Watching an IPL Match

IPL at Vizag

I have always loved my cricket, so it was a pleasant surprise when my husband asked me to accompany him to a cricket match at Vizag. I have been unaware of the IPL goings on for the past couple of years. I don't really remember the reason the interest just petered off. Was it when Chennai found itself at the centre of the betting scandal? I guess so. I mean when the Champion team's owner's relative was found out being immersed with unsavoury characters with proven involvement in betting scandals and the same owner owns Indian cricket and the captain of the team also captains the country...the relationship between all of Indian cricket and the betting industry and IPL becomes kind of incestuous. Anyways that's a separate story from my IPL watching yesterday!

So, cut off as I was from the game I didn't know what to expect. But to my immense pleasure I found two heroes at the ground at Vizag! And one of them, my all time favorite in cricket, Rahul Dravid, was in the dugout right beneath our Stand! So I had a pleasant couple of hours before the match (yes, we reached two hours early because my husband said what do we do in Vizag otherwise?) doing some Rahul spotting.

Rahul Dravid ..so near!

I hadn't even known that Dravid had moved to Delhi, let alone expecting to find him at Vizag! Wonder what have happened to my other RR favorites, Steve Smith and Shane Watson. But Rahul has got his protege Sanju Samson to Delhi with him. Rahul being simple Rahul and not Dhoni, this strategy was/is bound to fail. I mean, for what reason does one take a Sanju Samson in the middle order against line ups that has huge hitters like Pollard, etc. He is not a strategic big hitter who can make 40 off 12 balls. He is not being used as a wicket keeper, he is not being used as an opener even to hustle some quick runs. That's my un-expert observation about the game.
Now, on to more interesting stuff. Sachin was of course welcomed with a roar. All the glamorous models we see anchoring on TV were not visible. Even the cheerleaders were at the other side of the stadium, away from us. So nothing interesting from that angle. This brings me to wonder,  aren't binoculars allowed in stadiums these days? Would sure have helped some!

Zaheer and Dravid... eye candy

The lounge where we sat was adjacent to a food and waiting lounge. The constant beeline for the drinks and snacks and food became irritating to say the least. The normal humidity of Vizag became suffocating under the spotlights especially when a big black ant crept into my shirt and got mixed up with the sweat lines. The relief from the free steam bath could be had in the air conditioned food lounge if one could be confident enough to leave ones' seats for sometime and one could get some standing area in the lounge amongst the moving food plates and beer mugs. Delhi won the toss, and as was expected, elected to field. Unfortunately for them, Krunal Pandya (whoever is he?) got into a groove and had some really big hits which took Mumbai past 200. The evening was freely peppered with sixes and I kept hoping I would get to catch one and make the TV! 

Delhi decided that enough was enough and decided to end it quickly with a rash of wickets. Fortunately I saw the end coming, being the apostle I am, and plead successfully with my husband to leave the match behind and head home after the fourth Delhi wicket was down. 

So here's to another IPL match. Only this was watched by me and hence made the difference (to only me I guess !)

5 Things to Do to Run The Mumbai Marathon

Here are 5 Important things to do Before / After Running a Marathon (Not Training!)

Everyone knows there are important stuff to do before you actually run a marathon. A marathon is on many fitness lovers/freaks/fanatics to do list - "in things to do before one dies". So what is the important stuff to do before a marathon other than registering, practising, reaching the venue of the run, etc.

#1 to do before the Mumbai Marathon

Find your running legs. Ensure that those pair of femur, tibia and fibula muscle bound essentials are in place and not misplaced. Oil them and preserve them till the D-Day when you can unleash them on the usual suspects. That means no overdoing stuff before the run but still having enough miles in the bank.

#2 to before cracking the Mumbai Marathon

The marathon gear is as important as the actual running. What will you have to show after a 21 or 42 km run? A very sore pair of feet and sorer muscles? Well no. You will be showing selfies holding your timing placard and or your finishers medal. And more pics of proof you have crossed the line with you at the centre. So get your designer gear ready, the ear studs, the tattoos, the designer tee, shoes, runner's belt, smile (better cosmetized), skull candy and the practised V.

It helps however if the gear is comfortable as well as stylish.

PS - Gears would also include getting together your run playlist! And that means keeping your phone charged!


#3 to do For the SCMM Mumbai Marathon

 If you have been practising for the marathon - you would know about carbo loading. CARBO loading. Yes you got it right. Find the group of friends who ran with you and the nearest biriyani joint to hog it post run to make up for the lost calories. Your metabolism will be so high - it will be your safest chance to have a plate of mutton to go with that beer AND Biriyani. And if thats not incentive enough for a LSD (long slow distance run) then I dont know what is!

