Indian sports news and discussion

[Guest]

His heart is at right place, during Kargil war, He donated complete state-of-art orthopedic units to Indian Army within 15 days. Practical moved from European country to Pune.

[utepian]

Sania ranked 32, 5 spots higher than Serena <img src='http://www.diegotorres.com.ar/mensajeitor/foro/caritas/erstaunt090.gif' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

Rankings week ending 02/05/2006

[Guest]

Indian tennis star refuses to play with israeli

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sania Mirza, ranked 39th in the world, announces she would not play with Israeli up and coming tennis star Shahar Pe’er in doubles tournament of Bangalore Open for fear of violent protests by India’s Islamic community
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

This is not sportsmanship...

A tennis game is a game, and community prejudices should not be given preference like this.

bengurion.

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->A tennis game is a game, and community prejudices should not be given preference like this.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Islam is a peaceful religion and India is a secular country. She is towing what one can expect from follower of Islam and from secular country. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Feb 20 2006, 09:47 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Feb 20 2006, 09:47 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->A tennis game is a game, and community prejudices should not be given preference like this.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Islam is a peaceful religion and India is a secular country. She is towing what one can expect from follower of Islam and from secular country. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
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I guess thats precisely the reason this news is "blacked out" in Indian news channels and papers...

and what happened to the "secularists" ? they just disappeared in to nowhere!!

i am just imagining while bal thakrey and the likes protest pakistani cricketers playing with india in indian soil and the "secularists" come from everywhere!!



bengurion

[Guest]

CWG-2006

India's Rani wins gold in 75kg weightlifting

India win silver in women's 69 kg weightlifting

Asdullah wins third weightlifting silver

India wins silver in men's 77kg weightlifting

[Guest]

Latest Medal Tally
Country G S B T
Australia 53 47 41 141
England 21 25 20 66
India 14 9 4 27

[Guest]

thats india's level - comonwealth games and saf games !!

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-ben_ami+Mar 23 2006, 09:24 AM-->QUOTE(ben_ami @ Mar 23 2006, 09:24 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->thats india's level - comonwealth games and saf games !!
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Sock it in Ben. I too can be testy here and ask as to how many of the 'genetically intelligent' kinds were there winning gold medals for India.
No need for wisecracks.

[utepian]

<b>Kunjarani Devi</b>, India's first gold medalist at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games and winner of 67 international medals in her career is peeved because the government hasn't awarded her the Padma Shri yet.

Kunjarani believes she should have got the honour much before youngsters like <b>Sania Mirza</b>.

Meanwhile Sania Mirza is the women's tour's rookie of the year.

[Bharatvarsh]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->India's five-year-old 'Forrest Gump' runs 65 km in seven hours Tuesday

May 2, 10:31 AM

NEW DELHI (AFP) - A five-year-old child stunned onlookers when he ran a distance of 65 kilometres (40.3 miles) in seven hours in eastern India.

Watched over by his coach, paramilitary forces and TV crews, and trailed by army doctors and an ambulance, Budhia Singh ran between the holy town of Puri in the eastern state of Orissa and its capital Bhubaneswar.

Budhia, almost a real life version of the fictitious Forrest Gump, began the race from a temple in Puri at 4.00 am local time but collapsed two kilometres short of the designated finish line -- the headquarters of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Bhubaneswar -- at 11.02 am, television reports said.

He was taken to hospital where his condition was described as stable.

Budhia has already taken part in the Delhi half-marathon and other distance races across India but Tuesday's outing was much longer than the official marathon distance of 42 kilometres (26 miles).

CRPF official S.S. Gill said his organisation will support Budhia's dream of running even longer distances in future.

"I hope he goes far, we will help him realise his dream," said Gill of the child, whose daily routine includes a seven-hour run.

The story of how Budhia's talent was discovered is even more astonishing.

When his father died two years ago, his mother, who washes dishes in Bhubaneswar, was unable to provide for her four children and sold Budhia to a man for 800 rupees (20 dollars).

