Football Fever Next: The Much-Awaited FIFA World Cup-2022 Kicks Off from November 20 in Qatar!

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, 2022. 

FIFA World Cup-2022 will have 8 Groups with 4 teams each and at the Group stage teams in each group will clash with each other on a round robin basis during November 20--December 3. The top two teams in each Group will progress to the last 16 or the pre-quarterfinal stage with each match on a knockout basis during 3--7 December. The quarterfinals are scheduled during 9--11 December; the semifinals on 14 and 15 December; the third place playoff match on December 17; and the Final on 18 December at 8.30 PM. Barring the first two days and an occasional day thence all days will have 4 matches a day--the first match starting at 3.30 PM and the next three till past midnight that is 12.30 AM the next day. These timings are for India only. There will be 64 matches in all and channel Sports 18 has bagged the telecast and streaming rights in India. This time the tournament has a reduced timeframe of 29 days. 

Therefore, in India this time the football fever will start from the afternoon hours every day instead of mostly the late night hours which had always had special effects of lightening, thunderstorms and pounding rains. France are the defending Champions of 2018, and it's time for you now to fix your favorite nations, teams and superstar players to cheer for all the way. Over to super soccer! 

Rio Olympics 2016 And Four Indian Women!

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 entering the quarter finals of women's singles event and then stormed into the semis. In that memorably aggressive match she defeated world no. 6 and ensured a silver medal by entering the finals. For a change, cricket fever was replaced by Badminton excitement as whole of India watched that marvellously fought final. Sindhu did everything possible to justify the country's slogan 'go for gold', but finally was outmanoeuvred by some killer smashes by world no.1 Carolina Marin from Spain. PV Sindhu won the Silver medal and made Indians proud and celebrating. 

In wrestling focus was mostly on Narsingh Yadav who, unfortunately, got a four-year ban from the WADA on the day he was to open his campaign, and on Yogeshwar Dutt in 65kg freestyle who even failed to qualify on the last day of the Olympics. Meanwhile, coming from nowhere Indian woman Sakshi Malik in women's 58kg freestyle wrestling won the country's first Rio medal by winning the Bronze in the play-off. Medal hopes for India erupted after this wonderful moment and Indian girls commanded absolute attention. 

Two other magnificent ladies captured the fascination of the country not by winning medals, but by making revelations what Indian women are capable of performing if given the right kind of respect and facilities. 

Dipa Karmakar from the North Eastern state of Tripura represented India in Artistic Gymnastics for the first time ever and came agonisingly close to winning at least a Bronze.  She finished fourth in the finals by the narrowest of margins and enthralled the country by doing the extremely dangerous Vault of Death. She became a celebrity and rightfully so. 

Aditi Ashok did what was least expected even by the most optimistic. In the highly west-dominated sport of Golf she almost did it to the finals, but on the day that mattered most she could not go on and slid to 31st position. She too brought to the fore the fact what Indian women can do in disciplines that were not given enough thought by the sports mandarins of India. 

These four ladies, of course apart from few other promising ones, saved the blushes for India in Rio. A Gold medal has been eluding India since the Beijing Olympics of 2008 while in London Olympics 2012 India did send the largest ever contingent and won the largest ever haul of six medals, but without a Gold. And sticking with the largest ever contingent to Rio India fare poorly with just two medals. In men's Hockey in Rio India did very well initially, but could not keep the momentum going, only sort of satisfied with the fact that they defeated the ultimate Gold medal winner Argentina. In Tennis too all hopes were belied. There is not much to write home about other fields of action in Rio as far as India is concerned. 

Sports infrastructure and state-of-the-art facilities still lack miserably in India and miles to go before the country of more than a billion could realistically hope for better performances in the world games. Our four ladies give the Sports authority enough food for thought for the future.  And of course, the Power of Indian Women can never be underestimated after the Rio experience. Time for the right thinking people of this country to get clear of all prejudices, bias and gender discrimination. 

India: Corruption Loses, Suresh Kalmadi Ousted From AAA!

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 allegedly favoring particular ‘party’ individuals or groups or whatever. Nobody cares for the truth anyway. But today, we witness a definitive case of corruption losing and the truth prevailing.

