Indian sports news and discussion

[Guest]

Well, i never had so much expectation from Sunil Dutt.
People in US who had donated money for Cancer hospital in India, are still waiting to see receipt from Sunil Dutt.

[Guest]

http://in.rediff.com/sports/2004/jun/16spec1.htm

[Guest]

that sports complex should be quality stuff. And hopefully we have such stadiums in other parts of the country and when kids will want to be a part of the school football team, their parents will not scold them and remind them that their books are their best friends.

[Guest]

Anju wins bronze with career best leap
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->World number four long jumper Anju Bobby George won the bronze medal in the Prefontaine Classic IAAF Grand Prix meet in USA with a career best but wind aided leap of 6.83m.

American sprint queen Marion Jones of USA, who suffered a rare defeat in the women's 100m finishing fifth, won the gold with a big leap of 6.93m. Her compatriot world no. 6 Grace Upshaw clinched the silver touching down at 6.88m (wind aided) yesterday at the University of Oregon.

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[Guest]

Rugby Rising

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->As a fullscale season gets under way, there is every sign that rugby is on the rise in India. When IOA secretary-general Randhir Singh says he sees rugby as a growth sport, there must be a reason.

There are, several. The past season saw several firsts for Indian rugby. The IRFU began developing rugby in the Army at Ahmednagar in Maharashtra under the guidance of New Zealand coach Willie Hetaraka. India embarked on their first-ever tour of world champions England. And Hetaraka was recently appointed as national coach, the first foreign coach for the Indian XV.

The fruits of the labour have already begun to show: the season-opener, the All India and South Asia Sevens in Bangalore, saw the Army team in their first competition. And they went all the way to the semis, shocking the Sri Lankans 36-17 in the quarters.

It’s a tough order. India are currently ranked 90th in the world; Sri Lanka are at 63, Thailand at 59. India are at the bottom of the Asian pile comprising 12 nations, with Japan, South Korea, Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong making up the top four. But team captain Chaitanya Sinh is optimistic. ‘‘A good show in this tri-nation tournament should boost our Asian presence,’’ he adds. More wins=more recognition=more sponsors.

The most significant signs of progress, however, lie in the re-structure of the domestic game, with plans for expansion in all five domestic Zones — East, West, North, South and Central. And, best of all, the All-India — the premier tournament — will be played in two divisions, the lower order, comprising new teams, playing its matches in a separate tournament in Chennai.
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[Guest]

<img src='http://sfgate.com/chronicle/pictures/2004/07/02/sp_britain_wimbledon07.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

<img src='http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040702/capt.xwim15007020204.britain_wimbledon_tennis_xwim150.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />


<img src='http://www.hindustantimes.com/wfsf/high/2004/07.03/images/high865355.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

Maria Sharapova of Russia celebrates scoring a point against Serena Williams of the US during their ladies final match at the 118th Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London on July 3, 2004.

Ana's history - Maria's here. She's HOT! <!--emo&:wub:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wub.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wub.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:bevil--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/b_evil.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='b_evil.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Amber G.]

I promised a friend of mine that IF is very resourceful ..

<b>Info about Indian Olymic Basketball Team - Needed.</b>

A friend of mine, a sports writer, is writing about Indian Basketball team. (in an encyclopedia to be published in couple of months) and needs information about the players who took part in 1980 Olympics. (India – 12th place). We have the information about name, date of birth (age) and some other data (eg position, height, weight, and some stats) but it is not complete... (Obviously he has done lot of googling and checking out major sports resources in uS but can not find all the information..)

If any one can point to any web sites, Libraries or any other place where we can get the data would be helpful.

The information needed:

Height
Weight
Position
Olympic stats: ( Number, G, Min, 2FG, Rebounds etc) ..
Club (If any or school etc where they played)
What are they doing now (If known)

He has access to official Olympic data, but not all stats are there. …

The players are:
P I Diniar
D Gurumurthy
A Nagarajan
R Shyam
Baldev singh
C A Singh
H Singh
J Singh
Paramdip . Singh
Parmajit Singh
R H U Singh
T S Sandhu
(Narlolath and shanraan – Coaches)

thanks in advance.

[Guest]

Wow.Well that kind of information would be very difficult to find for any country .Try contacting the BFI ,they might help.

Basketball Federation of India
7, Safdarjung Road, New Delhi
Telephone: (+91) (11) 301 54 32
Fax: (+91) (11) 301 24 66
E-Mail: harishsharma45@hotmail.com
Web site:

I had a whole bunch of sport quiz books in India mostly in Hindi published by a Delhi based publishing house.Once I contacted them to get some info on Indian Football team which came 4th in the 56 Olympics and they were able to help.Unfortunately I cant recall their name right now.

[Guest]

Athletes guinea pigs for foreign coaches?

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Are foreign athletics experts (read coaches) using top Indian athletes as guinea pigs? Results of a clutch of bio-chemical tests carried out during the preparatory camps just before the 2000 Sydney Olympics have indicated that top Indian athletes were apparently taking a cocktail of anabolic steroids, which, in turn, affected the composition of cholesterol and High Density of Lipoprotein (HDL) in the blood.