His new father enrolled him in a judo class run by Biranchi Das, who noticed Budhia's penchant for running.

"Once, after he had done some mischief, I asked him to keep running till I came back," said Das. "When I came back after five hours, I was stunned to find him still running."

Das said he hoped India's athletics officials will take note of him.

"I think if they send him to Kenya to train for a few years Budhia could be a serious contender at the world level," he said. "He eats and runs, that's all."

Paediatrician Sunil Sehgal, who specialises in child injuries, urged caution.

"That boy needs to slow down," he told AFP. "His body has obviously got used to running because he is doing it everyday, so there may not be immediate problems.

"But he could develop serious cardiac muscular enlargement if he is allowed to run for miles together at a stretch regularly."

The Orissa state government says it is keeping a close watch on Budhia and his coach and will step in if anyone misuses the boy.

The state's sports minister, Debashis Nayak, has already ruled that Budhia cannot take part in long distance races without clearance from a team of doctors.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/02052006/323/indi...runs-65-km.html<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is child abuse, what the hell, the kid might end up a midget due to lack of growth, he has great talent but seems like the coaches are going to screw it all up in their quest for fame.

[Guest]

-- edited --

[Guest]

Ben,

I'm not going to have you start pulling threads in a direction that you wish. Deal with it - no one-line wise cracks. Capish?
You want to discuss the reasons why Indian sports lack other nations - fine. Else leave the thread alone.

[Guest]

the reasons why indians don't do well in sports is that we lack talent, physical ability and infrastructure. indians just arnt up toi the mark. except in games like cricket, shooting/archery, snooker and (once) hockey, whcih are more technical than physical. even in the one department in cricket which is very physically demanding - pace bowling, we have produced a precious few. muhammed nissar and munaf patel are of pathan blood in any case and that leaves out amar singh. the non-aryan indians are better off physically, be it the tribals or the northeasterners. almost all our reams are dependent on them, from football to hockey. even the cricket team is trying to find pace bowlers from amongst tribal indians.

we ourselves are also to blame. we just go overboard when someone pulls of a bronze medal or some small time achevement. the classic case baing milkha singh. so much is his reputation as a sporting legend in india, that one woiuld think that he must have won at least a couple of golds. turns out he won nothing, yet has more fans in india than carl lewis has in usa!!!

we just suck at sports. kenya is better as is korea. our level is saf games and commonwealth, where the top guys dont participate in any case. we best learn to live with it.

[Bharatvarsh]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->No more marathons for wonder kid

Pioneer News Service | Bhubaneswar

Doctors hint at drug abuse ---- Armed with the report of doctors who conducted tests on Budhia Singh, Orissa's Women and Child Development Minister Pramila Mallick on Monday announced that her department would no more allow the child prodigy to participate in marathons. The doctors have darkly hinted that Budhia may have been given performance enhancing drugs by his coach.  

The Department of Women and Child Development will ask all district administrations not to organise any marathon for Budhia. The decision came after a six-member medical experts' team, led by Capital Hospital CMO Sugat Kar, submitted its report to the State Government after examining Budhia's health condition in the wake of his 65-km Puri-Bhubaneswar record 7 hours and 2 minutes run on May 2.

The report says, "Budhia Singh, stated to be four years of age, clinically appeared undernourished with anaemia and angular stormatitis; his pulse rate and BP was on the higher side." The report further says that the boys' protein catabolism is more and he is under cardiological stress resulting from long distance running.

If the boy continues to run for long distances, the report says, it may aggravate his condition and may even result in renal failure. In the 13-page interim report, the doctors even recommended a dope test for Budhia.

Mallick, who has been at loggerheads with Budhia's coach Biranchi Das, said her department, after going through the medical report, has decided not to allow the boy to participate in any sponsored race or long-distance marathons in the near future. She has threatened appropriate action against anybody who allows Budhia to participate in marathons.

