In my childhood days, our sport of choice in the evenings would be a reflection of the current international sporting event. If India were playing cricket in a test series or a one-day international series, then we would become the latest sensation of the time while batting, bowling or fielding. If badminton was the flavor of the day via the Asia Cup or the Thomas and Uber Cup, we would shift seamlessly to playing badminton. During times of the Euro Cup or the FIFA World Cup, it would be time for some football action on the streets around the house. Fast forward to XX years later, and my blog posts reflect the current craze on sports and news channels across the world! Le Jogo Bonito is being watched by more than half the population of the world. The FIFA has more members than the United Nations, for God’s sake! Put that in perspective – if FIFA so wishes, it could
Sports
On a roll
Sebastian Vettel is on a roll. He is winning the Formula 1 Grand Prix like it is nobody’s business. He reminds me of Michael Schumacher in the 2000s when he drove for Ferrari and won 13 races in a single season. Winning one Formula 1 GP is achievement enough for mere mortals, to win multiple races in one season, to win 3 championships in a row is what makes these people great. Not all races are won “easily”. Not every time that success is tasted is the story the same. The end result, however, is the same. When on a roll, everything just seems to fall in place. The path is difficult, always unyielding and always challenging – it is the end result that people see and the past is forgotten while jubilating over and celebrating the success of the present. So what is it that people do to get on a roll? If Seb Vettel can do it, if
"Fixing" teams
In the past couple of weeks, a huge controversy has broken out in the Indian Premier League (IPL), a popular cricket tournament organized by the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI). 3 players of the Rajasthan Royals, one of the 9 teams in the competition were arrested by the Delhi police for their alleged involvement with bookies and underperforming in their roles for the team during various cricket matches. Although the element of fixing is not new to cricket, having famously been admitted to by Hansie Cronje, the South African cricket team captain in the year 2000, the recent arrests and ongoing investigations by the police has lead to wide spread outrage amongst cricket followers and fans in India and elsewhere. The evidence against the three players was telephone conversations and the footage from the games in which they underperformed. While the fallout of the investigations continue, the captain of the affected team, Rahul Dravid, called the effect
Learn from Gary
Gary Kirsten, the current South African cricket team coach, former Indian cricket team coach and former cricket player for South Africa has got to be an inspiration for wannabe coaches and leaders across industries. It is surprising that a person that has had as much impact as he has on the fortunes of cricket teams that he has coached, is given as little credit for their success as he has been. As a player, he was quite boring to watch although very effective. He probably scored as many runs off the edge of his bat, between the slips and the thirdman region or even off the inside edge to the fine leg region as he did in front of the wicket with genuinely timed shots. Of course, one can not take away the efficacy of his methods. He was super efficient and probably ended up with a career average of over 50 in test match cricket. He also, IIRC, scored
Mithun's Musings 