A Timely Call

The day has finally come! Ah, those ugly on-side shots are gone! The fielding standard of the Indians are once again up to the mark! And oh yeah, of course, the captain won’t speak much! Even if he does it won’t make much sense.

Sourav Ganguly has decided to call it a day as far as international cricket is concerned. With that, a mysterious and one of the most colourful episodes of Indian cricket has come to an end. Mysterious because in spite of being the second highest run scorer for India in one-day cricket, in spite of being the most successful captain of India as far as Test wins are concerned and in spite of being the proud owner of 15 Test hundreds, he’s been at the receiving end of attacks from all quarters, the reasons best known to the attackers.

The senior-junior debate has been going on in Indian cricket for quite sometime now. While clubbing Sachin, Rahul, Kumble, Laxman and Dada together and calling them seniors or veterans is a politically correct move, one fails to understand why Sourav was always the prime target of everyone! The prodigal VVS Laxman has managed a meager 2338 runs from 86 ODIs at an average of 30.76 with 6 hundreds over a decade (he made his ODI debut against Zimbabwe in April, 1998) but he’s still a prodigy! Pundits never bothered to show us fans, the logic behind fielding a prodigy in only 86 ODIs in 10 years. One look at the video clippings of the famous final group league match against the Kangaroos at Sharjah in 1998 though exposes the prodigy. When Sachin was wrongly given out, India was agonizingly close to a memorable victory. But the prodigious Laxman struggled hard to get there without success. Still, he is a prodigy and the man who taught the toddlers to walk is a bad influence. Well, was. He won’t be corrupting the dressing room anymore.

It was interesting to see those reactions pouring in right after the announcement. Everyone from Javagal Srinath to Kiran More suddenly remembered what a great player Sourav Ganguly was! The same Kiran More, whose only claim to fame during his playing days was that he successfully instigated Javed Miandad once. The same Kiran More, who had announced in public that Sourav would never be called back to the Indian squad when he was the chairman of the selectors. That’s okay. If there is no better candidate than More to head the selection panel, then it does give him a right to speak. But what one fails to understand is what did he have against Ganguly? And whatever he had, where and how did that disappear the moment Sourav announced his retirement?

To Sourav’s credit, he’s decided to be the one to put an end to all the humiliation that he definitely didn’t deserve and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect! By announcing his retirement before the series, he’s made sure that the selectors would pick him for the last two Tests against the Aussies (the current squad is only for the first two) and he has now successfully pushed the ball to others’ courts. The first Test is over and the highest run-getter for India in that Test was Sourav Ganguly. It’s anybody’s guess what exactly would the other ‘seniors’ be going through right now. More importantly, what are the selectors thinking now? Anil Kumble has announced that the Bangalore Test against the Aussies was his last at home. So, a premature skipper’s cap for Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Tests? And what would be the future middle-order? Rahul Dravid in spite of his technical brilliance doesn’t justify the wall tag anymore and it’s clear that Sachin Tendulkar only has personal goals in mind at this point in time. Next is England at home in December. Doesn’t sound threatening considering the opponents and the venues. But permanent solutions will have to be found shortly. The one who would be gearing up to answer all those whom he had to ignore for so long is of course Sourav Ganguly. And we all know that he can speak. More fun in store for the Indian cricket administrators! Both on and off the field.

League gropes in the dark

Merely two days before the start of the I-League, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi painted a very sorry figure of Indian soccer.
Little over 17 months since FIFA president Joseph Blatter's first official visit to India (April 2007) with an apparent vision to take India to the next level, Football Federation president Dasmunshi and secretary Alberto Colaco were caught on the wrong foot during a press conference to launch the second I-League in Delhi on Wednesday.
Underprepared stadiums, shoddy preparation, a league committee sans a CEO and a hilarious fixture were some of the issues that emerged at a time when Indian football's bigwigs are talking about professionalism.
Leave alone "experimental" matches at the Cooperage in Mumbai, the fixtures abruptly end after the first leg. The reason for the 45-day break between the two halves of the I-League is another tournament (Federation Cup from December 4-23) and a national camp (January 2-10).
Other issues downplayed by Dasmunshi were selecting Barasat as a venue over the international class Salt Lake Stadium for five matches in the first leg, including the opener on September 26 between East Bengal and Chirag United. "Deployment of police is a problem at the Salt Lake Stadium", was all that Dasmunshi would say, without explaining how security arrangement would be any easier at Barasat, considering the fact that both areas are under West Bengal Police.
Dasmunshi added that similar arrangements were in place for the matches in Mumbai too. DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai is the "most expensive" option, and even Kolhapur is being considered as alternate venues to Cooperage. Colaco revealed that matches could be transferred to "neutral venues." He neither wanted to name these venues nor explain the reason why matches would be required to play there.
Sponsor of the I-League, oil major ONGC has also cut down the total expenditure from Rs 7 to 6 crore. This has been attributed to the "global oil crisis". However, the league will have prize money of Rs 10 lakh for the fourth-best team. The winners will take home Rs 50 lakh, the runners-up Rs 28 lakh and the third team Rs 20 lakh. The total prize money will be Rs 1.25 crore this year. The 132-match league is expected to be over in April.
Whether it was financial support for the clubs who need it, scholarship for footballers or infrastructural support for the national team that has qualified for the 2011 Asia Cup after 24 years, the AIFF president is urging corporate houses to come forward. He revealed that a separate project has been launched for the Asia Cup and a deal is expected to be clinched by next week with a corporate major in this regard, though he refused to divulge details on the progress.
When asked about the 400,000 USD grant announced by Blatter for India last year, in addition to the 1 million USD grant that every associate member gets, Dasmunshi said: "The FIFA grant is for separate purposes such as astro-turfs and getting foreign coaches and professionals."
Dasmunshi was rather candid in admitting that spotting talent, introducing football in schools and similar measures were not among the federation's concerns. He though talked about the federation's optimism about following the ‘EPL module' in conducting the I-League! There are miles to go, of course.
Blatter had talked about his motto ‘Win in India with India' and had also reemphasized India's growing importance in this part of the world. The Asian Football Confederation president Mohammad Bin Hammam had talked about how India played a crucial part in his Vision Asia project. And together, they had talked about the AIFF following their vision to lead India to the 2018 World Cup.
On Wednesday, the AIFF president asked the media "not to expect what Japan could achieve in three years from India in even five years". The second I-League would be on the AFC radar. If the AIFF fails to conduct the league professionally, following guidelines laid down by them, it may cost the country a Champions League berth. The AFC Challenge Cup heroics by Bob Houghton and his bravehearts will only go down the drain.

