Allan Donald (left) floors England batsman Mike Atherton with a bouncer

Trent Bridge, Nottingham. Day 4. Third session of play. England need 247 to win and level the series. It’s a cold day, the kind of day when the sound of the willow striking the leather resounds throughout the ground. The scoreboard reads 82/1. Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain, comrades since times unknown, have been batting quite well so far, punishing the sporadic loose deliveries. This is a key partnership, and the South Africans know it. Hansie Cronje decides to bring back the tormentor-in-chief, Allan Donald, who is at his unforgiving best. “Around the wicket”, announces umpire Steve Dunne, rather insipidly. Atherton, batting on 27, receives a stinging bouncer from Donald which climbs on to him, much like a quick jab aiming for the face. Surprised, Atherton writhes and takes his eyes away from the ball, which catches a good portion of his gloves on its way to Mark Boucher. The South Africans shout in unison, but Dunne is unmoved and so is Atherton, who has the audacity to stay put on the crease, coldly so. Donald, standing in disbelief, is visibly livid. What follows is one of the most gruelling duels in Test cricket in which Atherton bears the brunt of Donald’s fury even though the former comes out as the victor in the end. Donald hurls ferocious bouncers at Atherton, aiming for the body every time. And to rub some salt into the wound, he accompanies them with his intimidating glare and the customary pleasantries he has reserved especially for Atherton. This, ladies and gentlemen, is how the world remembers the legend of Allan Anthony Donald – the White Lightning.

Today, as he sits in the Pune Warriors India dug-out, he inspires a calm quite unlike the fear he created in the minds of the opposition players back in the nineties. Widely regarded as South Africa’s only world-class bowler when they were readmitted into the Test roster back in 1992, he carried this mantle for over half a decade till the emergence of a young Shaun Pollock, with whom he formed a lethal combination, towards the late nineties. A tall, intimidating frame steaming in towards the pitch, sending down yorkers ripping through the air or some really quick short ones angling into the body, was a sight every batsman dreaded.  As Sir Geoffrey Boycott would have aptly put it, just like he did for Shane Warne, that the best way to combat Donald would be to ‘get a single down the other end and watch someone else play him’. 

The physical attributes were there for all to see. Being a natural athlete, Donald never had the longest of run-ups, which invariably helped him in maintaining his high and slightly open action. He had the knack of moving the ball away from the right-handed batsmen at will, both through the air and off the pitch. When not keeping the ball in between the chest and the chin of the batsman, Donald mostly kept it fuller than most other bowlers, which is probably the reason why most of his dismissals were either getting the batsmen bowled, or LBWs.

The great Michael Holding once said that ‘when you have the capability of hurting someone, that person is not thinking about how to play the ball…he is thinking of self-preservation.’ The intention is never to inflict pain, but to induce helplessness in the batsman, and Donald’s bowling was true to this school of thought. In one torrid spell during the Sydney Test in 1997, Steve and Mark Waugh were at the receiving end of some disconcerting bounce generated by Donald. Even though they got the better of the opposition, they were really softened up by the sweet chin music they received from Donald. Steve Waugh would later go on to praise Donald as one of the best he ever faced.

Donald never had the luxury of Dale Steyn, who has the likes of Philander and Morkel supporting him. In fact, till the time Pollock broke into the scene, Donald was effectively the lone wolf on the hunt by himself. Inevitably, he was over-bowled and was plagued with injuries towards the fag end of his career, consequently retiring from Test cricket in 2001. Owing to the ban imposed on South Africa from international cricket, and with the injuries bothering him, he could never achieve that statistical greatness which his contemporaries went on to reach; but with a wicket every 47 balls, he was certainly more than effective.

He stirred up the souls, as much by his bowling as by his hot-bloodedness. In 1997, during a game at Durban, a fresh-faced, gentle-looking Rahul Dravid bore the wrath of Donald’s frustration when he tore Donald’s bowling apart. Donald would later describe this incident in his autobiography – ‘I walked right up to him, face to face, and snarled, ‘This isn’t such a f****** easy game’ and the TV cameras had me in close-up, with everyone lip-reading my words. Dravid’s eyes lit up when he saw me standing so close, and the Durban crowd absolutely loved it’. This was just his way, going no-holds-barred that is. Away from the field, Donald was just as human as anyone else. After the Nottingham Test, as Atherton writes in his book Opening Up, he and Donald buried the hatchet over a round of beer they shared in the dressing room where Atherton duly signed those ill-fated gloves and handed them over to Donald years later for his benefit year auction.

