Not Cricket

Thumbs Up coach

2008-08-21T15:51:00Z

A nice human interest story coming out of the olympics. Ken Wood (an Australian swim coach) sold his top-secret training methods, which transformed Jessica Schipper into a world-record breaking 200m butterflyer, to the Chinese coach of Liu Zige, who won the Olympics gold at the Olympics and shattered Schipper's world record by 1.22 second. He was the existing coach of Schipper at Beijing FYI. "They pay for the programs," Wood was quoted as saying. "They pay good money, big money...(read more)

Nerves of gold

2008-08-11T15:44:00Z

The big story for any Indian today is about Abhishek Bindra's gold medal but the bigger story was happening with the silver medallist of the event. China's Zhu Quinan. The defending olympic champion couldn't stop his tears on losing the gold. Man!! he won the silver didn't he.. shows us the difference between us and THEM. But pressure in a sport which requires nerves of steel is too much even for champions....(read more)

It's not Sania silly!!

2008-08-11T15:18:00Z

To all those guys who are verbally challenged to call Saina, Sania, may I point out some differences? Saina is the World 15 as against World No 50+ Saina actually wins her first round matches Saina actually performs under pressure when playing for her country. Saina isn't seen in any ad (which is bad for her but maybe good for the country as of today) Saina hasn't eaten any sweets/ ice creams for the last few years to remain fit as against I dunno what? Saina hasn't ever threatened to...(read more)

The Fabulous One

2008-08-08T02:49:00Z

Asked for the umpteenth time in is career on Sunday whether he felt any pressure when he went out to bat, this time in the first innings of the 2 nd test match between India and Sri Lanka, after having lost the first one comprehensively, Virender Sehwag said for the umpteenth time that he didn’t. He couldn’t understand what the brouhaha was all about. He went there and played his natural game, enjoyed himself, smashed the bowlers all over the park, scored a century, smashed the bowlers all over the...(read more)

Passing the Bat On

2008-07-15T02:29:00Z

The previous week seems to be the one to have witnessed the passing of quite a few batons. Men's Tennis might have seen it on Sunday (a bit too early to call, admittedly), the Left parties passed the baton of the support to the Congress led UPA to the SP, and Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar passed one to Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The news paper headlines screamed that Pepsi had decided not to continue with SRT as its brand ambassador. His endorsement contract which had expired was not renewed. A couple of...(read more)

(in)Sania(ty)

2008-07-03T18:05:00Z

Ok, So we have a world number 32 here, who had an injury but still lost to a lower ranked opponent at Wimbledon, with 4 match points on hand. And we have the Chinese Zheng Jie reaching the semi finals of the Wimbledon ladies championships. Remember, Zheng Jie was a wild card, who beat four seeds to reach the semi finals, she was ranked 133 before coming to Wimbledon. Her loss to Serena was a brave one. And we as Indians celebrate every match that Mirza wins. If that isn't a raritry, I challenge...(read more)

No colling(back)wood

2008-06-29T16:57:00Z

Well, no judgements are going to be passed in this piece. For the uninitiated, this is what happened http://youtube.com/watch?v=Qs-Ye66_Tk4 Try and listen to the comments from Ian Smith and Nasser Husain. The entire incident just made one wonder about what sportsman spirit is all about. One found some interesting takes on the word. Here you go. Simon Barnes: "Sport is dead when citius, altius, fortius is replaced by fixius, drugius, corruptius. We have reached the logical end of sport. Everywhere...(read more)

Of wounded Tigers

2008-06-24T15:53:00Z

For years Roger Federer has steamrolled, dismantled, and humbled his opponents with consummate ease. The ranking of the opponents or the stage of the tournament didn’t really matter. The comments that followed from the vanquished ranged from ‘I played my best Tennis but he still outclassed me’ to ‘To be called a rivalry, I’ve to start winning once in a while’. The almost humble salute to the crowd after every victory, the graciousness to his opponents in victory and also in the odd defeat, had become...(read more)