Desperate Measure

In a desperate bid to find the seniors’ successors, the Indian selectors’ latest contributions to the big league are Virat Kohli and S Badrinath, both of whom made their ODI debut in Sri Lanka (August 2008). While an irregular opening slot was Kohli’s shield for his hard fought efforts until he scored a 50 in the fourth match of the Idea Cup, Badri’s unbeaten 27 in an Indian run chase of 143 was hailed as a laudable effort. The Tamil Nadu batsman followed that up with 6 and 6 in the next two matches.

If the Indian performance in the Idea Cup is anything to go by, serious speculation should be the order of the day. They have struggled every bit to get to a total of 143, they have been bowled out for 258 in 49.3 overs from 224 for 3 in 41 overs, a rookie leg spinner (Ajantha Mendis) has made them dance to his tunes (a feat Abdul Qadir and Shane Warne couldn’t even dream to achieve) and they not for once looked champion material.

The least the selectors and the officials could do to provide some direction to this young bunch is add a bit of experience to the squad. It’s far easier for Suresh Raina, a tremendous prospect for India in the future to play alongside Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly than Virat Kohli and S Badrinath. And as is evident, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh would still take time before broadening their shoulders in crisis situations.

With Sehwag’s inclusion though, the Idea Cup squad seems a near perfect one. With three seniors (Sehwag, Yuvraj and Dhoni) around, the combination of Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Robin Uthappa looks not only formidable but dangerous. But if any of the three is not available, what’s the point in looking for more replacements for them from the younger lot! There is still a legendary ODI batsman in Sourav Ganguly, who has not called it a day. Does Virat Kohli justify a call ahead of Ganguly in the team? Sri Lanka though on the other hand has groomed their younger cricketers (Chamara Kapugedera for example) but for once not at the cost of Sanath Jayasuriya, the old war horse.

To say that the Indian cricket administrators and logic do not go hand-in-hand would be nothing new. Their attitude towards the game sends a clear message that things could now be taken for granted. Whatever goes on, the broadcasters and sponsors are certain to get their money back from cricket and in turn, the BCCI is certain to get richer.

The fans are left alone in the hands of Kohli and Badri, none of whom could care less as both became IPL players even before their international debut. The reactions of Niranjan Shah, the board secretary, who desperately needs to learn the art of communication, though would be interesting once this anarchy sets up its promised date with failure.

Memories from Beijing and earlier

Watching the Olympics was good fun after a long time. The first sporting extravaganza that I remember watching was the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Even Doordarshan’s animated athletes, swimmers or boxers before the events were objects of fascination then. I don’t remember much from the LA Games but the sight of Mohammad Shahid, our hockey captain has not faded. Shahid used to wear a head band, besides being a fantastic hockey player and since he was the captain, he was obviously one of my childhood sporting heroes along with Kapil Dev, Mohammad Azharuddin and some of our local football heroes.

As football is the principal sport (even now) in Calcutta, watching football matches played between any two teams on earth is a matter of great significance for us Calcuttans and thus, I was thrilled to watch India play Bahrain at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. I had earlier watched India play Malaysia at the Saltlake Stadium in Calcutta. India had won 3-nil. I don’t remember much from that match too apart from another long-haired guy, Narender Thapa who used to play in the defence. In Seoul though, the results were reversed and Bahrain pumped in all three goals with alarming regularity and clinical precision to put the match beyond India moments after it started.

From then on, watching the Indian football team was a weird, pointless sort of a habit. As for Shahid, I’d forgotten him till 2002 or 2003, when Ten Sports aired his story. Now bald, Shahid was training kids in Allahabad and he was not really doing well for himself. I can’t describe how it felt watching one of my earliest sporting heroes after almost two decades tell his forgotten story to the TV camera. About four years later, while working as the sports editor of a Bengali daily, I came to know that a former footballer, who had played for either East Bengal or Mohunbagan or both, by the name of Narender Gurung had died. Knowing how things worked with the innumerable experts in the media, I wanted them to find out before publishing the news whether it was Gurung or Thapa. No one seemed to know and since the press deadline was fast approaching, it didn’t matter after a while. I knew for sure that Pem Dorjee, one of Thapa’s contemporaries had died of cancer.

I don’t remember much from the 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 Games either apart from the heroics of Leander Paes (’96), Karnam Malleshawari (’00), Rajyavardhan Rathore (2004) and the 100m races.

In 2008 though there were things to watch, moments to savour and all-in-all, the Beijing Games were a treat for every sporting aficionado in India. Along with Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar, Vijenjder Singh, Jitender Kumar, Akhil Kumar, Anthresh Lalit Lakra, Dinesh Kumar, Saina Nehwal, Anup Sridhar, Achanth Sharath Kamal, Neha Agarwal, Dola Banerjee, Pranita Vardhineni, JJ Shobha, GG pramila, Sushmita Singharoy, Bajrang Lal Tahker, Sandeep Sejwal, Vridhawal Khade and all those who made India proud, I would also remember Sakal Bhatt, the DD Sports anchor for her mindboggling commentary. Here’s Sakal right after the men’s 110m hurdles, won by Dayron Robles of Cuba.

