Why should we know of Bhavik Gandhi?

From his site:

Bhavik is attempting to row 3000 miles (5000 km) across the Atlantic Ocean From Spain To Antigua. He will row solo and unsupported, in a 23ft rowing boat, spending an estimated 90 days at sea.

If he succeeds, he will;

• be the first Asian to ever complete a solo ocean crossing
• break the existing record set by Emmanuel Coindre of France
• be the 32nd person to ever achieve a solo Atlantic crossing

Sadly, the Indian media has been completely ignoring Bhavik Gandhi. A quick google news search yields no results.

Debi Taylor from Australia emails me:

I was Googling around to see if I could find out some more information about a great Indian sportsman, Bhavik Gandhi who is currently rowing solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and I believe is the very FIRST Indian EVER to do so! However, I found it disappointing that I have not see any articles on and Indian news wesbites or on blogs and was wondering why this is?

The Indian fans have shown inelastic demand for cricket in the past and no matter what happens, they follow cricket. The Indian media, as a result of it, keeps tracking cricket. So, the cricket team is hyped before the World Cup and even after a poor performance, it hogs the limelight with focus on Chappell one day, Tendulkar on the other. Despite being a huge sports fan and despite following sports news items, I didn’t even know regarding Bhavik Gandhi’s pursuit before Debi emailed me.

The Indian fan has to show an inclination to other sports and the viewership has to drop in the upcoming Indian cricket team’s tour of Bangladesh. Side by side, the media should try to make most of some thing like this.

The best site right now to follow Gandhi’s progress is Humanedgetech. Hopefully, we will hear more from the media on this in the near future and the Indian fan will show that he can think beyond cricket.

I have very good memories of the inaugral Sunfeast Open held in Calcutta last year. I visited most days and loved the international standard atmosphere Netaji Indoor Stadium provided. This year, I haven’t been able to go even once but the Sania Mirza versus Martina Hingis semi is not one to be missed and needless to say, I will be there and am looking forward to it.

Looking at their head to head, the only time they faced each other in Dubai earlier this year ended up in a close enouncter with Hingis prevailing 6-3 7-5. Since then, Hingis has had more exposure and she is deep into her come back now. The big wins haven’t come yet for Hingis and she is unlikely to be fazed by a loud Calcutta crowd. Mirza will have to go for the win rather than expect Hingis to hand the match to her via unforced errors.

Mirza has also left the ankle injury in the past. The injury had meant that she has had an ordinary year but things started looking up around the US Open. A few weeks ago, Mirza tried to reduce the hype around her and the negative attention the media was giving over her not improving in rankings saying that winning a grandslam wasn’t one of her primary goals. It is an intellegent strategy as expectations reduce to some degree and Mirza can focus on her game much more.

We do not know if Mirza is back to 100% fitness. However, she seems much improved of late. A WTA title to end the year will be just perfect to end what seems a disappointing year. However, people should not make too much out of 2006 for Mirza because of the injuries she had. She has made tremendous progress over all in her career if we look at the time period and the ranking she has achieved in the given period. 2007 should be a much better year where we will should see another marked improvement.

For now, I will just enjoy the tennis and hopefully witness a Mirza double win - in singles and doubles.

[CNN report]

In Visitors, I invite one person each week to share perspectives on a sport, a sporting event, sporting aspects or any thing in between. This week, Vijay Krishna, a huge football fan joins us to analyse Indian football as it stands today. If you would like to contribute for a future edition of Visitors, do not hesitate to e-mail me.

By Vijay Krishna

What gives the game of football its universal appeal? The answer is simple: it is the game of the masses. That is precisely why “the beautiful game” is so popular everywhere. In that case, why isn’t it popular in India? Of course, it is popular. Why else would anyone want to watch games in the middle of the night?

But what of Indian football? Without resorting to any other means, answer one simple question. Who captains the Indian football team? Baichung Bhutia, you say? Sure of the answer? Well that underscores why Indian football isn’t taken seriously by many, though football per se is rising in popularity amongst the youth of this country.

And yet, this was the country which qualified to play in the 1950 World Cup finals. Of course, it’s another story that we didn’t travel because the football team insisted on playing barefoot. It might also surprise many to know that some of the country football clubs are older than most popular football clubs in Europe, including Manchester United, Real Madrid and AC Milan.

So what ails Indian football? Is it politics, lack of money, lack of interest or are we simply condemned to support Brazil, Italy, England and the like? To understand the situation better, I spoke to a few officials in some football associations. People in such positions will hardly concede that it is internal politics which stalls the development of the game. Lack of money is the reason everyone cites.

Lack of money for what? Officials argue at the national level, domestic football is more popular than domestic cricket. There is a lot more money on offer too. But football associations do not command the same amount of resources as does the BCCI. One of the major expenses is in conducting national-level competitions. This entails a lot of spendings; but everyone claims that competitions are the only way to popularise the sport.

Read the rest of this entry »

Three boxers who won medals at the Commonwealth games were invited for a felicitation. Empty envelopes replaced cash prizes. Read about it here.

So who will pay? No one knows.

Sharad Yadav directly protests against India hosting the Commonwealth Games. Reports Rediff:

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Yadav said participation in the Games is wasteful expenditure and a country like India can ill-afford to spend such a huge amount of money for a few medals. “I understand that the Indian Olympic Committee, headed by Suresh Kalmadi, spent Rs 23 crore on an eleven-minute song and drama sequence, in which several film actors took part, at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games…

“What is the big deal in hosting games like the Commonwealth Games in India? What do we gain, barring a few medals and some IOA officials having a good time? I believe that the huge amount of money that would be spent on hosting the Games could have been used for giving grants to Delhi University and other academic institutions of excellence. We could have created more IITs and IIMs with that fund.