Cricket according to Clarkson

2008-06-03T17:25:00Z

Jump to Comments Have been reading ‘ The World According to Clarkson’ written by Jeremy Clarkson . He writes a weekly column in The Sunday Times and is better known to BBC viewers as the anchor of Top Gear. His writing style is witty, irreverent and (not atypically British) pulling down everything and every one. Many of his views/ opinions about things in general and Europeans in particular need not agree with this reader’s digestive system but he’s a compulsive read. One came across this article...(read more)

Where royals dare

2008-05-31T10:57:00Z

Let one start by admitting that this is not going to be the standard match summary/ report that one reads on haloed cricket sites. This is a fan’s account of the celebration, torture, hope, despair and sweat, which was the IPL semi final between the Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils. The day started normally. One had no intentions to watch the match at the stadium. Long discussions on the previous evening had convinced every one in the room that watching the match in a pub with friends was far...(read more)

There's many a slip between the cup and the lip

2008-05-27T15:29:00Z

The story goes that Neptune's son, Ancaus had a beautiful vineyard which he was extremely proud of. He made the many slaves who took care of it work really hard. Once an overworked slave predicted that his master would not taste the wine produced that year.

When the grapes had been plucked and the wine extracted, Ancaus sent for the slave who had made the prediction. He poured out a cup of wine for himself and asked the slave why his prediction wasn't coming true. The slave apparently said, "There's many a slip between the cup and the lip". As Ancaus lifted the cup to taste the new wine, another slave came running and said that a wild boar had entered the vineyard and was destroying everything. Neptune's son put the cup of wine down and raced to the vineyard. You can probably guess the rest of the story. Ancaus was killed by the boar.

Well, Avram Grant needed just 1.

Grant finds himself being stripped of the position of the manager at the Chelsea Football Club despite taking them to the Champions Leagues finals for the first time in the club's history. The reason was very simple. After putting millions of dollars in the club, the owner Roman Abramovich couldn't be second best. Heads had to roll and roll they did.

That's the professional world of sport that one has been hearing of since the time IPL was unveiled. The post comes after almost a week from the finals at Moscow as the result is still sinking in. Loath, as the writer is to do, here's a picture of the champions

cheers to them

Fosters v/s Kingfisher

2008-05-20T17:01:00Z

This was what James Sutherland had to say about the IPL less than a month back

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/cricket-australia-ceo-questions-ipl-future-sustainability_10041527.html

and today one reads a report of how Cricket Australia is planning to launch it's own T20 domestic tournament with international players thrown in. How's that for a quick turn around?

cheers

What the Doctor ordered

2008-05-17T07:11:00Z

XYZ Newswire: May XX 20xx Doctor Vijay Mallya hit the nail on its head, pierced the bull’s eye and put his finger on the problem all at once when he commented, “At the end of the day people need to understand that the IPL has a corporate side to it, and a very definitive corporate side at that. It is not at all cricket in the traditional sense.”

This was indeed refreshing news to be greeted with first thing in the morning. We happened to be staying in the same hotel as the Royal Challengers and were not shocked to find a slip of paper under our doors outlining Team RC strategy. Or so one thought.

In today’s world where people hear of banks rationing toilet paper, Team RC’s strategy wasn’t uppermost in the mind of the writer(s) of the piece of paper. It was about controlling the team’s expenses in these times of high inflation. A few salient features which could pass the test of the Censors are reproduced below -

“As all the players may be aware, the US-led global economy is entering a recessionary cycle and the Royal Challengers team is showing no signs of coming out of one. As the good doctor mentioned, it’s not at all cricket in the traditional sense. The buzzword is ‘performance’. Repeated stress on this key issue seems to have inexplicably increased the stress levels of the players, coaches and managers. This is clearly unacceptable. The franchise is losing money faster than Ricky Ponting is losing friends and the writer losing his hair.

