Singh is truly King

What a magnificient achievement by 'Jeev' Milkha Singh! Holding off World No 4 Padraig Harrington and World No 8 Ernie Els - both multiple major winners - to win the Singapore Open by 1 shot was truly unbelievable. The fact that another multiple major winner and World No 3 Phil Mickelson was also in the fray, makes his win even sweeter.

This win has catapulted him not only to the top of the Asian Order of Merit, but into the World top 50 (at No 46). Jeev had achieved that feat in 2006, which had earned him an invitation to play in the Masters. That year, he had won the Volvo Open at the difficult Valderrama course in Span and had two victories in Japan.

What followed was a disappointing 2007 without a single victory that dropped him out of the world top 50 list. It only increased the resolve of one of the most dedicated sportsmen of India. He worked even harder at his game, and the sheer determination and perseverance is now paying off in cartloads.

Jeev has won again in Japan this year and the Austrian Open in Europe. The only blemish in his otherwise excellent career has been the lack of a victory on the US tour. One reason is that he was never able to qualify for a US PGA tour card despite several attempts. May be he was trying too hard.

The occasional wild cards and special invitations to the major tournaments didn't provide Jeev with enough opportunities to learn about the different US tour courses. Familiarity with these difficult courses is an essential element in winning tournaments.

Now that Jeev is back in the world top 50, he should get more opportunities to play on the US tour where one victory will automatically earn him a PGA tour card.

Arjun Atwal, another strong Indian golfer who lost his PGA tour card and had to play in the lower level Nationwide tour this year, has earned his PGA tour card back with a victory and finishing the year in the top 15. Jeev, who is a far more consistent - if less talented - player, will surely be aiming to win a US PGA tournament. May be even a major.

The Fab Fours

India completed a 2-0 home series victory by outplaying the No. 1 ranked Aussies at Nagpur and moved up to the No. 2 ranking. But the series will be better remembered for the end of an era. The Fab Four of India's batting - Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly - will never play another test together.

Ganguly has retired. Dravid, after two flop shows against Sri Lanka and Australia, should follow in Ganguly's footsteps soon. After nearly 19 years of non-stop cricket, Tendulkar's spirit is still willing but the body seems weak. Only Laxman can carry on for a while. But Dhoni's policy of 'young legs' may just edge him out as well.

To put things in perspective, please allow me to feel nostalgic for a bit and dwell on other Fab Fours that I've been privileged to witness.

First and foremost, among Indians was the spin quartet of Bishan Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagawat Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkataraghavan. While some insist that a major part of their success was due to the excellent close-in catching by the likes of Eknath Solkar, Ajit Wadekar and Venkat himself, the fact is that Bedi remains the best left arm spinner I've seen (with due apologies to purists who witnessed Vinoo Mankad in his heydays) and Prasanna the best off spinner ever.

Bedi was so good that a couple of left arm spinners who would have walked into any other test side - Padmakar Shivalkar and Dilip Doshi - had to cool their heels while Bedi was around. Doshi finally got his chance and took a ton of wickets. Shivalkar had to remain content at the Ranji level.

The freaky action and speed of Bhagawat Chandrasekhar foxed many well known batsmen and won India quite a few matches. But his skills were overshadowed by the recently retired Anil Kumble, who was India's most consistent and highest wicket taker. (I never got to see Subhas Gupte in action. Many claim that he was India's best leg-spinner.) Venkat had considerable skills and was a good leader and fielder, and later a distinguished umpire.

The next Fab Four are the West Indies pace quartet of Holding, Roberts, Garner and Marshall. Even with the advent of helmets, arm guards, chest guards, et al, they struck terror into the hearts of most batsmen and propelled West Indies to the top of the test playing 'countries' for several years.

Holding's smooth run up and fluid action earned him the sobriquet of 'Rolls Royce among fast bowlers'. Roberts had such a lethal and disguised bouncer that most batsmen didn't even know what hit them. Garner's height and accuracy made it impossible for batsmen to score against him. Marshall, the most underrated of the four, had the most brutal pace.

The last, but not the least, Fab Four belong to an era and not a single country. The four great all-rounders - Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee, Imran Khan and Kapil Dev. It is really tough to choose between them. Botham took a huge number of wickets, many with rank bad balls and was perhaps the best batsman of the lot. Hadlee would have been a really good batsman if he had concentrated on his batting a little more. As a fast bowler, he had few equals and had an astonishing wicket-taking average. Imran and Kapil both led their national teams to World Cup victories - they had unquestionable leadership abilities on top of their considerable batting and bowling skills.