Suresh Kalmadi, the main accused of Delhi Commonwealth Games-2010 corruption case, continued to pull the ‘mutual’ power strings to remain in contention and power even after being jailed for ten months. The brazen corruption kingpin wanted to attend the London Olympics as the President of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) right after coming out of jail on bail. One court even allowed him to do so, but fortunately one higher court barred him citing national embarrassment. Banking on the ‘mutually corrupt benefit scheme’ and on his ever loyal ‘partners-in-corruption’ Kalmadi still did not want to lose his home-ground Pune in Maharashtra seeking re-election as the President of the Asian Athletic Association (AAA) for the fourth time in view of the 20^th Asian Athletic Championship starting in Pune from 2^nd July, 2013. Kalmadi might have drawn tremendous inspiration too from N Srinivason, the classic case of the adamantly corrupt.

But today, in the AAA poll held in Pune Suresh Kalmadi lost by 18 votes to 20 votes and was ousted from the AAA. The Athletic Championship that got overshadowed and dampened by the Kalmadi factor could finally start in full glory. Indian sports legends who have been lambasting Kalmadi in helpless rage for his shameless quest for power and position now welcome the verdict with open and free hearts.

At least in one case Corruption loses in India. We must hail this event as very significant and possibly as the catalyst for cleansing our great country of corruption—be it in the realm of sports or anywhere.  

IPL Spot Fixing: The Biggest BCCI Compromise!

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 Treasurer tendering their resignations on Friday followed by the resignation of the IPL Chairman cum Congress minister Rajeev Shukla late Saturday night. Arun Jaitley, the BJP leader and one key Vice President of the BCCI promised big happenings, but finally did nothing. His expertise has been seen in recent times in disrupting the Indian Parliament for days and months continuously on various ‘issues’ ranging from basically corruption in the UPA-2 Government. However, the great representative of common people apparently did not consider the issues of corruption in cricket and in BCCI as ‘issue’ enough, and his role in the compromise arrived today could be termed crucial. Nevertheless, in the aftermath of the resignations of the BCCI officials it was perceived that the pressure now was unbearable for Narayanswamy Srinivasan and that he would step down in the emergency meeting today. But he was allowed only to step aside.

The BCCI, in the grip of the worst crisis in its history and with the possibility of losing all credibility in the eyes of millions of cricket lovers, could have demanded Srinivasan’s resignation with renewed vigor or could have resigned en masse making his position ridiculous or could have discussed how to rope in fresh members in a bid to restore its credibility. However, the spineless members only allowed its defiant Boss to remain defiant disillusioning the cricket lovers completely. They cited ‘constitutional’ restrictions or bindings to justify their action. They also appealed to Sanjay Jagdale and Ajay Shirke to come back to the BCCI. Ajay Shirke, possibly the only BCCI member with some conscience left, refused to come back saying that despite his little knowledge about constitutional matters  the justification offered was not acceptable. The meeting was also left it ambiguous as to who was going to represent India at the International Cricket Council (ICC).

The BCCI handles national cricket, represents India at the ICC, controls the ICC with its money power and has politicians of all major political parties in its fold or lobbies. Therefore, there seems to be no one who could possibly control or scrap or change the BCCI. Suresh Kalmadicould pull it off similarly, but he was at least jailed for sometime and the International Olympic Committee at least had the power to ban the Indian Olympic Association. But what about this Board so full of corruption, with total lack of transparency and with no accountability or responsibility going on to handle national cricket that millions take pride in. 

Well, the millions of Indian cricket fans must take up this issue and decide the next course of action. They must do enough to take the issue to the Supreme Court of India and believe in the apex court to deliver the final and lasting justice. They also must realize the immensity of the cowardly silence still maintained by cricket legends and former greats of this country and adopt their stand on cricket at large clearly.

Politics In Sports: IPL Fixing Scandal, Colossal Greed And BCCI!

