The first Mauka TVC hit the ball with the middle of the blade, tapping perfectly into the Indian psyche. Key ingredients - the first World Cup match excitement and the fiery, traditional and ever-so-close-to-the-heart India vs. Pakistan rivalry.
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query sports. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query sports. Sort by date Show all posts
Friday, March 20, 2015
#Mauka Mauka Ads Are Trending Top Scorers At #CWC15
The first Mauka TVC hit the ball with the middle of the blade, tapping perfectly into the Indian psyche. Key ingredients - the first World Cup match excitement and the fiery, traditional and ever-so-close-to-the-heart India vs. Pakistan rivalry.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
IOC Drops Wrestling From 2020 Olympics
In a surprise move, the IOC executive board decided to retain modern pentathlon — the sport considered most at risk — and remove wrestling instead, the official said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision hadn’t been announced yet.
The IOC board acted after reviewing the 26 sports on the current Olympic program. Eliminating one sport allows the International Olympic Committee to add a new sport to the program later this year.
Wrestling combines freestyle and Greco-Roman disciplines. It had 11 medal events in freestyle and seven in Greco-Roman at last year’s London Olympics.
Wrestling will now join seven other sports in applying for inclusion in 2020. The others are a combined bid from baseball and softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu. They will be vying for a single opening in 2020.
The IOC executive board will meet in May in St. Petersburg, Russia, to decide which sport or sports to propose for 2020 inclusion. The final vote will be made at the IOC general assembly in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The last sports removed from the Olympics were baseball and softball, voted out by the IOC in 2005 and off the program since the 2008 Beijing Games. Golf and rugby will be joining the program at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The IOC program commission report analyzed more than three dozen criteria, including television ratings, ticket sales, anti-doping policy and global participation and popularity. With no official rankings or recommendations contained in the report, the final decision by the 15-member board was also subject to political, emotional and sentimental factors.
Previously considered under the closest scrutiny was modern pentathlon, which has been on the Olympic program since the 1912 Stockholm Games. It was created by French baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement.
Modern pentathlon combines fencing, horse riding, swimming, running and shooting — the five skills required of a 19th century cavalry officer. The sport’s governing body, the UIPM, has been lobbying hard to protect its Olympic status, and the efforts apparently paid off.
UIPM President Klaus Schormann had considered traveling from Germany to Lausanne for the decision, but decided to stay away.
“The Olympic movement always needs history,” Schormann told the AP ahead of the IOC decision. “You cannot just say we look only at the future. You can have a future when you are stable on the basic part of history. We are continuing to develop, to renovate, to be innovative and creative. We are very proud of what we achieved so far and want to deliver this as well for the next generations in 2020.”
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Feel Indian, Be Indian
By M H Ahssan
Only Indian citizens can play for the country, says the government
The central government’s sports ministry has proposed a policy that will no longer allow Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) to represent India in sporting events, as they are technically ‘foreign citizens’. The argument proffered is that allowing sportspersons of Indian origin to wear Indian colours even after they acquire the citizenship of another country would be tantamount to depriving Indian citizens of the opportunity to play for their country. The decision will leave currently registered players in the lurch, as their future would be uncertain. It will have serious implications for India’s tennis team, as Prakash Amritraj, Sunitha Rao and the Uberoi sisters, Shikha and Neha, will all become ineligible to play for it.
These columns have consistently promoted the idea of an elective identity that will help us do away with restrictions that curb talent and aspirations. The government, too, has gone to the extent of setting up a ministry of overseas Indian affairs to felicitate and honour members of the Indian diaspora. The ministry organises the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas event every year that is a huge draw for people of Indian origin from all over the world. When we value their services and make so much effort to appreciate what they do, why the stepmotherly treatment when it comes to their wishing to represent the country of their origin?
According to official estimates released in 2001, more than 20 million Indians live overseas in addition to the six millionplus who retain their Indian citizenship though they live abroad. Indian sportspersons who have had the benefit of getting trained by foreign experts and who feel strongly enough for their country of origin to wear its colours in competition should be allowed to do so. Chances are they would walk that extra mile to prove their cultural allegiance and so work harder to tot up the number of Indians on the winners’ list. The sports ministry should make its criteria as flexible as possible and leave it to councils that govern events like the Olympics or the Asian Games to take decisions on the eligibility of participants.
Only citizens should represent India
The sports ministry is mulling a proposal to disallow PIOs and OCIs from representing India at international sporting events as competitors. The proposal has been met with outrage, perhaps owing to the fact that India’s ability to compete in anything but cricket would be severely reduced if such a rule were applied. Several athletes representing India in the international sporting arena are actually PIOs or OCIs. But that is not enough reason to keep letting non-Indians represent India.
Why, in international sport, do sportspeople have to identify themselves as Indian or American or British, even in non-team sports? Because success in sport is a tribute to one’s country, its facilities and its culture. To cheat on that account is to demean the sport, too. And identifying one as belonging to a nation one might never have seen, let alone trained in is cheating. It’s also unfair to the nation that the sportsperson is a citizen of. Having made use of their home country’s facilities to hone their skills, why do athletes want to pledge allegiance to India? It is as dishonest as Maria Sharapova playing tennis for Russia. She is more American than Russian, having learnt all her tricks in Florida.
We have no need for borrowed heroes in this country. If a billion-plus people cannot produce world-beaters in sports, then we must learn to live with it. The honour of representing the country shouldn’t be given to someone who can’t even be bothered to hold an Indian passport.If an athlete is willing to become an Indian citizen, by all means, they should represent the country. Indeed, the nation will be proud to be represented by them. But they can’t play on both sides. There is more to being Indian than just the colour of one’s skin. If a second or third generation sporting genius feels truly Indian, she can initiate citizenship proceedings. Otherwise, they’re just making a mockery of the idea of nationhood. To represent India at a sporting event is a matter of great prestige and that honour should be given to those who are Indian in every way.
Only Indian citizens can play for the country, says the government
The central government’s sports ministry has proposed a policy that will no longer allow Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) to represent India in sporting events, as they are technically ‘foreign citizens’. The argument proffered is that allowing sportspersons of Indian origin to wear Indian colours even after they acquire the citizenship of another country would be tantamount to depriving Indian citizens of the opportunity to play for their country. The decision will leave currently registered players in the lurch, as their future would be uncertain. It will have serious implications for India’s tennis team, as Prakash Amritraj, Sunitha Rao and the Uberoi sisters, Shikha and Neha, will all become ineligible to play for it.
These columns have consistently promoted the idea of an elective identity that will help us do away with restrictions that curb talent and aspirations. The government, too, has gone to the extent of setting up a ministry of overseas Indian affairs to felicitate and honour members of the Indian diaspora. The ministry organises the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas event every year that is a huge draw for people of Indian origin from all over the world. When we value their services and make so much effort to appreciate what they do, why the stepmotherly treatment when it comes to their wishing to represent the country of their origin?
According to official estimates released in 2001, more than 20 million Indians live overseas in addition to the six millionplus who retain their Indian citizenship though they live abroad. Indian sportspersons who have had the benefit of getting trained by foreign experts and who feel strongly enough for their country of origin to wear its colours in competition should be allowed to do so. Chances are they would walk that extra mile to prove their cultural allegiance and so work harder to tot up the number of Indians on the winners’ list. The sports ministry should make its criteria as flexible as possible and leave it to councils that govern events like the Olympics or the Asian Games to take decisions on the eligibility of participants.
Only citizens should represent India
The sports ministry is mulling a proposal to disallow PIOs and OCIs from representing India at international sporting events as competitors. The proposal has been met with outrage, perhaps owing to the fact that India’s ability to compete in anything but cricket would be severely reduced if such a rule were applied. Several athletes representing India in the international sporting arena are actually PIOs or OCIs. But that is not enough reason to keep letting non-Indians represent India.
Why, in international sport, do sportspeople have to identify themselves as Indian or American or British, even in non-team sports? Because success in sport is a tribute to one’s country, its facilities and its culture. To cheat on that account is to demean the sport, too. And identifying one as belonging to a nation one might never have seen, let alone trained in is cheating. It’s also unfair to the nation that the sportsperson is a citizen of. Having made use of their home country’s facilities to hone their skills, why do athletes want to pledge allegiance to India? It is as dishonest as Maria Sharapova playing tennis for Russia. She is more American than Russian, having learnt all her tricks in Florida.
We have no need for borrowed heroes in this country. If a billion-plus people cannot produce world-beaters in sports, then we must learn to live with it. The honour of representing the country shouldn’t be given to someone who can’t even be bothered to hold an Indian passport.If an athlete is willing to become an Indian citizen, by all means, they should represent the country. Indeed, the nation will be proud to be represented by them. But they can’t play on both sides. There is more to being Indian than just the colour of one’s skin. If a second or third generation sporting genius feels truly Indian, she can initiate citizenship proceedings. Otherwise, they’re just making a mockery of the idea of nationhood. To represent India at a sporting event is a matter of great prestige and that honour should be given to those who are Indian in every way.
Feel Indian, Be Indian
By M H Ahssan
Only Indian citizens can play for the country, says the government
The central government’s sports ministry has proposed a policy that will no longer allow Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) to represent India in sporting events, as they are technically ‘foreign citizens’. The argument proffered is that allowing sportspersons of Indian origin to wear Indian colours even after they acquire the citizenship of another country would be tantamount to depriving Indian citizens of the opportunity to play for their country. The decision will leave currently registered players in the lurch, as their future would be uncertain. It will have serious implications for India’s tennis team, as Prakash Amritraj, Sunitha Rao and the Uberoi sisters, Shikha and Neha, will all become ineligible to play for it.
These columns have consistently promoted the idea of an elective identity that will help us do away with restrictions that curb talent and aspirations. The government, too, has gone to the extent of setting up a ministry of overseas Indian affairs to felicitate and honour members of the Indian diaspora. The ministry organises the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas event every year that is a huge draw for people of Indian origin from all over the world. When we value their services and make so much effort to appreciate what they do, why the stepmotherly treatment when it comes to their wishing to represent the country of their origin?
