Sports : life magnified

from BBC Wimbledon Blog

Wimbledon referee Alan Mills, speaking on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme
I think grunting spoils the spectacle of the game, certainly for television viewers and also, you know, for spectators here. I personally would love the players to stop doing it.

I’m not sure whether it is necessary or not, but I know with Maria (Sharapova), she is saying that she started grunting or screaming when she was four-years-old and she actually hates herself when she watches it on television.

Sharapova says her grunting is involuntary according to this article . So it is indeed out of her control. So should it be allowed or what should be done regarding it? The player facing Sharapova with her atleast 4 different grunts can ofcourse lose focus. Looking at recent tennis history, Monica Seles used to grunt a lot too.

Comparing the grunts Seles’ grunts are a mere shadow of the power that is Sharapova’s screamers. The grunts are okay till they dont affect the concentration of the opponent. If the grunts continue when the opponent is about to hit the point, it is likely to affect the shot making. So even though it is involuntary, it should be made sure the other player is not affected. In other words, I feel Sharapova should modify this aspect of her game, reduce it perhaps before a tennis player objects to it with media decibels and causes unnecessary chaos in womens tennis.

For Sharapova is brand tennis herself. Any damage on Sharapova is a damage on the tennis industry.

When Venus won two consecutive Wimbledons, there was no stopping her. She was near perfect on grass. What always came to mind was how would Venus vs Graf, both in their prime, match up. Venus then declined and Sharapova emerged last year, a breath of fresh air, to grasp the title.

Sharapova is strong, both mentally and physically, and overpowers every one she faces. Against Williams though, she found some one who matched her power stroke for stroke. What ensued in the Wimbledon semi finals was a power hitting display I have never seen in womens tennis.

Williams is the more experienced player and Sharapova, for all her calmness, couldnt get the best out of Williams. Williams at her best over powered the defending champion to reclaim her spot as the ‘Queen of Wimbledon’.

Sharapova will be disappointed but she will be bcak stronger and tougher for another battle. She truly is a champion herself and will show that by winning many Wimbledons in the future hopefully.

Venus will win many more too I hope, and have some memorable battles with Sharapova. With a possible final vs Davenport in the offing, tennis fans couldnt have asked for more.

After deciding to have the top 6 associate members the capacity to play official one day internationals among themselves, which will also have financial rewards which is more important and can boost the development of these regions, the ICC has made another major announcement of merit.

The change in format of the Champions Trophy means lesser weaker versus stronger team matches. Also, the ICC one day rating mean much more because of this. A flaw is that they have not made a provision for the previous champions to qualify automatically for the next Champions Trophy. After the Liverpool drama in football, the ICC should have thought of this but it is some thing they can easily rectify.

Will the World Cup of cricket have lesser importance because of this move? Not really. There is anology from other sports which supports the claim. The Confederations Cup can never be more important than the FIFA World Cup. Neither can the season ending Masters featuring the top 8 ranking players ever match the prestige of Wimbledon.

Kudos ICC

And now 6 of the 7 F1 teams will appeal against the penalties laid on them by F1.

Why should the F1 fan support the sport any more when after such a scandalous race ensued in Indianapolis, the F1 fails to look at the bigger picture and still shows no sign of unity.

Why should I follow a sport which had a scam due to a simple fact that the teams could not agree to race with 20 cars or not race at all and further disagreements follow within F1.

What is needed is a show of solidarity, concentrating on putting a better show for the next race rather than crying over who is to be blamed for a fiasco for which joint blame should be taken by every one involved in F1.

The NBA keeps surprising me. Who would have though an Australian Andrew Bogut, an Australian, would be number 1 pick in the draft.

From NBA.com :

Short of last year’s record nine international players selected in the first round, seven players from outside the United States were chosen in the the first round this year: Andrew Bogut (Australia), Fran Vazquez (Spain), Yaroslav Korolev (Russia), Francisco Garcia (Dominican Republic), Johan Petro (France), Linas Kleiza (Lithuania) and Ian Mahinmi (France).

