Indian Sports and Entertainment Industry

[Rahul M]

man, Indian pugilists are in superb form !
and they are so cool and calm about it ! no nerves, no anything, just cool calculating precision boxing ! so 3 in the quarters ! a definite chance of more than 1 medal !

[Sidd]

Usain bolt brakes world record in 100 mts clocking 9.69. Seems like he can do 9.5 seconds. He was pretty slow of the blocks and his last 10 meters looked like a stroll in the park.

[Singha]

9.65 was definitely there today if he hadnt slowed down and thumped his chest in last 20 mts.

went ballistic after around 40 mts...amazing performance...a naked show of raw afterburner power

[SwamyG]

"Dreams are not those you get while sleeping. Dreams are those that don't let you sleep"

Thats Akhil Kumar boxer from Bhiwani and not some General, PM, Twain, Russel or Gandhi. There's a combination of spirit, energy, passion, skill and intelligence here thats going to get the lad somewhere up there. And i doubt he'll do just Ghee and Chyawanprash..i just wish these guys knock into some of the prime time advertising turf now occupied by our Cricketers.[/quote]

Fcuking you are not kidding, right? He said THAT? wow.......I see down the years a book being written by him.

Yeah, I would like to see these guys into advertising, but ghee and ayurvedic nourishment is far better for the people than carbonated drinks etc. All one needs to do is get the best advertising brains to make the clip cool.

[Victor]

Tata should give each gold winner a Jaguar XK.

[Raja Bose]

Champu getting a navratan tel champi by Vijender. Leading by 10-1 after third round.

Please tell me somebody uploaded the fights to YouTube

[Baljeet]

Harbans
These Haryanavi kids will be brushed aside by Indian Media and India Inc because of one reason only, they do not speak English. I am disgusted personally why Indian Media has to talk to them in English why not in Hindi.
As far as remuneration, Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda has already announced 25lakh Rs for everyone of these boys. If they win Gold it is one Crore, Silver 50lakh, Bronze 25lakh plus a job in Haryana Police. Lets see what happens, I hope they win medals and bring nations tally up. If all these kids win Gold it will give a much needed boost to atheltics in Haryana, Punjab atleast, let more rural boys pick up sports like boxing and make this nation proud.
I don't think India as a nation is ready to accept her atheletes who can't speak "Hinglish-english" for prime time Advertising Rupees.

[Rahul M]

sehwag can hardly utter an english word. didn't stop him from getting all the endorsements and media accolades. this idea is preposterous. if you haven't seen lately, lots and lots of Indian commercials feature desi characters and backdrop.

[sevoke]

3 great boxers in line for medals i always believed for real talent in sport we should look in our villages just like these 3 heroes are proving. i have only seen one bout, Akhil kumar vs some french guy. for the first time, an indian sportsman, Akhil kumar is on goras lips. they are clearly impressed. i salute these guys and the boxing club in haryana they train at. Sadly, dhimmi media doesnt seem to care so much. i have been searching for videos but nothing turns up except a 5 second clip in indiatimes with hardly anything worth watching and an annoying commentator speaking unintelligbly in the thickest accent possible. if anyone here on this forum are taping their performances, please please upload them so we can watch these guys perform. hats off to these unsung heroes.

[sevoke]

rare video clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4VhkA9j0Yw
enjoy!

[SwamyG]

This one says it is between Vijender and Anghkan Chomphuphuan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnRtZjnCNog

Quality is not that great, with unnecessary background music.

[SwamyG]

For folks who did not watch it already....NBC is right now (8:23 CST) showing Jitender's bout with Doniyorov .............ensoooooooooooooy. It is being shown under the 'Universal HD' logo/banner/whatever....

Update: Whoever the "expert" commentating, does not seem to like Jitender; he seems to be frustrated by Jitender. Jitender is not getting good "marks" from the commentators.

Update: They are lamenting that on at least 2 occasions Jitender must have been warned (and thereby giving 2 x 2 = 4 points to Doniyorov). They do not like him grabbing Doniyorov from behind his neck. They are disgusted with the way Jitender is fighting (fought).

Update: Well they are raising the necessity of having rules....they are bothered by Jitender's 'take down holds'......not at all happy with the referee.

Oh well NBC showed something..........

[Kakkaji]

Reminds me of coach Guru Hanuman whose Akhara in Delhi produced several international level wrestlers during the 70's. Guru Hanuman was 80+ then.

IIRC most of Guru Hanuman's illustrious wrestlers were also from Haryana.

[Suraj]

Stan's and RahulM's earlier post about football, and now the talk about the wrestling akharas is a clue where we are going wrong in sports. Modern world level sports has simply gone beyong skills based success. Even in Bindra's case, if you read about all that he did, he's been focussing on physical endurance for the last 3 years, because skill can only help so much when you're fatigued from holding a heavy rifle, while wearing a heavy shooting jacket.

The simple fact is we have been left behind by the development of science and technological inputs into sports, and the emphasis on extreme endurance. One interesting anecdote is the story of a certain Kim Sang-Ryul, who trained NIS Patiala in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as a coach in hockey. He went back to South Korea, used what he learned, added emphasis on extreme endurance, and suddenly within less than 5 years, the South Korean men's team was beating everyone at the Asian stage. Their lack of sublime skill was more than compensated by their ability to wear out their opposition with their endless running game. I would actually see their endurance as a skill, because they were doing something others couldn't.

It has been a constant refrain in every sport where we were competitive or the best at continental or world level 3-4 decades ago. We cannot just blame the European heavy FIH for screwing us, instead we have to adapt. In pretty much every major sport the emphasis of skill has been overtaken by the emphasis on endurance and 'programmed' actions, whether it's hockey, football or even gymnastics.

