take the courses, no matter how fraudulent they were, how c

Ravindra Jadeja seems as relatable a cricketer as there has ever been. Skills wise.His left-arm spin has the mystery of a novel with the ending on the front cover, and his batting is hidden under a secret flap in the coaching manual so no professional will ever find it. Jadeja could have been you or me. It may well be this thought that spurs the critics. What is so special about this fellow that he is playing for India?Jadeja punched Chris Woakes, Englands fastest bowler, through cover for his first boundary in Mohali on Monday. Think about what happens when we play that shot against our buddies trundling in at 50kph.Still, the fact that he is paid to play the sport at the highest level demands a bit more scrutiny than those doing it to avoid homework. And for a man who has three first-class triple-centuries, the kind of shot-a-ball batting he has indulged in all his career has been jarring. In those moments, he was worse than you or me. We wouldnt waste opportunities like that.In Indias first innings at Mohali, Jadeja faced the most balls he has ever done in a Test. He top-scored for India for the first time ever. He fell 10 short of a hundred his team-mates would have so cherished.Two months ago, Virat Kohli delayed his declaration in the second innings against New Zealand in Kanpur so Jadeja would get a fifty. Indias captain insisted his allrounder perform the Rajputana sword dance and only then walk off the field. On Monday, the celebration was prefaced with a look to the heavens and a clenching of his fist and it ended with the bat coming up towards his face in a salaam. The first part of this routine was for himself. The flamboyance and gratitude was for his friends.This wasnt like Lords in 2014, when Jadeja had come out with nothing to lose and everything to gain. Here, India had been coasting, then they lost three wickets for eight runs. Considering they had to bat last, they needed to score as many runs as they could now.That meant Jadeja had to behave like a proper batsman. He had to see off the good balls. Heck, he even had to tackle the (second) new ball. He was at the crease for 60 overs, weathering bouncers, standing up to reverse swing, putting on the Tests biggest partnership with R Ashwin and giving India an invaluable lead. It was international crickets glimpse into the Jadeja that his domestic team Saurashtra have always known.The stance is simple. There is no premeditated movement. He allows himself a tucking of the right shoulder under his chin and then he is ready. In this innings, unlike previous times when he has looked appropriate to his position of No. 8, he played the ball late and trusted that if he lasted long enough he would get the runs his side needed. His 90 off 170 balls was as good an innings by an India lower-order batsman as there has ever been.Having realised that, England went to Plan B and tried drying up the runs with a 7-2 off-side field. There was a gully, two short covers and a mid-off in a straight line pointing to the sightscreen behind Jadeja. All of them turned in unison to watch a spanking on-drive for four. He found a tiny gap off a cut shot, between gully and point; then produced an encore of the on-drive and finally wrapped the over up with a down-the-track whack through vacant midwicket. The Code of Conduct doesnt allow a batsman to walk up and laugh in the oppositions face. Trust Jadeja to find the loophole.It was an overs worth of fun for ages and ages of restraint, indulged only after India had pulled ahead of England by 80 runs. That is how he thinks: team first. He can bowl endlessly if asked. He fields like few Indians ever have. Hes learning to bat better. Wonder what would happen if he is tasked to make sure Mohali has a full house for Test matches.Jadeja could have been you or me. His idea of a romantic date is a candlelit dinner in Paris. Weve had those same fantasies. He has a lot of experience with, ahem, colourful advice coming to him from all sides whilst bowling. Same as us in gully cricket. We can bowl a good-length ball too. Just that he can bowl it for overs at a time. We can dance down and hit over the top too. He does it knowing the vilification that awaits a mistake. We can be Jadeja, if only we can put in the years and years of hard work he has. Discount Ducks Jerseys . Sgt. Eric ONeal says most of the arrests at Monday nights game were for public drunkenness, though one person was taken into custody on suspicion of trying to steal a seat from the stadium. Jakob Silfverberg Jersey . Klitschkos management company says the bout will be the Ukrainian fighters 25th world championship fight. 