No place for MSD in this WC dream team

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It's been an interesting World Cup. Lit up by Virender Sehwag's blazing 175 on the opening day of the tournament it soon descended into the bizarre with contests that couldn't be termed contests at all. For all the talk about taking the World out of the World Cup one has to be real. If this is your marquee tournament let it stay that way. Let's have the format used in the 2006 Champions Trophy where the top teams qualified directly while the rest including the defending champions West Indies had to play a qualifier. So after nearly 40 days of absorbing and mainly non-absorbing cricket the jury is still out. But it's time to start that other contentious debate. There have been some outstanding performances out there so lets pick the dream team for this World Cup. I have not gone with reputation but on World Cup form....

Boxers go for gold

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Soon after the 2008 Beijing Olympics thrust Akhil Kumar into the limelight (he beat the reigning world champion Sergey Vodopyanov before losing in the quarter-final), the diminutive boxer used all his savings and prize money to buy a plot of land in Gurgaon. The plot lay vacant for almost two years because Kumar, who also won a gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, couldn't afford to build a house. Now, Kumar says, construction will begin any day-and he won't have to depend on his sporadic prize money to build his dream home. Kumar is one of five Indian boxers who have been signed up by the Delhi franchise of the World Series of Boxing, and his lucrative three-year contract will be more than enough. "The contracts for Indian boxers in the World Series range from $30,000 (around Rs13.8 lakh) to $100,000 annually," says P.K.M. Raja, secretary general....

Punch and Counter Punch

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Sports federations in India have always hidden behind the garb of autonomy. But now the honeymoon seems to be over as the Sports Ministry is threatening to effect a clean-up. The National Sports federations (NSFs)have brought this upon themselves. For decades they have lived a life of thou shall touch me not. Accountability is nonexistent. Having said that I do not agree with the Sports Ministry's bullying tactics. The ministry it seems is not aware of the clout of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and its members. When a confrontation arises the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is bound to back its brethren. And I was not surprised when within days of the ministry's announcement the IOA pulled the rabbit out of the hat, a letter in its support from the IOC. The IOA had done exactly the same when then Sports Minister Mani Shanker Aiyer had....

Commonwealth Games: Recipe For Disaster

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As of today the Commonwealth Games in October are a disaster'. A startling confession made by a very senior member of the 2010 Delhi Organising Committee. And it is no rant. The warning bells are there for everyone to see, if you look closely and beyond the tall claims that are being made every day that is. Sports Minister MS Gill has been promising a games better than the Beijing Olympics and with better facilities. For him every venue is better than Beijing. This writer has covered multi-discipline games extensively, the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, the 2006 Doha Asian games as well as the Beijing Olympics in 2008, so it is easy to look beyond the obvious mumbo jumbo that is thrown our way. Mr Minister you probably went to some other place, if we can come even 50 percent near to what Beijing put out then it will....

Shoot this national shame!

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Even as millions hoped that the Indian hockey team would somehow manage to reach the last four of the FIH World Cup, India lost a sure gold medal in another part of the planet. Ace double trap shooter Ronjan Sodhi equaled his own world record of 147/150 in the ISSF World Cup in Mexico, the third time he has shot that score in a World Cup. Hakan Dahlby's score of 144/150 was the next best. But Ronjan didn't even make it to the final. Surprised? You should be. And thank the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) for that. Despite being one of the best double trap shooters in the world, Sodhi had been entered in the Minimum Qualification Score or MQS category and not shooting the main competition. The world record would stand but Sodhi missed out on a berth in the final. The high scoring....

Yalgaar Ho !

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Yalgaar...not the forgettable Feroze Khan movie of the 90's but a phrase made popular by a reality TV show on air these days. And Yalgaar it definitely will be as the Indian cricket team gears up to take on Pakistan in their third series in 2 years. PCB Chief Shahyryar Khan says there should be a Indo Pak series every 2 years...I definitely agree with him...As a reporter its one hell of a job to cover the Indian cricket team...it is high profile but the risks of missing a story and getting a yelling from assignment are huge. Imagine this...you are standing and doing a live link outside the team hotel and at that very moment a reporter of some other channel manages to convince an Indian cricketer to do an interview. No option but to wear earplugs...there will be calls from office as soon as that interview airs. All....