damn, this year the Indian Contingent at Athens will be so big! <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--emo&:cool--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/specool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='specool.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:clapping--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clap.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='clap.gif' /><!--endemo-->
http://dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_...t&counter_img=1
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Amritpal Singh qualified for the Athens Olympics by breaking one of the longest standing national records. He surpassed TC Yohannan's 8.07 metres set in 1974</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Taking a cue from the cricket team, Indian fotballers beat hosts Pakistan in a match of nerve by a solitary second half goal here at the 9th SAF Games today.
In the SAF games Dal eaters are beating the red meat gobblers! <!--emo&:ind--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/india.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='india.gif' /><!--endemo-->
>On the fourth day of the SAF games, the total number of gold medals won by Pakistani players rose up to 14 while India was leading with 26 gold medals.
<b>In the recent SAF Games held at Islamworst the valiant Jehadi Ansaar Beef Eating Tall and Fair Islamic Warriors of Pakistan ever ready for Sehadat were Runners Up, despite the stiff opposition offered by the other Nations, at the Eight Nation Games.
The short, dark skinned rice eating Idol Worshiping Kafirs from Indiaâs Team could only manage to stand Eighth from Last.</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->India launch the final phase of their preparation for the Olympics tomorrow when they take on Malaysia at Canberra in the opening match of the four-nation tournament. Australia will be playing South Africa in the other match of the tournament and the same teams will participate in the second leg of the twin-meet at Sydney later this month.
However, for India the tour Down Under comes in a mixed atmosphere. Last year, Indian hockey was on a resurgence after finishing fourth in the Champions Trophy but they have struggled to find their form in two tournaments this year.
The issue which should worry Indian hockey right now is the absence of a quality drag-flicker in the team. The Indian think-tank has not, surprisingly, found a substitute for Jugraj Singh almost a year since he got injured. The IHF did have an option in the promising Sandeep Singh, who had scored heavily in a five-nation junior tournament in Poland in 2003 and also impressed in the Azlan Shah tournament this year in KL.
After Indiaâs insipid performance in the Olympic qualifying tournament in Madrid, it seems there is a dearth of a top-class playmaker in the team also. Without a feeder, the talented forwardline cannot function as seen in the previous tournament. Dhanraj Pillay, who has played successfully in this position, was not even considered for the Australian tour.
The other playmaker Baljit Dhillon was dropped on âformâ after the Madrid qualifiers.
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This stinks. Stop playing games with the lineup with only a few months left for the Olympics.
<!--emo&:grenade--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/grenade.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='grenade.gif' /><!--endemo--> what are they doing to the team. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Len Aiyappa scored a brace as India rallied from a goal down to beat Malaysia 4-1 in their opening match in the Four-Nations Challenge hockey tournament in Canberra on Wednesday.
Are these sports Organizations in India answerable to the people in any way? If India does not go far in the Olympics, i will be of firm belief that it will be the bad policies and lack of balls of the IHF.
They are deliberately playing with the lineup, in every tournament, we find new faces, old made to sit.
The cowardly IHF has been unable to take the doping issue head on but rather stuck its head in the sand.
and yes,
<b> Dhanraj Pillay deserves to play in the 2004 Athens Olympics. </b>
Let the face of Indian Hockey have a last respectable fighting Olympics before he can retire with pride. But the big egos of IHF officials will prevent them from giving him any respect whatsoever. <!--emo&:mad--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='mad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
IHF and BCCI, if any institutions in India need reforms, it is they. <!--emo&:furious--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/furious.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='furious.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Anyways,
at least womens' Tennis in India is on a growth curve.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->India sneaked through the backdoor to the knockout stage after beating Uzbekistan 2-1 in their final engagement of the Fed Cup women's team tennis competition here today.
Indonesia take on pool A runners-up New Zealand while India face the top seeds Thailand in the knockouts tomorrow. The winners of both the match advance to the World Group playoff while the losers remain in Group 1.
http://in.rediff.com/sports/2004/apr/29hock.htm
Sandeep Singh the penalty corner specialist is the top scorer of the tournament hopefully he would be able to fill the gap that injury of Jugraj has left open.Read an article about Jugraj last week ,he hopes to be back on field in 6 months.Amen
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->India rout Pakistan, win Jr. Asia Cup hockey
April 29, 2004 19:13 IST
World champions India added another feather to their cap when won the junior Asia Cup hockey title for the first time after beating Pakistan 5-2 in the final on Thursday.
A fine hat-trick by fleet-footed forward Tushar Khandekar was the highlight of India's big victory.
Penalty-corner ace Sandeep Singh accounted for the other two goals to take his goal tally in the tournament to 16.
Fro Pakistan, who trailed 0-2 at the breather, Tariq Aziz and Imran Warsi (penalty-corner) scored in quick succession to raise visions of a fightback after being 0-4 down.
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I just told the boys that they had never won on Pakistan soil. I urged them to win this title as a gift for the Kargil martyrs. It is a small gift, but I feel that we have made a small offering to the soldiers who died fighting in Kargil.