“We just watched the men’s 110m hurdles and what an exciting finish it was! As you saw, it was an all-American finish and the gold medal was won by a Cuban.” She went on to award the silver to David Oliver, who had won the bronze and the bronze to David Payne, who had won the silver. Both were American citizens.

What's in a name

Few days back, I received an official press release from Vijender, the boxer’s sponsors. It informed all the concerned persons that the surname of the boxer was not Kumar but Singh. It was news. We all thought that barring Anthresh Lalit Lakra, all other members of the Indian boxing contingent at the Beijing Olympics were Kumars.

If three of them (two of them Kumars, Akhil and Jitender) had not gone so far in the competition, Singh, Kumar or Kumari needless to say wouldn’t have mattered. But since the news channels had no option but give the trio more air-space than Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the sponsors thought it was their duty to rectify the mistake. It was of no use.

In the days to follow, commentators and experts kept calling the boxer Vijender Kumar. In a situation like this, it’s always risky to rectify the mistake and go with the correct name because people will think that the correct name is the incorrect one.

What if this was a cricketer? What Vijender has achieved will never be achieved by any cricketer. But in India, obscure cricketers, who probably represented India in a handful of one-day matches with their mediocrity, will be regarded as bigger names than that of Vijender or Akhil.

I was in-charge of the sports section of a weekly Bengali magazine back home in Calcutta (I prefer Calcutta over Kolkata) which later became a daily. Working for a small magazine is fun in as much as one has the liberty to do things his way. Then there was the circulation i.e the readership part. People in the circulation department used to come up with inflated figures and also used to tell us which articles or write-ups were more appreciated than the rest or the sections that were preferred over other sections. There was no reason to believe them and even though they were the smarter lot compared to the editorial guys when it came to the outside world, the editorial guys had a better upbringing to know that they were lying.

Nonetheless, readers used to call up and ‘aspiring' mass comm students used to turn up for jobs. Interacting with the readers was another funny part. Funny because firstly, it caused immense satisfaction to know that we were read. Secondly, some of these readers came across as serious ones and they used to make us wonder why the seriousness. Lol.

One of the readers called to speak to the sports editor one day. When I answered the call, he told me that he was a dedicated reader of the sports section and that he somehow couldn’t manage to get his hands on the 5th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th issue. I was overwhelmed! I promised him all the editions once he showed up at our office which he did after a couple of days. I went to the storeroom and came back with all the back issues and another special issue, not specifically asked for by him, since the cover story was on cricket and there were quite a few interesting articles. He took a look and discarded the special issue. Then he discarded some of the issues that he had previously asked for after a cursory glance. Confused, I asked him what was the deal. He said that he was looking for the sports quiz section and nothing else interested him. The issues discarded by him did not have the section. I found out that his apparent interest in our magazine had something more to it than pure readers' interest. The guy was an amateur quiz master and while the norm among them was to participate in quizzes and collect questions, he opted for the easier way.

Another reader used to write letters to the office regularly. One day, he called up and expressed his desire to meet all of us (it was me) in the sports department. This person had no vested pecuniary interests but he came armed with advices. His first advice was that Saurabh Ghoshal (the squash player) should be given more importance than Sourav Ganguly (the cricketer). I asked him, on his way back from our office, if he accidentally bumped into Ghoshal, whether he would recognize him or not. He said no. I didn’t expect a different answer.

Under these difficult circumstances, the effort by Vijender’s sponsors will have to be lauded. Knowing fully well how futile the exercise was, they did what they could for our national hero. If Vijender decides to hold a press conference at home re-emphasising the fact that he is Singh and not Kumar, we will feel a bit stupid. We laughed when a similar PC was called by Abdul Razzaq (the Pakistani cricketer) clarifying to the media that he was Abdul and not Abdur.

The way forward

The moment Vijender Singh’s 75 kg middleweight boxing semifinal bout against Emilio Correa Bayeaux of Cuba at the Beijing Olympics got over, there were all sorts of talks. Talks of satisfaction, disappointment, nationalistic and regionalistic feelings and also of the way forward. That seemed the most important of all the talks. While it would be interesting to see whether Akhil Kumar, Jitender Kumar and Vijender Singh remained in public memory, the way forward is far more complicated than what meets the eye.

It is a matter of time before the politicians start trying to extract something for them from boxing. In India, politicians who are involved in sports are the most shameless ones. They enjoy their silent presence in the arena and prefer to see the decades go by. It fails a common man’s understanding of things that why would a person go on heading a sporting body if there is no result in that sport for more than two decades! But, there is a simple answer for that too. There is no accountability and thus, administrators can get away with anything.

Two areas that seriously need to be looked into are the unwritten Indian rule of fielding over-age competitors in every age group in every discipline and the rampant use of performance-enhancing substances at the junior levels.

For some reasons best known to them, coaches who train kids in different sporting disciplines all over the country, prefer to wait for their disciples to gain in experience and be mentally prepared for the stage before they are finally pushed onto it. This is contrary to the logic prevailing anywhere else. If an athlete is not tested at the competitive level, if he is not allowed to get accustomed to the competitive atmosphere at a very early age, chances of he maturing for the highest level in due course of time are bleak. Thus, even as 14-15-16 year old athletes, gymnasts and other sportsmen continue to excel at the highest level, 15-year-olds compete in the under-13 category, 17-18-19 year olds in the under-15 category and 21-22-23 year olds in the under-19 category in India. Naturally, their development is more often than not found wanting when exposed to the highest level and from then on it is usually a story of low self-confidence.

In school, I had the eastern zone recruits in football, athletics and gymnastics of Sports Authority of India (SAI) as classmates. Competing first at the zonal, then state and then national level were their priorities, totally different from the other students, whose apparent priority was studies. One of the SAI students enquired about my knowledge on performance enhancing drugs when he came to know that my parents were doctors. I did boast of my awareness (Diego Maradona was one of our childhood gods) but had to plead ignorance when it came to details. Convinced, this classmate of mine then asked me either to ask my dad or simply steal from his stock at home the tablets the name of which he wrote in a piece of paper. I could not help him but curiosity got the better of me to ask him the reason of his desperation. Thus I came to know that the SAI students were allowed a certain number of attempts to reach the next level in the zonal-state-national hierarchy, failing which they went home.

