If you pay any attention to the U.S.-based National Hot Rod Association — better known as the NHRA — you know the name of an Emirati. Which puts you ahead of most of the planet’s people.

That guy who drives one of the two Top Fuel cars for Al Anabi Racing? Khaled Al Balooshi?

An Emirati. A UAE citizen. Born in Dubai. Still calls it home. Even if, for the past two years, Al Balooshi has spent large chunks of time putting the pedal to the metal for the Qatar-backed Al Anabi team.

You may know Al Balooshi’s name … because he’s pretty good.

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Mexico fans are probably gloating a little. El Tri is representing North America at the Confederations Cup, the quadrennial continental championships, in Brazil, a nice little tournament that doubles as a test run for the host country a year ahead of the World Cup.

Four years ago, it was the U.S. national soccer team at the Confederations Cup, in South Africa, which turned out to generate the greatest week-or-so of elation ever known by U.S. fans. That would be halftime of the championship game, when the Yanks held a 2-0 lead over Brazil. After having shocked Spain 2-0 in the semis, ending their 35-game unbeaten international run. After having beaten Egypt 3-0 in the last group game to slip into the semis.

For the 15 minutes of halftime (U.S. 2, Brazil 0!), in the championship game, Americans fans were allowed to dream that the U.S. soccer program had somehow leap-frogged to rank with one of the top dozen teams in the world. And then Brazil came back to win 3-2.

Still, a great moment. (And if you want to read my running commentary on the game, from four years ago, here it is in all its glory.)

It seems, however, as if this 2013 Confederations Cup thing may not work out as well for Mexico.

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I have held my tongue for more than 3.5 years. I have been working in the UAE for all that time, and have been immersed in cricket throughout, and I am now ready to say it.

Cricket is failed baseball.

Baseball’s origins probably were in the British games of cricket and rounders, and all three games features a pitched ball and someone attempting to hit it with a stick … but baseball’s founders made something interesting of their game. Four bases, nine innings, batting orders, a game every day.

Cricket practitioners could have followed the same path to improvements and modifications of their bat-and-ball sport … but then it just didn’t happen. The notions of making it interesting, livelier … just sputtered out, overpowered by “tradition” and inertia. And now they are stuck with the dullest major sport in the world. A game not even cricket fans will go to see. (Count the fans in the stands sometime; no serious sport has been played in as many empty venues as has cricket, and it’s not close. Cricket writers marvel when a few thousand fans turn out.)

Cricket is a sport that makes baseball look like high-speed madness. Compared to cricket, baseball is like soccer — a nonstop, don’t-turn-away cavalcade of action.

Baseball has seventh-inning stretches. Cricket has lunch and tea; both last a lot longer than the singing of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”.

What has pushed me over the top, after 3.5 years, is the current Champions Trophy competition, in England.

These are the eight best cricket teams in the world in the “quick” one-day format (”quick” is six hours, minimum), and it’s a mess, as these things often are.

Some of the problems:

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Random thought, while watching clocks tick into the 7:00 range, and watching 707 and 727, etc., go past:

What variety of plane have I flown most often?

At first, I thought it might be close, with at least three contenders.

Upon further review … I’m pretty sure it isn’t close, and I imagine it isn’t for most Americans.

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If you follow global soccer, you know this is not an unusual story.

Nigeria’s national team today refused to leave its hotel in Namibia because the Nigeria soccer federation had not paid the players the money they were promised for recent successes in international games.

How is this possible?

Because the Nigeria federation is broke or corrupt — and possibly both. Like lots of the world’s federations and clubs.

Players not getting paid is endemic in Africa, but it happens in many places around the world. Asia, for example. Even here in the UAE, where some clubs have been months in arrears in paying players. (Though all were eventually paid.)

Even in Spain, where some clubs are in economic crisis, some money came late in recent seasons.

And this ticks me off.

Federations, in particular, should not make promises to players they cannot or will not keep. Lies and deceit in the hope that players will compete even harder than they normally would, and then when they achieve a result — for country and federation — no follow-through. It is exploitative. It is a lie. It is evil.

So, how did Nigeria’s players deal with this?

Fortunately for them, they had some real leverage.

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What is the U.S. perception of Pakistan? Not particularly good, it seems safe to say. In theory, an ally of the U.S., but a very shabby ally. Apparently, Osama bin Laden hid out in Pakistan for much of the period when he was hunted by the U.S. military, and was in Pakistan when he finally was killed in Abbottabad. The west and north of the country have more than a few Taliban sympathizers.

Big picture, Pakistan is a mess. The assassination of someone important generally seems imminent. The country is always a couple of bad weeks from a coup.  Always about one incident away from mobilizing against India.

But then there is cricket. A sport which is as avidly followed in Pakistan as it is in India or anywhere else, as a story in The National today would seem to suggest.

The occasion?

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Jordan is a rising sports nation. No, really.

It is a country with lots of difficulties. Not much water, not much money, unstable/warlike neighbors all around them, refugees flooding the country every couple of years.

But Jordan can play a few games, now. Some of it may be related to the 2010 election to the IOC of Prince Faisal of Jordan; he has become a fairly prominent force in the Olympic movement, and certainly in the region.

Anyway, Jordan is now decent in basketball — arguably the second-best team in Asia, after China — and getting better in soccer. To the point that today they had a chance to move into a the top two in the final group phase of Asia qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, and the top two go to Brazil.

It did not turn out well.

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Architecture, another topic way outside my areas of expertise. But it doesn’t take deep understanding of the field to note the trends in Dubai, City of Skyscrapers.

The newest has come on line, and whatever its official name (which is in flux), it certainly will be known as the “twisted tower”.

Why that name?

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It was a couple of years ago now. I was covering a golf tournament, here in the UAE, and I was talking to the English mother of an Emirati golfer. The kid’s father, the woman’s husband, was an Emirati.

We got to talking about languages, while watching her son play. And she said: “Arabic is going to be one of the most important languages in the world soon.” (Presumably because of all the oil money in the Gulf.)

And I said: “I don’t think so. Arabic may not matter much at all.”

Two years later, I am more convinced of that than ever, and we are beginning to see some evidence that Arabic may be in decline, and perhaps in some trouble.

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As a Dodgers fan since Vin Scully was a young man and the club was still playing in the Coliseum, I have been paying attention from afar to the first week of Yasiel Puig.

My appetite for information on him is whetted by his presence (since March) on my fantasy team … a guy I left a roster spot for even when he was in Double-A.

A few observations about the Dodgers’ outfielder:

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