With a view to bring back some semblance of business sense to the said undertaking, players are advised to adhere to the following principles:
It has been observed that each player has been carrying more than 8 bats in his kit. Team work is all about sharing and caring. Henceforth, the team will have a rolling stock of 6 bats with 6 more being kept in reserves. The remaining bats will be sold off at auctions.
Players are requested to get autographs of other teams’ star players to enhance ‘bat valuations’. For ‘home’ games, local players are requested to take care of their team mates’ boarding & lodging requirements.
During the remaining tenure of the IPL, players will be provided with rations of 3 bottles of beer. This step has to be taken as the cost of a beer bottle for the owners is higher than the cost of bottled water, which is produced only to be displayed on TV ads. Players will have to pay a (subsidized) rate for additional beverages consumed.
Players who haven’t played in a single match till date are requested to take care of the laundry of the entire team. A washing machine will be provided at all venues for assistance.
All players will have to attend a daily crash training course for pursers. All future flights will have to be undertaken as pursers/air hostesses (there’s no cause to worry as all uniforms will be provided by the management). In an extreme case, a player may be accommodated as the co-pilot. Players with international driving licenses are requested to register themselves with the management.

At the end of every match night, there will be a round of ‘match ka mujrim’ (for the uninitiated, this program is a witch hunt on a popular news channel after every loss of the Indian national cricket team) to decide who pays for that night’s drinks and dinner.
It is proposed that Katrina Kaif be sacked as the team ambassador. A search for the replacement is on. One of the cheerleaders has shown keen interest in the said position. One of the members of the accounting team has expressed his surprise at bats being treated differently from abdomen guards and has …."

The remaining part of the text has been edited to prevent offending the sensibilities of the millions of sensitive souls out there.

One common refrain of most commentators on the Mallya episode has been – We told you so. This is what the IPL will do to cricket. Make it a slave to accountability taken to its extreme, at best and the whims and fancies of the owners at its worst. What Mallya has done by publicly criticizing Rahul Dravid’s team picking ability is nothing but publicly castigating his team’s captain for it’s pathetic performance.

Accountability may be one thing but the manner in which people are held responsible for a debacle is quite another. Mallya went too far. But does this incident prove that IPL is out to convert cricket into a completely different entity. Let’s take the case of the other 2-3 teams which haven’t done too well. The Deccan Challengers seem to have been the underperformers of IPL season 2008. With big name signings like Gibbs/ Gilly/ Laxman / Styris/ Rohit Sharma / Andrew Symonds and Shahid Afridi, they can be safely called one of the top contenders for the wooden spoon.

The DC owners may be extremely upset with the results, but one has hardly come across any statements or actions from them.

Similarly Mukesh Ambani may have the right to feel peeved about his team’s standing and also the sort of team that was picked up for the tournament. No harsh words/actions from him either. Maybe the problem with Mallya is that, despite his utterances he thinks he knows the game himself.

To draw an analogy, one has to go back in time by just an year. The kind of reaction after India’s WC debacle from the ‘knowledgeable’ public and experts and the team selection demanded for the Bangladesh tour was very similar. They were over reacting and so is the good Doctor.

The English Premier League which is supposedly a role model for the IPL has enough and more examples of Team Owners conflicts with managers. Jose Mourinho, who was brought to Chelsea by the Russian billionaire Roman Abrahamovich, quit at the start of the season as matters between the two had come to a head. Two EPL titles in the past didnt matter. Ostensibly, Schevchenko not playing was a point of contention. Or so says the omnipresent rumour mill. But really it came to a standstill / standoff when Chelsea got just 11 points from their first six games this season and Arsenal and Man United were running away. Then there’s the current struggle between the American owners of Liverpool and their current manager Rafa Benitez. In most of the cases, team performance has been an issue. But normally the owners haven’t claimed to possess sports knowledge worthy of the managers.

