From "The Indian cricket team" to "Team India" !!

    There are 7 major dates which come to mind whenever I think of Indian cricket. These are just my favorite moments or the ones which impacted me and I believe Indian cricket the most.

June 25, 1983 –

    With odds of around 66:1 before the start of the world cup, India were the ultimate underdogs in the third edition of the worldcup. Kapil Dev lifted the worldcup in Lords, the home of cricket, to ground the mighty West Indies, who have not yet recovered from that. It was the day when a nation arouse from its slumber to embrace a sport which was considered as “goron walon ka khel” until then.

February 26, 2000 –

    Sourav Ganguly is named captain of the Indian team for the five-ODI home series against South Africa. India wins series 3-2. The appointment of Dada as captain was one of the biggest moments in Indian cricket. He turned around the fortunes of a team, which was reeling with senior-junior divide, had talented but directionless younsters, was too passive to look eye-to-eye with a opponent when sledged, was a mediocre team with a few outstanding players and had no team spirit. He brought about the change in half a decade instilling confidence in young stars and showing the team that matches are not won by individuals alone. It is under him that the team learnt to fear no opponent nor their bouncy tracks and most important of all, It is under him that India learnt the art of winning overseas.

April 7, 2000 –

    The day when match fixing allegations rocked cricket. Delhi police revealed that they had a recording of a conversation between Cronje and Sanjay Chawla, a bookie and what followed was opening of a closet filled with skeletons. Saleem Malik, Ata-ur-Rehman (both Pak), Mohammad Azharuddin, Ajay Sharma, Manoj Prabhakar, Ajay Jadeja(Indians), Hansie Cronje, Herschelle Gibbs, Pieter Strydom and Nicky Boje  (South Africans) were named. This almost led the cricket into a coma, but still knowing that the majority of the cricket stars were still clean, proved to be the medicine at the right time. I just cannot envisage the situation if Sachin was brought into the scandal. That would have killed cricket in India. Thankfully the clean cricketers saved the day and the sport lived to see another day.

March 15, 2001 –

    India v Australia at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. 1-0 down in the seris and to add to that, following-on after trailing by 274 in first innings of the second test, India went on to win by 171 runs with one of the best all time performances by a cricket team to beat the number one test team in the world, who were on an 16 match winning streak in Tests, with VVS laxman smashing 281, “The Wall” Dravid accumulating 180 and Bajji picking up 13 wickets which also included a hatrick. This was the point when the team announced itself to the world. It was the start of the golden age for Indian cricket. We finally went on to beat the Aussies 2-1 after being 1-0 down in the series.

September 14, 2007 –

    Winning several series overseas, but nothing big to show-off. We were what the Dutch was in football. Captain cool (some call him captain lucky stars.. :P) MS Dhoni lifted the inaugural T20 world cup in Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa by beating Pakistan by 5 runs in a thrilling finale which almost led to several heart attacks around India… 😛 This turned around the Indian adminstrators attitude towards T20, leading to the start of the glamorous IPL the next year.

December 06, 2009 –

    India becomes number 1 Test team for the first time by beating SriLanka in Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium and winning the 3 match test series 2-0. This was just a report card at the end of the year for what the team had achieved in a decade.

April 2, 2011 –

    The joy in the world increased by 20% on this day… Thats exactly the Indian population around the world… 🙂 Dhoni lifting the 10th edition of the worldcup by beating Srilanka at the Wankede, Mumbai after scripting memorable victories under the most extreme pressure situations against the now-not-so-mighty Aussies and a corner-me-and-i-fight-back Pakistan. A fairytale script fit for a Yash raj movie. The dream of a billion to lift the trophy after 28 years with a grandmaster in the final stages of the most outstanding career possible in cricketing terms. 

    It was not won on a single day. This journey began exactly 10 years go in Kolkotta under Sourav Ganguly and the team has reached the pinnacle under Dhoni in Mumbai. Due credit must be given to the coaches with John Wright starting the building of a dream, Greg Chappel derailing it & causing a nightmare and finally Gary Kristen accomplishing what they set out to achieve 10 years ago.

