An ICC Champions Trophy tournament that alternatively sparked, squelched and shivered ended on a brilliant high, India beating England by five runs in a thrilling home-from-home final at Edgbaston reduced to 20 overs by almost satirical amounts of summer rain. Brilliant captaincy by MS Dhoni on a turning pitch made the difference. Dhoni, who still doesn't really seem to be trying that hard, has now won every prize cricket has to offer. Elsewhere headlines were made by Kevin Pietersen (of course) with a hundred (of course) against Yorkshire on his return in time for the Ashes (of course). The England dressing room might be less of a pushover. Australia continued their own well-oiled Ashes preparations by sacking their coach Mickey Arthur on the eve of the series while captain Michael Clarke resigned his selector's role. Ex-batsman Darren Lehmann, formerly Australia A's coach, has been promoted to the senior job.
Not so beautiful game
Sun, sea, samba – and civil unrest. As dress rehearsals go, Brazil's Confederations Cup veered at times towards the distinctly ragged last week, as a million people took to the streets in São Paolo, Rio and Recife to protest against the expense of staging the World Cup. There was at least a little beautiful game to go with it, albeit most of it came from Spain, who beat the amateurs of Tahiti 10-0 en route to topping their group. Away from the chaos and acrimony of Brazil, it was a big week for the chaos and acrimony of Newcastle United, where 66-year-old Joe Kinnear has returned, to widespread confusion (much of it his own) as director of football.
Round and round at Le Mans
In driving around a lot news Allan McNish won a third Le Mans 24 title, steering his Audi home through 348 laps at La Sarthe, a feat of circumnavigation to rank alongside the most tearful attempt to escape the Birmingham ring road. "It was a perfect run from start to finish and you don't get many of those at Le Mans," McNish said afterwards. There was also sadness at La Sarthe: Danish driver Allan Simonsen died on the Saturday after a fatal crash.
Out of the blocks
The fast men are coming: in Iowa, Tyson Gay ran the quickest 100m of the year to win the US trials ahead of August's World Championships, beating Justin Gatlin by a relatively huge 0.14 of a second. Meanwhile Usain Bolt ran a pedestrian-looking 9.94 seconds in Kingston, the 35th sub-10-second run of his career. "I'm not too worried about the time," Bolt said afterwards, reassuring anybody out there who might have got the impression he was capable of worrying about things.