Where do our more recent Fab Four fit in?  Ganguly has already staked claim to two crowns - the best left handed Indian batsman and the best Indian captain. He was instrumental in changing the attitude of the Indian cricket team and turned them into aggressive match winners. During his tenure, he rubbed many an administrator the wrong way by putting his foot down on regionalism in team selection. He paid a huge price for it later.

What can I write about Tendulkar that has not already been written? He is undoubtedly one of the greatest batsman I have seen. But I'll have to put him at a close second to Brian Lara and just ahead of Sunil Gavaskar because of his impeccable record in both forms of the game. Dravid has to be rated half a notch below because of his inability to score quickly. The classy Laxman belongs to the group that includes Gundappa Vishwanath, Dilip Vengsarkar and Ganguly - obviously talented, but moody and lacking the consistency of Gavaskar, Dravid and Tendulkar. But on his day, an absolute 'terminator' of world class bowling.

Indian sportsmen shining?

Recent sporting events had a lot of India flavor.

First of all, the sound thrashing that India meted out to the Australian cricket team during the 2nd test match at Mohali. In the first innings, it was Amit Mishra's orthodox leg breaks and googlies that did them in - after a solid batting performance from Tendulkar, Ganguly (a hundred in his farewell series - what an achiever!) and Captain M S Dhoni.

In the second innings, brilliant bursts of swing bowling by Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan broke the backs of the Australians. In between, Sehwag, Gambhir and Dhoni tore their unidimensional bowling attack to shreds. A defeat by 320 runs! I do not recollect when was the last time that Australia had lost a test match so heavily.

At Bonn, West Germany, Vishwanathan Anand was drubbing Russian Grandmaster Kramnik at the World Chess Championships - winning twice by playing with the black pieces. His 4.5 to 1.5 point lead in the 12 match series looks unassailable. Kramnik seems all at sea against Anand's variations and rapid moves.

In a Nationwide Tour golf event in the USA, Arjun Atwal broke the jinx of never having won in the USA by winning in a playoff and almost assuring himself a PGA tour card that he had lost in 2007. It will be good to see him competing in the PGA Tour along side his friend Daniel Chopra (who now plays under the Swedish flag). Earlier, Jeev Milkha Singh had finished a creditable 4th at the Indian Open Golf tournament at Delhi.

All in all, some thing for every Indian sports lover to be proud of.

Not cricket!

Die-hard cricket lovers, getting bored by the lull between the Sri Lanka series and the forthcoming Australian one, may be disappointed with this post. Because there is not much in it about cricket.

There are several other sports in which Indians have been excelling of late - not just at home but across the world.

It started with Abhinav Bindra's shooting gold at the Beijing Olympics.  What followed on his arrival back to India exemplified the old phrase 'from the sublime to the ridiculous'. People who didn't have the foggiest about what particular event brought Abhinav his gold medal, started falling over each other trying to garland him and announce cash rewards!

Sania Nehwal had also performed well in the Beijing Olympics but had succumbed in the quarters. Her win at a badminton tournament in Taipei should come as a moral booster (her subsequent first round loss in Japan notwithstanding).

Young Pankaj Advani won the World Billiards championship at Bangalore with a victory over the formidable Geet Sethi in the quarters. Pankaj has also qualified to participate in the upcoming World Snooker Championship at Austria.

Then came the announcement of the Rest of India cricket team for the Irani trophy, and notable for their absence were Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly. While the media went to town announcing the end of the road for Sourav, a namesake - Saurav Ghoshal caused ripples in the squash world by winning a tournament in France after beating a higher ranked opponent in the final. The reason Saurav Ghoshal had entered the tournament was because he had never been to France before and wanted to see the country! Hope he continues to bring glory to India.

Last, but not the least, is the evergreen Leander Paes, who won the Mixed Doubles title with Cara Black at the US Open tennis - his 8th grand slam doubles title.

There is a common thread in all the five champions - they participate in non-contact sports. My theory about this is that Indian parents do not like to risk injuries for their children lest it interfere with academics.

Even though Vijay Kumar and Suresh Kumar got bronze medals at Beijing in boxing and wrestling, the track record of Indians in contact sports is dismal. A FIFA ranking of 151 in football and non-existent ranking in basketball are cases in point.