    This team has moved from the Passiveness of Sunny Gavaskar to the Passive-aggression of Sachin Tendulkar to the Devastating-aggression of Virender Sehwag. It plays along with the mood of the Indians accross the globe. A billion people have a belief and get a sense of achievement for what these 11 players do on a cricket ground. We have finally witnessed the change from “The Indian team” to “Team India” … 🙂

The basics of football – Part 2 – FIFA and The FIFA world-cup

    The first blog on “The basics of football” covered football on a layman’s perspective – “what is football?” . This blog moves to the operational side of football. That is, how the game is handled away from the pitch and the politics/administration that goes behind the scenes to run the game smoothly at international level.

    The most important international governing body in football is FIFA – Fédération Internationale de Football Association with headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland with 208 member associations from which one member is nominated to represent the country in FIFA Congress.

    FIFA recognizes 6 confederations to oversee the game across 6 different regions/zones. Each of these confederations in turn act as the administrative and controlling body for the member nations under it.

FIFA Confederations

AFC – Asian Football Confederation in Asia and Australia with headquarters in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and has 46 member countries

CAF – Confédération Africaine de Football in Africa with headquarters in 6 October City near Cairo, Egypt and has 53 full members

CONCACAF – Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football in North America and Central America with headquarters in New York City, United States and has 40 full members

CONMEBOL – Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol in South America with headquarters in Luque, Paraguay and has 10 full members

OFC – Oceania Football Confederation in Oceania with headquarters in Auckland, New Zealand and has 11 full members

UEFA – L’Union Européenne de Football Association in Europe with headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland and has 53 full members

 The Biggest sporting event in the world – The football world cup.

    FIFA is responsible for handling of the major football tournaments at world stage which includes the Men’s, boys and women’s World cups which are quadrennial events.

World Cup qualification

    208 member nations and 32 slots in the world cup – the number says it all. Based on the numbers and/or relative strength of the six confederations teams, FIFA decides beforehand the number of spots awarded to each of the continental zones. Tournaments are held by the six confederations to decide the qualification and the formats are different for each zone. Other than the hosts, who have a default qualification spot, every nation has to go through the qualification process irrespective of their position or rank in the world of football. Since the 2003 world cup, the number of slots allocated are as below:

1. Africa – 5
2. Asia – 3.5
3. Oceania – 0.5
4. Europe – 13
5. North and Central America and Caribbean – 3.5
6. South America – 4.5

Total = 31 + 1 host nation

0.5 indicates 1 team  gets selected through an intercontinental playoff.
1 berth for the winners of CONMEBOL-CONCACAF playoff and
1 berth for the winners of AFC-OFC playoff

Qualification in all zones ends during the September–November months of the year before the finals.

    India qualified for the 1950 world cup and were placed along side Italy, Paraguay and Sweden in group 3. We subsequently withdrew when FIFA imposed a rule banning barefoot play. I cannot believe the state at which Indian football was and still is.. 😦 

P.S: India had played barefoot at the 1948 Olympics…

World cup host

 

    Till 2002 world cup it was held alternatively in America or Europe. Then FIFA adopted a policy of rotation across the continents which led to controversies in the bidding of 2006 world cup. Since then , FIFA decided to no longer continue with their continental rotation policy. The newest host selection policy is that, any country may bid for a World Cup, provided that their continental confederation has not hosted either of the past two World Cups. The bidding process is done through an exhaustive voting system. The exhaustive voting system works when the executive committee is allowed a single vote on the bidding nations called as candidates. If no candidate gets an absolute majority then the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and the process is repeated until there is a clear majority on one candidate. The hosts for the next three worlds cup are:

2014 –  Brazil
2018 –  Russia and
2022 –  Qatar

World Cup Trophy

    The trophy is awarded to the winners of the FIFA world cup. Jules Rimet Trophy was used from 1930 to 1970. The Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen in 1983 and never recovered. The FIFA World Cup Trophy is being used from 1974 to the present day. The current trophy is made of 18 carat gold with a malachite base. It depicts two human figures holding up the Earth.  The country which wins the tournament has its name engraved in its national language along with the year in numbers in the bottom side of the trophy. Eg:”— 1994 Brasil”. At present 10 winners name is engraved and this can continue till the 2038 world cup.

Julius Rimet Trophy

The current FIFA world cup

FIFA Anthem

    Composed by the German composed by a German Franz Lambert, the FIFA anthem was adopted since the 1994 world cup. It is played before every FIFA sanctioned match i.e, the qualifiers, friendlies and all the world cup matches.

