Patterson's Sports Page

After politics and bollywood, sports is the next popular area of interest for the people of India. However, in Indian context, when we say ‘Sports’ it is mostly restricted to ‘Cricket’. As a result cricket has reached to a level where cricketers are considered not less than God.

It’s amazing that Indian cricket is getting the backing of the media as well as of the people. But when will the other sports grow? Cricket gets more than 75 percent of the total sports coverage by the media, especially electronic media. Cricket, definitely, is not to be blamed for that, but it is the media itself. The simple reason being that they have the freedom to pick the stories they wish to cover. But with this freedom, is the media acting responsible in doing justice to all sports disciplines? And the answer is pretty much visible through the newspapers and television news channels.

There have been instances when the Indian media has neglected major stories of other sports disciplines to make way for ordinary cricket stories that could be published the next day. During the time of former Indian Hockey team captain Dilip Tirkey’s retirement in May 2010, a couple of newspapers carried not more than a 50 to 60-word report while many just did not publish anything about the great sportsman. Tirkey is considered as one among the finest captain’s of the Indian hockey team and certainly, his retirement makes big news. Surprisingly, the media did not consider it to be so. Imagine if it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s retirement. How would the media act in this case? There was another case when chess maestro Viswanathan Anand regained the World Chess Championship last year. In Mangalore, only one English daily carried the news, that too as a small story to fill up the space.  Recently India lost all their group matches in the Asia Cup 2011 football tournament. It was after more than 20 years that India had qualified for the mega tournament. Although India lost all of their group matches to Australia, Bahrain and South Korea, critiques maintain that the overall performance of India has been good considering their actual status in world football and the high class opponents they faced. And we very well know how the media made a mockery of the Indian team after their successive defeats. How can we expect the team to perform better if it has never been given the right amount of support and motivation?

If this is the attitude of the media towards sports, other than cricket, how could one expect good results from the low priority sports. India is lagging way behind in football. In Hockey too, the country has lost a lot of ground. But that does not mean we don’t have the potential. The media needs to think beyond TRPs and act in a way that is conducive for all sporting disciplines. The media not only has the power to influence but also encourage and boost the morale of sportspersons through a few words of appreciation.

 

[caption id="attachment_47" align="aligncenter" width="250" caption="From Players to Administrators"][/caption]

Karnataka, a cricket powerhouse in India, has produced several talented cricketers that have donned India colors ever since India were really considered serious competitor. And there seems to be no full spot coming soon. In fact they could be in a new cricketing era altogether.
The Karnataka State Cricket Association elections on November 21 turned in favor of Legendary Indian cricketer Anil Kumble and company with former faster blower Jawagal Srinath as the secretary. What more could an association ask when two cricketing stalwarts stand up to take the responsibility of taking the game further.
Kumble and his men were the obvious choices but his opponent Maharaja of Mysore Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar could not be underestimated after the latter had toppled another legendary cricketer Gundappa Vishwanath in the previous elections.
But getting over the whole election chapter, what’s important is that two dedicated players want to give something back to the game. The two have made immense contributions to the nations through their careers as world class cricketers and now they tend to contribute even more as administrators.
Besides his new presidential role, Kumble also heads the National Cricket Academy and also has to focus on the Indian Premier League as a captain of the Royal Challengers, Bangalore. Having struggled their way to success, Kumble and Srinath are expected to know best what the requirements are for the current cricketing scenario. Developments in the field of cricket in Karnataka could now probably be available even before the need arises.
As an immediate focus, KSCA looks keen on having a smoothly organized ODI at Bangalore on December 7 between India and New Zealand. A world class academy is the prime goal of the Kumble-led association. A lot of expectations, hence, surround the star administrative team and with support from friends like Rahul Dravid, their mission seems very much possible.

 

It was a dull Sunday evening and I was heading to the hostel refectory for tea at around 5:15. I reached late and hence saw the refectory doors shut. I was hungry and angry. I couldn't go out for a quick grab too as I forgot to carry my wallet along. Frustrated, I was rushing back to my room and saw something really interesting.

My North-East Indian pals Larra and Romeo from St. Aloysius College Hostel Mangalore, were in search of something. These are the guys with whom I usually play football. Today, I saw them with their football boots on, but the football was missing. Well that’s what they were searching for. But where? In a big underground water pipeline – where no one would dare to enter. The pictures may rather explain better.

