In Visitors, I invite one person each month to share perspectives on a sport, a sporting event, sporting aspects or any thing in between. This month, Sportsfreak joins us to speak on John Bracewell’s ways and New Zealand cricket. I know, more cricket, but what can you do? With the Champions Trophy going on, Ashes coming up and then the world cup, cricket is bound to appear more on this blog over the next few months. If you would like to contribute for a future edition of Visitors, do not hesitate to e-mail me.

Greetings Sportsfreaks; it’s been a long time between drinks as they say, but I’m glad to be able to report from the battle front again; this time from India.

This season will truly be one of The Great Campaigns. My good friend Martin Snedden has organised a lot of great challenges for us over the next few months. First, there’s the Champions Trophy, followed by ODI series against Sri Lanka, Australia and England; ending up in a World Cup which is in my favourite touring place; the West Indies.

He certainly is still a very loyal commander-in-chief, although I do wonder if he gets a little over-worked at time. He told me he can easily organise a coaching job at home in England for me next year. The guy obviously forgot I’ve already got a job!

We have had our fair share of bad luck so far, but let me tell you this will not weaken our resolve one little bit. Poor Shane Bond is pretty sure that he’s probably injured, which has come as a blow that we need to overcome. At least we’re used to it so we can certainly take a lot of positives out of this. He’s working very hard with Gilbert Enoka the whole time to get through this problem, and I’m sure he’ll be playing again before the World Cup. Mark my words.

And the fact that we still beat South Africa earlier in the week shows that it was still the correct decision to take him on tour with us anyway. I’m pretty sure that just having him with us puts a lot of fear into opposing teams.

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In Visitors, I invite one person each month to share perspectives on a sport, a sporting event, sporting aspects or any thing in between. This month, Haakon Moerk from Norway joins us to give insights into Norway’s winter sports culture and history. Part one can be read here. The following is the concluding part. If you would like to contribute for a future edition of Visitors, do not hesitate to e-mail me.

Another sport on the scene was biathlon. A sport molded on cross-country skiing at first, it was difficult to comprehend for viewers, as the biathletes shot on balloons to avoid penalty minutes and the aggregate result wasn’t really known until well after the event. Though Norwegians have a penchant for sports with complicated rules for time calculation, this was taking it too far. Magnar Solberg, a policeman by trade and a true amateur, won Olympic gold both in Grenoble ‘68 and Sapporo ‘72, but never earned anything from it.

Cross-country skiing began to see a small revival, however. It had by now reached the television screens - where viewers were often offered a view of the snow and the forest as the cameras waited for each skier to appear - butafter Gjermund Eggen’s 50 km victory at the home World Championships in 1966, Norwegian skiers failed to back that up with consistent performances. Norway won three of the 20 available men’s gold medals in Olympic and World skiing in the 1970s; the women zero of 16. Norwegians were seen as too backward, too stuck in the old times with meal breaks and gentlemen in jumpers and knickerbockers out in the forest - while the Soviets and East Germans swept the 1974 World Championship with their skis made of glass fibre. Norwegians still fondly remember Magne Myrmo - the last world champion on wooden skis.

Indeed, the resistance to change has been a particular part of Norwegian winter sports culture. Norwegians claim “this is what has made the sport so popular, don’t remove it!” In the 1980s, the American Bill Koch began to experiment with one ski out of the prepared tracks, as he thought it helped him push backwards on the ground (to gain more forward momentum). It worked: Koch won the silver medal on the 30 km in Oslo 1982, behind Lars Erik Eriksen, as Norwegian skiers once again got some good performances at home. Koch also totalled the most points during the World Cup in 1981/82, and remains the only non-European to win the World Cup.

Without mastery of the new technique - known as “skating” since the leg movement of pushing backwards on the snow was similar to what skaters did on the ice - Norwegians were left totally behind on the men’s side. The Swede Gunde Svan dominated the decade, winning seven World Championship titles, four Olympic titles, and five World Cup titles, and the only thing that kept Norwegians interested were the times - and the successes of the women, who proved they could ski too, only 20 years after they had been cautiously introduced into the World Championship with a 5km event in 1962.

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In Visitors, I invite one person each month to share perspectives on a sport, a sporting event, sporting aspects or any thing in between. This month, Haakon Moerk from Norway joins us to give insights into Norway’s winter sports culture and history. If you would like to contribute for a future edition of Visitors, do not hesitate to e-mail me.

