The batting record that isn't

Geoff Allot was a mighty fine left-arm swing bowler, but he owns a strange world record.

The former New Zealander holds the record for the longest time taken to score a duck in first class cricket – 77 balls and 101 minutes against South Africa in 1999.

After Darryl Cullinan's 275 took South Africa to 621, the Kiwis were a were a wicket away from a 300-run deficit when last-man Allot joined Chris Harris.

The two batted a little over 27 overs for 32 runs. The Wisden Almanac noted:

"It was the best duck I'll ever make" said Allott. The sparse crowd gave more generous applause to his non-batting than to Cullinan's patient accumulation.

Allot's career was cut short by injuries. He finished with 102 First Class wickets, and a mere 105 runs.

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The serve that killed a linesman

It's a footnote that Stefan Edberg's illustrious career could have done without.

At the Boy’s Singles Final of the 1983 US Open, linesman Richard Wertheim was hit in the groin by a serve from eventual champion Edberg. Wertheim toppled backward, hitting his head on the court. He died in the hospital five days later of a subdural hematoma.

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The Blue Yonder

Chelsea, after their 2-1 win over Manchester United (on 26th April 2008) are undefeated in 81 league matches at home since Arsenal beat them 2-1 in February 2004.

Their only other defeat since then, apart from a penalty shootout loss to Charlton Athletic in a League Cup match, was to Barcelona in the Champions League in February 2006.

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Boris Becker and the Stern cover

German tennis star Boris Becker is no stranger to controversy.

In 1993, he and his would-be wife, model/actress Barbara Feltus, shocked the Germans by posing nude for the cover of Stern magazine, as a protest against racism. The picture was taken by an African-American photographer Harlan Feltus, who happened to be the latter's father.

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Of cats and mice

Simon Barnes of The Times writes in his book The Meaning of Sport, writes on the relationship between athletes and sports writers:

Clive Woodward, when head coach of the England rugby team, onc told the assembled journos at a press conference: 'I have the greatest respect for what you do.' The response was an instance, instinctive belly-laugh, as spontaneous as the Redgrave round of applause. It's like mice saying they have the greatest respect for cats, or stomachs speaking of their admiration for nematode worms.

But not because they are prey and we are predators; or that they are hosts and we are parasites. It is because we are completely different life forms. We look for different things in life: we define our lives in different ways. There is almost no common ground at all. We certainly don't have sport in common. For the two groups, sport is a very different thing. Sport is our subject, sport is their object.

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The run and the riot

Sachin Tendulkar's run out in the 1999 Eden Gardens Test must rank as one of the most phenomenally unlucky dismissals ever.

Here's how heavily the odds were against the run out:

1) The fielder threw the ball from near the ropes. A direct hit from the midwicket boundary — usually the longest in the field — is rare.

2) The fielder had just one stump to aim at. To cover that distance and hit the stumps? Nearly impossible.

3) What are the odds, now that the ball is about to hit the stumps, that Tendulkar would also bump into a fielder? Less than one in a million.

When you add up these three factors, you'd see just how unlucky Tendulkar was. Not Pakistan, though. They were on a roll and went on to win the Test.

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