Donald is from the golden generation of fast bowlers which featured the likes of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Courtney Walsh, Curtley Ambrose, Shaun Pollock and Glenn McGrath, and is definitely an equal among them, if not better. For the ones who grew up watching great fast bowling in the nineties, South African cricket’s success will always be synonymous with the image of a passionate man wearing the famous white zinc cream, which accentuated his fervid gaze, running wild with his arms aloft after knocking off the stumps and, sometimes, the toes too.

]]> http://www.sportskeeda.com/2013/05/16/allan-donald-when-lightning-struck/feed/ 0 079650 http://www.sportskeeda.com/2013/05/05/suresh-raina-the-super-king/ http://www.sportskeeda.com/2013/05/05/suresh-raina-the-super-king/#comments Sun, 05 May 2013 12:16:25 +0000 Ankit Bareja http://www.sportskeeda.com/?p=1633808

Suresh Raina, the quiet force behind the success of Chennai Super Kings

The only thing constant in life is change and so has been the case for most of the franchises in the Indian Premier League, except Chennai Super Kings whose core group has remained relatively the same throughout all the editions of the league. One name which provides this element of constancy to the CSK line-up is Suresh Kumar Raina. He may not have the swagger of Gayle, the brashness of Kohli or the class of Rohit Sharma but he is there, in the right place at the right time. Much like his teammates Michael Hussey and M.S. Dhoni, he is the go-to guy for the Super Kings.

Struggling against the short ball, Raina could manage only 27 runs in 7 innings in England.

At 26, he has the the better part of his career left to prove himself in Test cricket, although no one can take that 120 off 192 balls against Sri Lanka on debut away from him. At one point, it seemed he had cemented his place in the playing eleven, until England happened. During that much forgettable tour of England, Anderson and co. literally toyed with him. Caught up in ducking the short-pitched deliveries, Raina hardly moved his feet and succumbed to the ones moving outside off, eventually getting caught a number of times in the slips. It was the same story everywhere during that tour which he rounded off with a pair (surprisingly, getting out to Graeme Swann both the times at The Oval), eventually losing the spot in the Test squad. But that was then. In the meanwhile, he did continue his good run in the ODIs and made up quite a lot for his failure in the Tests with a ‘Man of the Series’ performance against the same English attack when they toured India.

Raina, exulted after scoring his maiden IPL century

On April 30 that year, after hitting the ball past cover for four, Raina raised his arms to celebrate what he thought would be his maiden IPL century only to find out later that the electronic scoreboard had got it all wrong. Not realising that he hadn’t reached three figures (still on 98), Raina scooped the next ball to backward point, eventually getting caught. Maybe, it just wasn’t meant to be that day. Four years later, he stood again on that bridge which he hasn’t been able to cross. This time, he didn’t leave it to technology. While on 97, he took a double off the next ball. He ran hard, shouted to the non-striker for a second, almost snatching those two runs from the claws of destiny and reached home safely. He realized he had finally made it. He played a safe shot the next ball and reached that elusive landmark with a single, in the process becoming the first Indian score a century in IPL this season.

It may have taken him 4 years to achieve this milestone but it’s very apt that he got it at Chepauk. In that sweltering unforgiving Chennai heat, he played an innings so typical of him. He drove, he cut, he lofted and ran indefatigably. By the end of his innings, the yellow jersey had a tinge of brown, testimony to the diving efforts he made on the pitch. His doggedness is typical of someone who has spent his grooming years in the tough environment of the Sports College in Uttar Pradesh, where due to the lack of facilities, the only way to make it big is to have an unyielding determination.

It’s like the coming of age for a guy who started alongside the likes of Hayden, Fleming, Hussey and Dhoni as a 21 year old in IPL and through these 6 seasons, graduated higher up the ranks. A lot of credit for this is attributed to the trust shown by the leadership in his abilities as a T20 player. How his Test career turns out still remains to be seen but when he is bleeding blue or blazing yellow, he is in a realm of himself. For the Super Kings, he has arrived to the party finally this season and he sure does look to make the most of it.