Even the Chinese have faced the problem of technology and Euro-dominated changes to their pet sports, and been able to adapt. Take table tennis for example, their national sport. The Europeans first banned same colour rubbers on both sides of the bat, then came up with speed glue and larger balls, as well as requiring services to be completely unobscured. The Chinese did lose momentum in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but then came back strongly, taking all the changes in their stride and adding their own strengths, especially the deeper talent pool. They even have 2nd rung players who are trained specifically to play like particular top European players, so their own top players can acclimatize to those styles and be ready to play the actual top European.

We need facilities that will identify athletes early based on bone/muscle and cardiovascular development whether they have the inbuilt ability, and then train them for the world stage. Modern day sporting accomplishment is a science and tech heavy institutional effort. Without such a base, we will be stuck with one-off super geniuses like Anand and Paes/Bhupathi, who largely support themselves to the top. Now that we're slowly developing bases in other sports (e.g., boxing and squash) that's a good start to build on.

[SBajwa]

Suraj,

Agreed!! great post...

but why can't the Indians and Chinese go back to these Europerans telling them to quit changing the rules to suit them.

Why can't we get some rules that suit to skill instead of endurance?

Why can't we get some rules that are benificial to us instead of them?

[Suraj]

SBajwa: that train has left the station. If we want a voice, we first need accomplishment. If we want accomplishment, we have to beat them at their game.

It is better not to whine about that now. If and when we have consistent world beaters in a bunch of sports, generated by a system that produces them consistently, we'll have greater say in those sports. It is better to focus our energies on catching up, rather than crying over spilt milk.

Regardless of what sort of ability we have on the rules front, we need a cutting edge sports science system to help identify athletes based on genetic abilities for ability-driven sports, and training facilities on top of that. As I mentioned in an analogy earlier, top level athletes should be seen as master surgeons at the operating table. Creating them takes innate ability sharpened by relentless training, and performance comes from letting them focus on performing.

Added: Gagan Narang finishes 13th in 50m air rifle 3 positions and misses the 8-person cut for the final. With that ends our shooting campaign. The boxers and Anju George in long jump are the only notable challengers that remain.

[Stan_Savljevic]

Suraj,
but why can't the Indians and Chinese go back to these Europerans telling them to quit changing the rules to suit them.

At least in hockey, its not going to be possible in the short or the medium run. Take the FIH. Every no-name Oiropean country is a vote wielding member {and there are 30-40 of them for heavens sake}. To top that the Koreans and the Chinese and the ozzies and the Kiwis and the Suud-Afrikaans, the Argentinians all prefer the running game over the subtle grass-work that shuts them down. So we {Injuns and Bakis} against the rest of the world. Thats a battle that we are never going to win, esp with 1 country 1 vote. We can keep dreaming that we will one day change the FIH, but then it is a pipe-dream.

It is very clear that the so-called hockey of today is not the hockey that Dhyan Chand, Roop Singh, Lesley Claudius, Sardar Baldev Singh etc played. This is a different game. It should be ideally called gookey or something like that, but they persist with the name hockey. The game of hockey died around the late 60s, and we {you can probably include a bit of the Bakis at the fag end} were the only master-players of hockey. What is played now is version 2 {make it version 3 or 4 these days} of hockey.. We suck cos we thought it was version 1.1. At some point, if we identify this difference in our head, we will figure what needs to be done to master version 2.0 {and the later ones}. That identification process began a while back, but the belief still is {in the grass-roots as well as the lower strata that feeds the pipeline to the national level} that version 1.3 or so will do fine for Indian brand of hockey. That is like plugging a wound to the jugular vein with a torniquet. Good for first-aid, but the patient is going to lose a lot of blood and may suffer a coma soon {lack of spectators + cash-flow into the game that sustains it}, before he can actually die {death of Indian hockey}.

Added: What is interesting is that version 2.0 of hockey and beyond used to be a zero-sum game. In the sense that it was cash-intensive {artificial turf} etc. So in one broad stroke, it shut down the whole pipeline that feeds us, whereas it is the masterstroke for Oiropean and other brands of hockey. To reverse this trend, money needs to be put in to our system. And a lot at that. If you remember some time back, I posted a link from BH on how much it costs laying a turf. Costs upward of 750k USD for a single turf. And guess what, there is absolute monopoly on who lays the turf {There is an Amerikan company.. and guess what, they lay turf elsewhere in the world, but the US hockey team still sucks big time. There is an Ozzie company and there is one Oiropean one. Thats it.} So we have 3 companies that charge your blood in cash for laying turf. What BH asked was for Indian companies to indigenize the laying the turf process. There have been no takers for this, no Tata, no Birla, no Ambani. Noone can bother with a simple thing.. Its not a complicated thing as BH mentions. It is a machinization thing. If we can get over that big bottleneck, turfs can be laid aplenty in India, and what was a zero sum game again will reverse course.

[Suraj]

If we want to win in sports at the top level, we need to do what it takes. That means producing athletes with the endurance levels to hold up, and scientific & technological inputs at all levels to identify talent and transform them into world beaters. There's no other option or short cuts, especially not related to rules changes.

Lamenting about Euro control over rules and death of skills in sports is a non-sequitur. It may all be true, but we're wasting our time talking about it. Our efforts are better expended on setting up facilities that can analyze athletes for their physiological abilities, medical support facilities that provide scientific diets to youngsters and established sportsmen, help them recover from injuries, and an up to date training system that's aware of the current state of the art and ongoing changes in training methods, with the added assumption that rules will change at any time, and that they'll have to adapt accordingly.

It can be done. The Chinese hardly have much control over rules regarding their national sport, and still are the overwhelming best. They once went through the same issues we now face in hockey, the only difference being that they did what they could, and made up for what they couldn't control. That's what we have to do too, in hockey and elsewhere.