According to official estimates released in 2001, more than 20 million Indians live overseas in addition to the six millionplus who retain their Indian citizenship though they live abroad. Indian sportspersons who have had the benefit of getting trained by foreign experts and who feel strongly enough for their country of origin to wear its colours in competition should be allowed to do so. Chances are they would walk that extra mile to prove their cultural allegiance and so work harder to tot up the number of Indians on the winners’ list. The sports ministry should make its criteria as flexible as possible and leave it to councils that govern events like the Olympics or the Asian Games to take decisions on the eligibility of participants.
Only citizens should represent India
The sports ministry is mulling a proposal to disallow PIOs and OCIs from representing India at international sporting events as competitors. The proposal has been met with outrage, perhaps owing to the fact that India’s ability to compete in anything but cricket would be severely reduced if such a rule were applied. Several athletes representing India in the international sporting arena are actually PIOs or OCIs. But that is not enough reason to keep letting non-Indians represent India.
Why, in international sport, do sportspeople have to identify themselves as Indian or American or British, even in non-team sports? Because success in sport is a tribute to one’s country, its facilities and its culture. To cheat on that account is to demean the sport, too. And identifying one as belonging to a nation one might never have seen, let alone trained in is cheating. It’s also unfair to the nation that the sportsperson is a citizen of. Having made use of their home country’s facilities to hone their skills, why do athletes want to pledge allegiance to India? It is as dishonest as Maria Sharapova playing tennis for Russia. She is more American than Russian, having learnt all her tricks in Florida.
We have no need for borrowed heroes in this country. If a billion-plus people cannot produce world-beaters in sports, then we must learn to live with it. The honour of representing the country shouldn’t be given to someone who can’t even be bothered to hold an Indian passport.If an athlete is willing to become an Indian citizen, by all means, they should represent the country. Indeed, the nation will be proud to be represented by them. But they can’t play on both sides. There is more to being Indian than just the colour of one’s skin. If a second or third generation sporting genius feels truly Indian, she can initiate citizenship proceedings. Otherwise, they’re just making a mockery of the idea of nationhood. To represent India at a sporting event is a matter of great prestige and that honour should be given to those who are Indian in every way.
Only Indian citizens can play for the country, says the government
The central government’s sports ministry has proposed a policy that will no longer allow Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) to represent India in sporting events, as they are technically ‘foreign citizens’. The argument proffered is that allowing sportspersons of Indian origin to wear Indian colours even after they acquire the citizenship of another country would be tantamount to depriving Indian citizens of the opportunity to play for their country. The decision will leave currently registered players in the lurch, as their future would be uncertain. It will have serious implications for India’s tennis team, as Prakash Amritraj, Sunitha Rao and the Uberoi sisters, Shikha and Neha, will all become ineligible to play for it.
These columns have consistently promoted the idea of an elective identity that will help us do away with restrictions that curb talent and aspirations. The government, too, has gone to the extent of setting up a ministry of overseas Indian affairs to felicitate and honour members of the Indian diaspora. The ministry organises the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas event every year that is a huge draw for people of Indian origin from all over the world. When we value their services and make so much effort to appreciate what they do, why the stepmotherly treatment when it comes to their wishing to represent the country of their origin?
According to official estimates released in 2001, more than 20 million Indians live overseas in addition to the six millionplus who retain their Indian citizenship though they live abroad. Indian sportspersons who have had the benefit of getting trained by foreign experts and who feel strongly enough for their country of origin to wear its colours in competition should be allowed to do so. Chances are they would walk that extra mile to prove their cultural allegiance and so work harder to tot up the number of Indians on the winners’ list. The sports ministry should make its criteria as flexible as possible and leave it to councils that govern events like the Olympics or the Asian Games to take decisions on the eligibility of participants.
Only citizens should represent India
The sports ministry is mulling a proposal to disallow PIOs and OCIs from representing India at international sporting events as competitors. The proposal has been met with outrage, perhaps owing to the fact that India’s ability to compete in anything but cricket would be severely reduced if such a rule were applied. Several athletes representing India in the international sporting arena are actually PIOs or OCIs. But that is not enough reason to keep letting non-Indians represent India.
Why, in international sport, do sportspeople have to identify themselves as Indian or American or British, even in non-team sports? Because success in sport is a tribute to one’s country, its facilities and its culture. To cheat on that account is to demean the sport, too. And identifying one as belonging to a nation one might never have seen, let alone trained in is cheating. It’s also unfair to the nation that the sportsperson is a citizen of. Having made use of their home country’s facilities to hone their skills, why do athletes want to pledge allegiance to India? It is as dishonest as Maria Sharapova playing tennis for Russia. She is more American than Russian, having learnt all her tricks in Florida.
We have no need for borrowed heroes in this country. If a billion-plus people cannot produce world-beaters in sports, then we must learn to live with it. The honour of representing the country shouldn’t be given to someone who can’t even be bothered to hold an Indian passport.If an athlete is willing to become an Indian citizen, by all means, they should represent the country. Indeed, the nation will be proud to be represented by them. But they can’t play on both sides. There is more to being Indian than just the colour of one’s skin. If a second or third generation sporting genius feels truly Indian, she can initiate citizenship proceedings. Otherwise, they’re just making a mockery of the idea of nationhood. To represent India at a sporting event is a matter of great prestige and that honour should be given to those who are Indian in every way.
Feel Indian, Be Indian
By M H Ahssan
Only Indian citizens can play for the country, says the government
The central government’s sports ministry has proposed a policy that will no longer allow Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) to represent India in sporting events, as they are technically ‘foreign citizens’. The argument proffered is that allowing sportspersons of Indian origin to wear Indian colours even after they acquire the citizenship of another country would be tantamount to depriving Indian citizens of the opportunity to play for their country. The decision will leave currently registered players in the lurch, as their future would be uncertain. It will have serious implications for India’s tennis team, as Prakash Amritraj, Sunitha Rao and the Uberoi sisters, Shikha and Neha, will all become ineligible to play for it.
These columns have consistently promoted the idea of an elective identity that will help us do away with restrictions that curb talent and aspirations. The government, too, has gone to the extent of setting up a ministry of overseas Indian affairs to felicitate and honour members of the Indian diaspora. The ministry organises the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas event every year that is a huge draw for people of Indian origin from all over the world. When we value their services and make so much effort to appreciate what they do, why the stepmotherly treatment when it comes to their wishing to represent the country of their origin?
According to official estimates released in 2001, more than 20 million Indians live overseas in addition to the six millionplus who retain their Indian citizenship though they live abroad. Indian sportspersons who have had the benefit of getting trained by foreign experts and who feel strongly enough for their country of origin to wear its colours in competition should be allowed to do so. Chances are they would walk that extra mile to prove their cultural allegiance and so work harder to tot up the number of Indians on the winners’ list. The sports ministry should make its criteria as flexible as possible and leave it to councils that govern events like the Olympics or the Asian Games to take decisions on the eligibility of participants.
Only citizens should represent India
The sports ministry is mulling a proposal to disallow PIOs and OCIs from representing India at international sporting events as competitors. The proposal has been met with outrage, perhaps owing to the fact that India’s ability to compete in anything but cricket would be severely reduced if such a rule were applied. Several athletes representing India in the international sporting arena are actually PIOs or OCIs. But that is not enough reason to keep letting non-Indians represent India.
Why, in international sport, do sportspeople have to identify themselves as Indian or American or British, even in non-team sports? Because success in sport is a tribute to one’s country, its facilities and its culture. To cheat on that account is to demean the sport, too. And identifying one as belonging to a nation one might never have seen, let alone trained in is cheating. It’s also unfair to the nation that the sportsperson is a citizen of. Having made use of their home country’s facilities to hone their skills, why do athletes want to pledge allegiance to India? It is as dishonest as Maria Sharapova playing tennis for Russia. She is more American than Russian, having learnt all her tricks in Florida.
We have no need for borrowed heroes in this country. If a billion-plus people cannot produce world-beaters in sports, then we must learn to live with it. The honour of representing the country shouldn’t be given to someone who can’t even be bothered to hold an Indian passport.If an athlete is willing to become an Indian citizen, by all means, they should represent the country. Indeed, the nation will be proud to be represented by them. But they can’t play on both sides. There is more to being Indian than just the colour of one’s skin. If a second or third generation sporting genius feels truly Indian, she can initiate citizenship proceedings. Otherwise, they’re just making a mockery of the idea of nationhood. To represent India at a sporting event is a matter of great prestige and that honour should be given to those who are Indian in every way.
Only Indian citizens can play for the country, says the government
The central government’s sports ministry has proposed a policy that will no longer allow Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) to represent India in sporting events, as they are technically ‘foreign citizens’. The argument proffered is that allowing sportspersons of Indian origin to wear Indian colours even after they acquire the citizenship of another country would be tantamount to depriving Indian citizens of the opportunity to play for their country. The decision will leave currently registered players in the lurch, as their future would be uncertain. It will have serious implications for India’s tennis team, as Prakash Amritraj, Sunitha Rao and the Uberoi sisters, Shikha and Neha, will all become ineligible to play for it.
These columns have consistently promoted the idea of an elective identity that will help us do away with restrictions that curb talent and aspirations. The government, too, has gone to the extent of setting up a ministry of overseas Indian affairs to felicitate and honour members of the Indian diaspora. The ministry organises the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas event every year that is a huge draw for people of Indian origin from all over the world. When we value their services and make so much effort to appreciate what they do, why the stepmotherly treatment when it comes to their wishing to represent the country of their origin?
According to official estimates released in 2001, more than 20 million Indians live overseas in addition to the six millionplus who retain their Indian citizenship though they live abroad. Indian sportspersons who have had the benefit of getting trained by foreign experts and who feel strongly enough for their country of origin to wear its colours in competition should be allowed to do so. Chances are they would walk that extra mile to prove their cultural allegiance and so work harder to tot up the number of Indians on the winners’ list. The sports ministry should make its criteria as flexible as possible and leave it to councils that govern events like the Olympics or the Asian Games to take decisions on the eligibility of participants.
Only citizens should represent India
The sports ministry is mulling a proposal to disallow PIOs and OCIs from representing India at international sporting events as competitors. The proposal has been met with outrage, perhaps owing to the fact that India’s ability to compete in anything but cricket would be severely reduced if such a rule were applied. Several athletes representing India in the international sporting arena are actually PIOs or OCIs. But that is not enough reason to keep letting non-Indians represent India.
