Hockey, first:
http://stick2hockey.com/ViewArticle.asp ... leOID=3618
Need to await the details, but its been a big turn-around from the first test, reports of which I hated reading. I am confused by this trend: Everytime we go and face a new team in a new spot, we lose the first match. Even to dumbfck teams such as Singapore or Malaysia. Why, why, why?! What is so missing in the first match? Travel depletes energy of players?, does it take longer for us to get used to new places?!, or do we get cowed down by a marauding opposition in the first match?! Someone please answer me, before my head will burst....
Indian men beat Spain, girls lose to Korea (8/12/2009)
Tuesday is mixed day for India. While India beat Spain 1-0 in the second test in Spain, Indian girls narrowly lost to formidable Korea 2-3 at Boston Junior World Cup. It's second loss for India in the medal round after losing to England 0-1. Earlier in the first test, Indian men lost to Spain 2-8.
Korea’s Seul Ki Cheon posted hattrick at Boston to douse Indian fire. In the 11th minute of play, India’s Rani Devi scored the first goal, putting her team in the lead. Korea retaliated with a Penalty Corner and Cheon’s first drag flick into the net tied the game 1-1. Five minutes later, Korea scored off the same goal from Seul Ki Cheon. With only 6 minutes left, Monika Badran tied the game 2-2.
It was back and forth play when both teams hit the field again, and it wasn’t until the 53rd minute that Korea’s Cheon scored the final goal of the game. India continued to apply pressure but the clock ran out.
More importantly, I hope Baljit gains full vision, even if he does nt don the national colors anymore. So AIIMS to JH to Alabama, I am amused by this tale of pushing the ball, but it seems like the folks at AL were willing to take the risk that others were not, and Baljit might have been tired of having to go through one more round of pushing around...
Baljit undergoes successful eye surgery in Alabama
CHENNAI: Indian hockey goalkeeper Baljit Singh's surgery to repair his damaged right eye has been successfully completed at a private hospital in Alabama, USA. Baljit has been kept in recovery room for two days after the two-hour operation which took place between 2000hrs and 2200hrs local time (0630hrs to 0830 hrs IST). "My operation was successful and I am kept in a recovery room for two-days," he said through an SMS. After doctors at the John Hopkins hospital in Baltimore -- where the player had been admitted for his post-operative treatment -- said they could not guarantee full vision, Baljit arrived in Alabama to consult renowned ophthalmologist Robert Morris.
Dr Morris studied reports of both AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) and John Hopkins and decided to do the operation. Baljit is also hoping to be joined by his father there after his travel documents are sorted out. Baljit was injured in a freak incident when a golf ball, while practising in Pune, sneaked through his visor to damage his right eye. Baljit had to be airlifted to the capital where doctors at AIIMS conducted a marathon emergency surgery but could not promise full vision. The Sports Ministry then arranged his US trip.
This is a baki report, I will not be surprised if India gets a wildcard later on conditions that we give away something to the spaniards ruling the roost. Expect the bakis to make == noises. I wanna see the Indian team in Melbourne...
India denied wild card in Champions Trophy
KARACHI: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has refused wild card entries to Pakistan and India for the 2009 Champions Trophy men's hockey tournament to be held in Melbourne in November. An official in the Pakistan Hockey Federation confirmed that the FIH had turned down request from Pakistan to give the country wild card entry for the mega event as the former Asian giants could not qualify directly for the tournament.
"We had sent a request that since Pakistan and India are major players in world hockey they should be allowed wild card entries for the Champions Trophy where number of teams can be increased to eight to accommodate them," said the official.
Volleyball: An unreported report from the past
http://www.dnaindia.com/sport/report_in ... ll_1280336
India create history in world volleyball
Pune: India created history, entering the semifinals of the men's Junior Volleyball World Championship for the first time, beating Belgium 3-2 in a keenly contested match at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi on Thursday night. The hosts started poorly, losing the first set 18-25. The boys seemed tired and short of ideas to begin with. But the first-set loss woke them out of the stupor and they came back strongly in the second set. Apart from cashing in on the opponents' errors, they placed the ball at the right places, which apparently was a tall order in the initial stages.