[caption id="attachment_33" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The hole that swallowed the ball "][/caption]

The two were playing at the high school ground and accidently the ball fell into this drain. That being a hilly area, the ball travelled meters down the slop and got stuck in the interiors of the large pipeline.  Now to get the ball from where it was, trust me, was close to impossible. The two were hesitant as to what they should do.  And Larra took the bold step. Yes he decided to crawl into the scary dark drainage pipe. “You’re gone mad?” Romeo yelled. “You’re following me” Larra asserted. With great courage, Larra crawled in slowly. He used the watchman’s torch as it was horrifyingly dark in there. “I really don’t think we should do this”, Romeo warns Larra once again. Instead Larra replies “F*** it man, I can see the ball. Come follow me.” Romeo was still scared, “you go, I am not coming”, he said as Larra entered the creepy hole. The ball was about 30 meters inside. In a few minutes all was calm and Larra’s voice slowly started to fade out till he couldn’t be heard.

[caption id="attachment_37" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="deep trouble - Romeo looks upto God"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_35" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="That's how dark it was."][/caption]

Romeo, I and a few who were gathered there, were worried. We were getting impatient with fear. “Larra, can you hear me” Romeo kept calling out to Larra, but his silence just didn’t seem to break. Finally after five minutes, Larra replied but not with his voice. The ball rolled out of the drain and Romeo was excited. Now, he was anxiously waiting for Larra to get out of that hell. “I got the ball, you come out now” said Romeo but no answer yet. The tension kept mounting and finally after about another five minutes, Romeo saw some light inside the pipeline. And a voice was heard, “did you get the ball?” It was Larra. “You f***** I got the ball long back, where the hell did you reach” asked Romeo with a sigh of relief. Larra had still another 15 meters to get himself out of the pitch dark hole. Larra could be heard now and everyone near that ditch, were relaxed. But all was not well yet. Larra had another shocking hurdle to jump. He encountered a snake. “Shit it’s a big black colored snake and has white spots all over” Larra described the creature to us in fear. And all of us out were back to the tensed mood we were in. None of us to could figure out what kind of snake it was. It was already a scary dark water pipeline and the snake was just an addition to the horror. Luckily the snake was entering its home and did not harm to Larra. But it did take time to move into its hole. Till then Romeo kept chatting and passing some witty comments. “You’re crazy man…you should work in the mines” Romeo kept repeating. Finally the hero was out with full joy and satisfaction.

[caption id="attachment_38" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="That's Larra all smiles"][/caption]

The two buddies got back to playing the beautiful game for which a true player would do anything. What Larra did is just an example of how passionate a footballer can be about the game.

Keep playing!

[caption id="attachment_39" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="And Larra is back busy with the ball"][/caption]

Goa being a football loving state, is in the process of giving sufficient emphasis on many other games in the sports arena. Probably, the much-hyped 2011 national games are the reasons for that. Besides football, Goa is slowly emerging as a powerhouse of other disciplines like Cricket, Kabaddi, Softball, Chess and boxing to name a few. Indoor games like Table Tennis and Badminton are yet to make a mark on the national front. The competition at the state level of the two games is pretty convincing. But once the state players perform at national tournaments, their quality seems to be overpowered by other state players. The major reason to this could possibly be the absence of Corporate sponsors in TT and B'ton. Efforts still need to be taken in TT but B'ton players now have a reason to smile.

The novel concept of the Pro-Badminton League hit the minds of some members of the Panjim Badminton Club. According to the secretary of PBC, Sandeep Heble, the idea of having the league was to rope in the neccessary corporate sponsors which could raise the standard of the game. The PBC, I should say did a great job in getting the sponsors and raised a decent amount of Rs. 20000/- as the cash prize for the winners plus cash prizes to runners-up, losing semi-finalist and so on. After much efforts from the club members, the first ever badmionton league of the state finally commenced on 19th November 2009 - no doubt after a slight delay due to a couple of unavoidable circumstances. The league featured top shuttlers from state and were divided into 8 elite teams. Models Eagles captained by Sunny Sawant emerged as the winners of the league while PBC Gladiators finished runners-up. Mind you! the final was a higly entertaining match which went right down to the wire. 

More than knowing who were the winners and runners-up and bla..bla.. what good to know is that many loved the concept of having such a unique league. The players had a stage to exhibit their talent against shuttlers from various catagories. The sponsors may have been the driving force to the success of the league. Now, what's interesting to see is that will the sponsors continue to shell in the finance in the future events that the game of Badminton requires?

All I can say about the Pro-Badminton League is "What an Idea Sirjee!"