Almost all the SAI students came from rural West Bengal and couldn’t boast of a decent financial background. If the basic expenses of any member of their families were taken care of by someone else (in this case SAI), that was a relief for the entire family. So he couldn’t possibly let go of such a ‘privilege’ so easily. I wish I could help him.

These two apart, another burning cause of concern is a proper rehabilitation program for the athletes. When a 16 year old decides to take up sports, it is a career decision for him. If he fails to make his mark after repeated attempts and decides to call it a day, there should be a well-defined plan for him in the society. And that does not mean a government job alone (every athlete is not even lucky enough to bag that and performances at the national and state level competitions are taken into account for the same). Sportsmen should be encouraged to remain in and thus help the system. A team comprising of coaches, support staff, fitness trainers, all of whom have had prior experiences of being involved in sports actively could only be the outcome of a scientific, proper and well thought out plan, a plan that does not exist in India.

It is common knowledge that the all-important factor is money. With the Indian contingent’s performance at the Beijing Games, that should start pouring in now. But money without accountability will be of no use. And more important than that would be the honest desire to change things, not the desire to get political mileage out of it. If precedents are anything to go by, one cannot be optimistic even after the brilliant performances of our braveheart boxers and the other members of the Indian contingent at the Beijing Olympics.

From cricket nation to boxing nation

Three Indian boxers in the quarterfinals at the Beijing Olympics! All three are from the famous SAI boxing hostel at Bhiwani. Well, the inclusion of ‘famous’ in the line above is the famous Indian habit of ornamenting an article with adjectives. Most people in India do not know where Bhiwani is, let alone knowing about its relationship with boxing.

Bhiwani is a district in Haryana, also known as ‘Chota Kashi’ for its temples. A district where worshipping and boxing exist side-by-side! Akhil Kumar, Jitender Kumar and Vijender Kumar, the three pugilists who have made it to the last eight in their respective categories in Beijing, have honed their skills here. While the rest of the country was busy playing cricket, this district quietly prepared its boxers. And boy, weren’t they prepared!

Akhil’s bout against the Russian world champion Sergey Vodopyanov was undoubtedly one of the greatest sporting achievements by an Indian. Trailing 2-6 at one point, Akhil fought hard to level scores and since he came from behind to lock horns with the Russian on points, the jury decided the bout in his favour. Buoyed by Akhil’s never-say-die attitude, Jitender and Vijender practically demolished their opponents in the pre-quarters.

I spoke to Vijender and Jitender in New Delhi at the send-off ceremony organized by the official sponsors for the Indian contingent. While it’s common knowledge that boxers are a bit ‘different’ than the rest of the lot, I was kind of taken aback to see the attitude of the Indian boxers. It didn’t make much sense to me till they booked those quarterfinal berths. They seemed unfazed by the lack of attention, awareness and the stupid, meaningless questions thrown at them by the self-proclaimed sports journalists. Jitender kept saying, “Ja rahe hai, medal lane ki koshish to karenge hi.” No one took him seriously. Jitender doesn’t really look the kind who inspires belief.

The shooters, who usually have the privileges of a better educational and financial background, were smarter when it came to handling the media. The suave Manavjit Sandhu or the pretty Avneet Kaur Sidhu looked more in control of things. In any case, the most was expected from the shooters and even though it was known that India did have strong boxing and archery contingents, the spotlight was always on the shooters. It could now be said that in spite of Abhinav Bindra’s historic gold medal, the shooters and archers have disappointed but the boxers haven’t.

India finally made its presence felt at the Olympics! And Bhiwani could rightfully claim its share of credit now. According to former 100m world champion Linford Christie, Olympics are not the place for team events. Rather, this is the stage where individual performers should thrive to excel. Abhinav Bindra’s gold medal would have been looked upon as a freak accident somewhere down the line had the boxers not consolidated India’s position at the Beijing Games.

A gold medal in shooting, quarterfinal exits in tennis and badminton, swimmers and rowers putting their best feet forward – the performances augur well for the future of Indian sports. And it’s doubly satisfying to see boxing of all the sports leading the Indian performance in Beijing from the front. It symbolises the fight.

Let’s be honest, I’m sick and tired of cricket, cricketers, cricket experts, cricket administrators, cricket analyses, cricket theme restaurants, cricket songs, cricket fanaticisms, cricket patriotisms and those endless drunken cricket conversations. I would be happy to see all of those replaced with boxing. I pray (though I’m not sure to whom) that Akhil Kumar remains a bigger name in India than Ashish Nehra or Vijay Dahiya. I have my loyalties towards him. We both belong to the same weight category. Well, unlike him, I stay far away from Bhiwani and its boxing rings.

'We love watching sports when we win'

A Russian world champion boxer crying after losing a bout is not a common sight. A Russian/American/Cuban/Papua New Guinean/Moldovan/Indonesian world champion/non-world champion boxer crying after losing to an Indian boxer in the pre-quarterfinal at the Olympics is unheard of! Akhil Kumar managed to achieve just that. After his bout against Russian Sergey Vodopyanov ended tied at 9-9 after four rounds, the jury decided it in favour of the Indian Railways boxer. Vodopyanov, who goes out in tears, is the world champion in men’s 54 kg bantamweight boxing.

Akhil had quite a few viewers watching him back home in India. Reason 1: It was August 15, India’s Independence Day, which is nothing more than a holiday for most. Reason 2: Abhinav Bindra won the historic gold medal (India’s first individual Olympic gold in 108 years) in 10 metre air rifle shooting only four days back. One of them, a well-meaning, responsible female citizen who otherwise does not bother about sports was all excited when I found her online right after the bout. She said, “I love watching sports when we win something.” While there is no way one can deny that results are important and nothing succeeds like success, it once again underlined the hypocrisy of Indian sports fans.