New stars on the tennis horizon

The fast hard courts at Flushing Meadows, NYC have produced some scintillating tennis matches that brought into spotlight upcoming stars and some veteran journeymen.

Marin Cilic from Croatia is one youngster to watch out for. What was evident was a very mature head on top of a still growing body. The explosive power of his serves and forehand were a treat for tennis lovers. He is arguably even better than his fellow countryman Mario Ancic  and provided a stern test for Djokovic before bowing out in 4 sets in 4 hours. If he puts in a little work on his net game, he should be a top 10 player very soon.

Sam Querrey is another very tall and very strong player with a great serve, a powerful forehand and a good net game. He gave Nadal a run for his money and should take away several positives from his 4 set defeat.

Juan Martin del Potro from Argentina won 4 tournaments in a row prior to the US Open and is another one from the young brigade who is very tall and very focused. He lost a tight 4 setter to Andy Murray but the match could have gone either way.

Andy Murray has put in a lot of hard work to improve his fitness and is already a star with two wins over Djokovic this year in the hard court series. His never-say-die attitude helped him to get through some remarkably close matches - particularly the 5 setter against the Austrian, Juergen Melzer.

Among the tour veterans, Mardy Fish had a great run with some excellent wins. His win over Blake and the complete outclassing of Gael Monfils speak volumes about his physical and mental skills. Nadal was just too good for him.

But my vote for the player of the tournament goes to south paw Gil Mueller of Luxembourg. This middle-of-the-road tour regular played some amazing serve-and-volley tennis that reminded me of Greg Rusedski in prime form. His win over Almagro of Spain (another star in the making) showcased some of the best clutch volleys at this Open. It is such a refreshing change to see some one playing an all-court game with great success.

The disappointment of the US Open was Jo Wilfried Tsonga, the Frenchman who had given such a hiding to Nadal at the Australian Open with his serve-and-volley skills before bowing to Djokovic in the final. He may not have fully recovered from his injuries yet and seemed short of match practice.

Amongst the oldies, Leander Paes of India displayed his fitness and strategy by reaching the finals of the Mixed doubles and the Men's doubles. Not bad for some one on the wrong side of 35.

A Great Haul in China

Superlatives are superfluous in trying to describe what Michael Phelps has achieved at the Beijing Olympics. Five individual and three team gold medals - surpassing Mark Spitz, who won seven gold medals in Munich in 1972.

A total of 14 gold medals in three Olympic Games! Can it get any better than this? Only time will tell, as records are made to be broken. But till that happens, Phelps will hold the undisputed title of the 'greatest athlete ever'.

I had the privilege of watching both Mark Spitz and Mike Phelps reach their milestones live on TV. Spitz's considerable achievement was unfortunately marred by two episodes.

The first was the extremely gruesome kidnap and murder of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists - now immortalised in Spielberg's movie "Munich". (That episode was followed by an equally violent elimination of Palestinian operatives across Europe - spread over several years - by the Israeli Mossad.)

The second was the 'smart business sense' demonstrated by Mark Spitz which smacked of a crude display of commercialism. Mark refused to pose with his seven gold medals for the press photographers from all over the world.

Instead he returned to the USA and sold his picture with seven golds for a bag full of money. So what is wrong with that? Nothing - other than the fact that the Olympics used to be a sporting event for amateurs only. Participants were supposed to bring glory to their country and not to themselves.

Now that professional sports persons are allowed to participate in the Olympic Games, making money off one's achievements at the games will not raise even an eyebrow.

Phelps will probably follow the path of Spitz and become a multi-millionaire by selling his picture with eight gold medals. But times have changed and his business sense will probably get appreciated by a world audience.

The 'other' Singh

For the first time in the long history of Major championships, an Indian golfer led the field after the first round of the PGA Championship. He held the lead jointly over the best of the best (minus one!).

After a second round 74 - the worst by any player in the top 20 of the leaderboard - Chiranjeev 'Milkha' Singh was still tied seventh with the likes of Sergio Garcia and Angel Cabrera (who won the US Open last year). Only two former major winners are ahead on the leaderboard - Ben Curtis and David Toms. Only 4 shots separate the top 20 players - so this PGA is wide open.