For an average cricket fan, ‘sledging’ would be a Gambhir-Afridi duel adorned with the choicest of expletives but digging deeper, sledging, as Steve Waugh has carefully put it in words, is a practice of ‘mental disintegration’. In a way, it is the constant pestering which gnaws at the mind of the batsman up to a point that he yields his wicket. Test cricket depends heavily on mental strength which needs to be maintained throughout the five days of play and sledging provides an additional strategy to unsettle the opposition. A perfect example would be Andrew Flintoff bullying Tino Best, who is known for his love for slogging. Before the delivery, Flintoff shouts from behind, “Watch the windows Tino!” and egged on by the sarcasm, Best comes forward, takes a swing at the ball and clearly misses it, only to be stumped out by Geraint Jones.

Sometimes, sledging tends to border on the lines of personal abuse. Just like no one talks about the Fight Club, there is an open secret that no one crosses the line while sledging. It got very ugly when Glenn McGrath, after going for 21 runs in 2 overs, went to Ramnaresh Sarwan and quipped, “What does Lara’s d*** tastes like?” to which Sarwan replied, “I don’t know, ask your wife.” Unfortunately, Jane McGrath was undergoing treatment for cancer at that time and despite Sarwan having no malicious intent , McGrath took it personally and threatened Sarwan, saying that he will rip his “f***ing throat out”. At the end of the day, the human factor does come in and unfortunately, the players do go overboard.

Right or wrong, sledging has given another dimension to the competitiveness involved in the sport and the Aussies have certainly mastered it as well as they have the other aspects of the game. The Australian team of 1974-75 was named ‘the Ugly Australians’ for their relentless fast bowling and sledging. Wisden reported that ‘behind the batsmen, Rod Marsh and his captain Ian Chappell would vie each other in profanity.’ Even Australian Rules Football has terms like ‘unsociable football’ and ‘sledging’. Perhaps, the Aussies like approaching every sport with a blatantly aggressive demeanour. Obviously, the players avoid getting the war of words off-limits, so much so that the officials do not have to intervene.

What Shane Warne did last week isn’t typically sledging. It was simply going over the top. Wearing an audible microphone and swearing at Samuels was uncalled for. The Big Bash League, a format as theatrical as the name itself, is telecasted during prime time, apparently targeting the young ones as the audience. Given that Warne’s personal Test or ODI career is over, he should just stick to giving it back to the game.

There have been players who don’t really endorse sledging or remain unfazed when sledged. Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid or Curtly Ambrose – they embody a mental strength which doesn’t waver when faced with disparaging remarks. There’s more to it than what meets the eye. If done with a little subtlety, pun and ingenuity, sledging is an art. It brings out the true character of the players. The quips, the friendly banter or even sometimes being a tough guy would be accepted if done in the ‘right’ spirit. Dennis Lillee had a sledge that he employed against many batsmen. He would say, “I can see why you are batting so badly, you’ve got some s**t on the end of your bat”. On hearing this, the batsman would flip his bat to check, to which Lillee would respond, “Wrong end mate”. In another famous incident, Daryll Cullinan was on his way to the wicket when Warne told him that he had been waiting 2 years for another chance to humiliate him. Cullinan, out of nowhere retorts, “looks like you spent it eating”. This chirpiness definitely lights up the field and may sometimes enhance the camaraderie between the individuals.

Ben Johnson, who clocked 9.79 seconds at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, world-record at that time, was later disqualified for testing positive for stanozolol.

Picture this. It’s the 100m finals of the 2032 Olympics. The world stands on its feet to witness the biggest showdown of the sporting world. Amidst the deafening cheers and a thousand sparkling camera clicks, we have 8 great runners lined up to chase their dream. The world record stands at 8.5 seconds. Each one of them has timed sub 9 seconds in their heats and surprisingly none of them belongs to the sub-Saharan ethnicity. This race is a celebration of the human form, albeit a human form tweaked by the human himself.

Yes, we live in a world which aggrandizes the acts of testing the thresholds of the human mind, body and soul and where science and technology play God. And if this trend continues, doping may become a norm and sporting events like this race a commonplace.

Denying the pervasiveness of doping in modern sports would be fatuous and to accept it as inevitable without taking any action wouldn’t be any less foolish. We live in a testosterone-driven society where athletes are gunning for high stakes (Cristiano Ronaldo‘s net worth is $160 million). Speaking at a press conference in Paris on Monday, David Howman, director – general of WADA, said that “with $25-30 million, WADA’s budget is less than some European footballers earn” and that “WADA isn’t in a position to tackle this type of sophisticated cheating.” So does that mean we continue living in a paradox? Should we legalize certain performance enhancing drugs rather than putting the names of the ‘disgraced’ athletes in the hall of shame?