Why, in international sport, do sportspeople have to identify themselves as Indian or American or British, even in non-team sports? Because success in sport is a tribute to one’s country, its facilities and its culture. To cheat on that account is to demean the sport, too. And identifying one as belonging to a nation one might never have seen, let alone trained in is cheating. It’s also unfair to the nation that the sportsperson is a citizen of. Having made use of their home country’s facilities to hone their skills, why do athletes want to pledge allegiance to India? It is as dishonest as Maria Sharapova playing tennis for Russia. She is more American than Russian, having learnt all her tricks in Florida.
We have no need for borrowed heroes in this country. If a billion-plus people cannot produce world-beaters in sports, then we must learn to live with it. The honour of representing the country shouldn’t be given to someone who can’t even be bothered to hold an Indian passport.If an athlete is willing to become an Indian citizen, by all means, they should represent the country. Indeed, the nation will be proud to be represented by them. But they can’t play on both sides. There is more to being Indian than just the colour of one’s skin. If a second or third generation sporting genius feels truly Indian, she can initiate citizenship proceedings. Otherwise, they’re just making a mockery of the idea of nationhood. To represent India at a sporting event is a matter of great prestige and that honour should be given to those who are Indian in every way.
Saturday, August 28, 2021
New Norms With Self-Regulation For Fantasy And Online Gaming Industry in Telangana
Telangana was the first state to ban online and fantasy gaming alleging that it resorts to gambling.
The Telangana government is coming up with new rules for online and fantasy gaming which will encourage self-regulation and game development in the state, a senior state government official said.
Telangana was the first state to ban online and fantasy gaming alleging that it resorts to gambling.
Telangana principal secretary for industries and commerce and IT Jayesh Ranjan said that the present scenario around fantasy sports is "a bit muddied and complicated" at present but the state government is bringing new norms which will make the state a role model for other states.
"In Telangana also there has been push back in the past. I have taken this responsibility upon myself personally to get a very simple and industry-friendly piece of regulation in place of what already exists. I have consulted everyone who is involved in this domain,” he said.
"The draft regulation that we have prepared has been shared with everyone. I am preparing ground for this progressive piece of regulation to be introduced in our state," Ranjan said at a seminar organised by the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS).
He said that the regulation which exists in Telangana as of now was largely driven by the police department because they had certain apprehensions about the way online gaming happens.
"The new piece of regulation that we have drafted has been shared with the police department. They are involved in every process. Only after their complete satisfaction, we will take it to the next level- before our minister, law department cabinet, etc.
"It is a matter of time but I can assure you will see regulation from Telangana where not only self-regulation but development will also be encouraged. I am very confident that this will be a role model for other states as well," Ranjan said.
Indiatech CEO Rameesh Kailasam said that multiple court rulings have given adequate clarity and accorded legitimacy to online gaming formats including fantasy sports, however, in certain states such as Telangana, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Nagaland such online formats are not allowed if they involve any money.
Retired IAS officer and FSRA chairman Bimal Jhulka said that fantasy sports is a sunrise sector in India and it has already overtaken the US with 12 crore users and contributed Rs 3,000 crore to the exchequer.
He said that the fantasy sports sector has the potential to contribute Rs 13,500 crore to the exchequer by means of taxes, create 12,000 additional jobs, and attract Rs 10,000 crore in foreign direct investments.
Invest India director and CEO Deepak Bagla said that online gaming is expected to see a huge push once 5G services are rolled out in India. #KhabarLive #hydnews
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
How to feed your billionaires?
By M H Ahssan
Freebies for the IPL - at a time of savage food subsidy cuts for the poor - benefit four men who make the Forbes Billionaire List of 2010 and a few other, mere multi-millionaires.
And so the IPL fracas is now heading for its own Champions League. Union Cabinet Ministers, Union Ministers of State, Chief Ministers (and who knows a Governor or two might pop up yet) are being named as people trying to influence the bidding process. Both houses of Parliament are in uproar. The taxmen have launched a "survey."
Many in the media and politics are happy to reduce it all to issues of propriety or personality. For, the BCCI-IPL is one platform where the Congress and the BJP cohabit, normally with ease. Big money is, after all, a secular, bi-partisan space. (Or tri-partisan: let's not deny the central contribution of the NCP to this phenomenon.) It's also interesting that the media, though now compelled to give the IPL's underbelly some coverage, are still reluctant to ask larger, harder questions. To go beyond their Modi-Tharoor feeding frenzy. And to avoid induced amnesia.
It was just 10 years ago that cricket was rocked by the game's biggest-ever match-fixing scandal. That too had its centre of gravity in Indian cities, and involved Indian bookies and Indian businessmen. But along comes a new hyper-commercialised version of the game. It has scandal-waiting-to-happen written all over it and the media say "wow! This looks great," promptly going into the "willing suspension of disbelief" mode.
This venture had the right names, high glamour and, above all, big advertising and corporate power. There were obvious conflicts of interest (apart from what it did to cricket, the game) from day one. Here was Big Business in open embrace with its political patrons. There were also those who did not give the public office they held a fraction of the time or importance they gave to the BCCI-IPL. But few serious questions came up in the media.
Now there's a forced discussion of opaque dealings, bribes, and "we-know-how-to-deal-with-you" threats. Of shady investors, murky dealings and, possibly, large-scale tax evasion. Of franchisees alleging they were offered a $50 million bribe to exit. Or claiming that a Union Minister warned them to withdraw from the rodeo with grave threats.
It all leads to things much bigger than Modi versus Tharoor or issues of "impropriety" (a nice, genteel word). Leave aside the narrow money details or the fact that some franchisees are thought to be losing tens of crores each year. Skip the fact that despite those losses, newer franchisees between them put up over Rs.3000 crores for two teams that don't exist. Only a tiny band of journalists have at all shown the scepticism demanded of their profession. These few have stuck at it gamely only to find themselves isolated, mocked as party-poopers and the recipients of threats and abusive mail.
How about questions on public subsidies going to some of the richest people in the world? The BCCI-IPL cost the public crores of rupees each year in several ways. The waiving of entertainment tax worth Rs.10 to 12 crores for the IPL in Maharashtra alone was discussed in the State's Assembly. It was little reported and less discussed in the media. Maharashtra has extended other support to the IPL, which is yet to be quantified. This, despite being a State whose debt will cross Rs.200,000 crores in the coming year. And there are similar subsidies and write-offs extended to the BCCI-IPL in other States, other venues.
A whole raft of concealed freebies from public resources to the BCCI-IPL is also not discussed. We have no picture of their full scope. No questions either on why a public sector company should be billing itself as the "sponsor" of a team owned by the fourth richest man in the planet. No questions asked about issues ranging from super-cheap land leases and stadia rentals and low-cost stadia security. We don't even know what the total bill to the public is: just that it is probably in tens of crores. We do know that these supports to the IPL from public money come at a time when subsidies to the poor are being savaged. But we don't want to go down that road. An inquiry into the IPL must cover the BCCI as well and must record all the open and hidden write-offs and subsidies that both get.
Who stand to gain from the public wet-nursing of the IPL? Among others, four gentlemen who make the Forbes Billionaires List of 2010. Three of them are team owners and one is a title sponsor. All dollar billionaires and long-time residents on the Forbes List. Then there are the mere millionaires in the shape of Bollywood stars. For all these and other worthy people, governments bend over backwards to make concessions. Even as they slash food subsidies in a period of rising hunger. Big time partying is an integral part of the IPL show. Only look who is paying for that. Street argot has already begun to brand the IPL as Indian Paisa League or, more directly, India Paisa Loot.
But the BCCI and the IPL preside over huge sums in advertising. So even when the IPL angers the media by pushing them around on coverage restrictions, the media cave in. The larger silence continues. The strongest criticism of what has been going on (till the Kochi chaos) has come from Sports Minister M S Gill, an old-fashioned cricket lover actually worried about the game. Not from the media that cover the IPL. He has criticised the tax concessions and security subsidies that have hurt public security in the cities concerned while the IPL is on.
It's also worth pointing out that Mr. Gill is the one Minister (of the four Ministers on your TV screens in the present drama) actually connected with sports in a legitimate way - and not tainted by scandal. But maybe that's natural: the IPL has little to do with sports.
The Sports Minister pointed out a long time ago that there were dangerous conflicts of interests at the top levels of the BCCI-IPL. He also told Karan Thapar on television that he found the idea of "letting off tax" (waivers for IPL) quite unacceptable. "This is a poor country. I never forget that. There is a huge deficit in the budget even this year ..." And went on to say that: "when business is earning it in the shape of these teams and whatever the structure, I think the legitimate tax should be taken and should be used for the country maybe even for sports, other sports." Far from that happening, we are taking it from the public and handing it out to the billionaires.
Fire brigades in the cities have been muted or overruled in their objections to the IPL's 'hospitality boxes' (where seats can cost you Rs.40,000) as fire hazards. But some of these tickets also get you to a late night party with IPL stars and other dubious benefits. Some have raised the question of what this does to the players' performance the next day. But the party goes on. Nothing could be further removed from the lives of the 'cricket crazy public' - whose supposed interests are invoked for every new spin to the game. IPL does not come cheap.
Mumbai's elite recently preened themselves on Earth Hour where the city saved some power by switching off lights for 60 minutes. Great savings could be made if all IPL games were played in daylight. There is something ugly about that much electricity consumed by a private profit entity (guzzling public money) in a season when Marathwada and Vidarbha suffer 12-15 hour power cuts. Something that always devastates the performance of their poorer children in the examinations. They could end up having (on paper at least) a Right to Education, but none to electricity.
With the IPL comes the convergence of the most important media trends: the ABC of Media - Advertising, Bollywood and Corporate Power. Corporate barons and Bollywood stars own cricket teams. One IPL team is owned by a newspaper. Other dailies have become 'media partners' of IPL teams. Some Bollywood stars have 'promotional agreements' for their films with TV channels who disguise their paid-for gushing over those films as "news." Once national heroes, cricket's top icons are now 'capital assets' of the franchise owners.
Once proud of their disavowal of tobacco and liquor advertising, the icons now plug for the latter in surrogate form. And are linked to the former in other ways. And a once great game moves from heartfelt public ownership to a pocket-driven private one; from a national passion to a hyper-commercial nightmare.