After consultation with the Law and Home Departments, the Department of Women and Child Development would take legal action against Budhia's coach, she said, adding that a notice would be served on Biranchi Das within a week.

She disclosed that the Government has decided to opt for legal procedure to adopt Budhia and take care of all his expenses, including his education. She hinted that Budhia would undergo further medical check-up in a specialised hospital. In view the present medical team's recommendations, "the Government is considering Budhia's health condition very seriously", she said.

Meanwhile, Dr Sugat Kar said regular tests should be conducted on Budhia in the hospital of the Sports Authority of India in Bangalore or Kolkata. The team of doctors has also recommended that the State Government leave Budhia under the guidance of a qualified coach, which would help him make a mark in future.

"Because of so much of exercise, Budhia has high levels of urea, alkaline, phosphate and potassium, and all these point to a higher catabolic rate," Dr Kar said. The team of experts included SAI's Scientific Officer Manabendra Bhattacharya, paediatrician Nirmala Devi, cardiologist RSN Murty and psychiatrist SN Parida.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?m...t&counter_img=6<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[acharya]

<b>Sachin's pilgrimage whips up frenzy</b>
Jaideep Shenoy
www.kukkesubramanya.com
records 9 lakh hits in six hours

DOING A PENANCE: Sachin Tendulkar does "go puja" at end of the two-day "sarpa santharpane" at Kukke Subrahmanya temple in Dakshina Kannada on Monday.

MANGALORE: When Sachin Tendulkar is on the move, the whole cricket world follows him, even if it is a purely personal visit to a temple. Sachin came to Kukke Sri Subrahmanya Temple nestled at the foothills of Western Ghats in Sullia taluk of Dakshina Kannada district apparently seeking solace for a "sarpa dosha".

What was to be a purely personal affair, made it to headlines with the dailies and the television channels splashing the images of Sachin and his wife Anjali performing the puja. The fallout of this is that netizens throughout the world started searching for details of the temple on internet.

Google directed the visitors to www.kukkesubramanya.com, a website developed and managed by Raghavendra Shastri, corporate president of Getit Yellow Pages.

On a normal day, the website gets 1,000 "hits." But when news trickled that the Tendulkars were at the shrine, the website recorded 47,000 hits between 6 p.m. and midnight on Sunday.

By 10 a.m. on Monday, the website recorded 9 lakh visitors. The server of the website started sending alerts to Mr. Shastri that the load on it was growing and reaching unmanageable proportions. The website crashed at 1.30 p.m.

Mr. Shastri told The Hindu that he had upgraded the server capacity to accommodate 5 lakh visitors at a time to the site. "While I did reply to a few e-mails in the beginning, I had to resort to auto-answer option asking the netizens to get in touch with the temple authorities. I have obtained rights from heads of various local temples to host their website giving detailed information about the place to any pilgrim in this non-commercial venture," he said.

[Bharatvarsh]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->It's so easy to forget ...

By Sundeep Misra
Indianhockey.com writer
August 30, Monday, 1999

There are moments when I feel ashamed of the times that I live in. July 29th was one of those days. The sports pages of the newspapers shocked me. Not even one daily had any write-up on Dhyan Chand. July 29th was India’s and probably the world’s most brilliant hockey player’s birthday.

Not long ago we had celebrated the birthday of Donald Bradman, an Australian. Indian sports writers who pride themselves on the thickness of their passports rather than the quality of their writing wrote words singing praises for Don Bradman. No way am I saying that Bradman wasn’t a great cricketer. He was the greatest. So was Dhyan Chand. But will Australian sports writers ever sit down and write 500 words in praise of the world’s greatest hockey player ever. No they won’t. Not because they don’t who Dhyan Chand was but for them celebration begins at home.

