Euro Cup-2012: World Champions Spain Creates History! Italy Demolished!

World Champions Spain dominated the Euro Cup-2012 football Final right from the start of the match and produced a result that beat the most one-sided Final in the history of Euro Cup football when Germany beat the Soviet Union 3-0 in 1972. On Sunday the 1^st of July, 2012 Spain trounced Italy 4-0 perfectly dividing the match scoring two goals each half. Spain created history by winning the Euro Cup consecutively in 2008 and in 2012 and equaled Germany’s record of three Euro Cup wins. Spain also maintained its record of not conceding a single goal in a knockout match since 2006. 

Much was expected of Italy after their terrific 2-1 victory over Germany in the second Semi Final with Mario Balotelli emerging as the new Italian hero. But yesterday Italy failed to cope with Spain’s perfectly coordinated passes, pace and persistent attack from the very first minute. In the first half David Silva and Jordi Alba scored in the 14^th and the 41^st minute while in the second half Fernando Torres and Juan Mata scored the third and the fourth goals in the 84^th and the 88^thminute.

After halftime Italy tried desperately to level the score and created a few opportunities inside the Spanish box, but the Spanish goalkeeper defended stoutly as ever in a knockout match. To worsen Italian chances their midfielder Thiago Motta had to be taken out of the ground due to hamstring injury and since Italy used up all its substitutes by then the team got reduced to ten men from the 64^th minute. As the game progressed the Italian team started looking tired and utterly demoralized as their body language clearly showed. Balotelli who failed to do any magic looked to be furious when he left the field at the end. 

Spain won again due to its attacking spirit and for that spirit only we enjoyed their matches in the FIFA World Cup-2010 and supported them wholeheartedly. They also silenced their critics who say Spain’s endless passing strategy makes the game boring, but one fact that emerged in yesterday’s match was that Spain kept possession of the ball most of the time and this fact showed their superiority, definitely not boring strategy. In fact, many other soccer teams increasingly show the ‘boring’ trend of playing for penalties thus restricting the game to midfield action. It was not for nothing that Octopus Paul became a great fan of Spain predicting its final triumph in 2010 World Cup!

Spain and all Spain supporters the world over are celebrating! We join them in the ecstasy too for a deserving victory. 

IPL Cricket Spot Fixing Verdict: BCCI Fries The Small Fish!

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) held a crucial meeting today in Mumbai and banned five domestic cricket players found guilty of corruption or indulgence in spot fixing. BCCI’s new anti-corruption Unit gave its report to the disciplinary committee and after deliberations in the meet the decisions were taken.

The five players were charged with varying degrees of culpability to negotiating or bargaining for money for spot fixing in domestic cricket matches and to loose talk or bragging bringing the game of cricket into disrepute. TP Sudhindra, the chief offender, was banned for life while Shalabh Srivastava was banned for five years. The other three namely Mohnish Mishra, Amit Yadav and Abhinav Bali, charged with lesser offence, were banned for one year each. These players were notionally suspended on May 15, 2012 after a television news channel sting operation exposed their involvement in spot fixing.

The BCCI verdict has been hailed as a tough measure to crack corruption and it is expected to act as a deterrent. But these five cricketers are only fringe actors and just two of them managed to figure in a few Indian Premiere League (IPL) matches without showing any exceptional abilities. They have no impact or influence on Indian cricket and that seems to be the basic reason for the harsh punishment. Okay, it might prove a deterrent to the small fish not to go for the bait straightaway! But this would be till they make it big. Once they make it big in Indian cricket they become untouchable and immune to the cricket Board itself. The biggest of deals always go unpunished despite being tremendous acts of corruption.  

If fact, this applies to every field of Indian activity. Once you have clout you can dare and do anything. In the Biggest Indian Tennis fight we saw the ‘key’ players dictating terms in careless abandon. Their garrulous demands were accepted through pitiful begging, personalized negotiations and Olympian compromises. Maybe as a classic finishing touch, the fifth seeded Grand Slam winning mixed doubles pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza crashed out of the Wimbledon today losing pathetically to an unseeded pair in a second round match. The London Olympics lies round the corner to carry the ‘fight’ forward!

For the moment though let us welcome BCCI fighting corruption! 

Indian Presidential Elections-2012: Nominations Filed!

After extending a last-minute and much deliberated support to PA Sangma the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition political party of India, ensured that the 14^th Presidential Elections to indirectly elect the 13^th President of India was going to be a contest. Pranab Mukherjee, the former Finance Minister who was given a rousing farewell on 26^thJune, 2012, Vs PA Sangma, a political leader from North East India and the former speaker of the lower house of Parliament.

Both of the Presidential candidates filed their nomination papers today. Flanked by the Prime Minister, the Congress President, many other Congress leaders and prominent leaders belonging to the political parties in the ruling coalition, Pranab Mukherjee filed his nomination in the morning in New Delhi. Talking to reporters afterwards the stalwart Congress leader and also a consistent trouble shooter for the ruling coalition expressed his gratitude for the honor and thanked all political parties for extending support to him. He said he would start poll campaign after June 30 till 15^th of July. 

After about two hours PA Sangma filed his nomination papers. He was flanked by the top BJP leaders, leaders of other supporting parties and prominent leaders from the North East. In his press briefing Sangma reiterated his commitment to over 100 million tribal population of the country and hoped for support from other parties.

Two ironical elements are involved in this Presidential Poll. The people of West Bengal would have rejoiced as a whole at the prospect of the first ever Bengali President, but for Mamata Bannerji…!

The people of the Meghalaya would have celebrated for the first ever Presidential candidate from this hilly state of North East India and in fact, the North East in totality would have been a happier lot at the prospect of having another President after the brief tenure of Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed(originally from Assam and President in 1974 till his death in 1977), if only Sangma’s candidature was properly carried forward. Sangma’s party, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), opposed him vehemently rather than proposing. Being forced to resign from the NCP Sangma asserted his ‘non-political’ identity while his coalition-Minister daughter and sons who were still active members of the same party started campaigning for him and are still doing so.

Anyway, the contest is on. Last date for nominations is June 30 after which campaigning starts. Polling date is July 19 and the results will be out on July 22. The electoral college consisting of the members of the Parliament and the state assemblies and members of other legislative councils has a strength of over 1 million votes. Pranab Mukherjee seems to be heading for a landslide victory with about 700,000 votes in his favor.

The citizens of Indian would hope the electoral process to steer clear of lobbying and dirty politicking in the coming days.