Saina, Video Technology and Ultra Marathons

Playing ball with numbers

Saina Nehwal completed a treble of wins last Sunday at the Indonesian Open. It was her 3rd consecutive tournament triumph ,an unbroken streak of 15 games without a loss. Saina is in the best form of her life and her ranking is now a stratospheric No. 3. The Indonesian Open ,though, lacked serious competition from the Chinese who preferred to compete in their local league. The Chinese are notorious for lying low  before any major tournaments such as the World championship that is scheduled in the near future. They prefer to scout their opponents and exploit any detected weaknesses and in the meanwhile identify , groom and train their  future stars. The Chinese depth in badminton and table-tennis is to be envied and emulated. Will Saina be able to carry her form into the world championship? Will the Chinese spring a surprise package , as they have been known to do before, and unveil a new star on the badminton horizon? Who knows? Only time will tell! But congratulations to Saina and good luck to her! Her star still shines bright in the barren sky of Indian sport.

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Quote of the day:
You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun. – Al Capone

The controversial disallowed goal in the match between England and Germany raises the question again as to whether video technology should be made an integral part of soccer. I say why not? Are the FIFA officials content to live in the dark ages? Have they been living under a rock? If there can be so much made about the soccer jerseys and new football technology introduced at every World Cup, why cannot video technology be used to aid the referees? Technology is never meant to replace humans but to reduce the monotone of repetitive , boring actions- actions that lead to mistakes made. Let the referees concentrate on the players and their follies on the field. FIFA says that having video technology would take out the human element; would it not be an acknowledgment that the referees are human too? The traditionalists can have it any way they please; just don’t take the fans for a ride with a mouthful of platitudes.

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The ultra marathon match between John Isner and Nicholas Mahut was a gleaming  example of human fortitude and endurance. On a lighter note ,  I would like to speculate as to what Isner and Mahut were thinking of while playing this marathon . Was it something like, hey, you know, if we drag this match out, we will probably have as many hours at Wimbledon as the finalists. The final set itself had a total of 138 games, that would make it an equivalent of 12 more sets approximately, assuming 12 games in each set. Something to ponder!

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Have a great day!