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.

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.