Stan: as far as hockey goes, the Koreans are very competitive despite having barely a 200-player pool to select from, and about half a dozen astroturf facilities in their country. In other words, they have a smaller talent pool and about the same, if not fewer, turfs, than us. Their USP is that they can run till everyone else's legs fall off, because they augment their more limited dribbling skills with insane endurance training. The Chinese are just doing the same now.

[Nayak]

Fisi keen on Force India stay

Updated: August 16, 2008, 4:28 AM EST 1 comment
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Giancarlo Fisichella says he is happy to hear Force India are pleased with his progress and is looking forward to another year with the team.

The Roman driver joined the team at the start of the year and, despite struggling to compete in many GP's, Fisichella says he is committed to the team.

Team owner Vijay Mallya as quoted last week as saying that he was delighted with the progress of the team and expects his drivers will enjoy the improvements they are planning for next years car.

Obviously pleased with his teams effort this year Mallya praised both Fisichella and his teammate Adrian Sutil.

"I have two good drivers," the Force India owner said.

"The experience of Giancarlo is invaluable and Adrian has lots of talent - I think he is improving race by race, becoming more consistent.

"I think they will be very satisfied driving the 2009 car, which I am sure will be a significant improvement and a big surprise."

After hearing his owners' comments the former Renault driver says he is looking forward to his future with Force India.

"I am very happy with what Vijay said about his drivers," the Roman told the official F1 website.

"I think that Adrian and I show strength and great team spirit. As I said before, I am very happy with Force India, I have a contract for 2009 and never saw myself out of it."

Not wanting to wait for developments only for next season Fisichella says the team are hoping the development and integration of the new seamless shift gearbox will increase the cars speed around the track.

"I am very satisfied with the system - it works well," he said,

Fisi believes it is capable of adding "two-tenths on a single lap and maybe three during the race.

"But we need six- or seven-tenths to close the gap with the cars in front, so it is not going to be so easy."

[Stan_Savljevic]

Stan: as far as hockey goes, the Koreans are very competitive despite having barely a 200-player pool to select from, and about half a dozen astroturf facilities in their country. Their USP is that they can run till everyone else's legs fall off.

They go through intensive army training. Even the Bakis, of late, have started copying this trend. In fact, the Baki team went through the motion in an army camp before leaving for Beijing. Not much change in their performance, as you can see from the matchplay.

The problem, as I see, is this. The Indians and the bakis have our own version of hockey, which puts more emphasis on dribbling, instead of power shots. The scoop that is commonly seen these days, was first made fashionable, by the 30s-40s Indian team. The emphasis on endurance et al at the senior stage, brings in confusion to the hockey player, who has never seen such things before getting there. Endurance building should be introduced at the lowest strata of the pipeline before it can be warmly embraced. The Koreans naturally have this advantage cos of compulsory military regimen. We have a bunch of dribblers, who get asked to run around, and they find it hard. Even the best players find it hard, let alone everyone else. In fact, we used to be the happiest lot with the unlimited subs rule, before this hare-brained rule was discarded. We would have folks walk in for a power play or two and walk off, and that grilled the Oiropeans a lot. In fact, you can see a surge in Indian performance around this time {post Sydney olympics and before 2003 or so} that eventually fell away.

I think the history of Jansher Khan and how he attained the world beating ability in squash is relevant here. Even though he is a Baki, the lesson learnt is critical. He kept running so much that at the end of the day, noone could stand him. Thats the way he won games too. He stretched em to five sets and pulled away. And he won 8 world titles like that. And noone still can endure his punishing schedule, which is available in squash circles.

FWIW

S2h finds out that two of the five Olympians in the Selection Committee will be making a jolly ride to Beijing. Indian hockey think tank’s inseparable part called Ajit Pal Singh and a selector Zafar Iqbal will be going to Beijing. They are scheduled to leave from Delhi tomorrow evening. The other four coaches – MK Kaushik, Harendera Singh, AK Bansal and AB Subbaiah – will be leaving in the morning of tomorrow, whereas the two selectors will be in the evening.

It is pertinent to note here that Zafar Iqbal did not attend three Selection Committee Meetings due to prior engagements and also not in Hyderabad to watch Junior Asia Cup. It is however heartening that such a busy top government official thought it fit to spare a week for hockey. Indian hockey will be largely benefited with his trip and a show of gesture. As regards Ajit Pal, less said the better. He is not even submitting report to government, a job every government nominee is supposed to. He is holy cow, no one can touch him. He played hockey in the past. Now he has every right to play with it now. It is also interesting why the same IOA which calls press conference to announce names of coaches going to Beijing and also sends out press releases, keep silence on sending these two gentlemen. Do they themselves think this is something wrong and needs to be concealed from the public knowledge? Jai Bharat.

And all the four coaches are going NOW. Given that there is like 1-2 matches before the semis stage. What kind of lessons will these guys learn?! I have no idea. Its all the same to me. If this is the new professionalism in hockey, KPSGill is replaced with Ajitpal & co. What else is new..

Added: One more. MS Gill, the sports mantri playing politics, the only game he probably knows how to play, of course. A 1008 curses be upon these numbskulls. I can safely say that India will never win medals due to these idiots. It will only win despite them. Partnership of citizens with OGQ type thingies is the only way we can sustain it. I see no hope from this brand of politicians/bureaucrats. Unfortunately, they wield a lot more power that can make things go astray. But Abhinav did indeed get some help from SAI. So it is unclear as to how much of this bad mouthing should go..
Visit Sonia mata, no Advani

[Stan_Savljevic]

Since there are more people watching this space now, I am reposting something I posted ages back. Can someone who knows this stuff look at it and offer opinions or possibilities?