What have we won in cricket in all these years? I started following the sport in 1986-87. For a decade or so, we knew that whenever the cricket team toured abroad, it was a matter of saving the blushes more than anything else. A Test victory in away conditions, particularly in countries like Australia, South Africa and England was something that never weighed on the mind of the most optimistic one and a decent performance in the ODIs was enough to keep everyone happy.

During the same time, India started doing poorly in other popular sports such as football and hockey. The decline had started but the hockey team was still one of the best in the circuit. But as this friend of mine said, Indians had stopped watching everything apart from cricket since the country was not ‘winning’ anything. They were not winning anything in cricket too!

My generation’s passion for cricket is largely attributed to Sachin Tendulkar, a man clearly unlucky to be born in India. Why I say this is because if he had the good fortune of playing the Bhupinder Singh seniors and Paras Mhambreys and Dodda Ganeshes and David Johnsons of the world, people by now must have had stopped talking about Sir Donald Bradman or Vivian Richards. His good fortune would have continued if those names were replaced with those of the Ajit Agarkars, Venkatesh Prasads, Javagal Srinaths and Manoj Prabhakars. In spite of Navjyot Singh Sidhu’s famous quote on statistics and miniskirts, the numbers would have shut everyone up.

We grew up watching a small man who looked and behaved like a boy take up the duty to restore pride for the nation upon him without even asking his teammates once to share the burden. And who would he have asked such a favour for? Praveen Amre or Vinod Kambli! But India hardly won anything in cricket in spite of his efforts and when Sachin became the captain, the trend continued.

Then in 1996, out of the blue we found a pair of world class batsmen in Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. Make no mistake, they were not the most talented ones around. During Vinod Kambli’s days, the most refined of the cricket experts used to say that he was even more talented than Sachin Tendulkar. Kambli’s sad story of a career ended on mediocre notes.

What set Sourav and Rahul apart from the bunch was a rare mix of talent and attitude. While Indians were always a talented lot, the word attitude did not exist in their dictionary. And in due course, Sourav became the captain and it was under his captaincy we saw the ‘Dream Tream’ emerge. Everyone from Dinesh Mongia to Ashish Nehra stood up to the moment, inspired by Sourav’s aggressive captaincy. India reached the finals of almost every tournament that was played at that time, including the 2003 ICC World Cup and lost all but one.

We are not supporters, we are viewers. Several other channels will take care of our sorrows today after a last ball loss against Pakistan. One just has to follow the instructions of Darsheel (Safari) and Sonali (Bendre). We anyway never watched the World Track and Field or world championships in any other sport, even though Indians were there and winning. There were far more interesting things on Indian television.

The Africans can’t say that they love to watch anything. The long-distance running world champions produced from the poorest of the countries hardly have television viewers back home but they are still national heroes! We on the other hand choose everything from Desperate Housewives to Sarabhai vs. Sarabhai over the Olympics too.

This year it’s different. Bindra has hit the target on the 3rd day of the Games. Thus, this is Akhil and Jitender’s (Jitender too won his pre-quarterfinal 51 kg flyweight category bout after Akhil) best chance to win and make people watch. One more win will see them in the last four and then they will have two more fights for a medal. The fight is not their alone. It is for all those athletes who did not choose cricket in India.

Dreaming with eyes open !!!

I couldn’t believe it! It must have been the conspiracy that I would always be indebted to. Watching Abhinav Bindra shooting his way to history, I didn’t even realize it was the final and not the qualification round! Amidst all the action in countless number of events, irregular hours made worse by a different time zone (China in this case) and almost no expectations from the Indian contingent, I overlooked the fact that the small man was yet to achieve such a big thing! But at least, the conspiracy kept me awake at that very moment.

Even Bindra didn’t help the cause after that final shot. It was a faint, almost embarrassed smile after a millisecond that first gave me the hint that something had possibly happened. Raja Randhir Singh, Secretary General of the Indian Olympic Association and others in the Indian box didn’t know how to celebrate. They were caught off-guard. The first person to gave Bindra a hug and whose expressions told the story was ironically a white woman, probably a staff member with the Indian shooting contingent.

Abhinav Bindra gave India its first individual Olympic gold! The event – 10 metre air rifle shooting. Indians had witnessed athletes from Suriname and Ethiopia winning the Olympic gold but never one their own. The last time Jana-Gana-Mana was played at the ‘Greatest Shown on Earth’ was way back in 1980 but the credit was shared by the entire hockey team, not by an individual.

Rajyavardhan Rathore was 34 when he won the silver in Athens in 2004 in men’s double trap rifle shooting. Karnam Malleswari was 25 when she won the bronze in Sydney in 2000 in women’s weightlifting. Bindra will turn 25 in a month and a half. India now has a medal each from the last four Olympics. Leander Paes had won the bronze in men’s tennis singles in 1996. He was 23 then.

Moments after the news channel expert predicted more medals for India at the Beijing Games, news came in that Saina Nehwal, India’s best and World No. 15 female shuttler won her third round match to advance to the quarterfinal of women’s badminton singles. I think I’m dreaming! Have things finally started happening? I must immediately stop writing and start cheering Anthresh Lalit Lakra, the boxer who’s about to hit the ring!

The story of an Indian Olympian and the media

At the send-off ceremony for the Indian contingent at the Beijing Olympics, ace rifle shooter Manavjeet Singh Sandhu said that it was stupid to ask an Indian athlete how many medals he or she will win. It made sense and so did his body language or the unspoken words. He did mention the uncanny Indian affinity towards one particular sport but did not name the sport.

Our attitude towards our Olympians is funny and completely devoid of logic, let alone passion. We don’t want our kids to be sportsmen unless it’s cricket and the kid has shown extraordinary talent at a very early age, we don’t bother reading or watching non-cricket news and thus, the write-ups or the programmes on these sports are few, almost never easily visible and more often than not, written or produced with utmost callousness with scant regard for the authenticity of the information.

