A sports potpourri

A travesty of cricket

When a person stands with his feet close together and makes a full swing with a 9-iron and completely misses the ball, it is called a 'whiff' or an 'air-shot' in golf, and counts as 1 stroke. A similar situation, but on a baseball diamond, is counted as a 'strike'. Three strikes, and the batter is out.

On a cricket pitch, one can go on swinging and whiffing to one's heart's content - and other than making a complete fool of oneself, it doesn't count at all! Neither should the travesty of cricket - as recently witnessed during the 20-20 World Cup in England.

Pakistan won the tournament deservedly, beating Sri Lanka in the final. The country has become a pariah because of its political adventurism that has closed the door to any home engagements in international sports. This victory should be a moral booster for the sports loving public.

Sania vs. Saina

Two young girls from the same town in India. Both participants in different forms of racket-sports. Attractive personalities. Almost identical names. One's star is ascending, the other's descending.

Sania's slam-bang 20-20 version of tennis initially bewildered opponents and allowed her a modicum of success. But a hit-or-miss style used repeatedly without any planning or thinking does not produce results in the long run. No wonder her progress is limited to the 1st or 2nd round in Grand Slam events, and an occasional doubles victory in third rung tournaments.

Saina, an intelligent and thinking player, has shunned publicity, made steady progress up the badminton rankings and has been a top 10 player for a while. Her recent victory at the Indonesian Open against the World No 3, Ling Wang of China was highly commendable. This performance should move her into the top 5 in the world badminton rankings. Hail Saina!

Lucas Glover's US Open Golf victory

At the top echelons of world sports, the margin between defeat and victory is small - often decided by who makes the least errors and not so much by who has the better skills. This was exemplified at Bethpage Black by Lucas Glover and Ricky Barnes. Barnes set the record for the lowest 36 holes total and the 2nd lowest 54 holes total and led by a shot over Glover after the 3rd round.

The final round scores? Glover shot a +3; Barnes a +6 to lose by two shots. It also confirmed my theory, that under Grand Slam final round pressure, the guy with the wonky swing will wilt! Kenny Perry's loopy swing collapsed against the smoother swing of Angel Cabrera at the Masters. Ricky Barnes' off-balance swing went haywire against the more classical swing of Glover.

Oh! The joy of scoring goals!

It was sheer joy to watch the first half of the FIFA Confederations Cup group match between Brazil and World Champions, Italy. It was fascinating, thrilling, exhilarating and exciting.

Italy was kicking the ball around in the mid-field, playing in the European style of possession and distribution. Precise passes, interchanging of positions, looking for a chink in the opposing defence.

Brazil was only interested in scoring. Everything else was only a means to that end. Once they got possession, a wave of yellow jerseys would lash upon the opposing penalty box in the blink of an eye. A feint here, a flick there and one of the players would suddenly be free and taking a shot at goal.

Twice, the woodwork came in the way. Several times, Buffon helped the World Champs avoid the blushes. But it was obvious that the question was when, not if. Two strikes by Fabiano late in the first half was followed by a desperate lunge by Dossena to save a certain third goal, only to guide the ball behind a diving Buffon. 3-0 at half-time. The World Champions were thoroughly outclassed.

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.