Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 8:30 | Scott Lucas in EA Iran, EA USA, Middle East and Iran, Music and Culture 
How to explain Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's personal involvement in Iranian football to the State Department in a meaningful way? How to get across how sports and politics can link controversial men from Tehran to New York?
A man named George Steinbrenner.
;)
On Monday the English cricket team played Pakistan in a one-day international at Lords, the spiritual home of the game. Not all was gentlemanly in the sport of gentlemen, however: a verbal and physical scuffle was sparked when an England player allegedly asked a Pakistani opponent how much he hoped to make from illegal betting on the game.
The incident escalated an already-tense situation. Three Pakistani players had been withdrawn from the tour of England after claims that "no-balls" had been bowled to pay off on large "spot bets". The chairman of Pakistan cricket subsequently claimed that English players had deliberately lost a game, escalating a scandal over match-fixing that threatens to tarnish the sport.