We prefer saas-bahu serials or the innumerable talent hunt competitions on television over the Olympics. We don’t know the names of the athletes who represent India in the Games. We almost invariably crack a joke (not realizing that the joke is on us!) when we get to know that India will have representation in judo or yachting.

We do feel happy and proud when Karnam Maleshwari wins a bronze or Rajyavardhan Rathore wins a silver medal, but it does not bother us if they fail to win anything at all. Most of us unlike the Indian Premier League (IPL), do not keep a track of the day-to-day proceedings of the ‘Greatest show on earth’ and when we are informed of our yet another dismal performance in the Olympics, our first reaction is to express astonishment at the fact that the Games are over and then to agree that there never was a chance and it was pointless to feel bad about the results.

It is so unfair to the athletes who have tried hard all their lives to make us proud. We have relegated them to the ranks of other objects of ridicule.

It is quite funny to attend these ceremonies where journalists of all size and shape behave far more important than the athletes. The representatives of the most obscure channels decide who should be interviewed and who could be given a miss and decide the language in which the interview is to be conducted by the appearance of the athlete.

This is not a blame game, me and my colleague Shreyas Sharma, two individuals genuinely interested in sports and not cricket alone, spoke to the members of the boxing team, never sure of who were we speaking to, Jitender or Vijender.

How does it feel to represent India in the Olympics? I doubt the answer could ever be found. In other words, I doubt I will ever be happy with the answers that our athletes will come up with. I believe, it is a complicated issue to grow up playing a sport, earning a berth for the Olympics and yet reaching there with no burden of expectations. But the frustration of Sandhu and others is understandable and in spite of the assurances of the thick-skinned, shameless administrators, little or nothing will change in the near future.

Doping or deviation?

When Mohammad Asif was caught at the Dubai International airport for possession of a banned substance, there were all sorts of reports. There was a report which claimed that Asif had pleaded innocence saying that the substance was given to him by a Hakim in Delhi while he was playing for the Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League. Majority of the reports claimed that he was in possession of hashish while a popular English news channel in India claimed that a white, powdered substance was found on him. The final verdict was opium. Later, the identity of the substance found on Asif stopped bothering people as it was revealed that the controversial pacer had tested positive for Nandrolone, a banned performance enhancing drug and a commonly used one at that during the IPL.

Asif and fellow Pakistani speedster Shaoib Akhtar had tested positive for Nandrolone once before and they were sent home from India. That was before the 2006 Champions Trophy. Asif got away cheaply as it was said that he had no knowledge of performance enhancing drugs. It seems that he does not believe in learning too.

Even if he didn’t know a thing about Nandrolone or performance enhancing drugs as such, he should have had a fair idea about the substance that was given to him by the Hakim, which no one is talking about anymore.

Well, Wasim Akram is talking. More interesting than the Asif saga is the former Pakistan captain’s take on it. Akram slammed Asif saying that the pacer had repeatedly brought shame to Pakistani cricket. The same Wasim Akram, who was caught smoking marijuana along with Aqib Javed, Waqar Younis and Mushtaq Ahmed on a Grenada beach during Pakistan’s tour of the West Indies in 1992-93. The same Wasim Akram, whose decision to drop himself for the 1996 World Cup quarterfinal match against India in Bangalore (now Bengaluru) gave rise to a huge controversy in Pakistan. The same Wasim Akram, who in spite of his 502 scalps in one-day cricket (highest in ODIs), finds little or no favour in his country and spends most of his time in India. Not to talk about the ball-tampering or match-fixing allegations.

Cannabis and cricket have a long history though. From Ian Botham to Herschelle Gibbs, there have been quite a few instances of smoking pot. A number of Kiwi cricketers, including their captain Stephen Fleming were banned and fined for smoking marijuana in 1993. From time to time, there have been allegations of using recreational and other drugs against cricketers. The grey area is the punishment to be meted out in such a case by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) or any governing body of sports as these drugs do not squarely fall under the category of performance enhancing drugs. The million dollar question is, whether these drugs help a cricketer or not. While cricketers indulging into such activities could be viewed as another case of deviation, there are opinions that these substances could help a sportsman albeit for a limited period.

It is high time that the governing bodies in cricket and other sports engaged themselves in finding the answer to this solution. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) could lead the way. Maybe Wasim Akram would forget some of his bitter memories concerning the PCB and provide them with an interesting insight!

The absurd IPL-EPL comparison

A domestic T20 competition on the lines of the English Premier League sure sounded good. The commercial success that the Indian Premier League (IPL) was and the response it got from all over the country were also amazing. But the comparison was far-fetched. For not only the rivalry in the EPL was never a result of a commercial venture, players giving EPL preference over international fixtures is also unheard of. That is exactly what the IPL has succeeded in achieving.

Players are understandably more willing to feature in the league and all such similar efforts rather than playing for their country. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) recently got to hear the music from its players when they decided to tour England in 2009 after Zimbabwe’s tour of England ran into troubled waters. But what Arjuna Ranatunga, the SLC chief failed to remember when he gave his word to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) was that the dates of the tour would clash with those of IPL chapter two. 13 Sri Lankan cricketers are on IPL contracts and thus, the timing of the proposed tour or the former Sri Lankan captain’s commitment was certain to come across as a bolt from the blue to the Sri Lankan players. Sri Lankan officials, who had a tough time sorting out their own contract issues with the players, had no option but to give in to the demands of the players. As of now, as things stand, SLC has verbally told its IPL players that they can choose IPL over the tour of England. Further discussions with the English officials as regards postponement of the tour is on the cards but is unlikely to yield any results. What it effectively means is that the possibility of Sri Lanka engaging themselves in an absorbing Test series in overseas conditions without their captain Mahela Jayawardene, vice-captain Kumara Sangakkara, pace spearhead Chaminda Vaas, spin wizards Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis is very high.