The boys were so confident that they told me they would pound five goals against Pakistan, just as they had done against Poland [in the six-nation Junior Challenge Cup in Poland last August]. I was shocked. I have never ever seen an Indian team so relaxed before playing a game against Pakistan. With this win the team has 30 consecutive victories. The character they have shown is brilliant.
Was the pressure less in the final as the team had already qualified for the Junior World Cup?
Qualifying for the World Cup was never the mudda [main subject] for me. Pakistan mein jeet kar dikhana tha. [we had to show that we can win in Pakistan] I came here to win. I was sure we would qualify for the World Cup. Now I will not put pressure on the boys for the World Cup.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sandeep Singh is an exciting prospect. Do you think he can fill Jugraj Singh's shoes at the Athens Olympics?
Sandeep mera mohra hai [Sandeep is my boy]. He is a mature player. He is a victory weapon. In the whole team Sandeep Singh is the guy who can change the course of the match. He is ready for bigger things. I don't want to say anything more than this.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Who are the other players who can play in the senior team?
Adrian D Souza is a player waiting to don national colours. If he goes to the Olympics with the team it will boost his confidence for the 2005 junior World Cup. Devesh Chouhan was sent to Sydney for the Olympics and he was groomed well. We need to do the same with the other players.
Besides him, William Xalco, Tushar Khandekar, V S Vinay and Vivek Gupta are players for the future.
Which senior players called to wish you?
All of them did. In fact, Dharaj Pillay was guiding me on the cell phone. We spoke for almost 30 minutes in the second half. He and I have a great relationship and he was giving me tips on what to do. His guidance was really very important.
From siddhartha's link:
------------------------------------------
<i>What did you tell the boys in this morning? What was the strategy?</i>
I just told the boys that they had never won on Pakistan soil. <b><span style='color:red'>I urged them to win this title as a gift for the Kargil martyrs. It is a small gift, but I feel that we have made a small offering to the soldiers who died fighting in Kargil. </b></span> <!--emo&:rocker--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rocker.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rocker.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:rocker--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rocker.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rocker.gif' /><!--endemo-->
The boys were so confident that they told me they would pound five goals against Pakistan, just as they had done against Poland [in the six-nation Junior Challenge Cup in Poland last August]. I was shocked. I have never ever seen an Indian team so relaxed before playing a game against Pakistan. With this win the team has 30 consecutive victories. The character they have shown is brilliant.
<i>Were you nervous when Pakistan scored two quick goals in the second half?</i>
My midfielder, Girish Pimple, got a yellow card, so the Pakis had the advantage. They were screaming and hitting my players like anything. <b>I told my players that when the Pakistanis lose their cool you keep yours and we will win. That is exactly what happened. They were under pressure. I knew this Pakistani team was bad <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /><!--endemo--> . </b>They have one guy who is married [Imran Warsi] in the team and no one exceptional. They were playing at home and had to win at all costs.
Balaji <!--emo&:guitar--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/guitar.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='guitar.gif' /><!--endemo--> zara jehra chalna
An old man with two children tugging at his hands climbs the stairs with great difficulty. "Thatha (grandfather), come fast," the little ones try to pull him along.
But when they finally reach the top of the stairs, the children are in for a big disappointment. Their hero is not home.
The children's hero? Lakshmipathy Balaji, one of Indian cricket's new stars after the tour of Pakistan.
"People from the neighbourhood and from faraway places are pouring in every day," says Balaji's mother Mallika, an employee of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board. "All of them want to meet Balaji and take his autograph. We do not know how to manage the crowds and the phone calls. We are not used to this kind of attention. It is quite tiring.'
Balaji's father Lakshmipathy is an assistant electrical inspector with the state electrical inspectorate. He is not at all amused about strangers and the media intruding into their hitherto quiet lives.
"We couldn't watch the last part of one match," Lakshmipathy complains. "There were people here with cameras watching us and asking us questions!
"See, we are not retired people," he continues. "All of us are working. They come here with cameras just when we are about to leave for office and ask for 'just five minutes.' Finally, it goes on for an hour! We cannot go late to the office.
"Media people even started coming to our offices when they saw the house locked... We cannot manage the continuously ringing telephone either. On top of it are people from all places just dropping in to see Balaji!"
But Lakshmipathy concedes that all these intrusions are because their only son was a big success on the Pakistan tour.
Balaji's sister Vijayalakshmi, an engineer working for Cognizant Technology Solutions, is more patient. She looks at the change in their lives over the last month as something of a pleasant surprise. "We are middle-class people," she says, "and lived a very quiet life till now. All this attention is quite new to us. That is why we find it difficult. Hope we get used to it!"
The illustrious and hardworking Indian sports officials have added another feather to their cap of achievements towards the advancement and service of Indian sports.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Last year, this paper reported how Indiaâs women hockey players had to carry their laundry from one stadium to another because of a water shortage. Now, the countryâs top volleyball players and wrestlers have to shift their practice venue because the IG Indoor Stadium, where theyâve been practicing so long, has been closed on fire safety grounds â a year after officials were first alerted.