Freebies for the IPL - at a time of savage food subsidy cuts for the poor - benefit four men who make the Forbes Billionaire List of 2010 and a few other, mere multi-millionaires.
And so the IPL fracas is now heading for its own Champions League. Union Cabinet Ministers, Union Ministers of State, Chief Ministers (and who knows a Governor or two might pop up yet) are being named as people trying to influence the bidding process. Both houses of Parliament are in uproar. The taxmen have launched a "survey." Many in the media and politics are happy to reduce it all to issues of propriety or personality. For, the BCCI-IPL is one platform where the Congress and the BJP cohabit, normally with ease. Big money is, after all, a secular, bi-partisan space. (Or tri-partisan: let's not deny the central contribution of the NCP to this phenomenon.) It's also interesting that the media, though now compelled to give the IPL's underbelly some coverage, are still reluctant to ask larger, harder questions. To go beyond their Modi-Tharoor feeding frenzy. And to avoid induced amnesia.
It was just 10 years ago that cricket was rocked by the game's biggest-ever match-fixing scandal. That too had its centre of gravity in Indian cities, and involved Indian bookies and Indian businessmen. But along comes a new hyper-commercialised version of the game. It has scandal-waiting-to-happen written all over it and the media say "wow! This looks great," promptly going into the "willing suspension of disbelief" mode.
This venture had the right names, high glamour and, above all, big advertising and corporate power. There were obvious conflicts of interest (apart from what it did to cricket, the game) from day one. Here was Big Business in open embrace with its political patrons. There were also those who did not give the public office they held a fraction of the time or importance they gave to the BCCI-IPL. But few serious questions came up in the media.
Now there's a forced discussion of opaque dealings, bribes, and "we-know-how-to-deal-with-you" threats. Of shady investors, murky dealings and, possibly, large-scale tax evasion. Of franchisees alleging they were offered a $50 million bribe to exit. Or claiming that a Union Minister warned them to withdraw from the rodeo with grave threats.
It all leads to things much bigger than Modi versus Tharoor or issues of "impropriety" (a nice, genteel word). Leave aside the narrow money details or the fact that some franchisees are thought to be losing tens of crores each year. Skip the fact that despite those losses, newer franchisees between them put up over Rs.3000 crores for two teams that don't exist. Only a tiny band of journalists have at all shown the scepticism demanded of their profession. These few have stuck at it gamely only to find themselves isolated, mocked as party-poopers and the recipients of threats and abusive mail.
How about questions on public subsidies going to some of the richest people in the world? The BCCI-IPL cost the public crores of rupees each year in several ways. The waiving of entertainment tax worth Rs.10 to 12 crores for the IPL in Maharashtra alone was discussed in the State's Assembly. It was little reported and less discussed in the media. Maharashtra has extended other support to the IPL, which is yet to be quantified. This, despite being a State whose debt will cross Rs.200,000 crores in the coming year. And there are similar subsidies and write-offs extended to the BCCI-IPL in other States, other venues.
A whole raft of concealed freebies from public resources to the BCCI-IPL is also not discussed. We have no picture of their full scope. No questions either on why a public sector company should be billing itself as the "sponsor" of a team owned by the fourth richest man in the planet. No questions asked about issues ranging from super-cheap land leases and stadia rentals and low-cost stadia security. We don't even know what the total bill to the public is: just that it is probably in tens of crores. We do know that these supports to the IPL from public money come at a time when subsidies to the poor are being savaged. But we don't want to go down that road. An inquiry into the IPL must cover the BCCI as well and must record all the open and hidden write-offs and subsidies that both get.
Who stand to gain from the public wet-nursing of the IPL? Among others, four gentlemen who make the Forbes Billionaires List of 2010. Three of them are team owners and one is a title sponsor. All dollar billionaires and long-time residents on the Forbes List. Then there are the mere millionaires in the shape of Bollywood stars. For all these and other worthy people, governments bend over backwards to make concessions. Even as they slash food subsidies in a period of rising hunger. Big time partying is an integral part of the IPL show. Only look who is paying for that. Street argot has already begun to brand the IPL as Indian Paisa League or, more directly, India Paisa Loot.
But the BCCI and the IPL preside over huge sums in advertising. So even when the IPL angers the media by pushing them around on coverage restrictions, the media cave in. The larger silence continues. The strongest criticism of what has been going on (till the Kochi chaos) has come from Sports Minister M S Gill, an old-fashioned cricket lover actually worried about the game. Not from the media that cover the IPL. He has criticised the tax concessions and security subsidies that have hurt public security in the cities concerned while the IPL is on.
It's also worth pointing out that Mr. Gill is the one Minister (of the four Ministers on your TV screens in the present drama) actually connected with sports in a legitimate way - and not tainted by scandal. But maybe that's natural: the IPL has little to do with sports.
The Sports Minister pointed out a long time ago that there were dangerous conflicts of interests at the top levels of the BCCI-IPL. He also told Karan Thapar on television that he found the idea of "letting off tax" (waivers for IPL) quite unacceptable. "This is a poor country. I never forget that. There is a huge deficit in the budget even this year ..." And went on to say that: "when business is earning it in the shape of these teams and whatever the structure, I think the legitimate tax should be taken and should be used for the country maybe even for sports, other sports." Far from that happening, we are taking it from the public and handing it out to the billionaires.
Fire brigades in the cities have been muted or overruled in their objections to the IPL's 'hospitality boxes' (where seats can cost you Rs.40,000) as fire hazards. But some of these tickets also get you to a late night party with IPL stars and other dubious benefits. Some have raised the question of what this does to the players' performance the next day. But the party goes on. Nothing could be further removed from the lives of the 'cricket crazy public' - whose supposed interests are invoked for every new spin to the game. IPL does not come cheap.
Mumbai's elite recently preened themselves on Earth Hour where the city saved some power by switching off lights for 60 minutes. Great savings could be made if all IPL games were played in daylight. There is something ugly about that much electricity consumed by a private profit entity (guzzling public money) in a season when Marathwada and Vidarbha suffer 12-15 hour power cuts. Something that always devastates the performance of their poorer children in the examinations. They could end up having (on paper at least) a Right to Education, but none to electricity.
With the IPL comes the convergence of the most important media trends: the ABC of Media - Advertising, Bollywood and Corporate Power. Corporate barons and Bollywood stars own cricket teams. One IPL team is owned by a newspaper. Other dailies have become 'media partners' of IPL teams. Some Bollywood stars have 'promotional agreements' for their films with TV channels who disguise their paid-for gushing over those films as "news." Once national heroes, cricket's top icons are now 'capital assets' of the franchise owners.
Once proud of their disavowal of tobacco and liquor advertising, the icons now plug for the latter in surrogate form. And are linked to the former in other ways. And a once great game moves from heartfelt public ownership to a pocket-driven private one; from a national passion to a hyper-commercial nightmare.
Friday, December 13, 2013
The Inside Racing Track On India’s 'Thoroughbred' Glut
Wondering why an Aligarh stud farm would let expensive race horses starve? The answer may lie in the indiscriminate import of these animals from the West. They weigh around 700 kg, prefer a vegetarian meal, never demand an upgrade, and are the new frequent fliers. Genus of passenger: Equus caballus. Breed: Warmblood.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Cricketer Anil Kumble Quits RCB, Joins Mumbai Indians as Chief Mentor
The 42-year-old Kumble not only holds the record of being the highest Indian wicket-taker in both Tests as well as ODIs but is also considered a highly respected sportsman the world over for his enormous experience and cricketing intelligence.
Commenting on his appointment, Kumble said, “In my discussion with Reliance Group Management, I find that they have a great and compelling vision for sports in this country, which aligns with my venture Tenvic Sports’ aspirations in making ‘sports’ as the main catalyst of youth development.”
“Mumbai Indians is a very competitive team in the IPL with high-profile players and committed owners. It’s my honour to join the Mumbai Indians as Chief Mentor and to align our joint interest in making sports as an important agenda in youth development. I look forward to the new assignment,” he said in a statement.
Mumbai Indians owner Nita Ambani said, “In Anil Kumble, we have a new Chief Mentor who has extensive cricketing knowledge not only as a player of international stature but also as an able administrator. He is one of India’s leading sporting icons and we have great pleasure in having him on board.”
Royal Challengers Bangalore, where Kumble was holding the same post prior to joining MI, issued a statement regarding this.
“Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and its Chief Mentor Anil Kumble have agreed to a separation with immediate effect. The parties have taken this consensual decision after considering various aspects. The parties have reaffirmed their mutual goodwill and have expressed satisfaction over the process of separation.” the RCB said in a statement.
Kumble further stated, “I have had an enjoyable association with RCB, as player, captain and mentor. During this period we have achieved most of our objectives and RCB has emerged as one of the leading franchises in the IPL.
“I leave with happy memories. I am thankful to Dr. Vijay Mallya for offering me the role of Chief Mentor, a position that allowed me to observe the challenges of being a franchise owner from close quarters and develop a nuanced perspective of the commercial elements of sport.
Mallya said, “Anil has been a great asset to RCB as captain, chief mentor and advisor. He has helped shape the entire team and was instrumental in creating a unique sense of passion and commitment.
Saturday, April 04, 2015
Child Prodigies: Three-Year-Old Archer 'Dolly Cherukuri' Should Remind Of Budhia Singh, The Marathon Boy
The recent story of Dolly Cherukuri, who set a new national record in archery nine days before her third birthday, prompts a revisit to the story of Budhia Singh, child marathon runner from Odisha. Dolly’s father, who is also her trainer, and runs an academy for archery, claimed that preparations to mould Dolly to be a future archer began even before her birth.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
GYM ACCESSORIES - Sweat In Style
By M H Ahssan
There is one school of thought which holds that loose, comfortable clothes and a basic pair of sports shoes are all that are needed to hit the gym and do your daily exercise routine. Sure you could do that also. But sports and fitness accessories exist because they help you improve your performance, stay motivated, and monitor your progress. If you are taking the trouble to pay the fees of a high-end fitness club, it also makes sense to pick the right accessories — and a personal trainer — to get the most out of your workout. We cannot help you with your personal trainer. But here are some essential accessories you should equip yourself with, once you have chosen your gym bag and your exercise clothes.