#4 to must do for the SCMM Mumbai Marathon

Fill your chiller tray with beers. As everyone knows - resting after a long run is as important as running. And resting = chilling = chilled beer

#5 essential for the SCMM Mumbai Marathon

Arrange for a pick-up.  You have run the 21 kms...Would you like to be stranded without friends? No way! For one thing you would have blisters. It would be mid morning - and most probably the trains would be crowded. Get you own private vehicle to take you to your destination!


Run Safe, Run Happy and I guarantee you will enjoy the experience - whatever the outcome!

Sushil Kumar - Olympics 2012

In a few hours from now - an Indian will create history in his homeland. Sushil Kumar will be the first native born Indian to win two individual Olympics medals.

That might not sound much to most nations around the World. In fact at last count at least 50 countries were ahead of India in the medal count at London 2012. But a generation of viewers will watch this exploit with a sigh of relief, despondency and hopefulness.

TV became popular and affordable in India during the 1982 Asian games. We watched India collect a record haul of 11 golds and then in the 1984 Olympics we watched PT Usha miss the Olympics bronze in the women 400 mts hurdles by the literal cat's whisker - 1/100th of sec. After that every 4 years we would dream of at least one medal in Olympics. In the meantime India's other Asian counterparts improved by leaps and bounds. China improved its tally from a handful of medals to scores, South Korea jumped ahead when it hosted the Games while Japan came down by quite a few notches from its dominant position in World and Asian sports.

India meanwhile hoped for a single medal.

Leander Paes changed the script by winning an improbable bronze medal in tennis in 1996. 4 years later an unknown lady wrestler from Andhra Pradesh, Karnam Malleswari won the bronze again - this time in weightlifting. A silver in shooting followed in 2004 when Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore dorned the fig leaves in Greece. In 2008, India finally won an individual gold medal in Olympics. Abhinav Bindra won the gold and two more bonus medals came India's way - in shooting and wrestling. A country attuned to some "surprising" and "unexpected" medals - 3 medals didnt seem like an accident.

Was Indian sports finally looking up? Was there an organisational improvement. Had the supply chain improved drastically? London 2012 was to provide the answers.

London Olympics did provide the answers.

India does have a bevy of world class players in archery, shooting, boxing and hockey. But not nearly enough. While India may have 8 world class archers - China and South Korea probably have 80. The pressure thus put on those 8 archers have been tremendous. Some of the misses in archery were just limited to one bad arrow shoot. The case is similar for boxing and shooting too. While the shooters redeemed themselves with two medals - the much hyped male boxers failed in the quest.

And then there was history. An individual athlete from India - Sushil Kumar is to grace the podium twice. In a few hours from now Sushil will play his gold medal bout in the Men's 66kg Freestyle wrestling. This bout will renew the dreams of many and maybe encourage many more to take up sports. Sushil Kumar had won the bronze in the same event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. While it is too much to expect that the IOA will wake up - I expect many private organisations to provide sporting facilities and coaching.

Anyways long live the dream and GO For the Gold Sushil!

(Article posted at www.xomba.com by author)

Dont Blame the Indian Hockey Players - London 2012

There seems to be a lot of blaming going on - and the Indian Hockey team is bearing the brunt of it. It makes me angry when the pride of the players is being questioned. It was obvious to anyone that the players played from their gut and played their hearts out. They only looked dejected towards the end of the South Korean match and maybe some parts of the Belgium match. But that is understandable. When you are not winning things rapidly disintegrate and dejection sets in.

What clearly was lacking during the initial games was a stratagem. For example, the players seemed to believe that they could out flank and out- attack the Dutch in the first match. They carried on many pointless forays and seemed to be wasting a lot of energy, while the Dutch patiently played a mature game and set up well thought out attacks. The show clearly suggested 1000s of hours of careful planning and execution. The Indiam team seemed to be a bunch of talented hopefuls let loose on the field and each out to prove himself on the field. The things that were obviously missing to even a novice's eye were planning, thought, strategy, direction, preparation as a team, clear layout on how to score a goal, etc etc. I cant see how the players can be blamed for that! Inexperience showed and all class was hidden in the jumble of misguided efforts.

No, please put the blame where it lies. On the coach, management, team of decision makers. The players played with their hearts on their sleeves in difficult situations. And they lost to all good teams - not individual shows. Kudos to the players!

