End of Cricket in Pakistan?

Imran Khan had attained notoriety with his huge reverse swings with a doctored cricket ball. So his oft-repeated assertion, that terrorists will never attack cricketers, should have been taken by the Pak security establishment with a large dose of salt.

The Lahore attack on Sri Lankan visiting cricketers was shocking, to say the least. But these were no run-of-the-mill terrorists out to create mayhem. A dozen terrorists with automatic weapons, rocket launchers and grenades could not blow up the Sri Lanka team bus? No security cordon fighting back? Not a single terrorist even slightly injured - let alone captured or killed?

No, this wasn't a terrorist attack at all. The whole situation seemed stage managed by the Pak army and/or ISI to create an impression that Pakistan is as much under terrorists' threat as USA and India. And to divert attention from the fact that Pakistan is the epicenter of world terrorism.

Pak spokespersons - suffering from severe foot-in-the-mouth disease - were promptly on TV channels blaming India. One even went so far as to compare the Lahore attack to 9/11 in 2001 and the Nov 26, '08 Mumbai attacks.

Come on, neighbours! Get real! More than 3000 dead in a day's coordinated attacks in different cities in the USA in 2001. Nearly 300 dead in 3 days of mayhem in different locations in Mumbai last year. 6 Pakistani cops shot in a 2 hours operation in a city roundabout in Lahore. Are these events comparable??

The Sri Lankan cricketers fortunately escaped with minor injuries and my condolences go out to their families for the trauma and agony they suffered. But why did the team make the unscheduled visit to Pakistan in the first place?

Did the Sri Lanka authorities feel that India was exaggerating the security threat by cancelling their scheduled Pakistan trip? Or were they over confident after cornering the vicious LTTE terrorists in their own country? Either way, it was a terrible call.

The time has come to stop molly-coddling the Pakistan establishment because they have a few nuclear weapons. The time has come for the world to realise that a Frankenstein has been created and unleashed. The time has come to stop the flow of money to the Jihadi movement nurtured by the CIA and Saudi Arabia. The time has come to stop all international cricket events in Pakistan.

Tsonga on Song at the Australian Open

2008 was meant to be the year that Jo-Wilfried Tsonga would become a household name among sports lovers. He started off with a bang, beating 9th seed Andy Murray in the first round of the Australian Open.

He then handed Rafael Nadal one of his worst straight-set thrashings on a tennis court, before losing to Djokovich in the final. But while Nadal won the French Open (again!) and Wimbledon for the first time to rise to the No. 1 rank displacing Federer, and Andy Murray became a force to reckon with by the end of the year, a long knee injury lay off almost pushed Tsonga out of the limelight.

After a lacklustre US Open where he lost to Robredo in the 3rd round, Tsonga won the Thai Open by beating Djokovich in the final, followed by a victory in the Paris Masters where he beat Djokovich in the pre-quarters before defeating Nalbandian in the final. That enabled him to qualify for the season-ending finale at Shanghai.

But he didn't get past the round-robin stage, losing to Davydenko of Russia and Argentine sensation Juan Martin Del Potro, before a consolation victory over - you guessed it - Djokovich.

2009 hasn't started off great. Tsonga won a doubles title at Brisbane partnering countryman Marc Gicquel but lost in the quarters to another Frenchman, Richard Gasquet. A back injury forced him out of the next tourney and there were some doubts whether he'd be able to play in the Australian Open.

But those doubts were firmly set aside when he took on Juan Monaco of Argentina in the 1st round. A slow start cost him his first service game but he won 4 in a row to lead 4-2 on his way to a 6-4 win. Tsonga still looked rusty and short of match practice - making several wild shots and committing silly errors.

In the second set, he began to look more assured and jumped to a 4-0 lead before a lapse of concentration allowed Monaco to claw back to 4-3. But the fight ended when he won the set at 6-4.

The third set saw Tsonga truly on song. This exciting all-court player was all over his opponent - hitting 200KM+ serves, vicious forehand winners, dinking drop shots and rushing to the net to put away volleys. One felt sorry for Monaco, currently ranked 43 - getting humiliated in front of a world wide TV audience by a player nicknamed 'Tsunami'. The set score? 6-0!

The opposition will get tougher in the next few rounds and Tsonga will need to tighten up his game. There are few better sights in world tennis today than watching a talented player at his uninhibited best.

In other action, former champion and World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt continued his slide down the rankings, losing a Ist round encounter against 2007 finalist Fernando Gonzales in 5 sets.

And in a David-Goliath 1st rounder, spindly 61st ranked Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan produced the best tennis of his life to outplay burly 10th seed David Nalbandian, also in 5 tough sets.

The Australian Open of 2009 promises to be one of the truly 'open' grand slam events in a long time.

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.