A Common Fan’s Sports Diary

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Poll- Which Indian Sportsperson are you most excited about? (Choose upto 5)

Results - Saina Nehwal – Badminton (48.0%, 43 Votes)
Yuki Bhambri – Tennis (22.0%, 20 Votes)
Somdev Dev Varman – Tennis (21.0%, 19 Votes)
Jeev Milkha Singh – Golf (20.0%, 18 Votes)
Sunil Chhteri – Football (20.0%, 18 Votes)
Abhinav Bindra – Shooting (19.0%, 17 Votes)
Sania Mirza – Tennis (19.0%, 17 Votes)
Koneru Humpy – Chess (19.0%, 17 Votes)
Akhil Kumar – Boxing (19.0%, 17 Votes)

Disclaimer – This poll was limited to non-cricket sports only.

As I write this, Saina Nehwal has broken new ground yet again, winning the Super Series title in Indonesia. With this win she has finally managed to break through the ‘Great Wall of China’ at Super Series Events. The wall of top Chinese players had stopped her from progressing beyond the semi-finals till date, leaving behind a trail of closely contested three setters. Now that Saina has broken through the Chinese hoodoo at the Super Series, we can expect more wins and glory for her and more joy for us – the fans who have voted her as the future of Indian Sport by a landslide.

The best part is that Saina is just 19 years old and has already given us a lifetime of great moments. She continues to get better and move up the world rankings. She is unrelenting in her desire to be the best player in the world and unfazed by the challenges that lie in her path. The world is her oyster and if the poll results are anything to go by, a lot of Indian sports fans including yours truly, are already licking their chops at the prospect of all the sporting joy that Saina Nehwal is going to bring to their lives over the next 10 years.

The race to be the second most exciting sportsperson in India is a dead heat between 3 tennis players, a golfer, a boxer, a shooter, a chess player and a footballer, although technically speaking, Yuki Bhambhri is alone in second place. It augurs well for Indian sports that so many sportspersons from different sports are doing well and each of them has a decent number of followers who are looking forward to their every move.

Now there is more good news for these sports fans. They can watch the videos of their favourite Indian sportspersons on www.SportPass.tv. This is a new sports video website which aggregates the most locally relevant sports videos from all over the world.

Now you don’t need to bother about media apathy towards the achievements of these sportspersons. If they are not showing you the action, you can catch it on SportPass.tv

More glory to Indian Sports

Saina needs to push herself some more and we are sure she can

After Indian Badminton’s shining star, Saina Nehwal crashed out in the first round of Asian Badminton Championships, a friend of mine sent me a message, “unfortunate loss for Saina”. I replied that, we should set the bar really high for her and not use words like unfortunate. She just needs to get better.

But at the same time I wondered why she had to take on the defending champion in the first round itself. After all Saina was the seventh seed and should have started out against a lower ranked player. And this rather strange match-up came after the All- England Championships where Saina was beaten in the first round by world no 3 Pi Hongyan. This again begged the same question. Why did the then world no 9 have to play such a high ranked player in the first round itself.

A little Googling later, I think I have the answers.

First, the no of players in a badminton tournament are limited to 32 and there are only 8 players who get seeded. Quite unlike tennis tournaments where there are 128 or 64 players and accordingly 32 or 16 players get seeded. Therefore we are used to seeing even a 16th seeded player in a tennis tournament avoid a higher ranked player for at least 3 rounds.

In the All- England Championships Saina was the 9th ranked player in the world and missed getting seeded by one rank. So while the player ranked just one place above her had a safe passage into the quarter-finals, Saina was as likely to play a top player as was the lowest ranked player in the tournament. The chances of playing a top 4 player were one in six but as it turned out Saina beat the odds. Check out the full draw at the All- England.

At the Asian Badminton Championships, Saina was seeded 7th, although she was ranked 8th in the world, thanks to Asia’s dominance of the sport. As a seeded player she should have played a weak opponent. She did play a lower ranked player but definitely not a weak player. Jiang Yanjiao was the defending champion. She happens to be ranked only 14th in the world for the simple reason that she comes from China. That country has so many top-ranked players that players like Jiang often have to miss tournaments because of the restriction on the number of players that can participate from one country. That means she has fewer chances to play and accumulate ranking points. The chances of Saina meeting Jiang in the first round were slim but again Saina beat the odds. Check out the draw of the Asian Championships.

What we have learnt is that Saina Nehwal managed to get a highly unfavourable draw for two tournaments running. But then again, in a favourable situation, she would have sailed to the quarter finals. To progress further she would have had to beat a top player, something she failed to do, twice.

A quarter –final showing would have made most of us really happy. After all we as a nation are used to accepting mediocrity with open arms. It would have papered the cracks that are there in Saina’s game – because of which she was unable to beat a top-player two matches in row. We expect greatness from Saina. We expect victories over top-players to be routine affairs and not reasons for massive celebrations.

Therefore it’s a good thing that the draw was unfavourable twice, that she lost in the first round both times. It fully exposed her weaknesses. Now, the fighter that she is, Saina will be doubly motivated to get better. She will push herself further and in the process raise her game another notch. And that will be the best thing for her, for Indian badminton and for all us who care for both.

After luckily qualifying for the Yonex-Sunrise BWF World Super Series Masters Final (to be held in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, from December 18 to 21), Saina Nehwal has now hit a crest of bad luck or shall we say a wall of official incompetence and apathy. In most likelihood, she will miss out on this wonderful opportunity because her passport would not have been renewed on time.

Saina got an entry into this exclusive tournament, limited to the top 8 players in the world, thanks to the withdrawal of the Chinese players. Considering that she is in excellent form, it was a god-sent opportunity to face off against the very best and rack up some more ranking points in the process.