Dhyan Chand is an icon in Indian hockey. Right up there among the best that this country has produced. People who have seen him talk about his magic. I learnt about Dhyan Chand from my grandfather. So many nights together on the terrace, he told me about the magic in Dhyan Chand’s stick. For so many nights, did I dream about Dhyan Chand dribbling away, the ball stuck to the stick as if glue had been applied.

It was this magic that mesmerised Adolf Hitler during the Olympic Games of 1936. Hitler even offered Dhyan Chand a high-ranking position in the German army and asked him to stay back. But Dhyan Chand was not of the nineties .. a simple man, all he wanted was to play hockey and return to his hometown Jhansi.

Dhyan Chand played in the 1928-32-36 Olympic Games. After the 8-1 drubbing of Germany in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Dhyan Chand became a world famous player. In India, whenever he played a match in any part of the country, fans came in thousands.

After years of ignoring him the government finally decided to install a statute at the National Stadium. But like all other statutes, this too was fast losing its greenish metallic colour. The way we are losing our way in world hockey.

If a country forgets it’s heroes, forgets the very players who brought so much of fame and a sense of pride to our sports, it is but natural that the game will flounder too.

It is high time we realise what nationalism means! What commitment means! Those were the very qualities that Dhyan Chand had. Of course, these words have no meaning in Indian sport, especially among our present day sportsmen and sports officials. Nation comes last. The cash comes first.

But even the players are not to be blamed. What can you do in a country where even the Indian Hockey Federation didn’t remember that July 29th was the birthday of the greatest hockey player that we have produced ?

If we have to be champions, we have to learn to respect the past. Learn to respect the people who with their achievements built a future for us.

Learn to respect players of the talent and brilliance of Dhyan Chand.

http://www.indianhockey.com/html/dhyan.htm<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Dhyan Chand died in 1979 a broken man in poverty, he was so bitter that he wouldn't even allow his kids to play hockey. Very few Indians today remember this man who is still considered the Wayne Gretzky of field Hockey.

Can you ever imagine if Canada will ever forget Gretzky or if US will forget Michael Jorden or Brazil will forget Pele or Argentina will forget Maradona?

But we Indian's have forgotten one of the greatest sports heroes our country produced, no wonder Indian hockey is in such a state today, back in the day no one could match us, the Brits used to be afraid to play against us for shame of losing to a colony of theirs, Dhyan Chand's team smashed Hitlers race pride along with Jesse Owen's in the 1936 Olympics but more Indian's know about the latter than the former. His team also beat USA 24-1 creating a record which still stands unbroken, his brother Roop Singh scored 10 goals in the match and created a record for himself which still stands.

A truly sad state of affairs.

[Guest]

http://www.indianhockey.com/html/dhyan.htm[/url]

Dhyan Chand died in 1979 a broken man in poverty, he was so bitter that he wouldn't even allow his kids to play hockey. Very few Indians today remember this man who is still considered the Wayne Gretzky of field Hockey.

Can you ever imagine if Canada will ever forget Gretzky or if US will forget Michael Jorden or Brazil will forget Pele or Argentina will forget Maradona?

But we Indian's have forgotten one of the greatest sports heroes our country produced, no wonder Indian hockey is in such a state today, back in the day no one could match us, the Brits used to be afraid to play against us for shame of losing to a colony of theirs, Dhyan Chand's team smashed Hitlers race pride along with Jesse Owen's in the 1936 Olympics but more Indian's know about the latter than the former. His team also beat USA 24-1 creating a record which still stands unbroken, his brother Roop Singh scored 10 goals in the match and created a record for himself which still stands.