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 mounting pressure on N Srinivasan to resign. Reports were rife that resignations of the five Vice Presidents including the BJP Leader of Opposition in the upper house of the Indian Parliament, Arun Jaitley, Shivlal Yadav, Niranjan Shah, and IPL Chairman cum Congress Minister Rajeev Shukla would be coming anytime. In fact, Arun Jaitley today made it clear that something huge should be expected in the next twenty four hours. Just after that an emergency meeting of the BCCI working committee was announced to be held tomorrow in Chennai. With the richest cricket Board of the world on the verge of a collapse for the first time in history the lobbying and politics started.

The BCCI working committee has 31 members including the President Narayanswamy Srinivasan. For ousting the President three-fourth of the members, that is 24, must vote favorably. Srinivasan reportedly has the support of 8 members and this has provided him the lobbying and politicking plank. This has made him set four ridiculous conditions for a possible resignation tomorrow—1. He must still be allowed to represent India at the ICC (see he still wants to represent ‘India’!), 2. No outsider to be allowed to become the interim President (because the name of former BCCI boss Shashank Manohar was in circulation), 3. He must be allowed to elect his Secretary and Treasurer and 4. Sanjay Jagdale and Ajay Shirke cannot come back to BCCI. Every condition reeks of arrogance, corruption, power-craziness and colossal greed. Reports say that the BCCI is not going to accept these conditions. However, it must first somehow ensure the required support to oust its Chief.

On this Black Friday for Indian Cricket and BCCI there were other happenings too. The police custody of Gurunath Meiyappan and Vindo Dara Singh along with two bookies was extended to 3^rd of June by a Mumbai court. Mumbai Police has asked for the police custody of the super bookie Ashwini Aggarwal alias Tinku Mandi arrested by Delhi Police earlier and accordingly Tinku Mandi was brought to the crime branch of Mumbai Police yesterday for questioning. The Chennai connection Victor alias Vikram Aggarwal was also brought to Mumbai for questioning his link to Gurunath. While a Mumbai court today gave police custody to Tinku Mandi till 6^th of June, Victor was yet to be arrested by Mumbai Police.

Sunday tomorrow is going to be another huge day for the BCCI and the IPL Spot Fixing Scandal. And of course, for Indian Cricket.

Olympian Shame For India As IOC Suspends IOA!

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 of the Commonwealth Games 2012 Delhithe tainted IOA officials did not feel shamed, few of them served jail terms too. But they went about their ‘sports’ business blatantly and shamelessly.  

Suresh Kalmadi, the then IOA president, who spent nearly a year in a Delhi jail acted as nothing had happened and got appointed as president again coming straight out of jail. He was trying for reelection again this year, but other tainted people finally beat him to it in an election decided by the IOA unilaterally and supposedly adhering to a sports code imposed by the Government. It is pity that the Government of India and the Sports Minister never succeed in putting its foot down on such authorities ‘autonomously enabled to loot’. In this shameful hour Indian citizens expect ruthless measures from the Government to end the malaise once and for all.

Olympic medalists and sportsmen all over the country expressed shock and unanimously held the corrupt officials and their personal profit driven strategy responsible for the shame. Many of them also feared that their sports careers with the Indian tag are as good as over. However, all of them and other citizens too looked upon this shame as motive enough to set things right and end the corruption. We too endorse this and want all sports bodies to be totally revamped so that Indian sportsmen come out of their clutch and show the world what they always have been capable of achieving. 

London Olympics-2012: India Celebrate The Best Ever Haul!

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^thof 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 electric countdown began in India for a medal—hopefully the gold. 

Sushil Kumar

In the quarterfinals Sushil Kumar overcame a tough rally from his Uzbek rival to move into the semifinals. It was again a close fight in the semifinals, but Sushil finally prevailed over his Kazakh rival in the last round and entered the finals—the first Indian player to do so in the London Olympics. Now a silver medal was assured and a gold medal hope was very close to reality. 

Sushil Kumar, reportedly suffering from a stomach upset and dehydration, failed to match his Japanese rival in the final and the gold medal hunt was lost for this Olympics. But Sushil Kumar made history by becoming the only Indian to bag two individual medals in Olympics. He won the first medal which was a bronze in Beijing in 2008 . 

Indian people and governments have been celebrating the best ever Olympic medal tally and not taking the colors of the medals seriously. The celebrations had begun earlier when shooter Gagan Naranggave India the first medal of the London Olympics. Then at the grand climax the six heroeshave been welcomed all over and huge cash awards announced for all of them. But the euphoria must last longer than the London Olympics. 