Astroturf issues
Circa 2002,

there are 20 artificial turf hockey pitches in all of India. None of these pitches have floodlights! In contrast, England alone has more than 600 artificial turf pitches.

There is no corporation in India that can manufacture artificial turf. However, there is no reason why that should be the case. Using the technology of fiber manufacturing, textile fabrication and carpet technology, using the principles of polymer and material science, and employing chemical, civil and mechanical engineers, it is entirely possible for an Indian company to indigenously manufacture an artificial turf system.

If a company does rise up to the challenge, there is a large untapped market in India. Note that countries like Germany, Holland and England, all the size of Maharashtra, have hundreds of artificial turf fields. Schools and colleges in USA have artificial turf fields. It is possible that indigenous manufacture of artificial turf will bring down the cost of such fields, so that it would be possible for every district in every state in India, and for major university campuses to have all-year, all-weather artificial turf pitches. Artificial turf systems with the Made-in-India label can even be exported to Asian and other countries.

We hope that it is only a matter of time before an Indian industrial giant makes this vision into a reality.

Cost of laying astroturf in India
Of the above companies, Astroturf offers a complete field installation for USD 750,000, with the following 7-year payment plan
Category Cost
Initial Field Cost $750,000
Down Payment $75,000 (10%)
Amount Financed $675,000
Fixed Semi-Annual Payment $66,000 (10%)

Note that this is the cost for installing an artificial turf field in USA. We would have to factor in costs of flying material and equipment to India, customs duties, and whether part of the construction can be done through local contractors. It would be best to float a global tender and let the 3 companies specified above give competitive offers.

Anyone aware of any Indians working in
1) Astroturf
Southwest Recreational Industries, Inc.
701 Leander Drive
Leander, Texas 78641
USA
2) Balsam Pacific
Factory 3, Dunlopillo Drive
107 Frankston-Dandenong Rd
Dandenong, South VIC 3175
AUSTRALIA
3) Desso DLW
Desso DLW Sports Systems
Postbus 215
5340 AE Oss
NETHERLANDS

[negi]

Indian Hockey in my opinion has stagnated...nope its not a whine, if one looks at the game everything has changed , artificial turfs that have made the game faster and the ball can be struck great distances more precisely (unlike on a bumpy grassy surface) , with active participation from EU and Aussies the tempo of the game has increased and average time which a player gets to spend on the ball has come down, rules too have changed over a period of time
to cater to the above .

Like Soccer one would see Europeans use long passes, scoops and one touch game to make up for the inferior stick work , however they make up for this by grueling the players through a strenuous exercise regimen which enables them to play the game at a pace which is uncomfortable for traditional players. This style also enables them to effectively employ tactics like everyone falling back for defense when under attack and then capitalizing on sudden counter attacks.

I do not follow hockey much, but it is in may ways similar to soccer and if one would look at all those fabulous dribbling skills shown by latin American teams or even the teams from Spanish Liga , all these players find it hard to adapt to the fast paced Eng-premier league .

[Stan_Savljevic]

Now that the boxing team is doing well, and everyone's attn has been glued on these Bhiwani heroes, I thought it would be a good idea to recall the controversy that emanated before the contingent left Indian shores. Now that everyone has the ability to forget or not notice this, the elephant's brain should come here.

Days before the start of the Olympics, India saw a surge in the number of people wishing to travel to the Beijing games on government expense. They were all there—coaches, trainers, doctors, masseurs, managers. Many of them have to be there to support the China-bound contingent of 57 athletes. But then, as is customary, some dubious characters not integral to India's chances of winning a medal, united solely by their desire to see the splendour of Beijing and savour the excitement of the Olympics for free, attempted to slip through, reducing the number of spots for the legitimate.

Thus it came to pass that South Afri-can physiotherapist Heath Matthews, who is considered crucial to the boxing team, which is making a serious play for medals, was not on the list of 47 support staff prepared by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for government approval. Equally curiously, the IOA-recommended list designates tennis star Sania Mirza's mother, Nasima, as a coach. Worse, the tennis team of four had a recommended support staff of 10, including personal coaches, trainers and a media manager.

The sports ministry wasn't impressed by this rush of gatecrashers who wanted to be on the contingent without having anything substantial to contribute to the athletes' success. "Tennis stars behave like prima donnas, and we'll make sure they're made to realise that they can't be treated differently and with greater privilege than the others," a senior sports ministry source said after this correspondent quizzed him about the list prepared by IOA.

Sure enough, the ministry promptly effected a major hatchet job on the IOA's recommendations—the number of support staff was slashed from 48 to 31. The reduced number does not include the medical staff of four and seven administrative officials.
The staff travelling with the tennis team was cut by six, and that supporting the athletics and shooting teams by three each.

But Heath was still not included in this list. There was a clear lack of logic: boxing, with a greater likelihood of injuries, had just three men to support a team of five. This is something experts said was inadequate. The anomaly didn't end there—the shooting team of nine has only three coaches and is to make do without any other support staff. Chief coach Sunny Thomas was miffed enough to declare that at least one masseur was needed for the shooters. "In shooting too, contrary to public opinion, there is a need for mental and physical training of the participants," Thomas said. But his arguments fell on deaf ears.

For the boxers, Akhil Kumar, India's major medal hope and a man who owes much to Matthews, decided to speak out. "It's a big blow. Heath has been crucial in my recovery from an injury that threatened to end my career, and he knows the needs of each member of the team. We need him at Beijing," Akhil said. The Boxing Federation of India endorsed Akhil's views, generating enough heat to compel the IOA to belatedly include Matthews in the contingent for the Beijing games.