So essentially, Yadav raises two points:

1) Public money should not be wasted.

2) Public money should be used in activities for development of the nation.

Read the rest of this entry »

Some would say that P.K.Banerjee was the greatest. A newer generation fan would say the answer is easily Baichung Bhutia. Others yet will believe it was some one else. Amitabha Das Sharma writes on Sailen Manna and speaks on why Manna is the greatest in the latest issue of The Sportstar:

Who was the only Asian footballer ever to be named among the best 10 captains in the world? The man in question is Sailendra Nath (Sailen) Manna — the former Indian captain who fetched the country a host of international laurels including the first Asian Games gold in 1951.

Today, Manna, 82, is the representative of the period when Indian football was at its peak. Manna’s exploits at the helm of the Indian national team had prompted the England Football Association to rate him among the 10 best skippers of the world in its yearbook of 1953. That was the best of times. The euphoria of newly gained independence was sweeping across the nation…

The Asian Games triumph came as the high point of achievement. “We had matched our strength with the best in Europe. It was natural that we would be claiming the Asian honour,” says Manna. “Our team had matured in three years after the Olympic voyage and we possessed the best attack in the continent.” India beat Iran 1-0 in the final. “It was the realisation of a dream,” says Manna. “The whole nation backed us to win our first big medal in football.”

Manna’s period coincided with the high points Indian football reached. Football has gone downhill ever since. Indian Football has taken some bold initiatives in the recent past. Here is hoping we regain some lost glory in the future.

India’s ever increasing presence in the world shooting stage can be epitomised by Gagan Narang becoming World Number 1 in 10 metre Air Rifle.Narang won gold in the World Cup just after the Commonwealth Games as well. What’s more, he is just 22. Reports DNA:

Narang recently won a gold in the same event at the ISSF World Cup in Guangzhou and booked a berth in the Beijing Olympics. The feat propelled him to a whopping 18 places in the rankings and he becomes third Indian shooter after Anjali Bhagwat and Rajyavardhan Rathore to reach the top spot in the world.

India performced commendably in the Commonwealth Games (The Sportstarhad a good review which can be read here) and the Shooting World Cup. Samaresh Jung has called for liberal policies for importing shooting equipment needed. The government has already been encouraging after Rathore won silver in the Olympics in double trap as mentioned here.

The shooters are here. They cannot be ignored any longer. It is very heartening to see.

The Hindu reports that the National Football League will be revamped. It was launched with much gutso 10 years ago but lost steam midway. Football got a new lease of life with intentions shown to maximise the crowd power the game commands. Zee Sports was brave enough to take a long term contract.

Now comes the news that steps will be take to restructure the league itself. The right noises are being made:

Addressing a press conference at the AIFF headquarters in Dwaraka, the general secretary of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Dato Peter Velappan, categorically stated that the NFL had been professional only in name so far. Reiterating that the health of the country’s football was dependent on the quality of the clubs, Velappan said that India should stop calling substandard foreign players for the league for the next five years as the country had enough talent that deserved to be developed.

Indian football has a strong base in Goa and Bengal. There is the strong rivalry between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. When more than 100,000 people attend a game between the two clubs at the Salt Club Stadium, Calcutta, you know that there is potential to tap in sponsors. Kingfisher came and went a few years ago but the changes now look more steady.

There is a need to do away with a lot of unnecessary football teams play. A Calcutta club has to play it’s city league, millions of Cup matches. Plus the players play in the state level Durand Cup. Quantity is existant rather than quality. A strong structure is needed. Fan base is already there. The national interest creation is a bit difficult though. You cannot expect interest levels to reach the level which cricket enjoys before the National team starts performing.

However, proper packaging and format can at least be the driver which fuels influx of money. This money, if goes into proper channels, can result in improvement of over all standards. So the trigger which would fuel Indian football to an upward growth trend has been been shot. The growth would be slow as you cannot expect miracles. At least the effort is there for improving standards as the potential seems to be finally understood in quarters which matter.

Indian Samaresh Jung has been adjudjed the best athlete of the Commonwealth Games for his performances. He now heads for the Shooting World Cup.

India has been steadily improving in shooting. The government has been supportive off late. I spoke about it here. It is not just a one off like say a P.T.Usha in Athletics. There is a bunch of shooters coming up. Vishwanathan Anand started the Chess revolution. Rajyavardhan Rathore may well be looked back upon as the trigger who helped India become an international force in shooting.

Half the contingent of Sierra Leone has disappeared (ran away) from the Commonwealth Athletes Village in Melbourne. Reports Reuters:

Police and Australian immigration officials have been searching for 11 athletes from the war-ravaged African country who have gone missing from the village.

This is not a new phenomena as 20 athletes went missing after the Manchester Commonwealth games in 2002. Of course the war plagued athletes will find this as a window for better life. A risk much less compared to living in the war ravaged country. Sport isn’t as important when the problems are much larger. The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) isn’t going to rule out Sierra Leone for future games. Political dimplomacy evident in sport and sport again proving that it is life magnified.

India is proving difficult to handle with the doping scandal. The answer CGF President Mike Fennell gave explaining the doping occurences is amusing though:

It’s a very large country, over a billion people, and perhaps there will be people who are perhaps not as knowledgeable about the drug situation and the doping situation, and there will be instances.

The closing ceremony of the games is to be held today with bollywood stars staging a performance. Also, Javed Akhtar will present a song for the Delhi Games. I haven’t witnessed an international sporting event in India bar the Cricket World Cup in 1996. So come Delhi 2010, it will be nice.

Update: A few of the athletes have spoken out. They say that they fear genital mutation and death if they go back.