All eyes are of course on China and the Olympics opening ceremony was truly magnificient in concept and execution. But for golf enthusiasts, the last major of the year at Oakland Hills, Michigan - which was dubbed "The Monster" by the great Ben Hogan when he won the US Open at the same venue back in 1951 - will provide a lot of thrills and entertainment.

To appreciate how competitive and tough the field of professional golf is, here are some of the former Major winners that missed the cut : Rich Beem, Fred Couples, John Daly, Todd Hamilton, Zach Johnson, Bob Tway, Mark Brooks, Trevor Immelman, Davis Love III, and the 'real' Singh - Vijay.  Other former Major winners like Jim Furyk, Mike Weir, Corey Pavin and Paul Azinger barely made the cut at +8.

'Jeev' played in the Masters this year, made the cut and made some money. He missed the cut in the US Open and made zilch. He narrowly failed to qualify for the British Open. He has made the cut in the PGA and is in the top 10 of the leader board even though he is playing with a bum right ankle.

In between, he has been criss-crossing the world playing on the Asian, the Japanese and the European tours - making his own travel arrangements, adjusting to different time zones, eating unfamiliar food and making no money any time he misses the cut. In spite of such challenges, with his unorthodox swing and exquisite short game, he has already won a tournament each on the Japanese and European tours.

So say a little prayer for 'Jeev'. If he manages to win the PGA with one of his typical come-from-behind 5 under final rounds, he will get some thing like a 10 year exemption on the US PGA tour - the best and biggest pro-golf tour in the world. And his days of cross-continent travelling and living out of suitcases may come to an end.

The beginning of the end for Sania Mirza

Back in 2005, a teenaged Sania Mirza was creating waves on the Women’s tennis tour. She was notching up important victories over better and higher ranked players like Marion Bartoli and Nadia Petrova. She reached the 4^th round of the US Open where she lost to Sharapova and won her first (and so far only) tournament at the Hyderabad Open.

As she climbed up the rankings ladder, she started to generate a new fan following – particularly among Americans, who just loved her all-or-nothing attitude on court and the stream of hard-hit winners from both flanks from impossible positions.

With fame came fortune, and as the huge amounts started pouring in from endorsements and advertisements, Sania became a style icon among the youth of India – sporting nose rings and tee shirts with messages (provocative by Indian standards!).

Controversies followed, with tennis purists aghast at the time she was spending off court when she should have been working on improving her pathetic serves and lack of fitness and mobility. Her short skirts and ‘daring’ show of skin shocked conservative protectors of Islam. (Ashley Harkleroad may wonder what the fuss was all about!)

Gradually, the high expectations of a billion Indians, off court engagements, assorted controversies and injuries due to lack of fitness and her hit-or-miss style of play began to take their inevitable toll. The problems were compounded by her inability to overcome her obvious technical shortcomings.

Sania did try to improve her serves and worked on her fitness and on court mobility. But her fearsome forehand no longer scared the opposition. Smarter and fitter players were ready to chase down her shots and keep the ball in play with the conviction that Sania would soon lose patience and bang the ball long or into the net.

Cut to the present. A string of first and second round losses in Tier 3 & 4 tournaments. She has not beaten a single player of note recently and has lost to players ranked far below her. From the low 30s, her rank has slipped to the 50s. Before the year is out – she may drop out of the top 100.

For Asian fans of women’s tennis, the new icon is now Zheng Jie who put up such a fabulous show at Wimbledon, knocking off one seed after another, only to be annihilated by Serena in the semis. This is the same Zheng Jie that Sania had beaten in the 2^nd round on her way to her only tournament victory back in 2005.

Sania may have little choice now but to follow in the footsteps of Anna Kournikova and try to become a model/movie star.

The case of the missing Cat

After a surfeit of cricket, the rolling greens of the Royal Birkdale provided a pleasant change of scenery. But the driving rain and howling winds were hardly pleasant for some of the biggest stars in professional golf. Singh, Els, Mickelson soared to 79s and 80s.

I've not had the privilege of playing at any of the links courses in the UK. However I still remember an afternoon round at the Shoreline Golf Course in Mountain View, California - next to the rather benign San Francisco Bay. The short par three 3rd (or was it the 4th?) measured 120 yards over water and a green-side bunker.