The FIFA world cup

    It is held over two stages:

1. The Preliminary or the group stage
2. The knock out stage

The Preliminary or the group stage:

    The initial grouping process is done by placing the 32 teams in 8 groups of 4 teams each. The criteria for placing the teams in the 8 groups is based on FIFA World Rankings and/or performances in recent World Cups and the geographical criteria. The last round of matches of each group is scheduled at the same time to maintain fairness to all the four teams. 

    The top two teams from each group qualify for the knock-out stage. The ranking of each team in each group is determined as follows:

   1. Highest points. (3 for a win, 0 for a loss and 1 for a draw)

   2. Biggest goal difference. (Goals for – goals against)

   3. Maximum number of goals scored.

   4. If more than one team remain level after applying the above criteria, their ranking will be determined  based on the performance in  head-to-head matches among those teams:

         1. Highest number of points.

         2. Biggest goal difference.

         3. Maximum number of goals scored.

   5. If still the same then it is finalized by the drawing of lots.

The knock out stage:

    These are one-off matches with one team getting knocked out from each match. If the match is not outrightly won, then it is taken to extra-time, then to the penalt shoot-out if needed. It begins with round-of-16 where winners of each group plays the runners-up of other group with the matches between the groups predetermined. Quarterfinals, the semis, the 3rd place play-off and the finals follow in that order.

The winners:
 

Year	Host Country	Winner	Score
1930	Uruguay	Uruguay	Uruguay 4-2 Argentina
1934	Italy	Italy	Italy 2-1 Czechoslovakia
1938	France	Italy	Italy 4-2 Hungary
1942	not held due to WW2
1946	not held due to WW2
1950	Brazil	Uruguay	Uruguay 2-1 Brazil
1954	Switzerland	Germany	Germany 3-2 Hungary
1958	Sweden	Brazil	Brazil 5-2 Sweden
1962	Chile	Brazil	Brazil 3-1 Czechoslovakia
1966	England	England	England 4-2 Germany
1970	Mexico	Brazil	Brazil 4-1 Italy
1974	Germany	Germany	Germany 2-1 Holland
1978	Argentina	Argentina	Argentina 3-1 Holland
1982	Spain	Italy	Italy 3-1 Germany
1986	Mexico	Argentina	Argentina 3-2 Germany
1990	Italy	Germany	Germany 1-0 Argentina
1994	US	Brazil	Brazil 3-2 Italy
1998	France	France	France 3-0 Brazil
2002	Japan / S. Korea	Brazil	Brazil 2-0 Germany
2006	Germany	Italy	Italy 1-1 (5-3) France
2010	South Africa	Spain	Spain 1-0 Netherlands

The awards

1. Golden Ball for the best player with a shortlist drawn up by the FIFA technical committee and the winner voted for by representatives of the media.
2. Golden Boot for top goal scorer. In case of 2 players holding the top position, the tie-breaker goes to the player who has contributed the most assists. If there is still more than one player, the it goes to the player who has played the least amount of time.
3. Golden Glove Award for best goalkeeper
4. Best Young Player award for best player at-most 21 years of age and voted in the official FIFA website.
5. FIFA Fair Play Trophy for the team with the best record of fair play based on least fouls (yellow and red cards)
6. Most Entertaining Team award for the team that has entertained the public the most during the world cup with the winners being selected by public voting.
7. An All-Star Team comprising the best players of the tournament chosen by FIFA’s technical study group, and since 2010 by an online poll on the FIFA.com.

save

The basics of Football

    I have tried to put down the basics of “The beautiful game” football(soccer) below. The football pitch has the  dimensions as below. Look at it once before you read any further to have a better grasp.

Football pitch

The game:

    The “beautiful” game is played over a period of 90 minutes split in two halves of 45 minutes each. The two teams change sides after each half. The basic objective of the game is to score as many goals as possible, by driving the ball into opponents goal.

Players:

    There are two teams with 11 players on each side and 3 substitutions possible per match. A team usually comprises of a goal keeper (goalie), defenders, midfielders and forwards. Each squad announced has a maximum strength of 25 players, with each comprising of 3 goal keepers and rest making up the defenders, midfielders and forwards.