There was some confusion over the designation of Nasima Mirza as a coach. But the ministry rectified the error by designating her as manager—not just of her daughter Sania but of the entire tennis team, men included. "But what qualifies Nas-ima to be manager of the tennis team?" asks an IOA official. "What if Sunita Rao (the other woman in the team) were a bigger star? Would her mother then have been made the manager of the team?" But an All-India Tennis Association Federation source counters, "Nasima has been travelling with Sania for so many years and thus would be able to manage the team." One assumes that the word 'manage' can be defined flexibily enough in order to accommodate just about anyone.

The source also says that tennis stars Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi had requested the IOA and AITA for a media manager, mainly to avoid a Doha-like situation at Beijing. At the Doha Asian Games in 2006, there was public bickering between the two after Paes questioned Bhupathi's commitment to winning. Bhupathi's riposte came after the duo won the doubles gold—he declared he would never pair with Paes again. The two superstars told the authorities that the presence of a media manager trusted by both could have averted that situation. For this spot, they themselves recommended the name of a Delhi-based journalist.

The support staff essentially suffers from a superfluity of numbers in certain disciplines, brought about by a desire to hand out favours to the faithful. The nominations are made by the different sports associations; they're vetted by the IOA, Sports Authority of India, and sports ministry officials before the final clearance. "All associations try to squeeze in the names of their favoured coaches or staff," a source in the sports ministry said. "We only get the lists and it's not our job to assign roles to the names we get."

Those who missed out on the Beijing trip were understandably unhappy, none more than Deodutt Sharma. He was recommended by the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) to train India's only entrant, Laishram Monika Devi, competing in the 68 kg class. But the sports ministry wanted a woman coach for Devi, and recommended Anita Chanu, who has represented India. Sharma saw a conspiracy in this choice, publicly complaining that he was a victim of "politics" because certain people were unhappy with his success—he had been the coach at the Asian Championship in Japan when Devi qualified for the Olympics.

He tripped up the day after he went public with his complaints. For the IWF announced a ban on Harpreet Singh, a weightlifter from Punjab in the 85 kg category, for testing positive for the banned steroid nandrolone. Harpreet was Sharma's trainee.

This is MS Gill uvacha, just to point out how clueless this former "unbiased" CEC is as a Congress mantri.

On the support staff controversy: A few names were debatable, and at least one (boxing trainer Heath Matthews) should have been included, but now the controversy is over and the right people are going. I wanted to ensure that proper coaches accompany the teams. {Yes, sir. Everything forgotten.}

On the state of Indian hockey: It's sad our team won't be at the Olympics for the first time, but there's hope. After the IHF was disbanded, the focus has been on rebuilding and ensuring a transparent selection process. {Yea, true, it may be the case. I have nt seen much clarity on the ground though.} I'm working to ensure that there are more arenas with astroturf. I like to keep my nose out and let the experts do their job. {Who are these experts btw, can you identify them so that we know who to go to incase there are not many astroturfs laid within a fixed timeline?}

Panda-inspired Sportstar has finally come up with a front page headline for an Indian winning the gold. I, for one, expected that the "super organization" of the games by the aw-so-nice-and-slick Chinese will get the attention. They disappointed me by sending it to the second page. The award winning, "the culturally I am Moslem, the viscerally I am a pandoo" Pallavi Aiyar, woher art thou?
Bindra

[niran]

Amateur Boxing consists of reading you opponent, planing and executing the plan,
I watched the India/Thai bout. One can tell the state of players/team mind by listening
the coach. after the first round, the Thai side asked(translation of what I heard) "What are you doing?"
replied by "he is not boxing like the last time" (from now on lip reading) get inside, block his jab, hit,score and then stay away.
after the second round: "his upper cuts are fast, cannot read them" his coach replies
" yes I saw, do what you can do, I will pray for the best" at this point I muted audio and watched
the match, celebrating another win, right from the 3rd round.

will not jinx by predicting the medal tally, my fingers are crossed.

[Duangkomon]

What I don't understand is haven't they been playing hockey long enough for the players and coaches to realize the changes and then to do whatever it takes to adapt to it ?
And in regards to sports in general I'm sure by now even a layman in India knows sports has become a precision science. Then why does it seem like the so called elite coaches in India are way behind the curve compared to an average gym rat in the west. Is it because of rampant nepotism and corruption where sports is just an excuse to play politics and swallow tax payer funds??
I remember a guy from UP telling us with pride that the money alloted for building some sports facility was used by his uncle who is a civil servant to build a gym at his own home.
The frustrating part for any Indian would be that there really is no excuse for India's dismal showing in all sports including cricket where despite having a billion people crazy about it India is a long way from being the top dog among only 6 to 8 countries forget the 204 in Olympics.

[rsingh]

Way to go Haryana .......specially Rohtak. Good job by village boys. There is more talent in those areas. We used to swim against the current in canals........to catch that renegade Bhais . One American wins 8 GM in swimming, little Chinese take medals in gymnastics.............why the hell we concentrate all our resources to prepare 20 people in hockey where only one medal is at stake. This doesn't make sense. We have to go for individual sports.

[Nayak]

Incompetent idiots

Beijing, Aug 17 (PTI) Stunned by excellent facilities built in record time by the organisers of Beijing Olympics, sports officials from India lamented that preparations for hosting the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games was faltering.
"There is no doubt we are behind schedule right now," a senior Indian sports official told PTI here.

The 2010 Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held in Delhi from October 3-14.

"There is adhocism and lethargy," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"There is no clear planning and things are moving at snail's pace," another official said, expressing concern that Delhi may falter if no urgent decisions are taken to step up construction and related activities for hosting the prestigious event.

Other officials, involved in the preparations for the Delhi Commonwealth Games, said the sheer planning that has gone into the Beijing Olympics has stunned them.

