sports

Top Of The World!

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Though India was expectedly knocked out of the World T20 tourney late yesterday evening, Indian sports fans had much to cheer about with Viswanathan Anand retaining his world chess championship title by defeating Veselin Topalov in the 12th and final game of the match series  with black pieces.

Long Journey For Anand

It has been a long journey for Anand from child prodigy to being the best chess player in the world. This was his 4th world title with victories in all 3 formats of the world championships: 2000 (knock out), 2007 (double round robin tournament), and 2008 & 2010 (match play).

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As Cricket Grew in India, Corruption Followed – NYTimes.com

“A lot of women started watching,” Mr. Rajaraman said. “There are a lot of people who watch to see what Shah Rukh Khan is doing at the end of the game, or what new T-shirt he is wearing.”Ramachandra Guha, a historian who has written a book about cricket, said the I.P.L. tailored itself to the aspirations, and alienation, of an Indian middle class disillusioned with the country’s corruption and poverty. But Mr. Guha said the organization of the league — with teams located in India’s most affluent cities as opposed to having one in every state — has effectively mirrored the deep inequality in society.“It is the India that is doing well economically,” he said. “It shuts itself off from the other 800 million Indians who live in the hinterlands.”

As Cricket Grew in India, Corruption Followed – NYTimes.com

Disastrous run at World T20!

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With India’s 2 matches of the Super 8 match over and with them effectively India’s hopes of qualifying for the semis,  it is time to make a couple of points about India’s no-show at this tourney.

1> The standard of cricket exhibited at the IPL and the World T20 are reams apart. In the latter, we have the best teams representing their country, whereas the IPL teams are constrained to having just 4 foreign internationals representing them and at the same time they need to ensure that deserving youngsters (read youngsters with potential) are given a chance to ware their talents. So suddenly we have our IPL heroes peppered with short-pitched balls and when you are a team batting second and chasing a  large total, you have to try and hit every ball and the proclivity to succumb to the short-pitched variety is both exposed and exploited. Besides, since when have Indian batsmen known to be masters of the short ball?

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Harsha Bhogle: Go figure it out yourself | Opinion | Cricinfo Magazine | Cricinfo.com

Marsh and Buchanan come from completely different schools of cricket but seem to converge on this point. Buchanan encouraged players to go to coaches with their solution to the problem, not with the problem itself. It is a powerful thought and not one to be disregarded. The easiest thing to do with a problem is to go to someone and ask for the solution. It is also, as I have discovered with computers, the surest way to ignorance. As Marsh says, “If you don’t talk about the game, you’ve got no hope of getting better.”The process of working it out will lead to mistakes, but far too often in India we don’t recognise mistakes as essential stops on the way to learning. A nanny doesn’t allow a child to make a mistake, a coach doesn’t allow a young cricketer to go wrong in quest of being right. And by making the learning of cricket similar to the learning of history (which, in the right hands, can be really exciting as well), coaches convert a simple game into a difficult, complicated one. It makes sense, though, for if the coach were to present the game as being very simple, he couldn’t justify making a living out of teaching it, could he?

Harsha Bhogle: Go figure it out yourself | Opinion | Cricinfo Magazine | Cricinfo.com

Running Quote

Sweat cleanses from the inside. It comes from places a shower will never reach." ~George Sheehan, quoted in "Runners"

IPL Musings – II

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Now that IPL 3 is finished & done and Chennai Super Kings rule supreme with their name engraved on the (hideous) trophy, a few more thoughts on the IPL and the final:

1> No team has won the title more than once but then we are only in the 3rd edition of the IPL. The final between CSK and Mumbai Indians ensured that there would be a fresh champion once more.

2> The 3rd and 4th place match was a replay of last year’s final with Royal Challengers Bangalore having some semblance of  sweet revenge for last year’s loss to the Chargers, though Kumble might not agree! Bangalore now go onto the T20 Champions Trophy! Just to remind you that none of the IPL teams featured in the semi-finals of last year’s T20 Champions tournament.

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Tennis comes into its own!

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A few days ago, Aita announced the Indian Tennis League (ITL), which has been inspired by cricket’s Indian Premier League (IPL) and the World Team Tennis (WTT), held every summer in the US. Initial expectations include attracting some of the biggest, recently retired names in world tennis to this event.

A league of its own – Business of Life – livemint.com

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IPL’s ‘Twittergate’!

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Image via Wikipedia

With the spat between the 2 protagonists of the IPL ‘Twittergate’ now hitting Parliament, i.e. Tharoor’s conduct being questioned by the opposition parties, and with demands for his resignation becoming more strident, my thoughts on Shashi Tharoor and Lalit Modi.

Urbanomics: Is Sachin Tendulkar "choking" his opponents into submission?

Urbanomics: Is Sachin Tendulkar “choking” his opponents into submission?

Is there something about high-performing stars having an adverse effect on their opponents?
Do not their opponents rise to the challenge?
Is there not a case for improving one’s game in the presence of greats?
Maybe not!

Have a great day!

Brown water kayaking in Mumbai

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I found this fascinating quote today:

Livemint Home / Blogs Home > Breadcrumb, generated by ‘Breadcrumb Nav XT’ – http://mtekk.weblogs.us/code LiveLounge / Sport / Brown water kayaking in Mumbai Brown water kayaking in Mumbai Posted by Blessy Augustine on Wednesday, April 7, 2010div class="headlineright"> livemint.com, Brown water kayaking in Mumbai, Apr 2010

You should read the whole article.

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