Would you accept being the star of an event but get nothing except television appearance to show for it? Would you accept it if you were twelve?

Dan Wetzel has more on the little league which pays it’s stars nothing:

Little League is a Big League business and gets bigger each and every year, thanks to the increased national television coverage from ESPN and ABC, which has driven up not just rights fees but corporate sponsorships, stadium advertising and ancillary income …

… The Little League World Series is so big business that its championship game will go by the name “Little League World Series: World Championship presented by Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes.”

Would it be too much asking the cash rich MNC’s to give the real stars some of the share? I agree with Wetzel who feels the kids should get some share of the money little league develops. After all, the concept would produce no returns were it not for the little leaguers themselves.

[Link via email from Dhoomk2]

The 10th Pan Pacific Swimming Championship is over. The highlight was the number of world records broken - six which is huge considering the number of swimmers missing the event.

The biggest star of the meet was Michael Phelps who makes a statement of sorts and sets up things for next year’s World Championships and then the Beijing Olympics nicely where swimming is concerned.

SI has more:

In Victoria, he lowered his world marks in the 200-meter individual medley and 200 butterfly, and led off the world record-setting 400 freestyle relay.

“It’s pretty much the first meet where I have been happy coming off of last summer,” he said.

The way records have been broken in swimming in the last couple of years has been astounding. With many more young stars coming through, the records will keep tumbling, possibly even faster in the next couple of years. A few young guns from Times Colonist:

Emerging American star Cullen Jones, who reportedly signed an endorsement deal with Nike potentially worth $2 million, won the men’s 50-metres freestyle in a meet record 21.84 seconds …

… Tae Hwan Park, the 16-year-old Korean high school sensation, won his second gold medal of the meet — the first two golds ever won by Korea at a major international swim meet. Park took the men’s 1,500 metres in 15:06.11 while 17-year-old Ryan Cochrane of Victoria, who graduated last spring from Claremont Secondary, turned in a solid showing by placing fourth in 15:13.44.

Cullen Jones is already being called the Tiger Woods of swimming and though that may be an exaggeration, the younger brigade cannot be ignored.

As far as the medal tally goes, US was the handsome winner. However, Australia wasn’t in full force for the event but do not forget China who finished number seven and had measly two medals to show for their participation was very weak as well.

The stage for some tough battles in the pool has been set.

Another major win then. There is no limit to how great his accomplishments can be when he is finished.

To win his latest major, he identified a flaw and was good enough to rectify it the next day. Guardian has more:

“I told Hank (coach Haney) that I saw what I did yesterday on 16 on the highlights last night on TV,” Woods said, referring to his three-putt bogey in the third round. “I saw how my putter blade went back, and I didn’t like that very much at all. I rehearsed it a little bit last night, came out this morning and I just felt like, hey, this is back to how I putted two weeks ago at the Buick.” …

… Woods, 30, made another tactical move that paid off on Sunday, relying on his five-wood off the tee to place the ball at the corners of the many doglegs among Medinah’s holes.

I had read a Time Magazine cover article a few years back on how Woods changed his swing because he was unhappy with the unpredictability of it despite winning. The big decision meant that Woods had a slack period but eventually it paid off. That is just one of the many instances through which we have got a peek into the strong mind which he possesses.

Woods is confident of his ability and is not afraid to take risks or initial hiccups. To a smaller degree, some thing similar was witnessed on Sunday:

He began the day by hitting five-wood off the tee after opening each of his first three rounds with errant shots using his three-wood.

What a champ.

The Pakistan cricket team is accused of ball tampering by the umpire and hence cheating. They refuse to come out to play for the post tea session.

Darrel Hair takes off the bails from the stumps and according to the rules, as Pakistan didn’t come out to play, the umpires could technically forfeit the game and award it to England. A bit later, the Pakistan team came out to play but the umpires refused to officiate.

More than thirty minutes passed in the above stated ludicrious events. If a player or team is accused of cheating, he doesn’t become a cheat necessarily. Appeals can be lodged and strong statements by boycotting if not heard properly can be made later on. By refusing to play and cuasing commotion when there wasn’t need for it, the Pakistani cricket team did not see the larger picture of the responsibility of letting the show go on. The personal issue was given more importance than the good of the game at large.

That Darrel Hair was the umpire did not help matters. He prefers donning the hat of a police man in the middle, showing his importance. The good umpires, an old adage goes, are the ones who are noticed the least. Darrel Hair doesn’t believe in this adage and likes to be in the centre of every thing. He ignored the larger picture, not for the first time - the good of the game is vital above every thing else.

The fans who came to watch the cricket at The Oval on a Sunday chosing cricket over football or the ones who decided to watch on TV were left with the mockery for more than an hour. That is 2/3rds of the time it takes to finish a football match. That the crowd behaved calmly is complementary. The watching public, sponsors and the television companies are within their rights to get back their money for the day as the cricket, for which they paid, didn’t actually occur for 15-20% of the day for circumstances which could have been controlled.