It helped India that Belgium, after a fine start, suddenly failed to find the gaps and lost many points in faulty serves. They gave away 32 points as the hosts won the second set 25-19. In the third set, India started improvising. The powerless lifts and the unplanned passes, visible in the first two sets, diminished and the Indians spotted the gap well, winning it 25-16. The match would not have rolled into a decider had India not failed to stop a fierce counter-attack by Kevin Klinkenberg.
The Belgian troubled the Indians in the fourth set with his accurate spikes. India were leading the fourth set 11-09 until Belgium won three consecutive points to take a one-point lead. They then maintained the lead and won the set 25-22. The match went into the decider. Though India started on a wrong note, they quickly recovered to level the score 3-3 before taking a lead. Pressure was mounting on the visitors and over 3000 spectators made things worse for them with their vocal cheer in crucial moments. India maintained the lead and finished the set 15-11 to move into the semifinal.
Gurinder Singh and Manidurai Naveen were once again the top scorers. Singh scored 26 points while Naveen contributed 20. "We made several errors while blocking the ball... We will try to minimise them in our semifinal match," said skipper Mandeep. Meanwhile, Argentina made their way to the semis from Pool E along with India. They defeated Russia 3-0. India will take on Brazil on Saturday while Argentina will play Cuba.
Badminton: The Anglais want presidential level security, which only the bakis can offer. Good riddance, let these oiseaules leave. It is still THE WORLD championship. As days pass by, the Londonistanis are going to get used to the fact that they are yet another form of white trash, just like their cousins down under.... Ahem, assuming that the majority is still white trash in another 10 years, say.
The local favourite Saina faces Bulgarian Petya Nedelcheva on Thursday.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/08/12/stories ... 841700.htm
Kashyap notches up an impressive win
A stroll in the park for Hidayat; Bhat goes down fighting to Yu Hsing Hsieh
HYDERABAD: It was the turn of P. Kashyap to cheer up the dispirited Indian contingent on the second day when he notched up an impressive 21-9, 21-13 win over Iranian Ali Shahhosseini in the men’s singles first round of the BWF World badminton championship at the Gachibowli Stadium here on Tuesday night. The wild card entry from Hyderabad played to his potential in outplaying the opponent who has never even played in a Super Series tournament earlier. Kashyap delighted the home crowd with his brilliant deception in strokes — mixing the powerful smashes down the line with some intelligent net dribbles.
“I am really happy to win the first round in a World Championship in front of home crowd,” Kashyap said. “It worked out well for me in the first game but had some problems in adjusting to the drift in the second which was slightly on the higher side. But, again it is the case for both the players when they change sides,” he said. Kashyap will meet second-seeded Jin Chen of China who defeated Eric Pang of Netherlands 21-14, 21-19 in another first round match.
It was so near and yet so far for India’s World No. 24 who was virtually staring at an improbable victory. A stunning overhead smash saw him level the scores at 22-22 in the decider but then failed to get the better of his opponent who took the crucial points to clinch the issue. In the first game Bhat looked out of sorts as his rival dictated terms with a blend of forehand smashes and drops to win the game. But Bhat rallied strongly to take the second game at 21-19.
In the decider, Yu Hsing changed tactics. He kept the shuttle flat and went for cross-court returns, thereby denying the taller Bhat the freedom to go for net dribbles as he had done in the second game. At one stage, Hsing led 11-4 but he was clearly surprised by Bhat’s sudden comeback. Often Bhat lured Hsing to the net only to place those cross-court returns deep. Thereby the Indian picked up valuable points to narrow the lead. A couple of huge, down-the-line smashes saw Bhat consolidate further. But after levelling the scores at 22-22, the Indian failed to counter Hsing who came up with a telling smash to take the vital 23-22 lead. And then when Bhat sent a return out of the court to end up in defeat, his frustration boiled over and he threw his racket in disgust. That gesture only brought him an yellow card from the chair official.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/08/12/stories ... 071800.htm
IIRC Prakash Padukone beat L.S. King to win the All England championships.
Hidayat happy to be in Hyderabad
HYDERABAD: Can you believe this? Taufik Hidayat has not seen the legendary Liem Swei King either in action or even the videos. “Yes, but I did meet him. For, I stay next to his residence,” quipped the former Olympic and world champion. In a visibly relaxed mood after his first round victory, Hidayat revealed that the reason for coming to Hyderabad one day late was that the aircraft pilot refused to take off since he had been on the job for 12 hours continuously. “So, I had to stay back at the airport hotel. But I was not very concerned about that,” he pointed out. “Yes, I am enjoying this trip a lot since I am being recognised by the fans here. I feel good when someone walks up to greet me,” he said.