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Lets be clear up front: North Carolinas response to the NCAAs notice of allegations is a little arrogant, a little elitist and, well, a lot right.The school is essentially saying that, yes, the courses in the African-American Studies department were a sham. And yes, a disproportionate number of athletes took those sham courses. But, the school counters, the NCAA shouldnt be able to charge the school with lack of institutional control or failure to monitor for two reasons:Its not the NCAAs businessSitting next to the scores of mens and womens basketball players and football players were everyday students.To the casual reader it is downright laughable. What else does the NCAA have to do other than to maintain academic integrity among its athletes? And since when is the retort, well everyone else was doing it, too a good defense?As ridiculous as the argument sounds, theyve got a point.In what is arguably the biggest case, in both scope and the brand name of the school being investigated, to fall on its enforcement staffs desk in decades, the NCAA may very well have a difficult time landing its two most serious charges. For that, it has no one to blame but itself and a thick rulebook that intentionally glosses over academic integrity.The NCAA membership worked long and hard studying and trying to decide what should and shouldnt be a bylaw, what is and is not within the manual, athletic director Bubba Cunningham said. The quality of the class, we understand and have said for some time didnt meet our normal standards, but that doesnt mean its a violation of a bylaw.There are two issues at play here.First up: What exactly is the NCAAs job? From the organizations own mission statement:Our purpose is to govern competition in a fair, safe, equitable and sportsmanlike manner, and to integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education so that the educational experience of the student-athlete is paramount.The key words are to govern competition. Nowhere does it say that the NCAA has a say so in the governance of or determining the merits of an institutions academic courses. In fact, the same organization that somehow has deemed itself worthy to determine if thousands of high schools meet their standards for initial eligibility is purposefully standoffish when it comes to telling colleges and universities what is and is not up to snuff.Once an athlete is enrolled in school, the NCAA monitors whether he or she is making the proper progress toward graduation -- i.e., taking enough, and passing enough, courses; makingg sure that student athletes are graduating at a proper rate.dddddddddddd If not, the NCAA penalizes schools.But it does not -- nor does it want -- to police whether the courses athletes are taking are worth a fig. Its the NCAAs version of a separation of church and state.Weve got sports; you get class.The organization, in fact, hasnt created a by-law regarding academic integrity since 1983.For many, many years we have had presidents on the council and faculty athletic representatives on the council and each and every time when theyve looked at what the role of the NCAA is relative to academics they stay out of it, Cunningham said. They dont want the NCAA in the classroom. ... We work with our accrediting agency for academic issues. The NCAA Is our athletic agency. They each have different jurisdictional responsibilities.The second problem for the NCAA? The number of regular Joes and Janes who took the same courses as the athletes did. The NCAA tried to point to the paper classes as an impermissible benefit, a gift given to athletes to help them along because of their stature as big men and women on campus. Critics naturally and logically argue that if the academic support staff steered athletes to these courses they were, in fact, receiving an extra benefit.But UNC is asking, if everyone on campus was given the same chance to take the courses, no matter how fraudulent they were, how can it be construed as a benefit given only to athletes?The simple answer: It cant.The NCAA knows it cant, which is why in April the organization announced new rules regarding academic misconduct. Schools now must adhere to strict academic integrity policies. A violation of those policies now will equate to an NCAA violation. Heres the kicker from the NCAAs own press release:Additionally the proposal recognizes schools cant predict every type of academic integrity issue that could occur. Therefore, some misconduct committed by staff members or boosters that doesnt violate a schools academic misconduct policies may still violate NCAA rules.In other words, well know it when we see it.Surely under those rules, North Carolina wouldnt have passed the smell test.In adjudicating UNCs case, the rules are too little too late, enacted after the NCAA began its investigation.Instead the school is allowed to make what, by all accounts, is a nervy, illogical and downright laughable defense.And it just might work. ' ' '