Damage control needs to be done and the test match should continue tomorrow. If the egos of the men involved is so big that they cannot talk it out and the match is called off, it would disgraceful for the game. The persons involved in effecting the disgrace should be penalised but you would be a fool to bet that the ICC will do that.

Update: The test match has been forfeited and awarded to England.

I have been critical of ESPN-Star in the past. I was gaining back my love for them because of excellent set of previews ahead of the English Premier League and the classy presenter John Dykes.

They disappoint me again. To a degree, it is understandable that you show cricket on ESPN, India being cricket mad. However, what is the logic of showing a delayed telecast of an ATP event over live premiership football (Sheffield Utd. vs Liverpool) on opening day of the season on Star Sports?

I just don’t get it.

Sport brings the society together and bridges differences. This story from villages of south Indian state Tamil Nadu reiterates the same. From NDTV:

A unique initiative to encourage traditional games like Volley Ball in villages is paying rich dividends in rural Tamil Nadu.

Besides an increased awareness on physical fitness, these teams have actually helped in establishing friendly relations even among warring communities…

…over a thousand village teams have been formed across nine districts. Now, the two-day Rural Rejuvenation camp in Salem district was an opportunity for over 2 lakh villagers to display their sporting skills and camaraderie.

For a few moments, you don’t differentiate on the basis of race, religion and suchlike. Even harsh truths like poverty is forgotten when people play sport.

Update: On a different note, I notice that people can create blogs on the NDTV site just like people can on blogger or wordpress. Main stream media has often linked to blogs (Eg: the NY Times site). They have even had a select group of people blogging including journalists (CNN-IBN) but I am not sure if this is a first. Not surprisingly, most of the sport posts are on cricket.

With MSM giving blogs space, awareness will increase. Blogging in India is bound to grow at a very fast rate in the near future.

In Visitors, I invite one person around each month to share perspectives on a sport, a sporting event, sporting aspects or any thing in between. Ahead of the EPL season 2006-07, Ravi Gurnani joins us to give an indepth preview. If you would like to contribute for a future edition of Visitors, do not hesitate to e-mail me.

Put away those national flags for now and bring out your jerseys and scarves. For those still hungover from World Cup disappointments, worry not, football redemption is round the corner. Depending on the club you support ofcourse.

The 4 horse race I anticipated last season didn’t quite materialise. However it should be much closer this time round.

Chelsea

Beginning with the champions, Chelsea. Michael Ballack, Andrei Shevchenko and Ashley Cole, probably in the waiting. That is some quality. However, all the money in the world has not bought happiness at Chelsea. Witness Jose Mourinho’s continuous whining and William Gallas’ revolt. Out went Asier Del Horno, Damien Duff and Hernan Crespo. 2 league titles after, the holy grail for Abramovich is the Champions League. So I wouldn’t be surprised with a slip up or two in the process. Shevchenko’s goal in the Charity Shield last week should assure them of some clinical finishing upfront, something that they lacked last season. Also watch for some unhappy faces on the bench as a result of an overcrowded central midfield.

Manchester United

Let me make it clear that my support lies with Manchester United. Not the best of times for a club perpetually in transition since the glory days of 1999. Forget the new Roy Keane, we haven’t seen the new Nicky Butt yet! Michael Carrick’s signing should allay fears about the lack of quality in the midfield. Look beyond and the options are thin. Marcos Senna or Owen Hargreaves should add depth in the middle that they seriously lacked last season. van Nistelrooy’s departure will be a blow. Nobody has crossed Ferguson and survived at Old Trafford. Ideally another striker and midfielder would complete the jigsaw for United. Also the much hyped Rooney Ronaldo spat hasn’t materialised. Good riddance to that!

Arsenal

Emirates FC… err sorry Arsenal FC. The new stadium will give them the much needed financial boost. Their young squad continues to develop in the absence of veterans Patrick Vieira and now Sol Campbell under Thiery Henry’s leadership. Tomasz Rosicky is one of the players to watch for this season. If the WC was an indicator, he should ease the loss of Robert Pires. A striker to support Henry and defender at the back would complete the picture for them. Also the sooner A Cole and Spanish misfit Jose Reyes decide their futures the better for them. A title might be a season or two too soon for them.

(more…)

Manavjit Singh Sandhu is now a world no. 1. Indian shooters continue rise in rankings as Financial Express reports:

Trap shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu’s gold medal finish at the recent World Championships at Zagreb in Croatia helped him notch the world No 1 spot in world rankings.

Abhinav Bindra, who claimed a gold in 10m air rifle, also climbed 24 places to second position. Olympic silver medallist Lt Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore was fifth in the rankings in double trap.

Sportstar has an indepth profile on Manavjit. In another piece in the same issue of Sportstar, Kamesh Srinavasan reviews India’s most successful faring yet in the world championships.

I had blogged on Bindra winning gold a few weeks back. The creditable performance in Zagreb by the Indians was to be expected given the steady improvement of the Indian shooting contingent. Regardless of this, the performance is worth applauding.

I have noticed this phenomena - every time before the olympics, the media focuses on a few sports persons and think that they might win medals in the olympics. However, if you go into even a bit of detail regarding the given sportspersons, their track record isn’t usually notable.