Data gathered over the 2000, leading up to the Olympic Games, show that top trained athletes in the camps had a cholesterol level as high as 300-plus and HDL below 7 gm%.

According to sources, foreign coaches, in a frantic effort to "stay over", even resort to experimenting with prohibited drugs on the athletes for better performance.

Which has all led to a likely denouement: the whole bunch of athletes preparing for the Athens Olympics have stopped appearing for bio-chemical tests.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story....t_id=46741

Quote from above article:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->However, the biggest disappointment for India has been the inability of its top boxer Mohammad Ali Qamar to qualify for the Olympics.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

My comment:
Well then may be he is not such a top boxer afterall. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

But Kumar, he is a Commonwealth Games Gold Medallist!


in other news....

AFI all set to zoom in on medal hopes

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->KEEPING in view the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the Amatuer Athletic Federation of India has chalked out a detailed programme to indentify and train junior athletes who could bag top hounours for the country at the international level.

Chief National athletics coach Suresh Babu, while speaking to Sportsline at the NIS here today, said that the primary plan of the federation was to identify promising athletes in the age group of 17-19 years.

He said that for this the federation would select the junior athletes with outstanding performances at the national meets. These athletes would be kept under direct supervision of the federation and annual national athletic camps would be organised to train them before all major competitions.

The secreatry of the federation, Lalit Bhannot, would himself monitor the programme and would act as a co-ordinator for every aspect of the training programme. He said that the long-term programme aimed to ascertain results at the Olympics also. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

JAI HO
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->With less than a month to go for the Olympic Games, the Indian Hockey Federation sacked chief coach Rajinder Singh on Monday without assigning any reason.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

KPS Gill is a great cop, but a bad sports manager. I do not believe this team, with this level of mismanagement and lack of support, will reach far in the Olympics.

I am sorry to say it, but thats the most likely scene. First step in getting sports off the ground in India is to fire all these chairmen and presidents of the various sporting bodies who have sat on them for years and done nothing but exploit it.

And lets start with Suresh Kalmadi. Sports in India should not be feifdoms.

[Guest]

Only Anju has a chance: Milkha Singh

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Predicting a dismal show from the Indian athletic contingent, 'Flying Sikh' Milkha Singh said on Wednesday that the apathy of the authorities and increasing drug abuse among athletes would be the key factors responsible for the "poor performance" in the Olympics.

"I don't think our players can bring back any medal. It will be hoping too much from them knowing well that the performance which they achieve back home, mainly by using performance enhancing drugs, is seldom duplicated in international events," the legendary athlete, who missed out on a bronze in the 400m at the 1960 Rome Olympics, said in Chandigarh.

Milkha believed that Indians stood no chance against the world's best in Athens next month except for long jumper Anju Bobby George, who won India's first medal in a World Athletics Championships in Paris last August.

"It is impossible to think that for the past four decades India has failed to produce medal winning athletes. It is high time that the government should look into this or stop sending teams abroad," Milkha said.

Expressing his dismay at the prevailing state of affairs, Milkha said: "The athletes are not only deceiving themselves but the country as a whole, which has high hopes from them. I have written to the Union Government and the Sports Ministry at least 20 times urging them to inquire into the fact why athletes who clock good timings back home are not able to duplicate it in the Olympics or the Commonwealth Games. But the authorities concerned never bothered."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

Olympians should have fun after Games: Dutt

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Whether they return with medals or empty-handed, moves are afoot to make life more comfortable for the 70-odd members of the Indian squad to the Athens Olympics. Sports Minister Sunil Dutt has moved a series of proposals to the ministries concerned for athletes’ benefits, including a hike in their daily foreign allowance from $20 to $50, introduction of a health insurance scheme and a package for railway travel.

While some of the proposals have been firmed up and await the Finance Ministry’s approval, the Minister said he would take up the issue of railway passes or concessions for members of the squad with Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav. Once all the proposed schemes had been sent to the Ministries, he would also be writing to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the subject.

Over the years, Dutt said, he’d learned of several cases where Indian Olympians lived in pathetic conditions, especially in their later years. His present efforts were one way of trying to avoid such horror stories in future. ‘‘I have interacted with some members of the squad who come from small villagers and far-flung areas,’’ he said. ‘‘They must feel there will be some incentives and benefits they will get throughout their lives. Participating in the Olympic Games must not be their only period of glory.’’

Besides simple health insurance and travel facilities, Dutt said the Sports Ministry was looking at ways in which cash rewards and purses Olympians win are not squandered either by them or their families. His officers were working on other schemes so that a final decision could be taken well before the start of the Olympic Games on August 13.
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Inshallah something will come out of it.

[Guest]

Indian American girl in US Olympics gymnastic team<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->At the Olympic trials in Anaheim, Mohini stole the show with an inspired sixth-place effort and went on to shine with grace and style.

At the Texas selection camp, Mohini continued to post impressive scores at two mock meets, earning 9.8 points on the vault -- her favourite event -- in the first competition and earning 9.45-plus scores on the other three events.