Playing It By The Ear
The right music helps keep you motivated, hit the right tempo and complete your workout. Most good gyms play decent music for you to exercise with. The problem with depending on the gym’s choice is that a) the music might not be to your taste, and b) might not be of the right tempo for your needs. Here’s when you can keep an ipod shuffle or ipod Nano (the latter is more sturdy than the iPod Classic for workouts), a Sony Walkman MP3 player or any other flash drive based player handy. What is vital is to make sure you have loaded it right for your workout. While the basic exercise music can be found in chains like Planet M or music world, for exercise-specific music, websites such as www.powermusic.com, www.fitnessmusicshop.com or www.burntrax.com are better.
Protecting The Arches
As we mentioned, you could probably get a decent workout even in a pair of basic ‘keds’. But if you are to do your exercises properly, be more careful while picking up your workout shoes. If you are just a beginner, you could opt for cross-trainers. They provide even lateral support, which makes them suitable for a variety of exercises. The MX8520 and MX720 from New Balance are perfect cross-trainers for someone looking for style, comfort and a responsive ride. For women, the adilibria Workout from Adidas is a good option. Once you are past the beginner stage you should choose different shoes for specialised workouts. Shoes for weight training need thicker soles and cushioning than those for working out on the stepper. So, it makes sense to match the shoe to the activity.
Thirst Quencher
Carrying a water bottle to the gym makes sense. Though, some of you may argue saying when all gymnasiums have ample provision for water, why the unnecessary baggage? Well, the idea is to keep water or your favourite sports drink at a convenient reach when working out. The CamelBak Better Bottle that has recently gone stainless fits the bill of a perfect gym bottle. Made from medical-grade stainless steel, this single-walled bottle is naturally BPA (Bisphenol A)-free. Nathan’s steel hydration bottle is another good choice. And for the more health conscious, there’s the Back to the Tap Sports Water Bottle featuring a carbon composite filter device.
Comfort Zone
However good your gymming shoes are, they cannot be comfortable enough without a good pair of gym socks. Now that a lot of innovation is going into the fabric of socks, one can go for one that is specially padded for maximum comfort. Such as Nike’s Cotton Footie socks. Designed specially for women, they are made of ventilated mesh to keep feet cool and dry. The Y-stitch heel pocket and the mixed fabric provide comfort. For men, Nike’s Dri-FIT half-cushioned low-cut socks are a good buy with dynamic support, top-of-foot ventilation and sweat-wicking Dri-FIT fabric. Cotton socks should be strictly avoided as they absorb the moisture from feet and remain damp, causing blisters.
Smart Monitoring
Right music, right shoes, right socks — what next? Well, your training session is incomplete without knowing to what extent you are improving. This is where a polar heart-rate monitor also known as training monitor comes into play. It not only helps you fine-tune your body, assisting you in training at the right intensity to improve your fitness and strength, but also reveals how many calories you are burning. The SIGMA ONYX classic is a clear winner. Its large display figures and the watch’s ease of use makes it popular. Simple to set up, it is very easy to synchronise the monitor with the chestband. The POLAR F11 (right), which includes a personal training programme, is equally good.
There is one school of thought which holds that loose, comfortable clothes and a basic pair of sports shoes are all that are needed to hit the gym and do your daily exercise routine. Sure you could do that also. But sports and fitness accessories exist because they help you improve your performance, stay motivated, and monitor your progress. If you are taking the trouble to pay the fees of a high-end fitness club, it also makes sense to pick the right accessories — and a personal trainer — to get the most out of your workout. We cannot help you with your personal trainer. But here are some essential accessories you should equip yourself with, once you have chosen your gym bag and your exercise clothes. Playing It By The Ear
The right music helps keep you motivated, hit the right tempo and complete your workout. Most good gyms play decent music for you to exercise with. The problem with depending on the gym’s choice is that a) the music might not be to your taste, and b) might not be of the right tempo for your needs. Here’s when you can keep an ipod shuffle or ipod Nano (the latter is more sturdy than the iPod Classic for workouts), a Sony Walkman MP3 player or any other flash drive based player handy. What is vital is to make sure you have loaded it right for your workout. While the basic exercise music can be found in chains like Planet M or music world, for exercise-specific music, websites such as www.powermusic.com, www.fitnessmusicshop.com or www.burntrax.com are better.
Protecting The Arches
As we mentioned, you could probably get a decent workout even in a pair of basic ‘keds’. But if you are to do your exercises properly, be more careful while picking up your workout shoes. If you are just a beginner, you could opt for cross-trainers. They provide even lateral support, which makes them suitable for a variety of exercises. The MX8520 and MX720 from New Balance are perfect cross-trainers for someone looking for style, comfort and a responsive ride. For women, the adilibria Workout from Adidas is a good option. Once you are past the beginner stage you should choose different shoes for specialised workouts. Shoes for weight training need thicker soles and cushioning than those for working out on the stepper. So, it makes sense to match the shoe to the activity.
Thirst Quencher
Carrying a water bottle to the gym makes sense. Though, some of you may argue saying when all gymnasiums have ample provision for water, why the unnecessary baggage? Well, the idea is to keep water or your favourite sports drink at a convenient reach when working out. The CamelBak Better Bottle that has recently gone stainless fits the bill of a perfect gym bottle. Made from medical-grade stainless steel, this single-walled bottle is naturally BPA (Bisphenol A)-free. Nathan’s steel hydration bottle is another good choice. And for the more health conscious, there’s the Back to the Tap Sports Water Bottle featuring a carbon composite filter device.
Comfort Zone
However good your gymming shoes are, they cannot be comfortable enough without a good pair of gym socks. Now that a lot of innovation is going into the fabric of socks, one can go for one that is specially padded for maximum comfort. Such as Nike’s Cotton Footie socks. Designed specially for women, they are made of ventilated mesh to keep feet cool and dry. The Y-stitch heel pocket and the mixed fabric provide comfort. For men, Nike’s Dri-FIT half-cushioned low-cut socks are a good buy with dynamic support, top-of-foot ventilation and sweat-wicking Dri-FIT fabric. Cotton socks should be strictly avoided as they absorb the moisture from feet and remain damp, causing blisters.
Smart Monitoring
Right music, right shoes, right socks — what next? Well, your training session is incomplete without knowing to what extent you are improving. This is where a polar heart-rate monitor also known as training monitor comes into play. It not only helps you fine-tune your body, assisting you in training at the right intensity to improve your fitness and strength, but also reveals how many calories you are burning. The SIGMA ONYX classic is a clear winner. Its large display figures and the watch’s ease of use makes it popular. Simple to set up, it is very easy to synchronise the monitor with the chestband. The POLAR F11 (right), which includes a personal training programme, is equally good.
Thursday, June 06, 2013
Exclusive: How Did Rhiti Sports Pay MS Dhoni 210 Crores?
The Rhiti Sports Management-Mahendra Singh Dhoni deal continues to get murkier with every passing day. The Times of India has a report that questions how Arun Pandey’s Rhiti Sports managed Mahendra Singh Dhoni the whopping Rs 210 crore that the Indian skipper was promised when he signed on in 2010.
It was a deal which toppled the previous record of Rs 180 crore held by none other than Sachin Tendukar and sent the Indian cricket stratosphere into a tizzy. “We are delighted to sign a three-year contract with Dhoni,” Sangeet Shirodkar, RSM’s marketing president had then said. “Henceforth, we’ll be looking after Dhoni’s endorsements, brand associations, corporate profile, patents and digital rights, images, visibility on social networking sites and merchandise through a joint venture.”
Wednesday, August 04, 2021
Indian Squad's Passion, Patriotism, Hope And Desperation In Tokyo Olympics 2021
This is not a dampener. This is a reality check. While passion, patriotism, hope and desperation jostled for space on the Indian air waves one week into the Tokyo Olympics 2020, the air was also hanging heavy with a rather familiar déjà vu feeling about the whole exercise being largely a case of much ado about nothing yet again.
Late on a humid Friday evening at the Olympics, world champion Sifan Hassan, representing the Netherlands, appeared to be out of contention and altogether disinterested as she started and remained at the back of the field for the first half of the 5000m women’s heat in the track and field events. But a very subtle gear shift almost went unnoticed past the 2500m mark as she slowly made her way up midfield before appearing resigned to settle for seventh place until the penultimate lap.
On the seventh and final lap though, while her Kenyan and Ethiopian counterparts held steady ground at the front, Hassan quietly made her pitch for first and the finish line in such sublime fashion that they could only look on shocked, disgusted and most importantly, exhausted, as she gracefully moved past them and then into a league of her own.
Hassan, it turned out, had quietly executed a very stealthy and rather deceptive plan, building steadily and sure footedly, slowly at first and then with consistency, pushing past when it was time. This was only the first heat as she is expected to take part across three events.
As exhilarating as it was to watch, it was not easy to shake off the lingering feeling that India were continuing to miss a beat.
After all, what happened to the P.T. Usha’s of the country? What has happened to the next great hope? Where is the build up, the foundation, the steadiness, the consistency and the core, and the bench strength? The ceiling barriers are yet to be broken, once and for all and comprehensively at that as far as India at the Olympics are concerned.
This is not a dampener. This is a reality check.
When USA lost one of the world’s greatest gymnasts in Simone Biles at the last minute in the all round team gymnastics event, they found a new champion in Suni Lee who claimed gold in the individual event to add to USA’s prowess as the fifth successive champion to take the gold at the Olympics. Great Britain were rewarded for staying with Tom Daley and his ten year Olympics history of medals finally yielding him a gold in the 10m platform men’s synchronized diving. Michael Phelps’s Olympics record is being challenged as is Mark Spritz’, unbelievably so, by Caeleb Dressler in the swimming events.
One could not help but cut back to the picture earlier in the morning as Hassan silently disappeared into the background as did Dutee from Indian minds.
At the fifth heat of the women’s 100m, a relatively diminutive woman lined up at the very end in lane 9. More exalted champions such as Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce took their place in the middle. The commentator on air did not even bother to go to the end of the field to introduce the athletes and Dutee Chand remained largely incognito, finishing a rather lacklustre seventh in an eight women race and much behind her national record time. Finishing 45 out of 54 participants reminded one of the shoddy affair that passed for sports events at many a school.