Mary Kom

Indeed, considering India’s size and global prominence the medal tally looks insignificant and pathetic particularly in comparison with the top three winners—USA, China and Britain. India come a measly 55^th in London Olympic rankings. But in terms of overall lack of adequate funds, sponsors, grooming, training and other facilities to general sports in India this best haul remains the biggest achievement and the people of India are rightfully happy about it. For example super-mom Mary Kom who hails from the state of Manipur in India’s neglected and backward North Eastern region has been rightfully getting undivided attention and praise for her personal struggle to achieve an Olympic medal in women’s boxing. 

The beaming Indian sports minister has put his targets at 25 medals for the 2020 Olympics. But to make that dream come true he must envisage both an intensive and extensive promotion of all sports except cricket in India. For a starter he must focus immediately on Indian hockey and begin from scratches. The Indian hockey team lost all its six matches and occupied the last position in rankings. Barring its inability to qualify for the Beijing Olympics Hockey discipline this is the worst ever performance by the Indian Hockey team in Olympic history. There are despairing expressions that it would have been better if the Indian hockey team failed to qualify again. 

The grand spectacle of the London Olympics-2012 came to an end after twelve days of excellence. India must pick this moment to begin introspection.

London Olympics-2012: After Fixing Now Cheating!

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 Indonesiainvolved 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-sorry and no-no from her side and the Olympic organizers apologized too.  This incident possibly gave an inkling of the things to come for the Indian contingent.

The Indian Hockey coach cried cheating when a penalty stroke what he thought rightfully due was not given and Indiawent on to lose their very first and closely fought game to Netherlands2-3. And then Indialost next two games eliminating itself from medal contention. Though that alleged cheating could not be a jsutification for the team’s lackluster performances it did indeed affect the morale.

The Indian Badminton women’s doubles pair, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa,  appealed against a group match of Japan and Taipei, but it was summarily rejected. They alleged of fixing in that game. While the specter of fixing was officially confirmed valid the Indian pair’s complaint was found invalid. As a result the pair crashed out of the Olympics. And then the boxers.

Indian boxer Sumit Sangwan in 81kg category appealed against the result of a match with a Brazilian rival that Sumit thought he had won. Appeal rejected. Indian boxer Vikas Krishnan in 69kg category had been declared winner in a bout against an American. The American’s team management made an appeal with AIBA citing foul tactics adopted by the Indian. Appeal upheld and the boxer was denied of a quarterfinal berth and possible medal hopes. The Indian team filed a protest appeal against the decision. Appeal rejected. This issue of great injustice has still been raging in Indiadisheartening millions of fans. Then yesterday Indian boxer Manoj Kumar in 64kg category cried cheating in a thrilling pre-quarterfinal bout against a home favorite from Great Britain. Manoj alleged that points were not given to him on most of his attacking moves and that the bout seemed like to be of a district competition, not Olympics. Maybe fearing one more rejection no appeal was made so far.

It was indeed a case of heavenly justice when Indian Badminton star Saina Nehwal was awarded a Bronze medal after her Chinese rival had to retire due to injury. Saina thus created history by winning the first ever Olympic Badminton medal for India and became only the second Indian woman ever to win an Olympic medal. 

One must understand the craze for Olympic medals as winning one involves tremendous national pride as well as unmatched individual success. So the desperation is natural and that in turn could tempt any mortal being to try fixing cheating and all that. But the organizers must be ever ready for such acts and must try to render justice on a neutral and objective basis. This is very necessary for a spot event of the magnitude of the Olympics. One must also consider the inequalities in terms of medal harvesting and the top medal getting nations should not be allowed to turn into bullies.

Fortunately, doping or drug cases are being controlled effectively so far!

Fixing At The London Olympics?

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 Indonesiahad 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 (BWF) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) took very serious view of the scenario and considered taking extreme steps like expelling all eight players involved. If it happens it would devastate the Badminton competition and if it does not the Games would earn an unprecedented bad name. The IOC said that extreme action was necessary to prevent such tendencies to discredit the Games and warned that if the BWFdid not come up with preventive measures it would step in on its own.