"The sheer magnitude of planning involved in the Olympics is mind-boggling and we would draw inspiration from the best practices followed here," said an official.

A number of sports officials from India are currently camping here and visiting Beijing sports facilities to get first-hand knowledge of how the organisers of the Olympics managed to ensure world-class facilities in record time.

"We are very impressed by what Beijing has done," one official said.

The Indian officials were also stunned by the ongoing gold sweep by Chinese athletes. PTI

[Nayak]

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/wor ... 85131.html

Under-14 rugby team from India making waves in Australia
August 17th, 2008 - 3:49 pm ICT by IANS - Email This Post Email This Post

By Neena Bhandari
Sydney, Aug 17 (IANS) An under-14 rugby team from Orissa is going places, winning matches against seasoned state and territory teams around Australia. The Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences’ under-14 rugby team based in Bhubaneswar - which won the under-14 International School Rugby World Cup 2007 in Britain last September - is on its second international tour. The team has won its fixtures against the Northern Territory team in Darwin and against the under-14 team of the Lloyd McDermott Foundation (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Rugby Union) in Sydney.

“The tour has helped these tribal children interact with Australian players, visit various rugby club facilities and learn and refine their sporting skills. It has also provided the opportunity to know another culture and has given them recognition on the world stage,” Vijay Susarla, coordinator for the team’s Australia tour, told IANS.

For the young players, the experience has been overwhelming. “I am feeling on top of the world after winning here,” 14-year-old Raj Kishore Murmu, captain of the team, told IANS.

The young players have been staying at budget hostels and apartments and have been relishing barbecues. “It has been a great experience. We are learning various skills and have made many friends with players from host teams,” 12-year-old Ganesh Hembram said.

The team, sponsored by the Export and Import Bank of India (Exim Bank), flies to Adelaide Sunday and then to Melbourne for more matches before departing for India Aug 24.

The team has students from Classes 6 to 9, hailing from different tribes across Orissa. Captain Raj Kishore Murmu, vice-captain Bikash Chandra Murmu and Chittaranjan Murmu and Bukai Hansda are from the Santhal tribe.

The other players are Babula Melaka from the Saora tribe mainly concentrated in Koraput and Ganjam districts; Hadidhangada Majhi from the Bonda tribe; Niranjan Biswal from the Bhumija tribe concentrated in Mayurbhanj district; Barial Beshra from the Ho tribe; Sahadev Majhi from the Homunda tribe; Narasingha Kerai from the Saunti tribe; and Gauranga Jamuda from the Munda tribe.

It was Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) founder A. Samanta’s vision to help Orissa’s tribal children with free education, sports facilities, board and lodging.

KISS, founded in 1993 with about 100 students, now has over 5,000 boys and girls from 62 tribal groups spread across 30 districts of Orissa, enrolled from kindergarten to post graduation and all staying on the residential campus.

“In March this year, I had met Dr Samanta in India and his passion to put these kids, coming from one of the most vulnerable backgrounds, on world stage triggered my interest in the project,” says Susarla, a postgraduate from IIT Chennai, who migrated to Australia 24 years ago.

“Surprisingly, in less than six months we were able to make this tour happen. Initially, it was difficult to convince Australian states and territories, for this was rugby and not cricket.”

Now the hosts are convinced.

[sum]

Im just loving the attitude of these boxers:

Jitender will fight Russia's Georgy Balakshin in the quarterfinals. "I have fought him before and lost. I won't leave him this time. And when I win the medal, it will be for Akhil. He is my family, he is everything to me," said Jitender, wiping off the blood on his chin after he suffered a minor cut during the fight.

Go boyz,go...please get us some more medals....

Btw, gurulog, what is a countback in boxing( done when scores are tied)? It always seem to create controversies

[sunilUpa]

Those in masaland can watch Light welterweight (64kg), welterweight (69kg) and heavyweight (91kg) quarterfinal-round matches today on CNBC (Channel 24 cablevision) 3 pm to 7 pm EST and on universal HD (channel 744).

[Baljeet]

sehwag can hardly utter an english word. didn't stop him from getting all the endorsements and media accolades. this idea is preposterous. if you haven't seen lately, lots and lots of Indian commercials feature desi characters and backdrop.

Rahul
haath kangan to aarsi kya....... Lets see how India Inc reacts when these pugilists come home with medals. Sehwag is accepted because he is the first in so many ways, first Indian to score 300's twice, when he is form, he decimates bowlers with impunity and sets up the base where our middle order can build upon. Everytime it has happened our team score is like above 500 with few wickets. Throw in Yuvraj, Dhoni, Tendulkar, Dravid etc. I still remember when shewag and tendulkar scored close to 400 runs between them. I think it was paki side that was so demoralized they couldn't take it anymore. His swashbuckling style has broken alot of perceptions about Indian team.
If India Inc comes through and pick up these boys bindra, kumar borthers, vijender singh. That will dawn a new era for Indian Sports. It will give much needed shot in the arm. Don't forget we still have wrestlers who may bring few medals. If everything goes well we may have 10-15 medals. This is the time for GOI, STate Gov'ts and India Inc to rise up, step upto plate. Haryana gov't has already taken lead in this matter. Lets see what happens..too early to say anything. One thing is for sure, I like their "killer instinct" these pugilists keep saying they are not here to participate but win. This winning attitude will give them the medals.