Indian Premier League has successfully created a conflict of interests amongst players from Sri Lanka, New Zealand and even Australia. Adam Gilchrist’s announcement of retirement from international cricket was viewed with suspicion by a section of the pundits for the same reason. With India controlling the finances in world cricket these days, this scenario probably makes sense. But other cricket boards are alarmed by the situation and with help from the likes of Allen Stanford (the Texan billionaire has taken it upon himself to revive West Indian cricket by pumping in the big bucks and is also expected to send a team to England’s domestic T20 competition) they might just succeed in putting BCCI under pressure.

Imagine a situation where Cristiano Ronaldo refuses to play for Portugal as playing for Manchester United would do a world of good to his bank account! Rest assured, the Portuguese football association, with support from other European football associations would force Man U to drop the player to teach him a lesson. But in cricket, this is a distant dream. There’s no scope of unity amongst the various cricket boards apart from areas where vested interests are involved. Moreover, if cricketers from other countries develop some kind of a loyalty towards BCCI, simply for the reason that the Indian board is apparently more concerned about their financial security than their own board, then even chaos wouldn’t be the word to describe such a state of affairs!

Justification is a just demand

Why such a name of the blog when it talks of cricket in a completely different manner? Well, the name doesn’t suggest an agenda and thus, expectations of unabashed cricket-bashing alone are certain to meet with disappointment. At the same time, the name does underline the author’s viewpoint about the sport and as the author decided that his ‘pearls of wisdom’ should be shared with others i.e he decided to publish these posts on a public forum, this justification or clarification was deemed by him as necessary.

On a lighter note, the blog was created on the author’s behalf by a blogger friend and being the lazy person that the author is, it took him three months to finally post something on it and it so happened that the first or the second post wasn’t really ‘in sync’ with the name! Apologies for the same.

Why such a viewpoint then? First, let me make it very clear that I have nothing against cricket. Like every other Indian, I spent most of my time playing cricket in the neighborhood and in school and even nurtured a dream to play for India for a while. Later I realized that cricket was not really regarded as a sport in India but much more than that. Every second-grade neighborhood all-rounder like me was imitating the mannerisms of Kris Srikkanth or the bowling action of Abdul Qadir with the secret hope that one day the neighborhood ground would be replaced with something bigger and more meaningful. In short, cricket was synonymous with ambitions.

We used to watch football, tennis and even the Olympics. In fact, we used to watch the super-heavyweight title bouts too as and when they happened. As I grew up, I didn’t even realize when the watching habits had changed. Nobody was bothered about watching the athletes showcasing their talent at the greatest show on earth anymore or nobody was perturbed by the country’s glorious past in hockey being degraded on the astro turf and even the naturally gifted footballers in the neighborhood had stopped harbouring dreams of playing for Mohunbagan or East Bengal. They had instead taken to watching NBA and Formula One. When a team comprising of school kids chose NHL (ice hockey) as their favoured topic in an open quiz, it was an eye-opener for me.

Aspirations of making it to the Indian cricket team though were and are still there.

The reasons for such cricket fanaticism are well known and the foremost reason of course is that India failed miserably in all other sports barring cricket in the last 3 decades. But it wasn’t the same always. Agreed, India never produced world class athletes apart from a couple of exceptions in the forms of a Milkha Singh or a PT Usha, who failed to live up to the expectations when the occasions demanded so. But no one needs to be reminded of the Indians’ trickery with the hockey stick and even with the football. Till the 70s, sports were taken seriously and people had a wide array of them to choose from and thus, chose the sport of their choice. Even though results were not immediate and forthcoming, there was no dearth of sincere efforts being put in.

Things started changing from the 80s. Going through the rigours of a daily schedule of a sportsman was not the order of the day anymore, as cricket, pardon me for saying this, didn’t even require its players to do so.

Cricket unlike other sports has always depended on God’s gift (read talent). Thus, pot-bellied icons are commonplace in cricket (Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, Inzamam-Ul-Haq, Arjuna Ranatunga, David Boon). And the fact that fitness is never really the top priority, at least in Indian cricket, becomes evident when 22-year-old Rudra Pratap Singh tries to bend down and pick up a ball from the boundary line.

That doesn’t mean that talent does not matter in other sports. But, those sports make sure that their players don’t lag behind as far as other important aspects like fitness or agility are concerned. In cricket though, the rules are different. Thus, one of the icons of modern cricket, Anil Kumble continues to be clueless when it comes to diving or sliding on the field even after spending more than a decade and a half in the international arena!

This I guess suits the Indians. Less work out, less rigour, fables of Gundappa Vishwanath drinking away to glory at night while a Test match was on and more rewards which talent alone could secure. It doesn’t matter if only a handful of countries are aware of the rules of the game and one of them is Bangladesh, the other one is Zimbabwe, the third one is Pakistan and the fourth one is Sri Lanka. Apart from Australia, New Zealand, England and to some extent South Africa, cricket-playing nations are miserable when it comes to other sports.

It doesn’t matter because in a country of 1 billion, making ends meet is a serious issue and cricket guarantees that if one could instinctively produce a copybook cover drive without sweating it out in the gym.

Fair enough, but this attitude does not speak highly of a nation. Sports and all of them are considered career options in most of the developed countries and they are treated like any other vocation. Just like the way one has to prepare himself for obtaining an academic degree, one has to prepare himself for an Olympic medal too, instead of depending on a ‘magic delivery’ or unbelievable ‘peripheral awareness’.

India controls the finances in cricket today and more and more cricketers would join the bandwagon. But that should not for a moment compel us to think of ourselves as a sporting nation as cricket is no sport for any or all of the abovementioned reasons. Cricket shares nothing in common with any other sport and while supporters of the game could put forward the same logic to prove what a great sport this one is, they also must wonder why it is so!