Still Chand was at the Olympics. Getting here was a Herculean effort and could not draw comparison. But that summed up India’s campaign in a nutshell.
Getting here is everything and then being here is automatically translated to medal hope in the minds of a billion. Never mind the mental challenge of watching athletes around the world show up with a larger support staff and a more rounded practice and facilities behind them. Hurdles are often overlooked in the public eye.
After all, while the likes of Anurag Thakur and Kiran Rijuju can sing laurels of our athletes when they make progress, it could be argued that like India’s lamentably bleak Olympics history, much of India’s untapped sporting talent continues to remain hidden.
It can also explain the almost monotonous voice in which the electronic media were already talking medal even as family members of P.V. Sindhu and Lovlina Borgohain encouraged cautious optimism. “Going for gold” screamed the headlines even though both women were still only into the semi finals in their respective disciplines of boxing and badminton respectively and had to still get past one more opponent to throw the final gauntlet for gold.
Once over the euphoria on a rather quiet, less newsworthy Friday where the farmers protest and the opposition took a backseat, the overwhelming feeling returned once more at the end of another epic day at the Tokyo Olympics that it was better to read the list of who had made the leap ahead rather than read out the long list of Indian athletes who didn’t.
Why are India’s medal hopefuls over hyped before the Olympics and then reduced to less than a handful midway through the two week celebration of sport only for India to be able to count on one hand the number of medals returning home? What is wrong with this picture?
Consider the déjà vu. There lies the answer.
Consider this for comparison.
A billion plus strong nation and 128 athletes represent India. Australia boasts a train of over 450 athletes at the Tokyo Olympics and only has a population that is about 25 million. Yet Australia are sitting pretty at no.6 behind the Russian Olympics Committee with nine gold medals to their name against the leader China who have now leaped over Japan with eighteen gold medals. Australia have 22 medals by the end of a hot and muggy night at the Olympics. India, still just the one.
Missing the top spot in the headlines were the archery duo of Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das who were holding their respective ground in the women’s individual archery event and men’s recursive individual archery, heading into the quarterfinals. While their efforts are commendable, they still represent a tiny fraction of India’s athletes who made it to the Olympics which is a great feat in itself but also, an even more miniscule percentage of the population, which is blasphemous to say the least.
Women’s hockey also provided some hope and as rightly pointed out, a semi final place is a great place to be in a ten year development. The emphasis has to be on development.
On a day when the likes of P.V. Sindhu were being hailed, there was an out-of-touch-with-reality moment when actor R. Madhavan posted this reply to a picture of the Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Mirabai Chanu having food on the floor of her humble home back in Manipur:
“Hey this cannot be true. I am at a complete loss of words.”
Why, Madhavan? First of all, it has to be pointed out, there is nothing wrong with having one’s lunch on the floor. To put things in context here though, he should know better the plight of Indian sportspersons given that he has played a coach to one in one of his movies.
It certainly puts playing for honour and pride of the country in perspective. That is a school of thought that has been given much lip service but not much credence in the wake of introduction of a sporting culture such as the Indian Premier League.
But it highlights not just the humble conditions from which these sportspersons come from but also, of the great demands on them, sometimes on their own two legs and on their meagre resources to get as far as they do. Showering laurels when medals are won is easy. In that sense, walking that opening ceremony in Tokyo was already a dream too high but achieved. But what about those who made it on their own merit and great hard work but didn’t get far, like Dutee?
Often this is not a rags-to-riches story for many of these sports persons who achieve elite Olympics medal levels. Promises made to them – not incentives but rewards after they hit the spotlight – are not kept. Homes are denied, jobs going a-begging, their talent, experience and wisdom untapped as the governments fail to use their success as a slipstream to build a steady stream of athletes inspired in the wake of their accomplishments.
Then four years later, it appears the names once again come out of the woodworks, the politicians bring out their patriotic Indian montages and the fans their tricolour and march alongside the sportspersons to unrealistic dreams and expectations.
The dismay is obvious.
The handful of aspiring shooters have had enough turmoil on the results board and back in the dressing room with enough ruffles over rifts between shooters and coaches. Manu Bhaker, who was expected to be the flag bearer in the end leading the medals tally, had a run in with her coach, Jaspal Rana, and thereafter with a rare malfunctioning pistol that hurt her chances in the 10m air pistol qualification event.
As news headlines kept screaming… “so-and-so crashes out,” “so-and-so crashes out”, and “so-and-so crashes out”, once again it highlighted the great disparity of how sports like cricket are given deliberate vantage point and therefore, focus, while it is hard even for seasoned journalists to extrapolate on the goings-on back in Tokyo simply because they have been fed and raised on a consumption of mainly one sport and also, then forced into specialized fields that earn their employers and themselves bread-and-butter. This is simply a fact of life, which some journalists have been candid and also, brave enough to admit openly.
One had to go deeper and read in order to learn why the nineteen year old Bhaker “crashed out” (visuals were not made available at the time). Not mentioned were her still impressive scores while she lost time while her pistol was being repaired as opposed to replaced with a spare because of the time it would take to make adjustments.
While the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) stated that India’s performance at the Tokyo Olympics was “inexplicable” and the sports authority talking about an overhaul, what is not easily forgiven is the repeated manner in which sportspersons find themselves in needless tangles, whether off the field like Mary Kom is in her final Olympics showdown, calling out the IOC over unfair judging, or the “usual suspects” (for want of a better term) of the likes of Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza calling foul of the AITA over selection muddles and confusion.
Where is the next generation? And where is the accountability? Where is the quiet pacing from the back of the field to make track steadily and then to take the finish line?
To think India lacks talent is appalling given that despite this sudden euphoria that comes out of the closets every four years – from the government and sports aficionados alike – India, despite its vast wealth, has very little infrastructure to show why there is no great grassroot level at which India’s budding talent is given ground on which to train.
Budget reels every February rarely do the untapped and underprivileged talent in the country little justice, leaving sports on the backburner. Between politics, nepotism and corruption, even existing infrastructure is elusive to these athletes in their four year long training that demands endurance and commitment of an extraordinary nature. The Olympics highlights this fact amply.
It is not enough that somehow, Dutee Chand is India’s only athlete in the track and field with hope and even she finishes at the end of the tail. While India’s hopes now rest on Sindhu and Lovlina and on the archers to wipe out the dim spotlight over the coming weekend, something is wrong with this picture and has been for a very long time. #KhabarLive
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
The Tennis Ace Star Sania Mirza Interview: Generation Gaps In Indian Tennis ‘Are Very Larger Than Life'
By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE
The 29-year-old says she wrote her autobiography ‘Ace against Odds’ to inspire young players to aim for the top.
With just over two weeks to go before the Rio Olympics begin on August 5, Sania Mirza is a busy person. The tennis world No 1 doubles player started her day with practice at 8 am, after a late night shoot. The 29-year-old could train only for an hour before Mumbai’s monsoon showers turned up typically uninformed. She then went for another shoot for a magazine, before attending the official launch of her autobiography Ace Against Odds in the city.
Friday, August 27, 2021
Cricket’s Problematic Bid For The Olympics
What is a true representation of the sport?
The irony of only two teams competing for cricket’s gold and silver medals at the Olympics in 1900 is not lost as cricket contemplates a re-entry with an eight-team pool that is not likely to feature any team outside of the so-called big league, making it a largely a redundant affair on the world stage, not to mention a problematic representation of the sport.
There is strong reason to believe that even the Olympics courting cricket is not for the right reason which is why the idea sits somewhat uneasily on cricket minds.
Almost stealing the thunder from the Indian medallists being felicitated in the country upon their return from the Tokyo Olympics, Jay Shah of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed the news that the International Cricket Council (ICC) was indeed pushing for a bid for cricket’s inclusion at the Los Angeles Games in 2028 but also, that India would be participating if the deal went through.
The news was met with mixed reactions, with some rejoicing cricket’s long-awaited entry into the Olympics while others, and this includes a fair number of cricket traditionalists, purists and fans alike, were more sceptical of the idea.
While the epitome of any sport lies in its viability across the globe and its inclusion in an epic multi-discipline event like the Olympics to honour the best in the discipline, cricket has a few pointers that counter the fact.
In announcing the decision, ICC chair Greg Barclay released a statement to the effect:
“We see the Olympics as a part of cricket’s long term future. We have more than a billion fans globally and almost 90 per cent of them want to see cricket at the Olympics. Clearly, cricket has a strong and passionate fan base, particularly in south Asia, where 92 percent of our fans come from, and whilst there are also 30 million cricket fans in the USA.”
But the problem is almost immediate. The claim of a billion cricket fans is not hard to see given where cricket’s interest is primarily centred – India – and the idea that the USA has a thirty million fan base does not automatically translate to USA cricket having a following of 30 million followers.
Statistics can easily be misrepresented as they can be used to paint a false, even delusional picture. However, the numbers themselves cannot lie.
Looking at the same numbers, it is not hard either to see why the Olympics is showing an interest in cricket.
Olympics viewership has halved from the London Olympics in 2012 to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 to only twenty million viewers.
The Olympics would like to breach this largely virgin South Asian territory and given that cricket is second to be the world’s second most popular sport after football despite its concentrated pockets around the world, it would seem it was a marriage of equals.
India is celebrating the most medal winners in its history – seven. It seemed ignominious for a 1.3 billion population that they could only produce seven medal-worthy winners, while other more established nations like the USA and China are racking up the medals tally consistently.
Here is the tricky story though.
Firstly, only twelve cricket teams currently play Test cricket. Although the ICC boasts of 92 affiliate nations.
When was the last time an affiliate team broke through the ranks? One has to go back to 2003 and the ICC Cricket World Cup in South Africa to remember the heroics of Kenya which got into the business end of the tournament.
Increasingly, there has been a push within cricket’s own circles to sideline these affiliate nations from their only means of exposure – qualifying for the World Cup tournaments – simply because they are not commercially viable for broadcasting and media rights packaging.
Even if cricket were to make it to the Olympics, it would still be likely that even amongst the 12 teams, there would be the usual suspects showing up at the event, leaving cricket to be showcased at the event but sending false hopes to its nearly hundred strong teams on the periphery.