Ajay Pratap, Stan, Rsingh
It is not just Haryana but the adjacent states like Himachal, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana--the boys from these states are hungry for glory. They have this trait called, "No Guts No Glory" These states have been screaming from top of their lungs to Delhi for providing basic support structure to have national level atheletes. I agree that Indian Ministers are great in playing Politics and making sure India doesn't win any medal. I was watching Michael phelps prepration during his two swims. There were 4 Physical Therapists working on this guy to prepare him for next swim. Where as we have a minister giving lecture to our pugilists, Coaches are sidelined, Pyschologists who will talk to players after bout. I am not sure if they have facility for their food. These boys are rural boys very picky about their food habits, why not accompany few chefs for them. A doctor who will examine their progress after bout.
I agree with Stan Indians win medals not because Gov't effort because of their own die hard spirit. We need stalin solution for Indian Politicians. Lets send them to our own Gulags. IMHO I think sania mirza is milking her mediocore talent and good looks for maximum profits. Every single competition at outside of Asia she crashes out like Pot Holed Indian Road.

Coming to Hockey...Indian team can reach the top if we can nurture the team for 2016 now. I have seen Mizo, Manipuri, Naga, Garwhali players who have innate talent to play the speed game as played by Koreans and dutch. There is so much diverse talent in this nation we need to broaden our approach and include all states to form One Nation Team.

[Singha]

it seems a swimmer from Tunisia has won the mens 1500m freestyle event.
came back from serving out a 18 month drug related ban.

[Baljeet]

Reminds me of coach Guru Hanuman whose Akhara in Delhi produced several international level wrestlers during the 70's. Guru Hanuman was 80+ then.

IIRC most of Guru Hanuman's illustrious wrestlers were also from Haryana.

kakkaji
You are absolutely correct. His illustrious protoge was Satpal, Surinder Singh. His akhara was hidden in back alleys of kamla Nagar area. His students used to run DU Campus early in the morning around 4-5AM. During those times, Indian National Coaches who will go with team were busy satisfying their lust. I knew surinder singh, as it was recalled by him in one international competition, the Indian coaches were no where to be found while he was getting ready for his event, Airline somehow lost their luggage, coaches were not there to make an emergency purchase. Lack of wrestling gear led him to be disqualified. It was conveniently reported that he was overweight. This was the state of Indian Wrestling sports about 15yrs ago.

[Stan_Savljevic]

sum sir,
this is what google throws up on countback

If a bout finishes level, the count-back system eliminates the top and bottom scores from the five judges and adds up the scores from the remaining three judges to decide a bout. If it is level on countback, the majority decision of the five judges is the one that rules.

I am not sure if the countback system counts the number of punches landed or the score of the middle 3 judges {and I dont know what exactly top and bottom scores are defined} . Btw, here is another tidbit I could figure frm ggle.

No Indian boxer so far has won any Olympic medal. The first to come very near to it was Ron Norris. He made it to the quarter finals at Helsinki in 1952. In 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, Rajendra Prasad also reached the quarter finals where he lost to Roel Velasco of Philippines. It was yet again so near and so far for Gurcharan Singh in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He was extremely unlucky not to get a medal. In his quarter final bout against Andrei Fedrchouk of Ukraine, he was leading by 12-11 till eight seconds from the end of the contest. The bout ended in a 12-12 draw but the Ukrainian was declared winner on the basis of count back for being throwing more punches than Gurcharan. Ukrainian had landed 60 punches to Gurcharan’s 42. And thus Gurcharan lost the opportunity of winning first Boxing medal for India.

Indian boxing in olympics
Also check the history of Indian boxing in the above site. Akhil, Jitender, Vijender etc did participate last olympics and ended up with not so great shows. So they have been slugging out for 4 yrs, just for this 1 shot to glory. And to be noticed by fellow Indians. Makes their story even more poignant. Another thing 2 note is that Gurcharan Singh Sidhu has been associated with the Indian team as a coach in some form or the other for a very looong time. That speaks for continuity and maturing of the boxers.

[putnanja]

All eyes on Bhiwani boys, families recall hard-fought bouts

All eyes on Bhiwani boys, families recall hard-fought bouts


Bhiwani, August 17: India waits fingers-crossed for three boxers to make it to the medals category of the Beijing Olympics — Akhil Kumar will try to box his way into the bantamweight semi-final on Monday evening and then all eyes will be on his young team-mates Vijender Kumar and Jitender Kumar. But in Bhiwani, which is already being called the Cuba of India, the man who coached all three is not surprised. On Sunday, 47-year-old Jagdish Singh boarded an early morning bus to Gurgaon to watch a batch of under-14 pupils perform at a school-level boxing competition.

Shouldn’t he have been in Beijing with his boys? Jagdish Singh simply shrugs. “The authorities took some half-a-dozen coaches, but nobody asked me. I talk to my boys daily and am seeing their performances on television. The authorities don’t think much of me anyways. Not long ago, they had lambasted my methods and told me to understand what the Olympics are, before preparing boys for it.”

However, it is the not the first time that vindication has come the way of this Sports Authority of India coach who has harnessed Bhiwani’s endemic talent for boxing to such an extent that four of the five members of the Indian boxing contingent at the Olympics are his pupils.

Even as comparisons with Tony Roche (the coach of tennis stars Ivan Lendl, Lleyton Hewitt, Roger Federer) do the rounds, he maintains that a good coach has to research, study and think out of the box. He points to the specific example of Akhil. His nimble and almost frenetic movement in the ring and the fact that he mostly dangles his hands instead of zealously guarding against the rival’s punch are being applauded as a “new aggressive style”. However, as Singh points out, after Akhil failed to win a medal at the Athens Olympics, there had been a censuring chorus that the style was “faulty”.

“There was a lot of pressure on me to change his style. But the boy was confident of playing in this manner. Moreover, I had carefully devised this approach after having studied clips of past matches and gleaning information from sports journals. I even met three-time Olympic gold medalist Lazio Papp of Hungry for his inputs. So I persisted and, as they say, nothing succeeds like success.”