During my usual morning rounds, I would hit an easy 9 iron to the green. On this particular afternoon, there was a strong headwind from the Bay. After some thinking - and with a fair amount of reluctance - I chose a 4 iron. Barely clearing the water, the ball landed in the small strip of ground short of the green-side bunker!

And that was more like a 25 mph wind - far more playable than the gale-force 40 mph winds over Royal Birkdale. His long experience, and previous wins at the British Open, helped the Shark - looking a bit long in the tooth - to work his way around the course with his meticulous pre-shot routines and dramatic up-and-downs.

But some thing was definitely missing from the whole show. Call it the feline factor. The half-empty stands (or bleachers - as the Americans would call it) and the pitter-patter of polite applause were pale shadows of the 10 deep crowds and thunderous roars at previous Majors.

As Alice would say about the proverbial Cheshire Cat, we have seen the Cat without a grin but never a grin without a Cat. Yes, that was it. That million-dollar smile - usually flashed when he slots an impossible chip from off the green or a downhiller with a double break from 40 feet - was definitely missing.

He did miss the cut at the US Open a couple of years back. Other than that aberration, Tiger has been at every Major championship over the last dozen years, winning 14 of them. That puts him second behind the legendary Jack Nicklaus.

So, for the lesser mortals, the only excitement left is whether Masters 1996 will rear its ugly head again. That was the last time Norman led the field in a Major going into the final round. The fact that he managed to squander a 5 shots lead and lost to Faldo by six shots is probably going through his mind as he prepares for the final round.

For the Shark's sake, let us hope that he pulls himself together one last time to become the oldest person to win a Major.

What ails Indian cricket?

In a short span of time the Indian cricket team lost two finals – one against Pakistan in Bangladesh and the other against Sri Lanka in Pakistan. Lost may be too mild a word – soundly thrashed would be closer to the truth.

For those die-hard fans who are still euphoric about the young Indian team that won the 20-20 World Cup and then beat Australia in Australia, it is time to do a reality check.

Cricket is not about ‘tamasha’ or show business. It is about solid and consistent performances over a long period of time – under different weather conditions, against different opposition in domestic as well as international competitions.

Our highly overpaid and ridiculously pampered youngsters are suddenly becoming too tired and mentally exhausted to play 12 days in a three week period (or whatever the number of days they actually had to play recently). Most of the matches were played in the late afternoons and evenings where the team was on the field for less than 4 hours. No wonder they do not have the stomach to field for 6 hours in the hot sun during a test match!

Why is there no hue and cry over this in the media? Because cricket spells big money, and no one wants to rock the boat. Even Gavaskar has appreciated Dhoni’s honesty in opting out of the Sri Lanka tour.

Our cricketers have, of late, started using baseball gloves during fielding sessions. Wonder what would happen to the young guns if they actually had to play baseball in the USA. The major league baseball season starts on the first Sunday of April and ends on the first Sunday of October. That totals 183 days. Each team in the league has to play 162 games – yes, 162 games in 183 days.

Count out a few double headers (i.e. two games played back to back in a single day) and you are looking at playing 150 days during the 6 months long season (i.e. 25 days every month). The baseball players get paid big bucks, but they earn it.

Poor Dhoni. He will probably have a heart attack at the very thought of playing for so many days, and that too year after year. If he was the best wicketkeeper in the country I would be a little more kind towards him. If he was the best captain, I would be even kinder and actually condone his copping out (like Gavaskar has done). But he is neither.

No Captain should be so pig-headed as to drop all the proven performers and stalwarts of the team in the false hope that young legs will consistently win matches. To be a consistent performer one needs three other, and more important, assets – talent, brains and experience.

There is no better proof of this argument than Yuvraj Singh. Loads of talent but zero brains. After so many opportunities in the international arena, he hasn’t yet figured out when to go forward and when to go back when playing a spinner. (He has also not figured out that he is no Rohan Kanhai or Gundappa Vishwanath – who could party till the wee hours and then go out and score a hundred.)

So here is a plan for the BCCI. By all means back youngsters and choose different teams for test matches and one dayers. But keep a few stalwarts in both teams. Go on giving as many opportunities as you want to Uthappa, Rohit Sharma, Raina. But appreciate and understand that they are not – and unlikely to be - the next Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly.

While the stalwarts still have a few years of cricket left in them, keep them in the team – if not all, at least two – so that the youngsters get some guidance and learn from the experts. May be India will then start winning more finals (or lose by giving a proper fight).