It’s a bit like arguing whether marijuana be legalized or not. In a world where athletes succumb to performance pressure by consuming drugs procured from unknown sources, wouldn’t it be better to legalize certain drugs and monitor their consumption by the athletes in a controlled and transparent way? This way, the unforeseen health hazards (through unknown drugs) posed to the athletes can be prevented. Another aspect is the clandestine forces conspiring for personal interests. Gabriela Battaini-Dragoni, assistant secretary-general of the council of Europe aptly puts it, “the economic stakes are high and therefore give rise to corruption through illegal betting and match-fixing. There is complicity in everything criminal around sport and that impacts on doping and performance.” Also, keeping aside the physical effects of doping and the moral issues involved, one may argue that body suits and other sporting equipment are in no way different in giving an unfair advantage to one athlete over others. Basically, it all boils down to where we slack off ethically.

Lance Armstrong was stripped of all his seven Tour de France titles earlier this year.

Morally, doping is a strict NO. Even if one of the athletes is doped, it’s an insult to the others who are fighting it out clean. Despite a lot of naysayers, the USADA intended to prove the same when they laid allegations on Lance Armstrong of helping run the most sophisticated doping program in sports within his US Postal Service and Discovery Channel teams even though they did so on the testimony of other cyclists who doped themselves. The point is that Armstrong, despite his larger than life aura of being a cancer survivor helping millions fight a similar battle, isn’t bigger than the game. As much as we love our sporting heroes, we wouldn’t wait to turn a blind eye to their feats if we knew beforehand that they were doped because in our eyes, sports stands for everything utopian. Therefore, for the sake of providing a level playing field and keeping the image of sports clean, doping should be banned completely.

In gene doping, the genes are modified artificially to make an athlete adept at a particular sport or activity.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever – John Keats

True to these golden words, they take to the field, not like fiery gladiators in a colosseum, but with a nonchalance of their own and entertain us with their craft. They are as vibrant as they play – fancy hairstyles, funny histrionics et al. They may not be ‘conventional’ in the true sense of the word, but who is these days. It’s almost like an air infused with the calypso and reggae when they play. They have a style - unconcerned but not naive. Their aura may not be like that of the seventies any more, but they still got a charm  for which a modern day cricket lover would fall for.

From the past till the present, it’s always been a one West Indies – a fearless one. Be it the four-pronged pace attack who sent shivers down the spine of the batsmen or a certain unkempt Viv Richards walking with a swagger, chewing a gum and unleashing his power on the bowlers or the brutal Chris Gayle whose fury we witnessed in the last match against Australia. But it’s not a purposed aggression, it’s probably their way. They are neither noisy like the Aussies or the English nor larger than life celebrities like the Indians; they are in a realm of their own. They let their game do the talking – be it the likes of the ‘Big Bird’ Garner or the man of few words, Curtly Ambrose. It may take some time before we take these names and those of the present players in the same breath but this T20 World Cup may just be the start.

Apart from the game, the West Indies cricket team has always had some importance attached to them. As the director of the movie Fire in Babylon Stevan Riley aptly puts it in an interview; the team of the eighties provided this sense of escape from the monotonous English cricketers because they were so full of life and characters in themselves. For many, they were a symbol of an ethnic and a cultural uprising as the West Indies trounced England 5-0 in 1984 and the series was consequently dubbed as the ‘blackwash’. As the former Jamaican prime minister Michael Manley puts in his book, A History of West Indies Cricket – “the focus for the longing of an entire people for proof: for proof of their own self-worth, their own capacity . . . What better place than to advance this proof than in cricket?”; such was the people’s allegiance back in those days when they took on their former colonial rulers. We live far from those times now and even though the game isn’t as popular in the Caribbean now, the present West Indian outfit surely knows how to live up to the moment and cheer up the crowd.