Manchester United squad of 2010-11 and its officials

Officials:

    Each team has a manager who is responsible for the handling of the team. He is answerable to the club owner. A Manager’s responsibilities also include:

• Planning the strategy of every match.
• Formation of the team and style of play including the positions.
• Selecting a players lineup for matches including the substitutes.
• Passing on instructions to the players during the game.
• Delegating the duties to first team coach and the coaching and medical staff.
• Buying and selling players in the transfer market, including loaning of players to other clubs.
• Scouting for young and talented players for eventual training in the youth academy or the reserves team.

Referee:

    Simply put, the guy responsible for the game and who looks after the game to be played in the right spirit. The referee has “full authority to enforce the Laws of the Game in connection with the match to which he has been appointed” (Law 5), and the referee’s decisions regarding facts connected with play are final, so far as the result of the game is concerned (Courtesy wikipedia). The referee depends on his whistle to control the state of play and signalling events such as half time, end of play etc.

    There are 2 linesman, one on each side of the sidelines to assist the referee in free kick, throw-ins and all possible stop-and-restart situations. There is a fourth official to assist him during substitutions, displaying additional time and controlling of managers, who vent their ire, when emotion gets the better of them.
    “Diagonal system of control” is a system where the referee and the lines-man (or assistant referees) split the footballing pitch into the quarters as shown below for controlling the game.

Diagonal system of control

Yellow/Red cards:

    The referee is most renowned for the yellow/red cards displayed during a game. The referee notes down the players details in a notebook and hence we got the name “Booking” and term the player as “Booked”. Yellow indicates misconduct/warning/caution. In most tournaments, the number of yellow cards are accumulated over a sequence of matches. This results in suspension of the player for a number of subsequent matches. The number of matches for which the player is suspended, depends on the offense committed and by a committee that looks into the issue. The seven reasons for a caution are:

1. Unsporting behaviour
2. Dissent by word or action
3. Persistently infringing the laws of the game
4. Delaying the restart of play
5. Failing to respect the required distance of a corner kick or free kick
6. Entering or re-entering the field of play without the referee’s permission
7. Deliberately leaving the field of play without the referee’s permission

Yellow card

    Red card indicates a send-off which means the player cannot participate in the match any longer and the affected team plays one player short. There are two ways a player can receive a red card which are direct and indirect red. A Direct red results in disqualification of the offending player for one or more of subsequent matches. The number of matches for which he is suspended depends on the offense committed and by a committee that looks into the issue. An Indirect red is obtained when a player receives two successive yellow cards in a game. The seven reasons for a send-off are:

1. Serious foul play (a violent foul)
2. Violent conduct (any other act of violence)
3. Spitting at anyone
4. A deliberate handling offense, to deny an obvious goal-scoring opportunity, by any player other than a goalkeeper in his own penalty area
5. Committing an offense that denies an opponent an obvious goal-scoring opportunity (informally known as a professional foul)
6. Using offensive, insulting or abusive language or gestures
7. Receiving a second caution (yellow card) in one game.

One of the most infamous Red cards

Free kick:

    Free kicks are used in restarting plays when a foul is committed or play has stopped due to some technicality. There are two kinds of free kicks available.

Indirect Free kick: In this type of free kick, the player cannot score a goal directly and has to pass the ball for the play to continue. The ball must be stationary prior to being kicked. Opponents must remain 10 yards from the ball. It is awarded during one of the following scenarios:

• Touching the ball a second time following a restart
• The keeper touching the ball with his hands when a teammate has used his foot to pass it back to the keeper
• Offside
• When play is stopped to caution or send-off a player when no specific foul has occurred such as for dissent.

Indirect free kick

Direct Free kick: In this type of free kick, the player can score a goal directly and it is not compulsory to pass the ball for the play to continue. It is awarded when a player commits a foul outside the penalty area. The rules are pretty much similar. The ball must be stationary prior to being kicked. Opponents must remain 10 yards from the ball. Usually the opponents try to prevent the goal by forming a wall which is a stream of players standing next to each other. This way the goal keeper covers one side of the goal and the wall covering the other side. You find the some of the best free kick takers in the direct free kicks where the player has the opportunity to score by blasting the ball or curling it across the goalkeeper or over the wall or passing it onto another player away from the wall.