Dad of Ads

He is surely the man India is looking up to. He is what ‘Youngistaan’ wants to be. He is finally what India was yearning for all these years. Not the Rahul of Dil To Pagal Hai, who goes off to sleep in designer clothes and gurgles cola first thing in the morning, but the one who’s closer to existing concepts. One, who gets off his Mercedes outside his small hometown, gets his teammates to stick their tongues out after grabbing a catch and leads the ‘Ishtylebaaz’ pack in the locality. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is on his way to become the biggest cricketer-ad icon of the country and the latest news is that he has already put a price tag higher than that of Sachin Tendulkar at his peak on himself for a commercial! As of March 2007, MSD had 17 endorsements. Big Bazaar, Lafarge India added their names to the list ever since and Dainik Bhaskar, one of the leading Hindi dailies in the country signed him as their brand ambassador.

According to market reports, the Dhoni brand which was valued at Rs.1 Crore before the T20 World Cup final in Johannesberg in September last year, shot up to Rs. 3 Crore overnight. And it’s been on an uphill climb ever since!

The Indian ad-industry largely depends on filmstars (male actors are convincingly outnumbered by their female colleagues), who continue to portray larger-than-life images and cricketers. Understandably so, as these are the two most glamorous professions in the country. Farookh Engineer was the first cricketer on record to endorse a product and ironically, Brylcreem, the hair cream which signed Engineer three decades back, signed Dhoni too. Amongst cricketers, largely iconic figures on and off the field were chosen for TV commercials and not all of them lived up to their reputation.

Multiple factors contributed to MSD’s ad fortune. To start with, the country has become more receptive towards the depiction of normal, regular, usual, at times even mundane occurrences of life on screen (case in point, the triumph of films like Khosla ka Ghosla, Bheja Fry, Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd, Namastey London etc.). Secondly, the ad-maker’s policy of sticking to the persona of Mahi and not transforming him into a super human. To top it all, there is nothing funny about Dhoni in the commercials, whether his voice or dance steps. In fact, he turned out to be a natural actor. What must have also helped is the way Dhoni continues to carry himself on the field. His iconic stature is never evident, as if he’s just one of the rest, who’s lucky with the coin and thus, steps forward at the time of toss.

The only thing that does not match his image is his batting and needless to say, that’s the greatest contributing factor behind his success. When the boy-next-door plays those out-of-the-planet shots, Indians find strength in their belief.

All’s well that … Mr. Dhoni?

Another feather in the crown for the Prince of Calcutta. The day after Dhoni’s boys demolished Pakistan in the Asia Cup in Karachi (fastest successful Indian run chase when the target was in excess of 300), Sourav Ganguly was adjudged the Asian Cricketer of the Year and the Asian Batsman of the Year at the Castrol Asian Cricket Awards. Along with former Pakistani skipper Wasim Akram and former Sri Lankan skipper Sanath Jaysuriya, Rahul Dravid was the other jury member.

Sachin Tendulkar was adjudged the best ODI batsman and Gautam Gambhir took the honors in T20. Sri Lankan vice-captain Kumara Sangakkara and teammate Muttiah Muralitharan were the obvious choices in batting and bowling in Tests while another Sri Lankan Farveez Maharoof was picked amongst ODI bowlers.

As if to sum up the sincere and concerted effort to keep everyone in the subcontinent happy (the panel also had equal representation), the other three awards went to Pakistan. Umar Gul was given the Best T20 Bowler award, Kamran Akmal, the wicketkeeper was chosen the Best Fielder, and Hanif Mohammad was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement award.

In this day and age of cricket-corporate mishmash, another award really doesn’t mean a thing. But each and every award is special for Ganguly. In a career now spanning over 16 years, the charismatic left-hander has probably achieved more in the last one and a half years, ever since he made his fairytale comeback in international cricket, than compared to the first decade of his Test career. Most importantly, he has restored his pride and every award is recognition of his epochal battle which was deemed lost by all and sundry.

Even as we realize that there could be worthy successors in Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Robin Uthappa, it’s a tad too disturbing to cope with the fact that public memory is not only short-lived but the pace at which it travels to disappear, could be faster than that of light! The same sets of spectators, commentators and experts, who thought the seniors were indispensable only a few months back are now basking in the young brigade’s glory. Nothing wrong with that as long as the team delivers on the field. But it’s not a cultured habit to change opinions every now and then.

After all this debate, there is no denying the fact that the end of the road for not only Ganguly but the ‘Holy Trinity’ of Indian cricket is more than visible now. While there are talks that news channels are queuing up in front of their houses to bag a contract before others, even an ardent supporter would agree with the Indian manager and former South African international Gary Kirsten that the current combination of Men in Blue in 50 overs is well worth trying.

The young heroes deserve all the credit for that but Castrol Asian Cricket Awards once again underlined the illogical reasoning of Indian cricket administrators. It’s a proven fact after so many years that they depend on their sixth or seventh or maybe eighth sense when they come up with new theories and whether they will work or not is for time to decide, unlike the Australians, who follow a scientific method and thus, their theories are more often than not sound. On the other hand, if the Indian administrator’s theories don’t work, the option of swallowing his words would always be open to him. Then he has his ever-reliable friend, public memory.

Luckily for Mahendra Singh Dhoni and India, it has worked this time around. At least, that’s what it seems as of now. But one must not forget, it was the same Suresh Raina, who flattered to deceive in his first stint with international cricket under Greg Chappell. There are still areas to work on, still question marks over a lot of things, one of them being whether the T20 World Cup winning captain is an automatic choice in Tests or not. Alok Kapali, the Bangladeshi batsman scoring his maiden international hundred against India in Asia Cup and the Tigers putting up a fighting total also calls for introspection. Finally, even with the average age of the players dropping down to 22-23, India is far from a great fielding side like Sri Lanka, let alone Australia or South Africa. Dhoni’s job right now would not only be to maintain the sensible head that he was blessed to be born with, but also not to allow the Rainas and the Uthappas get carried away after the limited success that has come their way.