ChinmayC Blog

The FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) World Cup-2022, the quadrennial international football tournament, is set to begin from Sunday, 20 November till Sunday, 18 December in Qatar. The much-awaited event, coincidentally the 22nd version on 2022, has several other features: the first time ever it's being held in the Arab world or in the Middle East; the first time it's being organized during the northern autumn season (winter in India) instead of the usual summer months of May, June and July, and this decision was taken considering the intense heat conditions in Qatar during the summer; the FIFA World Cup event returns to Asia after 20 years and only the second time it's being hosted entirely in Asia; and it is the last tournament to be held with 32 teams, the decision finalized in 2017 to expand it to 48 teams from FIFA-2026 to be hosted by USA, Canada and Mexico. The inaugural match will be between host Qatar and Equador at 9.30 PM IST on 20 November...

The Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, August 6-21,2016, have come to a grand close today. We have no space here to cover all those terrific achievers from across the world. Therefore we will concentrate only on India, although it has been a disappointing tale. As usual, India sent the largest ever contingent to participate in various sports disciplines, but for eleven long days the country fumed and fretted for an elusive medal which was made worse by some negative vibes, comments and hiccups. However, four magnificent ladies from a largely patriarchal society came to the fore and the focus of concentrated attention giving the countrymen a rare opportunity to feel proud of them.  In Badminton expectations were mostly from Saina Nehwal, but she failed not even through to midway in the competition. And came PV Sindhu, not at all in contention for a medal, and fought like a tigress competing with players much much higher in world ranking. She set the ball of euphoria rolling by en...

If you are following the political turmoil basically over the issue of corruption in India for the last two years rather seriously you cannot help but suffer from frequent spells of pessimism. You tend to feel that in 99.9 percent of cases corruption finally emerges victorious thanks primarily to the politics of corruption fought so shamelessly and without any sort of ideologies. So powerful are the lobbies of vested interests, so powerful are the people in power, so powerful are the chains of mutual interests and so toothless and ineffectual are the legal and judicial systems that the corrupt finally escape even after being charged or jailed or whatever. As you can righteously feel pessimistic in the recent IPL Spot Fixing Scandal after all the big stories of corruption almost every accused is currently out on bail and things do not at all augur well for justice being done in near future. The premier investigative agencies pursuing cases howsoever diligently are always targeted for a...

The richest cricket Board of the world has finally made its dirty money work one more time for its vested interests ensuring the biggest compromise in the emergency working committee meeting in Chennai today that maintained the status quo despite all the odds. Every genuine cricket lover of the country and the right minded members within BCCI wanted the tainted Chief to resign on at least moral grounds after more than ten days of defiance, arrogance and greed. But the meeting today helped him only to step aside for allowing the so-called probe against the IPL Spot Fixing scandal go on ‘independently’. A new interim President was selected in the form of former BCCI Boss who also had had his share of controversies. The compromise displayed fully the pull and clout of various lobbies working for the interests of various political parties and members according to their political affiliations. A kind of a revolt within the BCCI was palpable over the past few days with the Secretary and the...

On his way back home yesterday from a five-day Japan-Thailand visit the Prime Minister of India, when asked to comment on the IPL Spot Fixing Scandal, said that politics should not be mixed with sports. And exactly the contrary is happening since yesterday. This time the politicking in sports is not perpetrated by politicians, but by the officials of the prime sports body, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) including its tainted Chief N Srinivasan whose colossal greed has been demonstrated graphically over the last few days in his desperate bid to stick to his position of power, money and clout.  Late last night the No.2 and No.3 of BCCI had tendered their resignations expressing deep hurt over the raging IPL Spot Fixing scandal that has brought a bad name to the Board. They are Sanjay Jagdale, the Secretary of the BCCI, and the Treasurer Ajay Shirke who had been the very first from the BCCI to break the silence over the issue. Their action further increased the already ...

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) yesterday suspended the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for its repeated failure to abide by the constitution and rules set by the apex body. This is the biggest shame and embarrassment possible for the largest and most populated democracy of the world. And ironically this comes just after India’s best ever haul of medals in London Olympics 2012 . The decision renders India disqualified to participate in any major international sports events and of course in the Olympics. India now have the unique distinction of sharing the shame with Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.  Such was the rampant lobbying, corruption and colossal disregard to both national and international decorum in the sports bodies of India in general over the years that this huge embarrassment was in fact anticipated by many . Politics, personal ambitions and corruption have been the distinctive features of the Indian sports bodies, particularly the IOA. Even after the scam o...