Direct free kick with a wall of 6 players

Penalty kick:

    A penalty is a free kick taken within the 18 yard box at a distance of 12 yards infront of the goal. The only players allowed within the 18 yard box are the goal keeper to defend his goal and the penalty taker. The location where the foul is originally committed determines whether the penalty is awarded and not dependent on where the ball is positioned. Once the penalty is taken and it misses the goal, then the penalty taker can touch the ball only after another player for either of the sides touch it before him. This way foul play can be avoided by the offending team, where-in the penalty taker can move the ball around in the box to confuse the goal keeper before scoring. And the goal keeper should be stationed along the goalline until the kick is taken else it is retaken if the taker misses scoring the goal. This way foul play can be avoided by the defending team during penalty.

Penalty kick

Throw-ins:

    When the ball crosses one of the sidelines, the player from a team other than the team whose player touched the ball last, can use his hands to throw the ball into play, from outside the playing area i.e, the sidelines.

Throw in

Goal kick:

    If the ball crosses the goal line after being last touched by a member of the team that is attacking that goal, the defending team is awarded a goal kick. It can be taken from anywhere within a small 6-yard box contained within the 18-yard penalty box, as long as it is on the same side of the goal where the ball left the field. A goal kick is taken usually by the goal keeper or one of the defenders to belt the ball away as a good defending tactic.

Goal kick

Corner kick:

    If the ball crosses the goal line after being last touched by a member of the team that is defending that goal, the attacking team is awarded a Corner kick usually referred to as a Corner. It is taken from the corner of the field which is the intersection of the sideline and the goal line. It follows the same concept of free kick where a player good at passing, curls the ball into the penalty box for goal scoring opportunities.

Corner kick

Offside:

    If a currently attacking team player (usually a forward) wanders into a position between the final defender and the goalkeeper when the pass is made to him then, it is termed offside. When you watch football the next time, try to look at the replays played for offsides. You can clearly observe the demarcation line marked, exactly at the last defender and the position where the forward was in respect to this area/line when the pass occurred. If the forward was ahead of the defender then offside else normal play continues. If an offside is found then an indirect free kick is awarded to the defending team.

2 players with the blue jersey are outside the last defender when the pass is made. Hence Offside

Extra-time and Penalty shoot out:

    These two are used to ascertain clear winners in a match which is played usually as a knockout. At the end of regulation time if both the teams are in a state of deadlock of having the same score line then the match is continued after 90 minutes to Extra-time where two halves of 15 minutes each are played to ascertain who has a better scoreline at the end of the given time. If the winner could not determined by Extra-time then we move to Penalty shootout. It differs from normal penalties in the rule that all players other than the goalkeeper and penalty taker should be at the center-circle of the pitch. The procedure followed is mentioned below:

• All kicks are taken in one end of the pitch.
• A toss decides who takes the penalty first.
• Teams take penalty kicks alternatively for a count of 5 kicks.
• No player can take the kick twice until all eligible players in the team have taken the kick at-least once.
• If a ball is saved or missed then it cannot be re-kicked in.
• At the end of five kicks if the score line is still deadlocked then we move to “Sudden death” where in a single kick from both sides is taken to decide which team won the game.

Penalty shoot-out

IPL 4 player retention prediction

    With the IPL4 auctions starting in November, I will put-in my list of players, who will be retained by the clubs. The new rule suggests that, each of the initial 8 IPL teams, can retain 4 of their existing players, which includes 3 Indians and 1 foreigner. The list was made upon my belief that, each of these players, are almost guaranteed to have a starting place, in any of the IPL teams. Here is the list:

Royal Challengers Bangalore

1.     Praveen Kumar
2.     Robin Uthappa or Virat Kohli
3.     Anil Kumble
4.     Ross Taylor or Jaques Kallis

Mumbai Indians

1.     Sachin Tendulkar
2.     Zaheer Khan
3.     Harbhajan Singh
4.     Lasith Malinga or Kieron Pollard

Chennai Super Kings

1.     Mahender Singh Dhoni
2.     Suresh Raina
3.     R Ashwin
4.     Albie Morkel or Michael Hussey

Deccan Chargers

1.     Pragyan Ojha
2.     Rohit Sharma
3.     RP Singh
4.     Adam Gilchrist

Delhi Daredevils

1.     Goutam Gambhir
2.     Virender Sehwag
3.     Ashish Nehra
4.     Dirk Nannes   

Kings XI Punjab

1.     Irfan Pathan
2.     Yuvraj Singh
3.     PP Chawla
4.     Kumar Sangakkara or Mahela Jayawardene   

Rajasthan Royals

1.     Yousuf Pathan
2.     Munaf Patel
3.     SK Trivedi
4.     Shane Watson or Shane warne

Kolkata Knight Riders

1.     Sourav Ganguly
2.     Murali Kartik
3.     Ishant Sharma
4.     Chris Gayle or Brendon McCullum

    There are some players who are too good to be ignored. In those cases, I have added them in the “or” option. Come this November, let us see what percentage of players I have got correctly…. 🙂