What interests me and most people is this though :

San Antonio has a habit of mining international gold with their less-than-desirable draft positioning. Manu Ginobili (1999, No. 57) or Tony Parker (2001, No. 28), anybody?

At No. 28 this year, the Spurs took Ian Mahinmi, an 18-year-old power forward from France. How little known was this guy? He’s not included in the official NBA Draft Media Guide and his player page on ESPN.com is bare bones. From what we’re gathering, he’s a rebounding machine ala Dennis Rodman.

Spurs have set a standard in the NBA with their draft picks and persisiting with the players they back. So we get longer contracts and lesser trades. While most NBA teams look totally different in a year or two because of the trades, Spurs have the same core bunch year in and year out, a mantra for a successful team.

Whats the use of fining teams when they couldnt obviously put their drivers or crowd at danger.

F1 has lost several fans in the US and all around the world irrepairably. Will giving out free tickets and compensation to fans for the fiasco which was Indianapolis really make the fans turn a new leaf?

Its the least Micheling is bound to do but what has all the fighting inside the F1 insured even after the even took place?

You miss the big picture which is that fans are being lost every day with people calling F1 a joke.

Federer is good. So good that when the Chilean Gonzalez forced Federer to fight hard for a victory, Federer fought hard, showed his greatness yet once again, and showed no weakness.

Gonzalez played good. So good infact that he forced Federer to raise his game a gear. Federer fought and Federer came out triumphant. But was Federer stretched? No. He gave the impression he still had another gear he could raise when needed. Maybe that will indeed be needed when he faces Hewitt.

Roddick was troubled by Grosjean though and how he fares versus Johansson remains to be seen.

Venus versus Sharapova looks like a battle royal with the winner likely to face a rejuvenated Davenport in the finals. Or does Mauresmo have her own secret reserves to raise her game a few gears? We will know.

happier times

I remember Shane Warne said once in an interview that his dream vacation would be to be alone with his then fiancee Simone on a deserted island.

I thought then that this was a couple which could never be separated. Its very sad thus that they have decided to file for divorce. They will “remain friends” for their children has been said officially.

The media ofcourse will write more judgemental columns on the casanova of Australian cricket deciding wisely that he is a hero or he is a villain. Warne would be used to this by now ofcourse but at such a difficult time in Warne’s personal life, it would be common courtesy to lay off.

As Ponting said, I too hope it doesnt have a bearing on Warne’s Ashes form. With a few weeks off from cricket as he has been given a rest from the county circuit ahead of the Ashes, I can only feel for Shane Warne, Simon and their kids.

Any one who thought that because the Confederation Cup was not the most serious tournament, and thuoght thus, that Brazil versus Argentina wouldnt be a tough affair obviously was kidding himself.

With the World Cup a year away, there was a lot of psychological victory to be garnered from this match, specially after some people had started speaking that Brazil isnt as strong because of the loss to Argenitina.

When it mattered most, the Brazilians delivered. There was plenty of roughness in the match and Argentina tried their best to play it dirty after two early goals by Brazil. Brazil gave them back with the roughness.

Ronaldinho, Adriano, Kaka, Robinho.. what great talent!

Ronaldinho is truly the best ambassador football could have hoped to get for the beautiful game.

I am a huge sports fan and I have finally found what seems a good blogging portal to express myself properly.

After trying various blogging portals, I find blogsome to be promising. Wordpress is cool and I love the subcategories aspect in it. I have added relevant recent entries on sports in the blog.

Here’s wishing many heroic, sporting moments on and off the sporting field take place by thos gladiators who battle in the spectacle called modern sport.

The downhill continues. Colin Croft shows his angst and anger and the question to be asked really is who benefits from all this. The WICB, Sri Lankan cricket board, the players or even the sponsors who seem to have agreed to some clauses with the WICB which the WICB cant backtrack.