You just don’t win olympic medals by showing up at olympics. There has to be performances to back you up and then, you have to have nerves of steel to deliver during the olympics. A lot of factors lead upto winning. Even if one small thing goes wrong, you can lose.

This time, the build up for the shooting contingent is going quite well and we are seeing new highs being reached each day. The one word to describe the Indian shooting contingent would be strong. That is usually not a word you associate with Indian sporting contingents. Usually it is talented or promising.

At the cost of sounding preachy, I will say this - this is a story which Indian sports fans should start following if they haven’t already.

Earlier, hockey games could not begin till a goal keeper wore a helmet and a face guard. Forget the helmet and face guards. Hockey games can start even without a goal keeper in the near future. DNA has more:

In order to make hockey more attacking, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has recommended some drastic changes in the goalkeeper’s role in the game, even giving teams a choice of not fielding a custodian.

“We’ve set out three clear options: playing with a goalkeeper wearing full protective equipment; a goalkeeper just wearing protective headgear; or no goalkeeper at all,” Wolfgang Rommel, Chairman of the Hockey Rules Board (HRB), said.

The piece says that the rule has been enacted to bring in more attacking flare into the sport. It is a misplaced perception that attacking = more attractive. Be it basketball, football, cricket or hockey, bigger scores or goals is unrelated to the quality of a match. A good contest is much more fascinating than the scores which finally come up on the score board.

The defenders can now play a larger role as the article goes on to say:

The other important change in the rule book is that the defenders can now stop a high shot at goal with their sticks.

With this rule in place, you can expect to see most of the players looking to score a goal with only a few holding back as and when necessary. The community of goal keepers will no wonder be a bit saddened by the development.

I am all for improvements in sport. However, I see the current changes as unnecessary. Hockey is a tactical game and at the centre of the tactics lies thwarting the goal keeper and the defense around him. Things will be very different if there is no goal keeper present.

If you want to bring in new audiences to a sport, you can try with forming fun games - like cricket is going with Twenty 20. It is essentially attracting people who found the older versions of cricket uninteresting. With the changes like the ones proposed, you only lose a few of your already established followers.

There is the big question of how many teams will use the new options also which can be pondered over. Despite more options to the defenders, a goal keeper is some one who is tough to replace to stop goals. So would teams really take such a big risk? I love the way hockey is and don’t think the new changes are adding much either way.

An inquest blames pilot errors - who shifted from the norm for the plan crash which killed Hansie Cronje, the former South African cricket captain and the man in the middle of the matchfixing scandal not many years ago.

More from BBC:

Judge Siraj Desai said the air crew had not followed procedures on their second attempt to land at George airport. “The complacency of the pilot in command was surprising and … the co-pilot failed under the circumstances to do what a reasonable pilot would have done,” the Cape High Court judge said at the conclusion of the inquest on Monday.

During the inquest it emerged that the pilots Willie Meyer and Ian Noakes - apparently believing they were flying over the sea - had ignored 13 ground proximity warnings given by navigation equipment on the Hawker Siddeley light aircraft.

The pilot and co-pilot were killed as well in that crash. So was there some thing strange which caused Cronje’s death and not a normal accident? We can try and draw conclusions of what happened on that day but we cannot know for certain..

I do feel sad that Cronje died so early though. Guys like Md. Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja, who were also deep in the match fixing controversy, were soon rehabilitated into social life in India courtesy page 3 parties and suchlike. [via] I am not saying it was right for them to be accepted back. However, the death of Cronje will wrankle. You can’t help but feel sad at a life which ended early, whatever the reason for the death.

There is no justification for match fixing and playing into the hands of greed. With some one like Hansie Cronje, you feel betrayed much more. Cronje was one of the best captains and cricket brains I saw. He was a modern strategist and would utilise his resources to the fullest extent. Apart from the strategy, another key ingredient of the Cronje captaincy was the push he gave his players. They would try that extra bit which lead to success - being the best one day side around 1997-99 and challenging Australia for the best test side spot). No wonder Allan Donald was shattered when the revelations on Cronje surfaced.

Cronje mystifies the cricket world just like Douglas Jardine did. There were many similarities between Jardine and Cronje - well off backgrounds, brilliant captains and suchlike. There were dissimilarities as well - for example, while Jardine risked it all for victory for his team, Cronje did it for a few dollars. Neither can be excused though as what Jardine did with bodyline, though within the rules, could have killed some one and life is far costlier than a cricket match.

Four years have passed since the Cronje death and a bit more since the match fixing scandal news was first broken by the Delhi police. We still talk on Hansie Cronje and the many aspects regarding him and every thing around him. We do not know how free the cricket world is of match fixing now or how deep the whole racket was back then. Cronje remains in the news and the small talks. I read a few months back that a movie will be made on Cronje’s life.

Was it Cronje’s bad luck that he was the man in the centre stage of the match fixing scandal when he could well have been just the tip of the ice berg? Maybe. We do know one thing though - many years from now, people will still be talking about him.