Will we, wont we?? The 2010 CWG – India’s pride at stake

    Come 3 October, 2010, India is “supposed!!” to host the Opening ceremony of the quadrennial event, The Commonwealth Games (CWG). This is the first big event to be held the India since the 1982 Asian games. With exactly 4 weeks to go before the start of the Commonwealth games 2010, let us check the overview of the games.

The logo:

The 19 venues for the games are as below:

    *     Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi – Athletics, lawn bowls and weightlifting also hosts the Opening and Closing ceremonies.
    *     Dhyan Chand National Stadium – Hockey
    *     Indira Gandhi Arena – Archery, cycling, gymnastics, wrestling
    *     Delhi University sports complex – Rugby sevens
    *     Thyagaraj Stadium – Netball
    *     Siri Fort Sports Complex – Badminton, Squash
    *     Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range – Shooting
    *     Talkatora Stadium – Boxing
    *     SPM Swimming Pool Complex – Aquatics
    *     RK Khanna Tennis Complex – Tennis
    *     Yamuna Sports Complex – Table tennis

Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium

Games Village is situated close to the famous Akshardham temple. The facilities included are:

    *     14 blocks, 34 residential towers having 1168 AC apartments with 4008 bedrooms for the guests.
    *     The Main Dining Hall with a seating capacity of 2300, capable of serving 22000 meals daily.
    *     A Polyclinic to provide Medical services.
    *     Fitness center, Bank, post office, general store and a hair salon.
    *     Prayer rooms for all faiths.
    *     Facilities for athletes to train for athletics, aquatics, weightlifting and wrestling.

Sheru the mascot – “represents the modern Indian, proud of his nation’s ancient heritage and a fierce competitor but with integrity and honesty”.

“Jiyo Utho Badho Jeeto” – The official song composed by A R Rahman.

Trouble before the games: 

    Our motto during the bidding of the CWG was “New Frontiers and Friendships”. What we meant by New frontier was, stooping so low at organizing these games, that new frontiers of in-capabilities and corruption were faced at all levels possible. Manishanker Aiyer, the former Minister of Youth and Sports Affairs, was one of the first to talk rather be a whistle blower, about the delay in the preparation for the games. He said that he would be “unhappy” if the Games were a success and wished for the “Commonwealth games to be spoiled.” and hoped “the expenses could have been utilized for ensuring a better sporting future for Indian children by providing them sports training”. Now, this could as well be a political tactic. But there is some truth in that. Once a hole was made in the wall, however small it was, the rats or rather the media were waiting to grab the opportunity for increasing their TRP ratings for the next one month, went in and took the place apart. Thus came story after story of inefficiencies and troubles which the Organizing Committee face even at the present moment and hopefully will not for the next whole month once the games begin.

    1) Corruption allegation – Works awarded to ineligible agencies. Higher prices awarded for works. Items incurred for rent at a cost much higher than what it would have cost to purchase them. Poor quality of work.

    2) Half built Stadiums – 13 of the 19 venues behind the final schedule of August 31.
    Venue safety at Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, or any other stadium, where the CVC (Central Vigilance Commission) report suggested use of sub-standard materials and fabricated case results. Safety certifications undelivered on other completed stadiums.

    3) Damage in the track itself due to heavy rains – needs to be rectified by the IAAF.
    The Scoring systems not ready – TSR (Thomas Scoring and Results) equipment which are the actual Scoring systems during the games are unready. TRS is the technology responsible for storing data and  recording timings. Now add the cameras and communications to that list. Thankfully, the deadline for this is October 3.
   
    4) Games village unready – For Instance, Catering is not yet ready for Sept 16, when the officials around 300 to 400 members from various countries arrive, which is just 10 days away.

    5) Is the security in the stadium compromised because of the delay?
    The home ministry revealed that the security agencies will not have access to the stadiums till September 8, which implies they have only one week to install the systems required for monitoring and securing the Games against the actual request of 4 weeks. Now the security agency has to work 4 times faster which implies forget sleep for the next 45 days.
  