A truly sad state of affairs.
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And we call hockey our national sport.... More than the treatment to ex players is the way we are nurturing current players and the way IHF manages hockey in India. If BCCI interferes too less with selection and other matters in Indian cricket (more importantly reorganising domestic set up, making better pitches etc.), the IHF led by KPS Gill interferes in everything, there's no transparency, no accountability for results. Players are introduced in, chopped off with no reasons, the latest example being Viren Rasquinha, coaches have been changed too often. But the person who has been at helm for so long and under whom hockey seems to have gone from bad to worse, he is staying put. Shouldn't KPS Gill take ultimate responsibility and step down. Instead he goes about ruining talented people's careers. I dont understand why we as Indian public should tolerate such bad administrators. They should be made accountable to the public somehow. Or lets stop the charade of having a national sport. Lets abolish this position altogether, for we excel in no sport. At best in cricket we were kings in our backyards. Even that we are no longer anymore.

[Guest]

<b>Runner fails gender test, loses medal </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The IOA also asked its medical commission to inquire into Soundarajan's case and report within 10 days.

There are no compulsory gender tests during events sanctioned by the International Association of Athletics Federations, but athletes may be asked to take a gender test. The medical evaluation panel usually includes a gynecologist, endocrinologist, psychologist and internal medicine specialist.

An Indian athletics official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media said Soundarajan almost certainly never had sex-change surgery.

Instead, the official said Soundarajan appeared to have "abnormal chromosomes." The official also said the test revealed more Y chromosomes than allowed.

Soundarajan was not immediately available for comment.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->
What's going on?

[Bharatvarsh]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Britain end India's Olympic hockey hopes

March 10, 2008 06:09 IST

http://www.rediff.com/sports/2008/mar/10hock.htm<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I guess this is a just an enactment of things yet to come in the summer Olympics.

Some are suggesting that we boycott this Olympics protesting China's treatment of Tibet, better do that since we look like taking the moral high ground and also save ourselves from anymore embarassment.

A billion people won 1 silver medal the last time, i don't know what to say, i guess the contemporary culture is like that, all you ever get told is that you should study till you become blind and if you ever do get time to play, we of course have that great obsession known as Cricket.

Of course after every Olympics we have the usual excuses lined up, like how we are a poor nation (ya I guess Kenyans and Ethiopians are richer than us since they seem to be winning more medals than us), that competition doesn't matter but Olympic spirit matters (what a cowardly cop out).

Or we will be happy to churn out articles like "The great Chinese myth of progress" to feel good about ourselves while the Chinese slave away to be at the top of the Olympic medal tally.

This pathetic performance is near universal not just in India but among the diaspora, the greatest achievement among NRI's is you will see some kid with geeky glasses in US winning the next spelling bee in US and everyone goes nuts about how smart we are as if we conquered the world, in Fiji despite making up nearly 40% of the population you won't find a single rugby player of Indian origin in the Fijian national team.

The only exceptions so far have been:

1) Harpal Singh (UK born Punjabi, played for Newcastle United for a bit)
2) Michael Chopra (half white-half Indian who played for Leeds)
3) Vikash Dhorasoo (played for French national Football team, a player of Telugu origin from the Indo-Mauritian community)

Here is a perfect summing up of the difference in attitude:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->No kidding. In an interview this fortnight, former soccer star Gordon Strachan said of his recent trip to Australia: "I went to a wee place called Coffs Harbour. It only has a 25,000 population but I sat there watching all these families gather on a Saturday morning for a triathlon weekend. Kids as young as 10 were doing the swimming and running.. all the way up to the full adult races. But it was all family orientated."

Wasted potential

Barring swollen cricket fields on Sunday, weekend outings for families in India are often restricted to watching Bollywood's Shah Rukh leap tall buildings.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3776545.stm<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I have a friend who went to India for a visit and stayed back there for a year to study, the school only had a cricket field so one day when it was empty he went out with a soccer ball and started dribbling, immediately some school teacher saw him and told him that it was only for the "gentlemans" sport (no kidding!!), i can imagine the reaction if he wanted to introduce Rugby or Kabaddi.

The Tongans and Newzealanders have this guy to show for as their pride:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hzjjUR-VFMQ&feature=related

For Indians of course we have this kid:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=t98IdzRtUG0

Long live spelling bee (NOT!!)