Indian cricket had a similar problem earlier and thankfully better sense prevailed and the horrors of ambush marketing didnt mean India would have to field a second XI.

The spectators - real share holders of the game will not take the joke beyond a certain point. Already the selection process and the performance of the team is a joke.

Why should the Windies supporter root for the team if they cant see the best XI players on the field? There was the contract dispute before the series in South Africa, before the series in Australia, meant the team fielded a second XI in the home series versus South Africa and now such a disaster at the moment.

The ICC has decided to grant one day status to 5 more teams. Would I really have to live to see a Windies squad lose to one of such teams? I dread such a scenario and pray that day doesnt ever come.

Its been raining every where, Calcutta, Edgebaston and Wimbledon. That didnt stop some excellent sports to ensue yesterday. Whether it was classic McEnroe playing doubles with Fleming with trademark Nadal pants, or Hayden and Jones slugging it on the cricket pitch or the pencil thin, still growing Sharapova as the commentator so aptly described her.

That the England-Australia match contained classic cricket with a tussle all the while, entrhalled me. The bouncers, the early stroke play from Martyn, the building of pressure from Giles and Flintoff before an excellent partnership between Hussey and Symonds got Australia out of trouble was a pleasure to watch.

And Gough struck again and Lee managed a few runs before a low scoring final over to balance it and make every one smack their lips.

Almost too early though as the rain gods had the last laugh.

So Wimbledon Quarters today and another classic tussle between Brazil and Argentina likely in football. The rain gods will hopefully take a rest for the sports gods to have the say on this day.

What is concerning about the rule changes in limited overs cricket is how much more batsman friendly it makes it all.

The twenty over field restrictions instead of fifteen means more runs will be scored than ever before. The general feeling is that teams will replace a batsman with a bowler and vice versa while substituing. This would mean the bowling will become more effective.

However, the flip side to it is that chosing an extra batsman keeping the same bowling line up would usually give the team a lot more space to bat freely and treat the bowlers with disdain. And with the twenty over field restrictions in place, it would make around 330 the norm in one day cricket rather than 300.

The new rule changes also go away from the basic aspect of cricket of chosing the best eleven with an oft faced dilemna of whether to chose an extra batsman or play with an extra bowler and the likes. The teams usually have to do a lot fo delibaration in chosing the 11.

The 5 over rule means more confusion than ever before. When you want to attract new people to the game, you want to make things simpler, not make them more complex. And how will Saurav Ganguly, who has problems finishing the overs in time under the earlier rules, ever manage to finish them with all these complexities?

Did I ever take the one day game seriously? No.

Will things get more interesting and worthy now? Not a chance.

Perhaps the ICC’s defence would be that the fools watching cricket will continue to watch it no matter what they do and with a few quirks like increasing the over restrictions for the fields, the 5 over rule and substitues, it would keep the couch patota from switching the channels in the middle overs, thus ensuring more revenue.

But do you really want to change the rules so much that the game itself changes? Its silly.

RIP : Eknath Solkar

Its sad to here about the death of Eknath Solkar at the young age of 57 after the recent death of Mushtaq Ali. One of the best fielders India has produced, it is indeed a tragic loss to Indian cricket.

Here is the story of one of the most important catches taken by ‘ekki’ in his own words. Wisden does a detailed obituary on the man who was indeed a magician.

The new kits:

The home shirt maintains the club’s tradition of blue and maroon, but there are more stripes than in previous seasons. The shorts are red, described as cochineal, for the first time in the club’s history. The Catalan senyera is also present on the colour at the base of the neck for the first time.

The away shirt is bright yellow, described fluorescent pistachio, with blue and black trim and the traditional home colours are detailed on the sleeve.

I do not like the fact that the home shorts have been changed to red. The traditional home kit colour combination was top notch according to me.

The away kit is a marked improvement from the dull thing they used earlier though.