance, parts of the Delhi metro fell down due to sub standard concrete. The footbridge to the huge CWG stadium collapsed. It is okay though - the minister in charge said of the footbridge: "the bridge is only for spectators and not for athletes".
Who does the quality control? No-one it seems.
But the rich here get richer while the normal hard working Indian gets a very little slice of the pie.
As for security here, an Aussie cameraman walked into a games venue with a suitcase full of bomb equipment. The comment was that they expected the terrorism to come from brown faces not white!
We have had tangible threats in Mumbai recently. In fact, an important Australian official told us at a NZ, Aussie, Indian business meeting that it would be unwise to locate oneself in any area with large groups of people until the threat is dealt with. Considering there is a Ganesh festival on, that was good information. During Ganesh, copies of elephants are built and thrown into the sea. Thousands watch on the beaches. This is where the threat was supposed to come from, terrorists from the sea. Needless to say I did not attend Ganesh at the beach.