The star shuttler from Indonesia also said that he was a bit scared after seeing the security measures and also about the dreaded swine flu. “But, it is okay. There is nothing we can do about it. We players have to go on with the game,” he remarked.
Wanted spectators!
More than Saina Nehwal’s parents and her coach Pullela Gopi Chand, there is one person who is more keen to see the champion shuttler advance as far as possible in this championship. Mohan Menon of ticketscounter.com is banking on Saina’s popularity to bring about a drastic increase in sale of tickets. The crowd response has been extremely disappointing so far. On the first and second days, only 150 tickets were sold on each day (priced at Rs.150 and Rs. 300). “I just hope there will be some demand at least tomorrow when Saina will be in action,” was Menon’s statement.
Media too gets a scare {My ass, instead of creating a ruckus about H1N1, if they went about goading people to go visit the badminton arena, they would have done something constructive for India in terms of allowing money to flow through the system. No sir, all these oiseaules want is to destroy India from within, a buncha parasites.}
Rarely does one see even the media personnel so scared as they were on Tuesday at the Gachibowli Stadium. For, within minutes of Apollo Hospitals making arrangements to distribute masks as a protective measure against the dreaded swine flu, all the media persons covering the event made a beeline to the distribution point to make sure that they got the masks. The masks were all gone in no time and there were many who were not lucky to get them. “Who will come to our rescue if something happens to us while covering the event,” was the unanimous opinion amongst the media personnel. {Noone, as long as you get lost, it is good for you and India, in general} Most of them presented an unfamiliar sight, sitting in the media box with faces half-covered.
The topic that will be suitably called: "Go support cricket, after all what goes around comes around
". If BCCI helps other federations around, I hope it gets the other federations and sportsmen and women to not badmouth it and the cricketers later in the day for their own stupidities and financial mess.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holn ... 121852.htm
AFFI request Rs.25 cr grant from BCCI
Mumbai (PTI): The Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) on Wednesday revealed that the All India Football Federation has sought from them a Rs 25 crore grant for the development of the game in the country. "Praful Patel (acting President of the AIFF) has approached us for a grant of Rs 25 crore for the development of football," said BCCI's Finance Committee Chairman Rajiv Shukla here on Wednesday. Mr. Patel had neither confirmed nor denied news reports last month if the AIFF had asked the BCCI a one-time grant of Rs 10 crore to prepare the national team for the 2011 Asia Cup for which India have qualified after a long gap.
Mr. Shukla said the BCCI was now thinking whether it was better to give grants directly to the federations running other sports or support them through the government. The BCCI had created a corpus of Rs 50 crore in 2008 by setting up the National Sports Development Fund for supporing five games - swimming, archery, judo, wrestling and shooting. It has also given individual grants in the past to tennis player Karan Rastogi (Rs 40 lakh), squash player Aditya Jagtap (Rs 26 lakh) and shuttler Anand Pawar (Rs 14 lakh) as part of its policy to finance their training and participation.
Mr. Shukla also admitted that last financial year was not as profitable for the the BCCI as in the past few years due to curtailment of the series against England and the cancellation of the Pakistan tour in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks. "The profits have got reduced, but there are higher earnings from the IPL (Indian Premier League)," he said without detailing the exact dip in the revenue. Mr. Shukla also assured that all the women cricketers, who have not so far got their match fees for doing national duty, would soon get their dues.
"All the cricketers would be paid, women and juniors, immediately. All payments have been cleared," he said. Mr. Shukla refused to be drawn into a discussion over the issue of some top cricketers being backed by the BCCI in their opposition to the controversial "whereabout clause" of the WADA's anti-doping code. "The ICC has set up a committee to go into this. Let us give it time (to sort out the issue)," he said. The ICC has set up the International Registered Testing Pool Working Group, headed by its anti-doping panel chief Tim Kerr to thrash out the burning issue. Former India skipper Anil Kumble is also a part of the group.
specially when I find badminton more demanding than tennis.