    6) Rains creating havoc with roads – reports of roads caving-in found all over the news papers.
  
    7) Delhi traffic – can the athletes reach the venues on time? Solution suggested is for a dedicated lane for the games and free metro & bus transport for people with games tickets. This is a good idea. But will the people of Delhi for once, show some common sense and follow that??
  
    8) 1221 Dengue cases this year which is the highest in last five years and against a handful last year. What if the athletes are hit??
  
    9) “Jiyo Utho Badho Jeeto” – The official song composed by A R Rahman ran into trouble with politicians and games organizers combining to condemn the song, for lacking enthusiasm and not appealing to the global audience, like the super-hit “waka waka” of Shakira fame for the FIFA world cup. Rahman seems to be reworking on that. I wonder what the committee were doing, till Rahman went public about the song. Couldn’t they have had a preview of that and asked him to change before he went public. Surely, stupidity levels are reaching sky limit.
  
    Now how can we add some salt to the wound and readily the athletes put their hands up to be counted and add more shame:
    10)  Doping shame –
        4 wrestlers, shot-putter in CWG squad fail dope test.
        Three swimmers, including two in CWG team fail dope test.
      
    11) Big star athletes pulling out of the event citing various reasons. To name a few:

    * Usain Bolt. for people who haven’t heard of him – World and Olympic record holder in the 100m, the 200m & 4x100m relay.
    *  Mo Farah of England – Two-time European champion long distance runner.
    *  David Rudisha of Kenya – 800m world record holder.
    *  Shelly-Ann Fraser of Jamaica – 100m reigning Olympic champion and World champion.
    *  Chris Hoy of Britain – multiple world champion and Olympic Games gold medal winner.

    12) Terror threat to the games – Whenever there is a mega event, these are quite common. But with Maoists joining the band to say: “Why should only jihadis scare our people, we should do it too”, the alarms for another “Munich” have been ringing for quite some time.

     These games are not about winning or losing medals. It is about showing your culture to the rest of the world. And I believe, we have lost out on a big opportunity in this front with these huge glitches or rather potholes in the planning and execution. But with this atleast, there are some positives. The athletes at the national level have atleast a good stadium to win a few medals in Asian and the next CWG if not the Olympics. The people of Delhi have a good new airport terminal, better roads and amenities such a excess power than what was present before the games.


 Now comes the big question. Will we, wont we host good games???

    I was under the delusion that maybe in another 20 years we would have been capable of hosting the Olympics or the FIFA world cup. But looking at the sorry state of affairs, that seems inevitably “over-confident”. The organizing committee is on “Hope, pray and work your asses off” mode. Now hope is a big word here. For that hope to turn into reality, we as Indians, as always, need to pull the stuff together, during the last few days and deliver the “average” games atleast. Forget comparing ourselves to Beijing or Melbourne or Manchester games. This is the matter of national pride. If the games are even a partial failure, it will be talked about for decades to come. When a tiny nation like South Africa could handle the FIFA world cup, then we can too. It all depends on the efforts the Delhi government, the security agencies, the contractors, suppliers, labor force, volunteers and especially the athletes to put their best efforts through. The rest depends on the Rain god, mosquitoes and as usual, most importantly, the conduct of the people of Delhi. Now I and hope you too join the organizing committee and a nation in their prayers for a successful games.. 🙂

The love of my life… :)

    I named the topic in such a way that it would create the enthusiasm in guys to go ahead and read the blog. The love of my life is ………. “Sports” ofcourse.. 😛

    Yup.. I am one of those crazy sport’s fanatics who loves watching sports. Be it cricket, football, baseball, rugby, american football, basketball, ice hockey, hockey, athletics, tennis… generally all sports provided by Espn and Ten sports which are incidentally the only two channels that provide a combination of different sports in India and more importantly the only two that are available in my house… Every day I read the news paper in reverse order just for the simple reason that the sports page is the last.