Their flamboyant celebrations – the chicken dance, a wrestler’s imitation or the whole team jigging to Gangnam Style – show us that cricket is just a game at the end of the day and the best way to approach it, well at least T20 cricket, is to enjoy it. They bring that fun element to the table – no wonder that some of the West Indian islands rank consistently high up on the Happy Planet Index (HPI). The sight of Gayle and Pollard breaking into a laughter after demolishing a bowler isn’t an act of condescension, it just shows how confident they are. Anyone can hardly guess that these players were embroiled in a bitter clash with the West Indies Cricket Board(WICB) a few months ago.

They may be a mere shadow of their former self but for a format like T20 cricket, they have the perfect ingredients. The way they made a mockery of the Australians in the semi-final underscored why they were given the tag of favorites before the tournament. Going by this tournament, a good captain, a carrom ball spinner and a few batsmen who can clear the ropes at their will – is what all you need and the Windies surely have all the arsenal in their backyard. Cometh the final of the T20 world cup on Sunday, they will be facing a team as ‘unconventional’ as themselves but probably a tad more disciplined. Also, the Lankans will have a massive home support on their side. It will be interesting to see how their big guns approach a game of such intensity.

Having not won any silverware since the 2004 Champions Trophy, they will be desperate to lay their hands on this T20 World Cup. They may have struggled in test cricket and even in one day cricket in the modern times but with the IPL experience, players like Pollard, Bravo, Narine and not to mention, Gayle make for a perfect T20 team. Whether it’s a dawn in the making for West Indian cricket or a sheer fluke, time will only tell but for now, they look as good on paper as the guys from the other island nation. Let’s hope the West Indies live up to the expectations and bring the glory days of calypso cricket back.

Will this win be able to bring a revolution in Indian Football? Has the ‘game begun to change’? I would say the change had already started; it now looks more pronounced with this epic event. Every sports needs that one elephantine moment of shocking glory to get the country off their chairs and start taking notice. Hardly anyone would have thought that the underdogs, Kapil’s Devils, stood a chance against the mighty West Indies in the 1983 World Cup final at Lord’s eventhough we had defeated them in the group stages. But we did pull it off and hence started the love affair of Indians with cricket. Without the likes of Samuel Eto’o, Alex Song et al, Cameroon’s wasn’t the best squad but who cares. The 40,000 strong crowd at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and the millions (or maybe lakhs) who watched on TV witnessed history in the making – the dawn of a new era.

Bob Houghton is gone, so is the long standing talismanic skipper Bhaichung Bhutia who announced his retirement earlier this year. We have a new coach, the Dutch Wim Koevermans. Within just 5 weeks of taking over the reins, he has definitely passed the litmus test.  It’s still early days for him at the job but it will be interesting to see if he tries to apply the the Dutch style of totalvoetball (Total Football) unlike Houghton’s era where we saw long-playing balls even though he may need a more talented squad for that. As of now, he needs to work with this decently talented yet highly spirited Indian team and try to qualify for the AFC tournament.

Talking of the squad, we may be ranked 168th in the FIFA rankings but the heart with which the boys played in the final was truly world-class. Sticking to the coach’s advice has been the key to this success and skipper Sunil Chhetri was quick to recognize that after the match. He also accepted that this current team may not be the sharpest of all but they are eager learners. It’s an uphill task from now considering that the expectations will always be higher whenever they step out on the field. The younger players like Gourmangi Singh, Nirmal Chhetri, Raju Gaikwad and Robin Singh stepped up to the occasion and stalwarts like Clifford, Pereira and Subrata Paul chipped in as well. What we need now is greater exposure at the international level. With Chhetri already playing for Sporting Clube de Portugal B and several others trying out frequently for clubs abroad, things do look positive even though they may happen at a snail’s pace.

Well, it’s not about the foreign clubs per se. If we can improve our very own I- league with more corporate involvement and better infrastructure, things will certainly be better. With IMG – Reliance signing a 15 year contract with the AIFF and planning a IPL like football event next year, Indian football is seeing a paradigm shift. This event has met with brickbats from the clubs because of it being planned to be held after a grueling 8-10 months of the I-league. Eventhough they may be right in planning so, given a chance, a shorter and more glamorous event can ignite the interest of even the ones who haven’t followed the game before – just like the IPL. And if it really becomes popular, I-League will surely start getting its due importance. The only skepticism is that it may devour the whole I – league format. But we need to give it a chance for the sake of the game.

Sunday’s Nehru Cup win will always be etched in our minds as a revolutionary event. Everything is poised for Indian football now – we are winning, money is flowing in, people are taking notice. It’s the time to be patient and work towards improving the state of the game as a whole. As for now, we can celebrate the success of the Indian team’s heroics on Sunday night. In a way, it was a day of two Dutch men too, one who was achieving glory and the other…ah wait, never mind.

