Have Alec and Darren no stomach for a fight?

INDIA was once the nightmare cricket 小旅行する.

Fielders pleaded to be 駅／配置するd at third man or 罰金 脚 in 前線 of the pavilion so they could reach the lavatory in Olympic sprint time.

Players and 圧力（をかける） were 問題／発行するd daily with blockage pills but they had no chance against wily Indian stomach bugs. Delhi Belly thus entered the 実験（する） cricketer's vocabulary. To clean one's teeth with tap water was to 招待する quick and excruciating death.

Checking into one of India's 首相 hotels, we were 迎える／歓迎するd by a ネズミ running unimpeded from 歓迎会 to the dining room.

The only way to 反対する embarrassing incontinence was to 固執する to a 厳しい diet of 気が狂って, 冷淡な hardboiled eggs and Scotch whisky 得るd from the British High （売買）手数料，委託（する）／委員会／権限 at a subsidised price; nothing, in short, which had been 扱うd 地元で.

True, this led to constipation and 時折の intoxication but I can proudly （人命などを）奪う，主張する never to have fallen ill during the England cricket 小旅行する of India in 1964. 明白に, the English players could not 存在する on such a stark menu and were so stricken by 死傷者s that they （機の）カム to the 圧力（をかける） box to 新採用する one of our number as a 代用品，人 to field for England. As I 解任する it, Henry Blofeld and the late Crawford White almost （機の）カム to blows over who would scoop the other for their 各々の newspapers.

But that, I repeat, was in 1964. I have been to India twice in the past two years. No ネズミs, no stomach spasms, no problems at all if you stay in the hotel chains which English cricket can now afford.

Yes, there is still abject poverty beyond the doorstep but the rumour that you can still be drained to death by dysentery is 名誉き損，中傷. No longer do you have to 小衝突 your teeth with soda water.

You can use the bathroom tap.

I 令状 this in 悲しみ because two English cricketers I hugely admire, Alec Stewart and Darren Gough, have blankly 辞退するd to go there. I find that やめる astonishing.

明確に, it is s imple for me to 令状 that from the 慰安 of a London home, with my kids off my 手渡すs. Stewart and Gough have young families whom they occasionally want to see. But so have 兵士s, oil-riggers in the Arab 明言する／公表するs, 外交官s, foreign 特派員s, MI6 秘かに調査するs, explorers, merchant seamen and itinerant concert violinists.

Of course they are tired. Who wouldn't be after 直面するing the Australian juggernaut through this Ashes summer? But they have a short 残り／休憩（する） ahead of them, they are young men in careers which many of us would almost have died for.

They are also obvious 愛国者s.

They are colossal players. Their 拒絶 to go to India 心から disappoints me.

What price glory, what price gold? Not all it's 割れ目d up to be, によれば the 壊れやすい 明言する／公表する of mind of Cathy Freeman.

Eleven months ago, to audiences of billions around the world, she lit the Olympic 炎上 in Sydney and then won the 400 metres gold for Australia and glory for her Aboriginal race. She was （海，煙などが）飲み込むd by idolatry and a 高潮，津波 of lucrative 商売／仕事 申し込む／申し出s. The world was at her feet.

Now she 自白するs: 'I am only 28 but I have days when I get really 負かす／撃墜する and feel lonely and 脅すd.

People put me on a pedestal. I am supposed to be this 堅い 競技者 but I get depressed and feel 不十分な.' There was a time when 広大な／多数の／重要な 競技者s - Britain's Sir Roger Bannister, Australia's John Landy - returned from the 跡をつける to 抱擁する careers in 薬／医学 or 商業.

They did not rely on スパイ／執行官s to 上げる their incomes, minus the usual 百分率s.

Cathy Freeman's personal esteem can hardly have been 解除するd when, after an inept 業績／成果 as an 分析家 at the World 運動競技のs 選手権s in Canada, she was 慎重に 孤立した from the BBC's commentary team.

Running is what she does best. I feel 深く，強烈に sorry for her in the celebrity world into which she has been thrust and 明確に cannot 対処する.

権利 or wrong, Martina is mad

SOME months ago, in an internet interview, the white porcelain-complexioned スイスの 知識人 tennis millionairess Martina Hingis （人命などを）奪う，主張するd that the ebony-skinned Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, were raking in inordinately lucrative advertising 契約s for the 単独の 推論する／理由 that they were 黒人／ボイコット.

Sponsors were afraid to 辞退する them, she opined, because they were 脅すd of 存在 （刑事）被告 of 人種差別主義 if they 辞退するd.

She may 井戸／弁護士席 be 権利.

But she was daft as a 小衝突 to say so if she 手配中の，お尋ね者 a serene passage to however far she gets in the U.S. Open.

The 発言／述べる was 選ぶd u p by a sharp - 注目する，もくろむd reporter on Time magazine, who put it in 冷淡な 貯蔵 until 炎ing it across the cover of his 広大な 循環／発行部数 出版（物） to 同時に起こる／一致する with the first day of the 選手権s.

Presto, tennis is forgotten.

圧力（をかける） 会議／協議会s are now 支配するd by Hingis' half-hearted 陳謝s, while the Williams sisters bash her around with scorching ボレーs. Yippee, chaps, we have a race war on our 手渡すs here.

This column has long lamented the ubiquitous sports 圧力（をかける） 会議／協議会.

Emotional, exhausted or just plain stupid professional games players blurt out the most amazing opinions when 直面するd by a microphone.

If Hingis is sure of her facts she should stand up and defend them. If not, this erratic young lady, who usually has something to bleat about, has only herself to 非難する for an uncomfortable trip.

Gary's an Ashes 最高潮の場面

TELEVISION presenters usually take the flak or get the glory, but let's hear it this time for 生産者 Gary Franses and his team of cameramen and 見通し mixers who have covered this summer's Ashes 実験（する） series with such distinction for Channel 4.

分裂（する）-second reaction to 最高潮の場面 moments, splitscreen comparisons with earlier 実験（する）s or even 世代s and fascinating 小型の-文書のs during 昼食 intervals 追加するd up to as 説得力のある and imaginative sports TV ニュース報道 as has ever been 審査するd.

Newspapers are not renowned for 称讃するing their TV 競争相手s - 公式文書，認める t he slavering relish with which inkies are 沈むing their teeth into the 壊滅的な 開始する，打ち上げる of ITV's new football programme but this column has no such curmudgeonly hang-ups.

Franses and Co were brilliant.

There were, of course, other 構成要素s, such as lead commentator Richie Benaud, now the Nostradamus of the game, and 示す Nicholas, the presenter who grows more beautiful by the day. But they've had enough adulation already.

This one's for the background men and women.