The sports page records people’s accomplishments; the front page has nothing but man’s failures – Earl Warren

    My first love was Cricket and the first match I saw was the 1992 worldcup finals between Eng and Pak..
I dont know the reason for this; it could be media attention or the sheer class of the player I loved Sachin’s style of play from the moment i saw him play.. Right from his exploits in Pak as a 16 year old to the ongoing Srilankan tour I never felt more in awe of any cricketer more than Sachin.. Some people might call me naive.. maybe thats what I am.. i say this to them: A player who has given his best for 20 years at the highest possible level and still does is a true champ. Is he the best in business is a discussion and fight that can go on for the next few generations. But to me  the hero who was the light at the end of the tunnel when world cricket was rocked by fixing allegations. Imagine the situation if Sachin was dragged into it. That would have been the end of Cricket in India for sure. There are a number of different statistics which can be put up to say he is one of the best. But why bother? There are too many shows, sites and blogs already doing that. The biggest dream for many true Indian fans would be for Sachin to hold aloft the worldcup at the Wankhede on 2nd April, 2011.

I have seen God, he bats at no. 4 for India – Mathew Hayden

    What is sports if we dont have speed.. Formula 1 and Motogp fulfills the criteria. Ferrari and now Force India draw my prayers and hopes. I am proud that a team with an Indian owner is present in F1 – the pinnacle of Motorsports. There will soon be a day when the Indian anthem is sung at the constructors/drivers presentation ceremony of a Grandprix. In motogp we have Japanese bikes ruling the roost. The thing which the F1 lacks is in the number of overtaking manouvers. Though the research that goes into Motogp is nowhere comparable to F1, the former wins peoples heart as almost half of the pack have the machines required to win the race. It purely comes down to the drivers individual skill and the ability to sustain pressure for long duration.

    Now to the American sports. Not that they were born in America but the fact these games at the highest possible levels here gives me the license to call them American. Basketball, Baseball, American football you name it; they are the best in business. The Celtics vs Lakers rivalry is big as it gets. Michael Jordan has been my all time favorite. His Nike jump image promoting the “Air Jordan” brand has been the wallpaper in my phone for as long as i remember.. 😀 Lebron James has talent but like Sachin not able to achieve much in a team. But Kobe like Ricky Ponting in cricket has the luxury of a better team in Lakers.

    If there is one sport which is sheer class is tennis. Roger I consider the best in the current generation. 16 titles at the age of 28 shows what a player he has been.

Whoever said, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose that counts,’ probably lost. -Martina Navratilova

    Now I have saved the sport that has been my favorite to the last.
Football – the beautiful game: Defined as a game that can take your breath away, raise individuals to position of demi-gods or bring them down to earth and drag them to a shell. This amazing game has been my favorite, overtaking even cricket, which in my school days wouldn’t have believed that it would happen. The agility of the EPL, the beauty of La Liga, the grit of Bundesliga and the drama of Serie A is just addictive. I am sorry to not have added any other leagues as the telecasting in India is limited to only these. Even with these restrictions my weekends are left unfulfilled without a few of the beautiful games. Manchester United and Barcelona have been my favorite clubs since I started watching the sport. The tension, the passing, the pain, the joy, the exhaustion felt by the players are as if experienced by me. 

We are inclined that if we watch a football game or baseball game, we have taken part in it -John F. Kennedy, 1961

FIFA worldcup is the biggest event in the planet earth. I consider it the best on the pure basis of the sheer number of countries that love to watchworldcup qualifying groups is tremendous.

Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that. – Bill Shankly

It is a well known fact that the South Americans produce the best footballers in the world. But then again football is not just about goals. It is also about tactics and strategies.Here is where the Europeans score. The amount of background work that goes into a football match is too big. Every players movement, passes to, takes passes from, goals scored from the list goes on.. everything is watched recorded. Then they are provided on the plate for the coach who is the orchestrator. The players are just the actors in this huge setup. unlike other sports the coach and his staff have a big say in the outcome of a match. That’s the reason we can see so many big teams lose matches against team little known of or teams whose skills are much lower. People consider the 2010 finals as boring. But I loved it. Let me give a simple example of why so: Robben plays on the right for the Dutch and during the entire match for the sole reason of blocking Robben’s run we had Capdevilla who never over ran him and supported Villa on the left. This caused all the Spanish attack to come from the right. A simple tactical move of not allowing a defender to not do over-lapping  runs allowed the Spanish to successfully block the biggest danger to them but at the cost of not allowing David Villa their best player in the tournament to sit idle for an entire match. Result Spain win thanks to Andre Iniesta who had no such marking like Robben had on the Spanish right.

I know some people have better knowledge than me in most of these sports. But I love sports in general too much to bother about the comments..:)

Love sports. Live sports.