]]> http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/09/03/indian-football-let-the-change-begin/feed/ 5 564319 http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/08/13/olympic-success-back-to-the-future/ http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/08/13/olympic-success-back-to-the-future/#comments Mon, 13 Aug 2012 06:39:57 +0000 Ankit Bareja http://www.sportskeeda.com/?p=590309 This month saw the most celebrated romance of mankind, a $14 billion one, with sports. The Games of the XXX Olympiad, or simply put the 30th edition of Olympics, saw the grandeur of individualism, solidarity and most of all patriotism notwithstanding the fact that it burnt a deep hole in an already lagging British Economy.

As anticipated, it was the sporting powerhouses who notched up the top honours. Talking of patriotism, we never got to sing our national anthem but thanks to Xin Wang’s injured knee, we did prove Goldman Sachs wrong by winning 6 medals and not 5 which the investment bank had predicted. We could have done with a gold or two but nevertheless, it was more than a decent outing for Team India as it was our best performance ever in the history of the Olympics and things can only get better from this point onward.

Frankly, how much silverware is good enough a parameter for success in Olympics for us? Is it 20, 50 or 100 medals? Being a patriotic Indian, I would say as much as we can and in whichever event we can. Is it possible? Definitely. The Chinese won their first Gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles games and since then have performed tremendously well in each edition of the games even though the backbreaking training of their athletes under an authoritarian government regime raises questions. Well, sports isn’t about forceful imposition by rule on individuals to claim some kind of political authority on the world. Rather, it’s about the vindication of the valiant efforts of those passionate ones who really give it their all for those resplendent moments which will be etched in the human minds till eternity. And probably that’s the reason why we see so many athletes from these so called ‘small towns’ of India who with their grit and determination capture a billion hearts.

Even though our love-hate relation with the government will continue, we can’t do away with it. It has a huge role to play if India wants to get better at the games. It’s very heartening to see the sports minister Mr. Ajay Maken announcing that apart from the cash prizes, all the medalists in the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and the World Championships will be promoted as Grade A employees which is an Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer rank and all the Olympians will get an officer grade job with the Sports Authority of India (SAI).

This is definitely encouraging for the younger crop from the lesser fortunate economic strata who are coming up in sports which are financially not viable as steady career options. But this shouldn’t sound like a cover-up act for the work the government didn’t do and should have done. Pullela Gopichand, who runs his own academy, shelled out Rs. 52 lakhs from his own pocket to train the likes of Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap. Also the Indian walkers, Basant Bahadur Rana and Irfan KT had to buy their own kits after SAI failed to do so. The government can’t just wash off its sins.

There are many issues which it needs to sort out as soon as possible. The government may do its bit but can never ingrain a culture of sports among the people. This is where the private sector should play it’s hand. The Indian Premier League is a prime example of this. In an already cricket crazy nation, the amount of interest it generated was beyond our imagination. It gave a platform to players who could never play for the national teams of their countries. Also, who can forget the glitch-free Formula 1 race at the Budhh International Circuit which really put us up there in the global sports circle. Like the USA where sports is a privately owned business, the private sector in India should start playing an active role in sports other than Cricket also. TCS and HDFC recently joined hands to form Kids Out Of Home ( KOOH), a philanthropy for profit organisation, where the school outsources it’s sports education to them.Start-ups like this definitely see the basic problem even if its for profit’s sake.

The root cause is the sorry state of physical education in schools throughout the country which needs to be addressed seriously. All said and done, great success in sports can’t be achieved without the best sports management. Mary Kom‘s coach could not accompany her to London because he did not have the International Boxing Association (AIBA) 3 Star Certification, a pre-requisite for accreditation. There is a huge opportunity lying for corporates to get themselves involved in sports management – be it coaching, talent management, medicine, journalism, marketing, etc. If we want our athletes to be world class, we need to provide them amenities which are world class. Like the west where sports management is a lucrative opportunity, we need the elite institutions in India to teach it as a vocational course. The incentive here is the amount of employment this field can generate if India starts excelling at sports which are followed the world over.