Mohini, born in Philadelphia to Kaushal and Indu Bhardwaj, includes in her hobbies reading and dancing. She has a younger brother Arun.
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[Guest]

Ha, ABCD.

meanwhile......

Let’s build sport, not stadiums: Dutt

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Curbing unnecessary expenditure, especially in the form of mammoth stadium complexes mushrooming all over the country, will be a key part of Sunil Dutt’s agenda as Sports Minister. And he is willing to consider the Chinese model, where top sporting events — National Games, for example — are held in select locations, not spread through the country as a sop.

This will be one of the issues discussed at a meeting of state sports ministers Dutt plans to hold after the Olympic Games. The meeting, a first of sorts in recent times, will not only give him firsthand information on the condition of sports infrastructure in each state but also provide him with data on how the public money is spent.

‘‘I am willing to do it. I know it may not please everyone, but I can’t help it. Unless we do certain things, however unpleasant they may be, you can’t improve the system. The existing one has several loopholes and we’re good at exploiting them’’, he said, with a hint of that famous smile.

Another point on his agenda is keeping an eye on the sports federations, for which he would be meeting with federation chiefs and secretaries. ‘‘I don’t want to intrude into any federation’s autonomy. But at the same time I am answerable to the public at large because it’s their money that is being spent on everything we do. That’s why I reiterate the point that sportspersons are my priority.”

To illustrate the point, the minister pointed to the fact that he had to read the newspapers to learn that his ministry had spent Rs 42 lakh on the hockey team’s fitness training programme in the US. ‘‘After I gatecrashed into a farewell function at the National Stadium where I was not invited!’’

Obviously hurt, Dutt has also ordered his staff and people concerned in SAI for action-taken report on all issues — as and when they come — within a week’s time.
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Step One for Indian sports, Mr. Dutt, remove these bloody netas from the top positions at these Federations who have been sitting on them like serpents.

[acharya]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...0107232109&e=10



Ravi Chand of Virginia and Bethany Walker of Ohio kiss on a Boise sidewalk on Friday, July 23, 2004 in Boise, Idaho to promote vegetarian eating. The 'Live Make-Out Tour', sponsored by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), is being staged throughout the country to demonstrate PETA's claims that vegetarians are better lovers. (AP Photo/Matt Cilley)

[Guest]

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[Guest]

Stars Out Of The Orbit

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->To put it another way: What do our non-cricket heroes have to do to get attention, public mindspace and, most important, money by way of sponsorships/endorsements?

Take a look at these three teenagers. Pankaj Advani (18) is a world snooker champion, Sourav Ghosal (17) just became the the first Indian to be top seed at the World Junior Squash to be held in Islamabad next month and Pendalya Harikrishna is already a Grandmaster at 18. Three extremely talented individuals who are without endorsements.

After his world title in China, Advani had hoped that his dreams of playing on the professional circuit could be fuelled by sponsors ready to back him.

Ghosal, a British Junior Open champion, who reached the finals of the first Professional Squash Association (PSA) tournament that he played, survives on the funds that his father and Squash Racket Federation of India (SRFI) can put together from approaching sponsors. Harikrishna was left high and dry when Wipro opted out of his sponsorship deal.

All this, when contemporary Parthiv Patel endorses everything from biscuits to cycles on television. Without taking anything from the wicketkeeper, the fact remains that when it comes to endorsements and sponsorships, it’s tunnel vision with only cricket at the end of it.

The common perception is that this is TV-driven, that sponsors shell out the money only when they see the TRPs.

‘‘Endorsements go to celebrities, and cricketers in our country have become celebrities. It’s got a lot to with the way cricket has been managed in the country’’, says Pandey. ‘‘Remember, advertisements don’t make celebrities, they only ride on them. Today, Bollywood and cricketers have thrown a lot of models out of business’’, he laughs.

Latika Khaneja, whose shrewd management of Virender Sehwag is a famous success story, has also signed on shooting ace Abhinav Bindra. ‘‘It’s a one-off case, in the light of the Olympics’’, she says ‘‘Corporates do talk of looking at sportspersons outside cricket, but it doesn’t really work when you get down to it.’’ So what worked for somebody like Bindra? ‘‘Bindra’s deals with Sahara and Samsung need to be seen in light of the Olympics. The sponsors saw him as a medal prospect.’’

Thinking out of the box can help. Globosport is currently working out a deal in which Dhanraj Pillay will be associated with music label HMV. ‘‘The idea is to work with sportsmen who can lead their image to a brand, something that people can identify themselves with’’, says Blah. ‘‘It’s about Hindi film music, so the masses can easily identify with the brand and Pillay.’’

So what do you do with talent like Advani, Ghosal and Harikrishna. Globosport is keen on signing on Advani. Blah says the idea is to bring together a bunch of talented youngsters and then approach big industrial houses. The Champions Trust, which will kick off with the Champions Run, a charity run to raise awareness and money for athletes, is one such initiative from Globosport.

Which leaves one group out in the cold: the national sports federations. ‘‘Sadly, most federations are a little slow when it comes to getting things going’’, says Jha. ‘‘What you really need is somebody to lead from the top, like Sunil Dutt, who can ensure that the federations know that they are accountable.’’ <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->