Article first published as London Olympics-2012: The Best Ever Haul For India! on Technorati. The Six Indian Olympic Heroes! The largest ever contingent from India to the London Olympics-2012 achieved the best ever haul of medals for the country. The quest for an elusive Gold medal remained unfulfilled, but India won 6 medals including 2 silver and 4 bronze which is double to that of 3 medals including 1 gold and 2 bronze achieved in the Beijing Olympics-2008. The Indian wrestlers provided the final boost to take the Indian tally to six.  The desperate wait for a gold medal continued till the last hours of the London Olympics. Hopes were pinned on the Indian wrestler in 66kg freestyle category, Sushil Kumar who was scheduled to play his bouts on the final day of the Olympics that is yesterday, the 12 th of August, 2012. He defeated his Turkish rival—the gold medalist in the 2008 Olympics— after an engaging fight in the first bout and entered the quarterfinals. The most elect...

London Olympics-2012 is also going to be remembered for an entire set of wrong reasons! The fixing charges in Badminton Women’s Doubles matches created waves of consternation throughout the globe. The charges were proved to be true as all eight badminton players from China , South Korea and Indonesia involved in fixing tactics were disqualified. At the same time a whole lot of cheating charges had been coming slowly out in the open. The cases of cheating somehow seemed to affect mostly Indian athletes, particularly the boxers. While a vast nation stuffed with over a billion human beings still search hungrily for the first Gold medal some Olympic officials were hell bent on denying them even the deserved honors. The first anomaly was noticed in the London Olympics inauguration ceremony itself when a mysterious lady in red was seen accompanying the Indian contingent for no connected reasons. She was not a part of the contingent and still was devouring prime focus. Later it was sorry-sor...

Badminton competition of the London Olympics-2012 has come under a cloud of match fixing after two women’s doubles matches played yesterday. This is an unprecedented trend affecting the most ancient Games on earth. And this is very worrisome too. The fixing charges involve eight women badminton players—the World Champion pair from China , two pairs from South Korea and one pair from Indonesia . The Badminton competition is being played on a round robin basis for the first time at the London Olympics. All these teams have qualified for the quarter finals and so they allegedly tried to manipulate their preliminary matches so that they avoid meeting their respective compatriots in the semi finals. The two matches involving China and South Korea and then South Korea and Indonesia had been reduced to farces yesterday with all players trying to miss the shots in a desperate attempt to lose. The crowds too sensed the farce and began jeering at the players. Badminton World Federation (BW...

In a land of over one billion people one single medal counts too, it's not necessary that it be a gold one. It is like just one droplet in a vast ocean, but it still creates ripples throughout. That is India ! Basically, a land of happy people for whom even the slightest opportunity is good enough to rejoice and feel proud of their country. In such special moments people do not bother about their problems--ranging from poverty, illiteracy, social exploitation and horrific violence to stark inequalities. The people of this miraculous country had an occasion to rejoice today.  On the third day of the London Olympics-2012 today one Indian won a medal. Gagan Narang did it in the10m Air Rifle shooting event, after Beijing Olympics-2008 gold medalist Indian hero Abhinav Bindra crashed out in the qualifying round. This achievement comes after a series of failures in various disciplines and only a few random cases where the competitors will have another chance to go further....

The much awaited London Olympics-2012  starts tonight, the 27 th July with a grand opening ceremony planned in some amount of secrecy by the celebrated filmmaker Danny Boyle (famous in India for his controversial and yet Oscar winning movie The Slumdog Millionaire ). But in India the Olympics would actually start in the wee hours tomorrow, the 28 th of July. After a series of controversies concerning sponsorship, concerning India and concerning serious security issues the once-in-four-year mega World Event is finally going to unfold in all its grandeur. India is very big country, but its presence in the Olympics has always been little—in terms of medals won particularly Gold medals. This is unfortunate and is mainly the result of a commercial approach to sports with sponsors coming  forward to put money in only money-spinning games like cricket. The government’s policy has been lukewarm too with a lot of former or promising athletes rotting in uninhabitable environs or in un...

Why the obvious was not perceived as the obvious? After the biggest scam to hit the Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi the responsibility was still left to the pack of thieves! The chief of thieves carried on boasting, carried on the Baton from place to place wasting more and more of taxpayers' money! Corruption should also have some honesty! You make money okay, but do the work! At least! Just what's going on? With hardly ten days left we are still talking of preparation! India boasts of her hospitality, but athletes are withdrawing day after day, teams are delaying arrivals and countries are issuing advisories. Honorable Prime Minister has intervened now and the chief of thieves has been sidelined. But why now? That should have happened long long back. Huge wastage of taxpayers' money in a country of poverty stricken illiterate millions and with inflation raging at 15%+ still. Okay, it was decided to waste the money in the spirit of sports and goodwill. But after deciding to w...