Mallya taking hardly 3 weeks to blame someone for failure and the years it took for the Indian Sports Ministry holding Gill responsible for the IHF functioning are two extremes of the spectrum. It’s not the IPL that is bringing this phenomenon single handedly to cricket. The inexorable march of modern sport to professionalism will ensure its presence in the near future. Amen. But, is it really all evil and dangerous ? Were the 1 crore bonuses paid to the selectors for daring to choose a largely newbie team which resulted in the ODI series win in Australia not “corporate” ? Are all the brand endorsements that everyone so strongly condemns as a reason for our defeats (in the oh-so-pure forms of cricket ) really a corruption of the game ?

Sure, Vijay Mallya’s behaviour was “signature” egoistic, but if thats good enough to generalise the corporate evil then we’ve seen it before. Not that we agree but thats a bit like saying “Pawar corrupts. Absolut power corrupts absolutely”…. Posted by Rahul and Sfx

9.something (just like 5.something)

2008-05-06T20:16:00Z

9.something …

Running a race is the closest a human being can come to feel and express one’s natural abilities. It’s a pure show of physical strength and stamina sans any artificial extensions like a tennis racket or a cricket bat. The 1500m or a 10km race is not only about speed. Its about tactics, its about outguessing one’s opponent, its about pacing the race and timing the final assault on the finishing line.

However the sexiest event of an athletic competition happens when the guns go boom to a line up of 8 human F1cars. The 100 meters is the most watched one unarguably. It’s a bit like T20, it’s over before one says ‘twiddledums’. It’s thought to be pure speed. But just like T20 it has it’s own nuances, its own strategies. Those 9.some seconds are what most sprinters live for. Some choose to sacrifice themselves for the same by using banned substances. Probably because the stakes are so high and one has no second chances. No time to pull back. Well almost.

They kneel down to push their torsos up from their bent down position, every muscle in the body ready for the assault. They have their goal literally in sight, only 100 meters away. The start is important, the finish more so.

Beijing 2008 will be witness to a muted but intense rivalry to decide the title of ‘the fastest man on earth’. Asafa Powell has always been in the race (pun intended). The sixth son from 2 country pastors from Jamaica has been one of the more soft spoken faster guys around. His biggest clean competitor around has been another soft spoken guy. Tyson Gay.

Powell is the world’s fastest man with a 100 meter timing of 9.74 seconds but has no major championship medal to show for all that speed. Tyson Gay is the triple event winner of the 100m, 200m and the 4 X 100 meter winning team in the 2007 Osaka World championships. Their rivalry has been at best an underplayed one, at worst nonexistent.

ESPN had a brilliant interview with both the protagonists before the world championships at Osaka in 2007. Both of them talked about respect for each other (unlike a heavy weight boxing title aspirant who Maurice Greene represented). They thought that they were the best. They reminded one of a Federer and a Nadal. Fierce competitors in a nice way. They were egotists maybe, but they had enough humility to disguise it. There was a shared respect amongst the world’s two best sprinters. And it seemed genuine. What is interesting to note is that no matter which sport, there’s only one road to excellence. It is about being in the zone. It is about relaxing. It is about doing simple (?) things perfectly right.

The Perfect 100

Powell: Every race is about 48 steps. At the start, you try to stay low out of the blocks. Then you go to your drive phase, then to your lifting phase, at about 50 meters. After 60 meters you can’t go any faster, so you’re trying to stay relaxed and maintain that speed to the 100-meter mark. My toughest part has been the end. But I’ve worked really hard on that — maintaining form and trying to stay relaxed.

Gay: I’m trying to work on my start. As a 200m runner, you can have a bad start and still catch up. You don’t have room for mistakes in the 100.

Powell: When you’re head-to-head with one or two guys, the natural reaction is to try harder to go faster. It will mess you up. Start to finish, don’t pay attention to anyone. It’s just you.

Gay: It’s scientifically proved that if you relax, you run faster. I’m still trying to understand it.