Like in many other countries, sports have a long history in Norway. Even in Snorre’s sagas about the medieval kings there are tales about young noblemen competing against each other, and taunting each other about their respective abilities. However, there exists little recorded history of organised ball games such as in England, Italy and the old Aztec empire, possibly due to the low population density and the long winters that prevented running freely. Instead, Norwegian sports legends concentrate on skiing and skating, and those two sports have retained a high position on the Norwegian ladder until this day.

The Norwegians claim that “the cradle of skiing” lies in Morgedal, Telemark, a small village with approximately 300 citizens. The skiing brothers Hemmestveit, along with ski inventor Sondre Norheim, all came from this snowy village, and dominated the Norwegian skiing scene for much of the 19th century. However, although skiing events, particularly ski jumping, had been hosted in the cities since the mid-1850s, the main cross-country skiers still came from rural settlements, where there was ample opportunity to practise - prepared skiing tracks in the forests around the cities were not yet used by most city dwellers.

While rural dwellers skied between places and developed cross-country and telemark skiing, and also the word “slalom”, speed skating developed as the city sport, as a kind of wintertime relative to track running. The first recorded speed skating race in Norway dates back to 1863, on the sea outside Oslo. Due to the ease of making a speed skating track in the city - often just a case of watering over an athletics track - people flocked to the stadias to watch their heroes, with the 1884 skating race involving the Norwegian skating pioneer Axel Paulsen and a Dutch champion, Renke van Der Zee, drew almost 30,000 spectators. By now, the skating administrators had determined the format that has been common in long track all through its remaining history: the skaters going in pairs against each other, with two marked lanes (the inner and outer) with the skaters changing after every lane, so that no skater could interfere with the other. In the end, the skater with the lowest time won, regardless of what pair he skated in. However, quadathlon (allround) tournaments were quickly introduced, so that the competition would not be immediately over after one race. In the beginning, the winner had to take three of the four races, but as distance specialisation became common and it became almost impossible to win three races, the “time points” (or converting the 5000- and 1500-metre times into how long it would take to skate a 500-metre with the same pace) were introduced.

Speed skating became a city sport because of viewer accessibility. Unlike all other winter sports bar ski jumping, all the action took place in front of the spectators, who could even time the athletes themselves if they so desired. By contrast, cross country skiing took place through the forests, with the athletes appearing one by one as they crossed the finish line. In addition, skating arenas were close to the major city centres, and were often used as football or athletics stadiums in summer. However, much the same applied to ski jumping, where the major event of the season took place at Holmenkollen - three miles outside Oslo. Thus, the ski jumpers, led by the Ruud family from Konsgberg, enjoyed good standing throughout the 30s, while the cross country skiers - who admittedly didn’t win much in competition with Swedes and Finns - were largely forgotten. They were also faced with competition from the athletes in Nordic combined, the ski jumping and cross country put together, using a complicated system similar to that in decathlon.

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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.

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In Visitors, I invite one person each month to share perspectives on a sport, a sporting event, sporting aspects or any thing in between. This week, Craig Walsh, who had previewed the event, joins us again to review what was one the most controversial in history. If you would like to contribute for a future edition of Visitors, do not hesitate to e-mail me.

By Craig Walsh

The 2006 Tour de France started off with a controversial start, with Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich, Francisco Mancebo, Oscar Sevilla, Alexandre Vinokourov and his Astana team (formerly Liberty Seguros), and the Comunidad Valenciana were not allowed to take part after they were linked with the Operation Puerto scandal. Vinokourov himself wasn’t implicated, but five of his team mates were implicated plus the team boss Manolo Saiz, so inline with UCI Pro Tour rules, twenty-two riders were not allowed to make the start line in Strasbourg. So instead of the 198 riders who were supposed to start, we had 176 riders. It promised the unexpected, as everybody’s predications went straight out the window, it was a case nobody knew what was going to happen next.

Ironically one rider making his comeback from a two year drugs for admitting to use EPO, Saunier Duval-Prodir’s David Miller of Scotland. Miller who had only got his racing license just five days before the start, went on to finish 17th in the 7km prologue, which was won by Norwegian sprinter Thor Hushovd of the Credit Agricole team. Hushovd, a favourite for the sprinter’s green jersey, pulled in the time trial of his life to take the win and to take his second maillot jaune (yellow jersey, Hushovd wore it for a day in 2004) in his career, just beating Discovery Channel’s George Hincapie.

