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.

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!