Powell: You have to visualize, make the race happen before it actually does. At 50 meters, I’m thinking, Lift! Lift! And, Swing your arms! That’s the only thing going through my mind.

Gay: The big thing is not changing anything when you get out there. You’ve got to practice the same thing over and over, so it’s basically muscle memory. For me, the perfect race is more a feeling, not necessarily the time — a race where I feel at ease, like I’m not trying.

Some one had to lose at the show down at Osaka 2007. Powell did. And he did it badly. Tongues wagged about his inability to perform under pressure. People talked about his inability to win major championships. With the Olympics looming in, tongues have started to wag again. This is what Michael Johnson, the legend had to say about Powell just a week back

SALVO, North Carolina, April 29 (Reuters) - Jamaican 100 metres world record holder Asafa Powell is not the world’s best sprinter, retired 200 and 400 record holder Michael Johnson said.

That honour, he said, goes to American world champion Tyson Gay.

“I measure sprinters based on consistency and (Gay) is the more consistent,” Johnson said during an online chat on the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Web site (www.iaaf.org).

“He’s got better performances at championships,” Johnson added of Gay, the world 100 and 200 metres champion.

“Asafa Powell is a great talent but he can never get it done. He’s failed time after time at the championships.”

Powell’s world record of 9.74 seconds is a 10th of a second faster than Gay’s best of 9.84 but the Jamaican has never won a global sprint title.

That will not change in Beijing, according to Johnson.

Asked by an online questioner how Powell could win 100 metres gold at the Beijing Games in August, Johnson replied jokingly: “Trip Tyson Gay.”

He made the comment before Powell’s manager announced the Jamaican would not compete again until late June because of a pulled pectoral muscle.

Johnson also predicted Gay would win the 200 in Beijing to match his 2007 world championship sprint double.

It is possible that Johnson is practising ‘mental disintegration’ on Powell. Powell failing at major championships is a fact, but maybe it wasn’t due to choking every time.

Rafa Benitez, the Liverpool coach had commented on Didier Drogba’s diving capabilities before the second leg of the Champion League’s semi final with Chelsea. Many people might agree with Benitez (I sure do), but the timing of the statement was dubious. Here was a coach who was trying to pull down a player from the opposition before a crucial match. He was showing his desperation but he was also playing with fire. Drogba maybe a Greg Louganis on the football field, but the man can use his legs to perfection. He did. Drogba scored 2 goals in a 3-2 extra time win over Liverpool. This is what he did after scoring the first one. If a picture could tell a story, this one would be nominated at the Oscars.

Drogba said in an interview later that he had pinned Benitez’s photo in his locker to motivate himself. He wanted to react to Benitez’s allegations by scoring goals. And boy he did. Maybe Asafa Powell should take a leaf out of Drogba’s book and answer his critics once and for all by winning gold at Beijing. It will be a pity if he doesn’t, after dominating the short race for years. One can always send him Michael Johnson’s photo to pin in his room.

Powell will do well to remember what Sun Tzu has said in his ‘The Art of war’ – “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”

Not cricket

2008-05-05T16:08:00Z

Well, the inaugural piece of this blog is going to be a very short but not sweet one. One was watching the IPL T20 Match between Chennai Super kings and Jaipur Royals on a lazy sunday evening. Suddenly one is introduced (?) to a new addition to the already brilliant team that boasts of Arunlal, L Siva, Rameez Raza, Aamir Sohail and the great guru Greg. One has heard rumors that these guys are actually paid money to be a part of the team. The addition to this illustrious team was a commentatot par excellence. K Srikanth!!

Now the presence of the above mentioned commentators makes Srikanth look brilliant. The theory of diminishing marginal frustration makes his contribution (?) seem positive. But one question that should be raised is 'IF (there's a big IF here) a commentator is supposed to be visibly neutral, KS, who is formally associated with the Chennai super kings, being a part of the commentary team looks incongruous.