Stage 1 took us from Strasbourg, out of town, through into nearby Germany, and back into France to finish in Strasbourg, a break got away but was reeled in by the chasing bunch, and in the ensuring sprint finish, there was a another surprise, with Tom Boonen’s lead-out train misfiring, and being forced to go too early, and in all the confusion, a French sprinter from Cofidis Jimmy Casper out foxed everybody to take the win. However there was drama as Hushovd was forced to go along the barriers, and cut his arm with a green cardboard hand (from sponsors PMU) which forced him to lose a lot of blood, but with the help of stitches he lived to fight another day. Hincapie took over the yellow jersey by virtue of the two second time bonus that was out on course.

Stages two and three were won by Robbie McEwen and T-Mobile’s Matthias Kessler. On stage two, Kessler tried a last minute break by was caught 500m from the line, and McEwen took the stage win. However, Kessler’s persistence paid off the next day when he attacked the final climb into Valkenburg, and held off the bunch. Kessler’s team-mate Michael Rogers of Australia was second. Boonen took over as the race leader. Stage three also lost one of it’s favourites in Spain’s Ajelandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) touched the wheels of a team-mate and fell and broke his collarbone. He was forced to abandon. Australia’s Stuart O’Grady (Team CSC) also had a crash and broke his vertebrae, he would ride sorely for the next several days but he did go onto finish the race.

Stage four was won by Robbie McEwen; his second of the race, but his train did not work on stage 5 as his lead out man Gert Steegmans misread the 500m to go sign for 400m, and McEwen was forced to go to early and Spanaid Oscar Freire (Rabobank0) took the win, Euskatel-Euskadi’s Inaki Isasi took third. Stage six, Steegmans got it right and delievered McEwen to his third stage win, by a couple of bicycle lengths. Onto stage seven and the first time trial into Rennes was won by T-Mobile’s Serhiy Honchar of the Ukraine, who trashed everybody bar Floyd Landis by about a minute. Honchar, a former world time-trial champion (in 2000) and a specialist against the watch, was surprisingly not taken as a favourite for the stage win, but proved everybody wrong to not only get the win, and to be the new race leader. Honchar who also lead the Giro d’Italia this year, became the first Ukrainian to lead the Tour de France. It was a bad day for American Levi Leipheimer, Iban Mayo, and Damiano Cunego all had the time trial from hell as the lost over 6 minutes each to all but end their GC hopes. Leipheimer’s best shot now would be stage wins. It was a sad day for CSC’s Bobby Julich of the USA, who was forced to abandon with a suspected broken hand when he crashed into a curb. CSC was now down to seven riders in the race.

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In Visitors, I invite one person each month to share perspectives on a sport, a sporting event, sporting aspects or any thing in between. This week, Warren Kelly, who had written about the NHL season, joins us to analyse the NHL playoffs. If you would like to contribute for a future edition of Visitors, do not hesitate to e-mail me.

By Warren Kelly

The NHL playoffs are over. The season itself was a study in contrast and surprise – the playoffs were a fitting end to that season. Major market teams that everyone thought would go all the way were swept. Small market teams who had never had playoff success rolled over everyone in their way. And the NHL proved that it doesn’t matter where the team is, how much money it has to spend, or any of that – anyone really can win the Stanley Cup.

Round 1 started off with a list of A players – the New Jersey Devils, the New York Rangers, the Detroit Red Wings, the Dallas Stars – and a list of the “also rans” – the Carolina Hurricanes, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, the Edmonton Oilers, the Buffalo Sabres, the Colorado Avalanche, the Nashville Predators. The A teams were expected to move on, and the also rans were expected to roll over and let them. But it didn’t work out that way at all.

New York and New Jersey ran into each other in round 1. This was expected to be the tough series, but Jersey swept the Rangers. Detroit met bottom-seed Edmonton, and lost in six games, showing fans exactly what was in store for them this year in the playoffs. Edmonton consistently outplayed their opponents, and left a lot of “experts” guessing. The Stars, who were a popular pick to win it all this season, lost in five games to a Colorado team who also took everyone by surprise. The underdogs were all over the favorites early on – with the exception of the Jersey Devils. And there was speculation about how long they would last.

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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, Craig Walsh, a sports fan and cycling enthusiast from Australia, joins us to preview the upcoming Tour de France. If you would like to contribute for a future edition of Visitors, do not hesitate to e-mail me.