Watch the Olympics live streaming free on Youtube

Watch the Olympics live streaming free on Youtube - at the official IOC channel. In a historic move - IOC will be providing live coverage of many events for the first time on Youtube. In Beijing - some feeds and clips had been provided online officially.

ESPN Star Sports meanwhile will be covering the Olympics live on cable TV in India. For those who dont have cable access - the live streaming of the games on Youtube is a blessing for sports lovers.

The IOC channel wil provide 2200 hours of Olympics coverage in 64 countries. There will be many featured interviews of athletes - so one doesnt have to rely on twitter for up-to-date information!
Here is the link to the official IOC Olympics channel.

Watch Asian Games Live - Guangzhou Asian Games Official Website

Want to find the latest happenings of the Guangzhou Asian Games? See the latest gold medal tally, latest news from the Guangzhou Asiad, Asian Games 2010 latest news and results at the Guangzhou Asian Games official website in English

http://www.gz2010.cn/en

Get Live news of India at Asian Games from this Loive Asian Games blog at IBNlive

http://ibnlive.in.com/packages/asian-games.html

Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010 - A Reality Check

Image Source: http://www.ndtv.com/news/images/cwg-fullimage/saina-295.jpg

As the Commonwealth Games 2010 got under way -  the problems highlighted so graphically by an unenthusiastic World Media fed by an over enhusiastic local media, slowly made way to realities on the Ground.

The verdict - The facilities, the village, the food were all upto the mark and in many cases exceptional. The hospitality was incredible as vouched for by many. The preparations were no where near as dismal as projected. The Organizers have done a good enough job - considering India's lack of experience, political bottlenecks, existing poor infrastructure, massive security concerns and a vocal democracy to which every action and spending is answerable.

Other Pluses

The security aspect of organizing such a huge event is immense. After 26/11 - India was off the lists of many casual tourists. Lets face it - India with its demographics, its proximity to Pakistan is a huge security risk. Kudos to the Home Minister for a secure game! He gets a A+++. I feel it is a huge achievement (perhaps the biggest) on the part of the Government to have delivered such a safe game with no security breeches - in Delhi - the node of India.

India actually doubled its medal count from the last games. It won one more gold than England to clinch second place! There was a lot of individual brilliance. Saina Nehwal, the Shooters who set all sorts of records, the Boxers, the Weightlifters K Ravi Kumar and Renu Bala who set Games Records, all put up a World Class show. Shows worthy of Olympics Medals.

Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games Final Medal Tally

http://cwg.ndtv.com/commonwealth/medaltally.html

Australia won 84 Golds in 2006, 74 Golds at Delhi
England won 36 golds in 2006, 37 Golds at Delhi
India Won 22 Golds and 50 overall medals in 2006 and 38 gold medals at Delhi.

Seen in perspective, the athletes put up a brilliant show.

Should India host the Olympics in the near future based on this?

A huge and definite NO.

India might have the infrastructure - might even be able to produce a brilliant Olympic Games - but the athletes are nowhere near the standard. Asian Games 2010 at Guangzhou will provide a reality check for the Indian athletes as they come up against the World's best from China, Japan and Korea.

There are other reasons too on why India shouldnt bid for the Olympic Games. As long as the present organisers of the IOA dont step down - India doesn't have a hope in one of getting a reasonably good games. The President of the IOA (Mr. Suresh Kalmadi) - who can't utter two sentences without uttering Sonia Ji, Young leader Rahul ji, Sonia ji again - and who has been an incumbent for 15 or more years (with around half a dozen Olympic medals which he shamelessly feels is good enough), doesnt have a hope of organising a decent Games which will make the country proud!

India's performances in popular events like Swimming, Gymnastics, athletics are pedestrian. It will continue to remain pedestrian too. Why? India has World Class facilities and coaches at just a couple of centres! A blueprint to make India a strong contender should include World class gymnastics, shooting, archery, athletics, swimming and other facilities at least 35-40 centres around the country. It is not a big task. There are classy cricket coaching centres around the country - and the results in cricket speaks for itself. The interest among the people is there. The facilities are not.

A combination of private enterprise and Government support should first ensure these facilities. The champions will develop by themselves! Strike when the iron is hot! The efforts should come immediately - to get the real advantage of hosting the Delhi 2010.

Here's hoping to a great future for India Sports

Here is what the Guardian, UK has to say about the Commonwealth Games 2010.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/oct/14/commmonwealth-games-2010-india