Almost a year ago â on May 29, 2003 â the Delhi High Court, while hearing a petition, had directed that all high-rises in the city should have adequate fire safety measures. And were to be sealed in case of non-compliance.
The IG Stadium falls in the high-rise category because it is above the specified height and because the structure has different levels.
Delhi Chief Fire Officer RC Sharma said his office had written several letters to the Sports Authority of India, the stadiumâs administrators, since December to avoid booking the stadium unless fire-fighting systems had been installed.
That should have provoked SAI into some action.
Yet officials, ignoring the long-term work, managed to obtain power and water from ââother sourcesââ and kept the facility open to athletes.
IG Stadium administrator Mukesh Kumar insists that they got to know about this just some months back. Ask him why SAI hadnât acted in ââsome monthsââ and he refuses to comment. The only thing he will say is that the repair work will take around ââfive to six monthsââ.
That trips lightly off an administratorâs tongue but sits hard on the sportsmen and women. The irony of the situation is that the Volleyball Federation of India had started yesterday a novel scheme to tap new talent (reported in Saturdayâs edition of this paper). The scheme, which focused on height as the primary selection factor, will lose its momentum, say volleyball officials. The girls â training for the upcoming Asian Junior Championships â now have to practice at the Nehru Stadium. That means outdoor practice, with an increased risk of injury.
It is possible that, in Olympic year, somebody will take action against the officials responsible for the tardiness. But with all eyes on the elections, and most of those in charge contesting the polls, it seems that this will be buried under the files.
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Somethings really shake my beliefs that India is moving forward, and the fact that we have one of the world's most defunct sports officials is one of them.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->India's most capped hockey player Dhanraj Pillay was omitted from his country's list of probables for the Athens Games on Sunday, virtually ending his dream of a fourth Olympic appearance.
Domestic media and hockey observers believe Pillay's outspoken media comments, disputes with coaches and resentment among team mates of his special status have taken their toll.
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They dont realize how useful his experience will be in the Olympics.
Bah, IHF. The Olympics is not the time to test rookies, you hear me?
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Dhanraj Pillay's axing has, more than anything else, exposed the zero player management skill of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF).
Evidently, when the IHF cannot handle a major player, it chooses to sack him instead of finding a solution to tackle the problem. Sacking Pillay _ for the sixth time in his career _ has proved that there are inherent flaws in the way hockey is run in the country and player management is an issue that needs to be urgently addressed.
Dhanraj isn't the first star who has been humiliated by IHF. One instance that comes to mind straightaway is of the star forward of the 1960s, Inam-ur-Rehman: Widely regarded as the finest player of his time, but one who had problems with the IHF and vice versa because of his temperamental ways. Indian Airlines - the company that Rehman used to represent at the domestic level _ however did not have a problem with him and tackled him efficiently. A strange coincidence is that Dhanraj is also employed with the same company.
the last few days, a series of former players have met Rajinder separately to convince him that Dhanraj, and handling him properly, is of paramount importance to the success of the team. Apparently Joaquim Carvalho, Dhanraj's mentor in his early days had contacted Rajinder, who is a former teammate, to discuss the issue of bringing Dhanraj back. The message seems simple: Bring the star back, and learn to handle him.
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This is the website of them squabbling buggers <!--emo&:argue--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/argue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='argue.gif' /><!--endemo--> -
Fellows, there appears to be some good news. We were all wrong in assuming that IHF could be that egoistic to not let Dhanraj play because of whatever reasons. Apparently Mr Gill was saving him for the last moment before the Olympics.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Putting to rest the raging controversy surrounding the omission of Dhanraj Pillay from the list of 30 Olympic hopefuls, Indian Hockey Federation chief K P S Gill on Saturday said the star striker is being "preserved" for the mega event at Athens.
"We have never shunted him (Pillay) out. In fact I told him just a month and half ago not to worry since he is being preserved for the Olympics," Gill said in New Delhi.
Gill said with the Olympic Games still three months away, it would be too early to say who would feature in the team for the event.
"How can we name the team three months in advance? No one can do that?" he said adding that the Federation would pick the best-available team.
<i>are you kidding me? So when does the team start to practice together?</i>
On when the team would be selected for the Athens Olympics, Gill said it would be picked during a camp in Germany after a four-nation tournament in Holland.
He, however, said the training in Germany could be confirmed only after the general elections are over. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->And central to that objective is a desire to get tens of millions more people playing football in the world's two most populous countries. "There are 1.3 billion people in China, and 1.1 billion people in India," AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam told AFP in an interview. "There are 3.7 billion people in our region. The reality says that two countries account for around 60 percent of Asia's population.
"We have come a long way in 50 years. The next challenge for us now is to make the Chinese and Indians believe that they have the lead, that they can spearhead the development of football in Asia," Bin Hammam added. "By securing football in China and India, we are securing the future of the sport in Asia."
China is already well on the way to establishing itself as an Asian footballing superpower, having qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 2002 where their team lost all three group matches. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What do these countries have to be successful in world sports that we dont have? One would be the extreme incompetence of the officials and gargantuan indifference of the bloody netas, but anything else?
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