The West Indies will not be able to represent as one nation and neither will England under the Great Britain bracket.
Which Caribbean nation will go through? Without sufficient development projects to bridge the gap of disparity of competitiveness between the permanent member nations and the affiliates, how does cricket aim to be a true representative of deciphering the best team at the Olympics which is riveting only because the quality of the performers is too close to call?
Is medal assurance is now making India change its mind about sending cricket to the Olympics? Is that not convoluted enough?
Secondly, one of the conditions in a sport making it to the Olympics is that the format in which it will be presented at the Olympics should be in international operation.
Cricket has run into hot water over this issue, apart from vested interests of boards in the past. Will a compromise be reached now?
While there is euphoria over the possibility of cricket being showcased at the Los Angeles event even though there is some consideration that cricket would be better off making its debut once more at the Brisbane Games in the next edition in 2032, there is still little consensus about the format in which it will go ahead.
The England and Wales Cricket Board pushing for the Hundred comes as no surprise though there is also in some quarters a push for T10 (as opposed to Twenty20) as a more palatable sport given the time constraints of being able to create space for doubleheaders in a ten days span of time that the Olympics can afford.
The problem with the Hundred is that it is yet another variation of shortening the sport and not all that different from Twenty20 given that it only reduces the match by 20 balls an innings. As far as T10 goes, while the ICC has sanctioned this version in the gulf, it is not an internationally prominent format and therefore, goes against the traditional Olympics regulations.
Twenty20 for all its globally viable purposes is not the true representation of skills and temperament of what makes a cricketer at the highest level.
With it being a more franchisee based concept than a World Cup viability, Twenty20 is about specialists than about cricketers in the true sense. Is that a fair representation of being medal-worthy for something as worthy as the Olympics?
There is some consideration that a better compromise would be the one-day internationals as a fairer representation of the sport though it might be an overkill given that cricket has its own legitimate version to decide the overall winner in the time tested World Cup format. Redundant enough?
There are suggestions that Twenty20 might be easier to push through and also, make cricket’s case easier at the Olympics simply because the format has been around and also, that it would kill two birds with one stone by allowing cricket to do away with the currently overcooked goose that is the ICC Twenty20 World Cup.
The only problem with promoting this idea is that the sports that do make it to the Olympics not only feature athletes of the highest quality, but also, in the version of the sport that is internationally renowned as the very pinnacle in its form.
Can cricket say the same for Twenty20, leave alone the Hundred or T20? At the moment, teams that do well at Twenty20 events such as the West Indies rarely reflect the gulf that has developed after the top four teams in the game that are fairly consistent across all three accepted formats.
Although it is being claimed that pushing cricket at the Olympics will be an impetus to push the governments of fringe teams into driving funding into developing these teams, increased medal tally has not done the trick even in the Indian context despite this unprecedented adulation that often comes after the fact and soon as easily forgotten.
Paraag Marathe, part of the ICC Olympics Group that also includes the ECB, the Asian Cricket Council and Zimbabwe cricket, seemed overly optimistic of what cricket at the Olympics could do for USA Cricket.
“USA Cricket is thrilled to be able to support cricket’s bid for inclusion in the Olympics, the timing of which aligns perfectly with our continuing plans to develop the sport in the USA. With so many passionate cricket fans and players already in the USA and a huge global audience, we believe that cricket’s inclusion will add great value to the Los Angeles 2021 Olympics Games and help us to achieve our own vision of establishing cricket as a mainstream sport in this country.”
What Marathe failed to mention was that too many young Indian cricketers are already “retiring” in order to qualify for the Major League Cricket in the USA because of the BCCI’s current restrictive policy that does not allow Indian cricketers to participate in franchisee Twenty20 leagues overseas.
So it is questionable how much of it is homegrown talent and how much of it is a talent that has emigrated overseas, which in the past has made up the numbers of certain affiliate teams that made it on the rare occasion to the top league in a world cup context.
That this exposure will drive the Chinese and USA markets into greater development of cricket seems highly unlikely given that they are not likely to sudden divert their resources from their tried and tested disciplines into a sport where it is highly unlikely that their team will break ranks at the highest level in the immediate or even ten years down the line and that too account for a medal or two at most.
Thirdly, and most importantly, the whole premise of participation at the Olympics seems diluted by the idea of the very motivations that are driving cricket and the Olympics into this arranged marriage.
The ECB sees it as a way of promoting another home driven format – Twenty20 before the Hundred – in the hope of resuscitating cricket interest in the flagging home of the sport.
The BCCI now sees its potential perhaps in how the medal winners are being received and with government impetus – Shah is after all the son of Amit Shah which in itself is contravening of the Lodha committee reforms that looked to separated political affiliations from sports administration – is looking to create its own larger entity.
With conditions of course, since it has traditionally opposed losing its autonomy to bodies like the Indian Olympics Association and through the avoidance of drug testing arm of WADA in India, NADA.
Olympics is meant to be the pinnacle of any sport. It is why the world-class athletes begin training the very next day after the conclusion of an Olympics event in preparation for the next one four years away.
This has also caused some problems in sports like tennis where the top players have tended to be choosy over what they value and where they wish to spread their time – the Grand Slam or the Olympics.
One of the biggest reasons the BCCI is stating this change of heart is the push from the current Indian government for increasing the medal score at the Olympics.
The idea of having a men’s and women’s version at the Olympics means a possibility of two medals, notwithstanding the fact that India is yet to taste top success in the men’s arena since the ICC Champions Trophy in 2017.
However, it has to be remembered that this at the end of the day will ensure at best two medals. This with a large contingent of players who make up a team.
It seems that the Indian government and the sports ministry are better advised to divert their energies to developing the infrastructure to produce greater medal possibilities by following the China and USA models of throwing the gates open to discovering talent by training a larger number of athletes in the various disciplines instead of resting medal hopefuls around the neck of one team in an elusive discipline.
With the podium potential of three medals in each discipline, increasing the calibre and number of athletes makes far better sense.
Besides, cricket, particularly in the Indian subcontinent, does not need a platform nor additional spotlight that takes away from much-needed resources in the other disciplines where athletes could do with greater financial assistance, support structure and backing.
As far as the Olympics goes, if the South Asia Market is their goal to tap into a larger commercial market, perhaps they might want to look into providing impetus towards these governments enhancing interest in non-cricket sports.
Besides, until cricket can sort itself out, having greater exposure is going to do little for the sport itself if it is only going to add to its languishing affiliate nation tally.
Will cricket give up its precious revenue-making bilateral series time, particularly time like the IPL window or the Hundred, for an Olympics event every four years while the remuneration is not likely to justify the decision?
Is cricket willing to incur the short term loss for potential long term gains that might still not accrue from the Olympics where medal racing nations have their traditional sports back?
How likely will it be down the line when cricket might see the merit of sending a second-string team to the Olympics to make up the numbers while the likes of mainstream players are engaged in more lucrative, bilateral engagements?
Is it not why football has so little weightage at the Olympics while the recently concluded Euro took on so much attention and importance?
What is a true representation of the sport? An abridged version, made up of teams with expats and retiring players who will make up teams like Major League Cricket in the USA in a couple of years time?
When purely commercial interests drive even a body like the Olympics to include a sport not for its high-value quality but for its ability to bring it a market, it feels like a self-goal, not done for the right reasons, which is marrying the two because it enhances sport at the highest echelons. #KhabarLive #hydnews
Friday, February 27, 2009
One game India can't afford to lose
By M H Ahssan
As time runs out before New Delhi's hosting of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, there is widespread concern about India's levels of preparedness for the spectacle, which was hoped to showcase the nation's rising sporting and economic prowess and rejuvenate the capital's infrastructure.
There was nationwide jubilation in 2005 when New Delhi won the right to host the games, after beating stiff competition from the Canadian city of Hamilton. Expectations were high as this is the first time India will host the event, and is only the third developing country to do so after Jamaica in 1966 and Malaysia in 1998.
The games, scheduled to be held principally at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in October next year, are expected to cost US$1.6 billion, with infrastructure preparations that include the construction of five new stadiums and a games village.
An indoor stadium is being built at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium for weightlifting, at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex for wrestling, at Siri Fort for badminton and squash, at the Yamuna Complex for table tennis. The world-class games village, being built at cost of $40 million, will accommodate athletes and officials from 20 sports disciplines from 25 countries.
However, while the plans are theoretically in place, factors such as the global economic slowdown, the November 26, 2008, Mumbai terror attacks and a lack of coordination among various urban development authorities have combined to throw numerous games-linked projects in doubt.
To make matters worse, a startling revelation this week by Sitaram Yechury, head of the committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture - which was set up last year to probe the progress of the games' preparation - has thrown up serious doubts about the city's capability to prepare adequate accommodation and security for the competition.
The committee's report, entitled "Development of Tourism Infrastructure and Amenities for Commonwealth games 2010", said that as the December 31 deadline for handing stadia over to the organizing committee swiftly approaches, many projects are yet to be initiated, let alone completed. The report said that despite there being sufficient funds available, the Sheila Dixit government in Delhi did not submit any infrastructure proposals until November 2008.
The 31-member committee has also questioned the capacity of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to ready the necessary accommodation, renovate hospitality facilities or modernize tourism sites ahead of the games. The committee said that hotels in the capital and its surrounding cities have only 14,000 rooms available, though 30,000 will be needed for the expected influx of foreign and domestic visitors.
The committee has slammed the New Delhi authorities for a lack of coordination among the various agencies involved in building games-related projects. It said that despite a raft of civic and administrative agencies being responsible for the tasks, there is nobody to coordinate the agencies involved. It said the confusion will lead to problems preparing roads, airports and electric supply, and that entertainment, parking and information centers will not be ready.
Even before the committee raised these inadequacies, global hotel investment service firm Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels (JLLH), had already highlighted Delhi's accommodation shortage. The firm said that the room shortfall had been caused by regulatory and financing impediments, and would likely create chaos.
"The pace of creation of additional hotel accommodation at 39 hotel sites, auctioned by the Delhi Development Authority since January 2006, is way behind schedule," said a senior Sports Ministry official. "Of the proposed 39 additional hotels, work is only going on at 19."
