New Delhi, Aug. 8 -- July sweats and bleeds and vomits into August.

In Toulouse, during the Tour de France, Jonas Abrahamsen, who starts the race 10 days after fracturing his collarbone, wins a stage. In Singapore, in a draining heat, 10km open water swimmers at the world aquatics championships are handed mid-race feeds and then regurgitate part of this gruel into the water. "It's not pretty," says Australian swimmer Moesha Johnson.

Yet they go and on and on, just like Mohammed Siraj charging in at the Oval, cheeky, grinning, prickly, transparent, and finally everyone can see who he really is, a study in endeavour, a bearded foot soldier who gives weight to all those words you tried to teach your kid. Unswerving. Wholehearted. Unstintin...