No one appreciates this adage more than the people of Bhiwani. The trio of Akhil, Jitender and Vijender has brought enough joy to keep them upbeat at a time when half the houses in the city are submerged in dirty water after heavy monsoon rains.

Hundreds of students, some as young as 10, make a beeline for what is locally known as BBC (the Bhiwani Boxing Club). While not long ago excelling in boxing was considered a way to find a job in Haryana police, now they have come to see it as a career. Explaining the phenomenon, Kiran Choudhary, Haryana Sports Minister and the Bhiwani MLA, says: “This land has a sports culture. But initially people would pick on sports to bag that reserved seat for sportspersons in government departments, especially the police. But the success of these three boys has made them look at it as a full-time career. Also the boys are from very modest backgrounds, which makes their success all the more creditable.”

Whereas Akhil’s father works as a constable in Rohtak, Jitender and Vijender are sons of a marginal farmer and a bus driver respectively. Dinesh Kumar, the fourth boxer from Bhiwani at the Olympics, is the son of a bus conductor.

Pressing family exigencies tend to nip many a sporting ambition in the bud, and these families weren’t an exception. In fact, there is a common factor binding them — all the four boxers have an elder brother who also picked up the sport but was forced to leave it to find employment. This allowed the younger sibling to follow the game.

Surinder Kumar, the elder brother of Jitender, says: “I played at the state level and Jitender would accompany me. But then my father developed brain tumour and I had to pick up a job as an accountant. This stopped my career but allowed Jitender to pursue the sport.”

Akhil’s brother broke into tears watching him defeat the world champion in the pre-quarterfinals on Friday. Tanej, who is elder to Dinesh by five years, says he is having a tough time consoling his kid brother in Beijing who is very upset at not having made it to the quarterfinals.

The anticipations have gone up after Abhinav Bindra broke the jinx of an Indian never having won an individual Olympic gold medal. But being born to rich and supportive parents meant that his pursuit of excellence wasn’t obstructed too much by the systemic deficiencies that mar Indian sports.

“The only way I could supplement my income was by doing overtime, which meant travelling on more and more routes,” says Mahipal Beniwal, the father of Vijender. Today he can rest easy. After Vijender won medals at the Commonwealth and SAF Games, he is being paid a monthly stipend of $800 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This has allowed the family to construct a large house.

Jitender’s family hopes that the award of Rs 25 lakh announced by the Chief Minister of Haryana would allow them to refurbish their kuchcha house, which at present has no proper flooring, walls or the drainage system.

“You have to make the best with what you have. We replaced costly orange juice with lemon water, couldn’t afford almonds so purchased chana, didn’t have punching bags so used gunny bags and in the absence of a proper track, used the surrounding desert as a field for obstruction training,” says coach Jagdish Singh.

All the efforts and ingenuity seem to have worked out well, testified by the festive crowd now gathered outside Akhil’s house. “I want all three to win. They are all like my sons,” says Akhil’s father Shribhagwan.

However, there is an apprehension that all this might turn out to be ephemeral. As one of Akhil’s relatives says, “Even after having won medals at the Commonwealth and World Championships, Akhil was offered a Class III railway job. He was derided after his failure at Athens and had decided to hang up his boots. It was only his disinclination towards this job that made him work hard, overcome an injury and then pick up boxing again.”

That apprehension now plagues the family of Dinesh, who failed to reach the quarterfinals. With no reward money or job to return to, they admit his career faces an uncertain future. Pre-empting all media queries, his tense mother says: “He is only 20, very young. He will do well next time.”

[Supratik]

When is Akhil playing? Any links?

[Yayavar]

When is Akhil playing? Any links?

http://www.nbcolympics.com/boxing/resul ... index.html

[Yayavar]

[url=http://www.indianexpress.com/story/350040._.html]

But in Bhiwani, which is already being called the Cuba of India, the man who coached all three is not surprised. On Sunday, 47-year-old Jagdish Singh boarded an early morning bus to Gurgaon to watch a batch of under-14 pupils perform at a school-level boxing competition.

.....


After Vijender won medals at the Commonwealth and SAF Games, he is being paid a monthly stipend of $800 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This has allowed the family to construct a large house.

....
Jitender’s family hopes that the award of Rs 25 lakh announced by the Chief Minister of Haryana would allow them to refurbish their kuchcha house, which at present has no proper flooring, walls or the drainage system.
....

It is heartening that the athletes have had financial help. And, if they medal they will get a bonanza from Haryana govt and possibly get lucrative advt. deals. But, what about the coach?

The Chief minister like an old time zamindar or alapanah disburses money ..'hum khush huey tumhare is kartab sey'. It would be a lot better if they put that money into an organized infrastructure even before the wins. Maybe they do but this kind of ad hoc 'award' is irritating.

[ASPuar]

These guys have come through a lot. Its incredible that theyve reached even this far, and kudos to them.

When you listen to the smarmy DD commentators saying things like "Hes done all that was expected of him" with supercilious smiles on their faces, it makes my blood boil.

I saw this yesterday. Surendra Singh (?) of the Garhwal rifles made it to, and ran at the last round of the 10000m atheletics event. There was no mention of him. He made it to to the medal round. And they had nothing to say? Instead, DD was focusing on a series of shooters who have already gone home.

I was ashamed. If a tenth of the money spent on keeping the IOC, and the various retired IAS and IPS honchos who run sports organisations in India as a sinecure in comfort was spent on these boys, perhaps we would see some real results!

The talent, and the will to win is there!

[Singha]

I see some chatter that carl lewis failed drug tests in late 1980s and flojo was on
drugs too...but the USOC those days had the policy of do as I say, not as I do and
pulled issue under rug.

any meat to this?