By Craig Walsh

On July 1, the world’s biggest and well known bike race begins in the French town of Strasbourg, near the France-Germany border, without its biggest protagonist. Seven times winner Lance Armstrong is absent due to his retirement from professional cycling at the end of last year’s race. He will be there though, but in one of the team cars giving advice and support (he is still technically under contract till the end of the year) to his team-mates who begin life for the first time in 7 years without him.

Instead for the first since 1999, we will begin without a defending champion, the 1997 winner Jan Ullrich was absent to injury, and the late Marco Pantini the winner of the 1998 winner was absent due to having too high of blood haematocrit level after being disqualified in that year’s Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy). Ullrich will begin the Tour as the only current rider in the bunch, who has won the Tour, and this represents his biggest chance since, and it could be his last serious chance. At 32 and in his final year of his big contract with his German team T-Mobile, he will be motivated to do win the only his second Tour. He was second in 1996 (his debut Tour), 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, fourth in 2004, and third in 2005.

Ivan Basso of Team CSC has been in great pre-Tour form, winning the Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy) in such dominating fashion, by over 9 minutes to his nearest challenger, and winning three stages along the way. He also won some smaller stage races earlier this season. Basso has shown such pedigree in the race before, finishing 2nd last year, 3rd in 2004 and winning a stage, 7th in 2003, 11th in 2002 and the best young rider competition, before crashing out and breaking a wrist whilst in a break and being forced to abandon in 2001, his debut year. With such progress shown, one would think this year since has been in red hot form will be his year and so therefore starts as the other favourite. His team boss Bjarne Riis of Denmark was a former winner back in 1996 and was a team-mate of Ullrich.

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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.

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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, Warren Kelly a huge ice hockey and NHL fan, joins us to give his thoughts on the NHL season behind us. If you would like to contribute for a future edition of Visitors, do not hesitate to e-mail me.

The Season That Almost Wasn’t

By Warren Kelly

A year ago, nobody was really quite sure if there was going to be an NHL season this year at all. Debate and argument from both sides of a bitter labor dispute threatened the sport – the only professional sport I’ve really enjoyed watching in about five years.

But when the puck dropped on the 2005-2006 NHL season, it dropped on a sport that had changed dramatically. There were rules changes that were designed to increase scoring. Sudden Death rules were eliminated – ties would once more be decided by shootout. A lot of people wondered how the fans would react. I wasn’t sure I would like the changes. I am a goalie fan, so I wasn’t thrilled with the new rules limiting goalies – I really didn’t care about high scoring games. I enjoy watching skilled net minders taking care of business, and I was skeptical.

The NHL did suffer for the elimination of the ‘04-05 season – ESPN dropped them like the proverbial hot potato. Even when the league picked up a cable contract, it was with the Outdoor Life Network (who?), which most hockey fans (myself included) had no access to. Thousands of fans throughout the US found themselves limited to watching the local teams, which was great for fans in Detroit, not so much for fans in Ohio, or Georgia, or anyone who followed a team other than the local favorite. I’m a Washington Capitols fan from years back, and being stuck watching only the Columbus Blue Jackets each week hurt. But at least it was hockey, and it was fun to watch.

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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, Matthew Pitt, as knowledgeable a football fan as you can get, joins us to give his thoughts hours before world cup kicks off along with detailed predictions of what might happen. If you would like to contribute for a future edition of Visitors, do not hesitate to e-mail me.

By Matthew Pitt

The football World Cup is, perhaps along with the Olympic Games, the biggest sporting event on the planet. This summer’s tournament is expected to draw crowds of up to 80,000 at matches, and global television audiences of over a billion people. What can this audience expect from their month-long football extravaganza? One can only speculate – the World Cup is notorious for throwing up surprises at every available opportunity – but all the same, certain things can be relied upon going into the tournament.

The winner usually comes from a group of eight to ten teams, which remains more or less the same from one World Cup to the next. This summer’s host nation, Germany, have been repeatedly written off in recent years, but with home advantage and a fairly easy group, could be set to challenge again. Their conquerors in the 2002 final, Brazil, are the runaway favourites for the tournament – they have by far the strongest XI on paper. However, football is not played on paper, and there are a number of other nations with a decent chance of usurping the five-time winners and current holders.

England look strong, provided Wayne Rooney recovers in time for the knockout stages; the Netherlands, despite not qualifying for the 2002 event, have a talented squad; and Argentina have opted for youth over experience, giving them the edge over some sides in the competition. The other sides completing the list of title favourites are the experienced (some would say ageing) Italians, the unreliable but flamboyant Spaniards, the youthful Portuguese, the fading French, and the unfancied but stylish Czechs.

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