Compounding the problems is that due to the global economic slowdown, several private builders who took up hotel projects are facing severe funding problems. The fate of the games village is also under a cloud after the Dubai-based developer contracted to build it, Emaar MGF, approached the DDA for a financial bailout.
The government earlier granted Emaar MGF a nine-month deferral on the repayment of a $15.8 million loan from the State Bank of India, and no decision has been made on its request for additional funds.
Apart from infrastructure bottlenecks, the locations for the games' main venues are also in doubt. Environmental cases are pending over the allegedly illegal felling of more than 1,000 trees needed for the area where squash and basketball courts and the games village on the Yamuna River floodplain will be built.
An environmental assessment found that clearing the land could cause serious flooding and affect Delhi's already meager water supply. In view of the magnitude of the problem, the Supreme Court has ordered a re-assessment of the plans.
"Just because you're hosting world-class games, it doesn't mean that you can wreck the city's environment," said environmental activist Kiran Mansukhani. "If due attention isn't given to Delhi's ecology during the preparations for the games, their fallout could be catastrophic. In their hurry to host the games, the planners have failed to present a holistic vision of what Delhi would be like after them."
This is not the first time the Delhi government has faced flak over its preparation for the games. Last year, during an appraisal survey of the venues, the Commonwealth games Federation (CGF) expressed concern over the slow pace of work. The CDF was so upset that it hinted that Delhi might even lose the bid to host the games if it did not improve its performance.
The CGF will do two subsequent reviews to check the progress of the preparations, one in August and another in March 2010. The latter review represents the absolute cut-off point, though there is no precedent of the games being moved at this late stage.
After the CGF's harsh assessment, Suresh Kalmadi, the president of the Indian Olympic Association, scrambled to assure the federation that games venues would be completed by the deadline. "New Delhi's Commonwealth games are happening, let there be no doubt about that," insisted Kalmadi at the time.
Apart from other delays, the largest infrastructure upgrade project that was to be synchronized with the games - the modernization of the dilapidated New Delhi Railway Station - is also off track.
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad had promised to complete the modernization of the capital's main train station by October 2010, but the project has run into a number of delays, including the lack of a traffic clearance from the DDA. Experts say this will hold up the project by at least six months and jeopardize any chance of it being ready before the games.
The problems are disappointing as one of the primary reasons India gave for hosting the competition was matching its arch-rival China's efforts in making a success of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. Another reason was the transformation of the capital's existing infrastructure, and to generate income, as the new projects should have benefited domestic real estate developers.
But experts have said that financial gains from hosting large sporting evens are notoriously hard to predict, particularly given the current volatility of the world markets - Montreal will this year make the last payment on a $6.2 billion deficit 30 years after it hosted the Olympics Games.
Despite the barrage of criticism, the organizers of the games remain optimistic. Kalmadi has said that that he will provide world-class infrastructure on time, as has Union Sports Minister, MS Gill. "It's like organizing an Indian marriage. This is India and we do it like this," he said recently.
As time runs out before New Delhi's hosting of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, there is widespread concern about India's levels of preparedness for the spectacle, which was hoped to showcase the nation's rising sporting and economic prowess and rejuvenate the capital's infrastructure.
There was nationwide jubilation in 2005 when New Delhi won the right to host the games, after beating stiff competition from the Canadian city of Hamilton. Expectations were high as this is the first time India will host the event, and is only the third developing country to do so after Jamaica in 1966 and Malaysia in 1998.
The games, scheduled to be held principally at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in October next year, are expected to cost US$1.6 billion, with infrastructure preparations that include the construction of five new stadiums and a games village.
An indoor stadium is being built at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium for weightlifting, at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex for wrestling, at Siri Fort for badminton and squash, at the Yamuna Complex for table tennis. The world-class games village, being built at cost of $40 million, will accommodate athletes and officials from 20 sports disciplines from 25 countries.
However, while the plans are theoretically in place, factors such as the global economic slowdown, the November 26, 2008, Mumbai terror attacks and a lack of coordination among various urban development authorities have combined to throw numerous games-linked projects in doubt.
To make matters worse, a startling revelation this week by Sitaram Yechury, head of the committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture - which was set up last year to probe the progress of the games' preparation - has thrown up serious doubts about the city's capability to prepare adequate accommodation and security for the competition.
The committee's report, entitled "Development of Tourism Infrastructure and Amenities for Commonwealth games 2010", said that as the December 31 deadline for handing stadia over to the organizing committee swiftly approaches, many projects are yet to be initiated, let alone completed. The report said that despite there being sufficient funds available, the Sheila Dixit government in Delhi did not submit any infrastructure proposals until November 2008.
The 31-member committee has also questioned the capacity of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to ready the necessary accommodation, renovate hospitality facilities or modernize tourism sites ahead of the games. The committee said that hotels in the capital and its surrounding cities have only 14,000 rooms available, though 30,000 will be needed for the expected influx of foreign and domestic visitors.
The committee has slammed the New Delhi authorities for a lack of coordination among the various agencies involved in building games-related projects. It said that despite a raft of civic and administrative agencies being responsible for the tasks, there is nobody to coordinate the agencies involved. It said the confusion will lead to problems preparing roads, airports and electric supply, and that entertainment, parking and information centers will not be ready.
Even before the committee raised these inadequacies, global hotel investment service firm Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels (JLLH), had already highlighted Delhi's accommodation shortage. The firm said that the room shortfall had been caused by regulatory and financing impediments, and would likely create chaos.
"The pace of creation of additional hotel accommodation at 39 hotel sites, auctioned by the Delhi Development Authority since January 2006, is way behind schedule," said a senior Sports Ministry official. "Of the proposed 39 additional hotels, work is only going on at 19."
Compounding the problems is that due to the global economic slowdown, several private builders who took up hotel projects are facing severe funding problems. The fate of the games village is also under a cloud after the Dubai-based developer contracted to build it, Emaar MGF, approached the DDA for a financial bailout.
The government earlier granted Emaar MGF a nine-month deferral on the repayment of a $15.8 million loan from the State Bank of India, and no decision has been made on its request for additional funds.
Apart from infrastructure bottlenecks, the locations for the games' main venues are also in doubt. Environmental cases are pending over the allegedly illegal felling of more than 1,000 trees needed for the area where squash and basketball courts and the games village on the Yamuna River floodplain will be built.
An environmental assessment found that clearing the land could cause serious flooding and affect Delhi's already meager water supply. In view of the magnitude of the problem, the Supreme Court has ordered a re-assessment of the plans.
"Just because you're hosting world-class games, it doesn't mean that you can wreck the city's environment," said environmental activist Kiran Mansukhani. "If due attention isn't given to Delhi's ecology during the preparations for the games, their fallout could be catastrophic. In their hurry to host the games, the planners have failed to present a holistic vision of what Delhi would be like after them."
This is not the first time the Delhi government has faced flak over its preparation for the games. Last year, during an appraisal survey of the venues, the Commonwealth games Federation (CGF) expressed concern over the slow pace of work. The CDF was so upset that it hinted that Delhi might even lose the bid to host the games if it did not improve its performance.
The CGF will do two subsequent reviews to check the progress of the preparations, one in August and another in March 2010. The latter review represents the absolute cut-off point, though there is no precedent of the games being moved at this late stage.
After the CGF's harsh assessment, Suresh Kalmadi, the president of the Indian Olympic Association, scrambled to assure the federation that games venues would be completed by the deadline. "New Delhi's Commonwealth games are happening, let there be no doubt about that," insisted Kalmadi at the time.
Apart from other delays, the largest infrastructure upgrade project that was to be synchronized with the games - the modernization of the dilapidated New Delhi Railway Station - is also off track.
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad had promised to complete the modernization of the capital's main train station by October 2010, but the project has run into a number of delays, including the lack of a traffic clearance from the DDA. Experts say this will hold up the project by at least six months and jeopardize any chance of it being ready before the games.
The problems are disappointing as one of the primary reasons India gave for hosting the competition was matching its arch-rival China's efforts in making a success of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. Another reason was the transformation of the capital's existing infrastructure, and to generate income, as the new projects should have benefited domestic real estate developers.
But experts have said that financial gains from hosting large sporting evens are notoriously hard to predict, particularly given the current volatility of the world markets - Montreal will this year make the last payment on a $6.2 billion deficit 30 years after it hosted the Olympics Games.
Despite the barrage of criticism, the organizers of the games remain optimistic. Kalmadi has said that that he will provide world-class infrastructure on time, as has Union Sports Minister, MS Gill. "It's like organizing an Indian marriage. This is India and we do it like this," he said recently.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
SPOT FIXING EPISODE: IMPACT ON 'BRAND IPL', SPONSORS
Three players from the Rajasthan Royals, S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankit Chavan, have been arrested by the Delhi police for involvement in spot fixing in 3 league matches. The BCCI as usual has been caught on the wrong foot, and apart from the standard expressions of shock and zero tolerance, is not doing much to defuse this credibility crisis. How will the IPL emerge from the taint of yet another scandal and what is the likely impact on viewership and future sponsor interest?
Tuesday, March 03, 2015
India’s Largest Kids’ Carnival 2015 Will Be At Hyderabad
Undisputedly, this is India’s largest kids’ carnival. The fair’s fantastic footfall figures substantiate rewarding opportunities for your business.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
#CWC15 Betting Market Humming With Buzz Of Big Upset
At the moment, the bookies’ four favourites are Australia followed by South Africa, New Zealand and India.
Australia is at the top of the pecking order with odds on it being quoted at Rs 1.9 per rupee bet. Next come South Africa, also known as ‘chokers,’ with a rate of Rs 4.2 and New Zealand with Rs 4.6. The two are closely followed by India at Rs 4.8. The cardinal rule is: the lower the rate, the higher is the probability of the outcome.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Shame India: Everest Climber Sells Vegetables In Poverty
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In May this year, 24-year-old Ram Lal scaled the world’s highest peak — Mount Everest. Today, the young man from Tohana town in Fatehabad district pushes a vegetable cart through the streets to take care of his bed-ridden father and fend for the family.
Ram is yet to receive the cash award of Rs 5 lakh that Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced soon after he hoisted the tricolour at Everest. Another Everest climber, Mamta Sodha, was recently appointed deputy SP and awarded Rs 21 lakh.
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