We can either be cynical and rot in hell by saying that a ‘one-sport country’ of a billion plus people can get only a paltry prize from the Olympics or we can take a baby step ahead and work towards making our nation a dominant force to reckon with in the world of sports. And before the likes of Yogeshwar Dutt and Vijay Kumar fall into the curse of oblivion, we need to take serious measures to get a better showing at the Rio 2016 games. Every Olympics is like an alarm call for us. Let us not put this one into a snooze mode.

Lack of popularity and accessibility to the common man notwithstanding , we do have our own Golf heroes. Our man Jeev (Jeev Milkha Singh), the highest ranked Indian in the world, recently won the Scottish Open. He deserves all the credit for creating a name for himself given that he carries a legacy from his athlete father who is one of India’s most revered Olympian. Having qualified for the British Open, Singh’s next aim is to win a major and he certainly shows a lot of mettle to do so. Also, Jyoti Randhawa (husband of actress Chitrangada Singh) and Arjun Atwal have been instrumental in giving India a face in the international Golf circuit with the latter becoming the first India born player to become a member of and later win a tournament on the PGA Tour. Apart from them, a number of Indian golfers (SSP Chowrasia, Chiragh Kumar) are picking up quickly both in the domestic and the international tours and things only look better if not the best for Indian Golf.

These men come from the affluent strata of the society. But every sport has it’s rags to riches stories too. The fairy tale of Ashok Kumar, the Bihar boy, who took the local Golf circuit by storm is as original and inspiring as any Hollywood movie. The caddie turned pro would sneak in and practice when there would be no one on the field and one fine day, as the Gods had scripted it for him, would become a champion in the PGTI tour. This does prove that the game needs passion, not just the money. What we need is an increased exposure of the sport across all echelons of society. Indian Golf is doing fine but for it to break into the top league, all we need is a champion, probably a major winner, who can become an icon for the youth pursuing professional Golf and probably then we can transcend the financial barrier and look at it as just another sport.

In the meanwhile, we can lay claim to our fifteen seconds of fame. Just like Football, we boast of one of the oldest Golfing culture. Our very own Royal Calcutta Golf Club, founded in 1829, is probably the oldest outside United Kingdom. In 1955, The Indian Golf Union was established which took over the reins of Indian Golf from the Royal Calcutta Golf Club. In 1964,  the inaugural Indian Open which was graced by the great Australian Peter Thomson who was a triple champion here. Subsequently, the event became a part of the Asian Golf Circuit, the predecessor of the Asian Tour and with Ali Sher’s victory in 1991, Golf took a paradigm shift becoming a decent career option. The PGA of India was established in the year 1988 and in 2006 was re-christened as the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI). Since then the number of events in the tour have been increasing.

With the major real estate developers of India sponsoring Golf events in India, things can only move forward for the game. Also, with the ever expanding incomes of our middle class, these developers have now started providing Golf courses in the residential areas. Even if it’s for the sake of lifestyle, the game can lure the younger generation. We may well see some prodigious talents in the times to come. We may not hit a hole-in-one right away, but definitely have to tee off the process. 

It’s a grand slam, that season of the year when history repeats itself. Like a pack of cards, they fall. On Monday went the favourite, Sharapova. On Tuesday departed last year’s semi – finalist Lisicki and the defending champion, Kvitova. And surprisingly (or not), it’s just the quarters that were completed this week. Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki look like mere shadows of their past. Women’s tennis looks like a far cry from that of the opposite sex. Barring the decibels, latest fashion trends and magazine covers, it has only become insipid.

Of course the talent is there, the intensity is there and the nerves too but for an average joe, the thing which seems to be missing is the sheer dominance and the grueling rivalries for which the game of Tennis is famous for. Since June 2009, the No. 1 spot in the WTA rankings has been occupied by 10 different players. Each has had her slice of the cake but none has really taken that leap into greatness. Azarenka promises a lot but it’s still early days for her. Serena Williams, still going great, is in the dusk of her career and hasn’t won a major in 2 years now. So the onus is on the new crop to revive the glory of the yesteryears of women’s Tennis.