After the charges there had been a game of passing the buck with the South Korean players alleging the Chinese started and instigated it first and therefore they followed suit or retaliated. The common objective for both the teams was ominously clear though.

Fixing has come to be inseparable from cricket thanks to the Indian or the Indian sub continental links to it. Indiahas given cricket ‘big money’ and along with the latter invented the art of fixing! You may rather call it as a post-modern art with two pristine varieties-match fixing and spot fixing. Betting has been an integral part of the whole process with a huge network of agents, bookies and pimps. Fortunately, the specter of betting has not so far been confirmed in the London Olympics scenario.

Any threat of fixing to this most ancient Games of mankind must be nipped in the bud. It does not matter how rigorous or extreme the punishment be. On the other hand, like in cricket, there are powerful vested interests and a whole array of commercial interests here too. History, reputation, spirit of competition, national and international ambitions, commerce and business are all mixed in an extremely complex web. Finally, the ‘will’ may not be strong enough to upturn the cart of interests.

The sports fans can only wait and watch.

PS:  A few hours later the BWF had in fact disqualified all the involved eight players after holding an inquiry. This means all eight champion players from three countries are ousted from London Olympics-2012. Though this will impact the Badminton matches, the action is quick and praiseworthy. Bravo!

London Olympics: India Win The First Medal!

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. 

Gagan Narang won only a Bronze medal placed in the third position. He could not win the Gold or the Silver. But the Indian media channels cried that Gagan had created history. Yes it is, because he gave Indiaits very first medal of the London Olympics-2012. Yes it is, because this act is set to inspire all athletes in the coming days. Yes it is, because such achievers do not have godfathers or sponsors. 

The people of India are celebrating! And, we join in wholeheartedly too! The President, the Prime Minister, the Sports Minister and all people of position in India have flooded Gagan with greetings. A huge cash award has been declared by the state he belongs to. If you make a study in the diversity of India you will focus ultimately on Sports, cricket apart, as the single most powerful unifying agent. Just think, if there is all round promotion of general sports in the country what a happy and beaming lot this land and its people would be! 

What is the morale of the story? Well, if even small things can make you so happy you have hardly anything to worry about in life. Envy us? 

Let us hope India make the richest Gold harvest in history this time in London. 

London Olympics-2012 Opening Tonight!

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^thof 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 unthinkable jobs. This time India has sent the largest contingent ever (83 athletes) to London Olympics, but the medal hopes have not increased in a proportionate way. In all, 11,000 athletes from 204 nations will be competing for honors in 39 disciplines.

In London Olympics-2012 the Indian medal hopes mainly emanate from Archery, Shooting, Wrestling, Boxing and Badminton only, though India is participating in 13 disciplines. Narsingh Yadav is a gold medal hope in 74kg freestyle wrestling. He is the son of a milkman in Mumbai slums. He had already won gold medals in the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games in 2010. And, he continues to live in the slums, though people here want him to make Mumbai proud! As per the latest news the Government of Maharashtra had offered him an officer’s job in the state police services.

In India’s national game Hockey, it is yes-yes and no-no depending on the mercurial team’s  performances on the particular days. In Tennis, you never know. Indian Tennis stars had recently proved their expertise in petty egoistic fights only. Some people hope for medals from the Bhupathy-Bopanna pair in men’s doubles though they crashed out unceremoniously in the Wimbledon-2012. Some pin their hopes on the Leander-Sania pair in mixed doubles. 

More Indian medals would certainly make the Indian fans happy, but the grand spectacle of the Olympics is set to regale one and all just for the sheer excellence of it. People across the country will be able to enjoy the London Olympics-2012 on the national channel of Doordarshan. 

 

Commonwealth Shame 2010!

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 waste it why no efforts were taken to ensure results! And on the top of it, suspense drama of the Ayodha Mandir-Masjid verdict to be delivered on September 24 is extended for  one more week giving ample opportunities to the media to hype it to Himalayan heights and  others to articulate speculate manipulate and gesticulate even more!

What a country! What a shame!

Time is running out, India! Make amends and restore at least some of the horribly lost pride!