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.

Humor: The Bovine Will!

"Feeling really excited about the ride! Going to be a unique experience!"

"But where has the goddamned driver gone?"

"Hurry up!...Let's go! Have to be back home before dark!"

Cricket: Yuvraj Singh Wins Again To Come Back To Team India!

He has been India’s consistent match winner since 2000. The moment he crosses the half century mark or takes wickets off his slow left-arm spinners India’s win gets almost ensured. He has won many a battle for his country. And, when recently he fought the biggest battle of his life his country gave him full support to win it with flying colors. 

Who could forget his incredible partnership that won India the NatWest Series Final against England in England in 2002? Who could ever rub off the electric memory of watching him hitting six huge sixes in one over by Stuart Broad in a match of the T20 World Cup in 2007? Who could pass over his contribution to India winning the ICC World Cup-2011 where he became the player of the tournament scoring 362 runs and taking 15 wickets? 

Following that historic World Cup triumph he faced the biggest challenge of his life. After a long drawn and agonizing bout of confusion and wrong reports he finally confronted the truth—lung cancer.  He was diagnosed with a rare form of germ cell cancer. He took up the fight against cancer undergoing strenuous sessions of chemotherapy in a hospital in the US, recuperation sessions and a long-term rehabilitation program coming back home. All the time he promised himself to get cured completely and to get to play for India again. 

Yuvraj Singh has indeed won the biggest battle too, and today the southpaw has returned to Team India for the ICC Twenty20 World Cup cricket that starts in Sri Lanka from September 18, 2012.

The Selection Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had a meeting today in Mumbai and included Yuvraj Singh in the Indian squad of 15 players. After he took part in a training camp for over one month and was declared medically fit by a cricket academy his selection had been widely speculated. The decision was not without a few hiccups though with two members expressing doubt on his ability as he had not played competitive cricket for over nine months. But finally the winner had to be voted in. This definitely is a boost for Team India already on a high after winning the Micromax Cup-2012 in Sri Lanka in this month  only. 

His fans all over are eager to see him play again and win again and again for his team and his country! 

Along with Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh makes a comeback too after one year maybe to add experience to the spin department and pacer Balaji known for his swing comes back after three years perhaps for his effective swing bowling in IPL-5. Manoj Tiwary has also been included for his all-round performance in Sri Lanka. 

The BCCI has also declared the Indian teamfor the forthcoming series against New Zealand at home. The biggest surprise being the selection of spinner Piyush Chawla in both Test and T20 squad, because Chawla had done precious little in recent timed except for continuing to be Indian skipper Dhoni’s favorite like Rohit Sharma who still could not make it to the Test team. Veteran VVS Laxman was selected for the Test team despite his poor run in the Test series in England and Australia last year. Maybe his treasure house experience and Indian conditions were the top priorities. Sachin Tendulkar is also going to play for the country in the home series. Selection of promising players like Ajikya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara in the Test squad is good news too, but their inclusion in the playing eleven is doubtful as ever. Therefore the moot point of the selection was that in spite of the utter disasters abroad Team India still remains almost the same.