The Comparison

Comparing men’s and women’s tennis is like comparing apples and oranges. Unlike other sports, Tennis is definitely a woman’s game too. It is not about 3 sets or 5; it is about consistency and perseverance. Such has been the brilliance of the men’s top 4 that 3 out of the top 4 have always made it to the semis in the last 4 majors whereas in the women’s game, these spots have been occupied by players ranked as low as 92. Actually, it’s not about the statistics per se. It just shows what the game lacks; a few good men..err..women. The arrival of Djokovic only added fuel to the fire and we now have a 3 way rivalry which is more exciting than ever. If only we can have a Federer-Nadal or a Djokovic-Nadal kind of dominance, women’s tennis would be so much better to watch. The last decade did have a stamp of authority laid down primarily by the Williams sisters, Justin Henin, Maria Sharapova and occasionally by Kim Clijsters. But given the retirements and the injuries, they have paved the way for the new players who are still trying to find their feet. Maybe, a Sharapova-Azarenka battle can transpire in this decade if Azarenka can keep upto her potential.

The Past and The Present 

If it was Billie Jean King in the late 60s and early 70s, it was Chris Evert in the late 70s and early 80s. Then came Navratilova, who is touted as the ‘greatest singles, doubles and mixed doubles player who’s ever lived’ by Billie Jean herself. Among the 3 of them, they won 48 grand slam singles.

The 80s and 90s saw Steffi Graf (22 singles majors) and Monica Seles (9 singles majors) rise to prominence. The late 90s saw Martina Hingis (5 singles majors) popping up into attention. It was like a beautiful evolution from one champion to another and in between that evolution were fierce battles which enchanted one and all. No man has ever won as many majors as Evert, Navratilova or Graf. Such was their greatness that it overwhelmed the crowd and people’s love for Tennis transcended the gender. And as my parents tell me, just like taking sides with Agassi or Sampras, people took sides with Graf or Seles.

Cut to the present, it’s a new player every tournament and you keep guessing about who is this new kid on the block. With Venus’ career marred by injuries and Clijsters to retire after the US Open this year, it’s only Serena who now is the lone ranger from the last decade having won double the number of titles won by players  ranked 1 to 10 combined.

It wouldn’t be a surprise if she wins but then it wouldn’t be a surprise otherwise also. Anyway, the men’s Wimbledon quarters ended on Wednesday and as always it’s going to be another nerve-wracking round of semis with 3 out of top 4 progressing. As for the women’s singles, this Wimbledon looks promising and may be a precursor of things to come with 2 out of the top 4 and Serena Williams in the semis. Maybe Williams can be that old captain of the ship along with her commanders in the form of Sharapova, Azarenka and even Kvitova and take women’s Tennis to the shores of success.

Beer and Football, what can get better than that? As consumerism flourishes in India, Pub Culture has become vogue and when combined with the beautiful game, we have a winner. It has brought those Indians who literally never watched the game(forget playing) to start rooting for their favorite teams. It’s the latest cool quotient. But then, this article isn’t about alcohol, it’s about Football. Nevertheless, if it helps bring Football into contention and saves a certain Mr. Mallya from bankruptcy, a job well done I say. Wearing a Rs. 3000 Barcelona jersey to a pub doesn’t make you the next Xavi, it just shows how rich you are. But then, Football isn’t just a rich man’s game. It’s a game for all and sundry and that’s why we love it.

We boast of one of the oldest football tournaments in the world, courtesy the British of course. We lapped up everything they had to offer – their language and Cricket being the major ones. But post the 50s and 60s, the game of Football only saw deterioration. In Kerala, West Bengal and Goa, people are still fanatical about it. In a Cricket frenzied nation, these states still bear the burden of keeping those embers glowing. But that’s where the buck stops. The fire still seems to be missing.

With a huge following of the English Premier League and the recently concluded UEFA Euro, we are not short on supporters. That’s the beauty of the game, that sitting miles away, we support European clubs and countries whose matches we may never be able to see in person. That’s packaging at it’s best. Obviously we love it because of the players, but then it wouldn’t have been possible without the broadcasters who make the stadiums look like a modern day Colosseum and the players like gladiators. If it takes commercialization of the game for us to follow it, so be it. Of course, together with the money, we need to up the talent bank, the infrastructure and our very own I-league. An allegedly rigged league(read IPL) can be followed so much in India; it shows that we are a sports loving country. It’s very ambitious to talk about it but if can have another Team India competing against the very best at a World Cup, imagine the sheer joy that it will bring to the nation. With big brands talking about changing the game and European powerhouses setting up football academies, things do look positive and who knows, maybe in another 15 to 20 years we can give Spain a run for their money. As for now, we can have another pint and bask in the glory of the Spaniards.