Saina had applied for a renewal of her passport on December 2 and was given December 10 as a date for delivery. Then, when she got the news of her qualification on Thursday, December 4, she sought an appointment with the passport officer on Friday but her request was brushed aside, with the officer’s secretary telling her to come on Monday. And then the RPO failed to keep its earlier promise and ever since, Saina has been making rounds of the RPO.

The 18 year-old (yes she is still a teenage girl) innocently tried to use the sporting patriotism card by pleading with the authorities that she was the country’s top shuttler and this was a rare opportunity, but the men in charge would not listen. Needless to say the poor girl was deeply hurt.

Wonder what would have happened if a cricketer needed the same sense of urgency from the passport authorities. Even a second- rung guy would have commanded more respect from them.

Her hopes of participation are now almost dead – Unless the powers –that-be can do something about it. Thankfully, this news has been reported by most of the top dailies. So it would have caught their attention for sure. If someone higher up is a true sports lover, then they can surely get this sorted out and ensure Sania’s participation. Let’s see if we have one amongst the lot of politicians and administrators who never miss the chance to facilitate a champion sportsperson and wax rhetoric about their love for sports.

The powerless sports fans are waiting with bated breadth

Update – Thanks to the media which brought attention to the issue and to Chief Passport Officer, New Delhi, R Swaminathan, who took notice and sorted out the matter, Saina will now be participating in the tournament. Thankfully, there are sports lovers amongst the powers-that-be. Go Saina

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Three comapnies have stolen Saina, thanks to Globosport

We are now back with the second post of the ‘Most memorable moments of Indian sports’ series. This time we look at Badminton. As you will see, India has performed at a very high level in Badminton as compared to a lot of other sports but somehow this racquet sport has never quite got its due in the country– and that is all the more surprising considering that badminton is very popular across the country and the rules are very easy to understand. Perhaps it has to do with the lack of television coverage and the low glam quotient of the players. Well, we will tackle that issue some other time. It is now time to savour the great moments. So here we go

He could have had the entire post to himself

• Prakash Padukone’s All –England Triumph of 1981 – This is undoubtedly the most memorable moment – India’s greatest player winning the biggest tournament in the world. And the manner in which he did it – simply outclassing the likes of Liem Swie King and Morten Frost on his way to the title makes this moment almost surreal. It’s a pity that we never get to see any video footage of this glorious chapter of Indian sport. This is the kind of stuff that we want to see on ‘India Glorious’. Any sports channels listening

Gopichand is on top of the world

• Pullela Gopichand’s All England Triumph of 2001 – Another equally outstanding achievement, although this one came like a bolt from the blue – but what a delightful shocker it was. India was hooked once Gopichand got to the quarters and it just kept getting better with every victory. The memory of flag waving Indian fans and Gopichand’s unbridled celebration is etched in memory – thanks to the live telecast that we got to see. It hurts when we remember the injuries which took a toll on his career after the All – England triumph. He could have given us many more memories.
• Prakash Padukone becoming World number one – Nice guys don’t always finish last – this one is a poster moment for ‘nice guys finishing first’. This was the culmination of a superlative run of form in 1980-81 which finally made Prakash the best player in the world. And it came during a highly competitive era in the sport – making this moment all the more worthy of a mention in this list. Since then no Indian, man or woman has been in the top ten of the world rankings. Padukone won a lot of other big events and this post could have easily become an anthology of Prakash’s greatest triumphs. But we decided to limit ourselves to the two biggest ones.

Before, we move onto the next two moments some perspective on the Thomas Cup, which is the competition among national teams. Till 1983-84 this was best of 9 format with 5 singles and 4 doubles. From 1984-85 it became a best of 5 format with 3 singles and 2 doubles. And unlike tennis’ Davis Cup where the same person plays two singles and you can win a tie with just a couple of good singles players, in badminton’s Thomas Cup one player can play only one singles and hence success requires greater depth – something which has been India’s undoing time and again, especially in the best of 9 days. India is always placed in one of the Asian groups which boast of all the mighty badminton nations except for Denmark. Therefore, just qualifying for the final round of eight nations is a huge achievement. The Thomas Cup is highly coveted by all the top nations and players – leading to a very high level of competition.

• The 1978-79 Thomas Cup run – after years of one man shows, Syed Modi joined hands with Prakash Padukone to give India its most power packed squad ever – and what an impact this team made. Along with the doubles specialist Uday Pawar, they stunned mighty Malaysia 5-4 to make the finals round. This is also India’s greatest victory in the history of the tournament. Unfortunately, their finals foray was derailed by the powerful Danes. Its unfortunate that Padukone and Modi never paired up during the early 80’s when both of them were at their peak. But in retrospect, Prakash’s decision to focus on his singles career gave us moments one and three.

Saina Nehwal had her eyes set high at the Olympics

• Saina Nehwal’s quarter-final appearance at the Beijing Olympics – This selection might surprise a few but it has a strong case. It does not involve a title triumph but gets in on the basis of Saina’s pre-quarter final victory over a Chinese player ranked fifth in the world – in front of a raucous Chinese crowd at the Beijing Olympics – thus becoming one of the few athletes to stop the Chinese juggernaut at these games. I will never forget this moment till Saina achieves something bigger than this and then will replace this moment with the new far bigger moment. Saina is a super talent and I am sure she will make me change this list soon.

There is also a unique connection among the individual moments on this list. Prakash Padukone mentored Pullela Gopichand who in turn is Saina Nehwal’s coach.

Other Notable moments

Prakash Nath’s finals appearance at the All-England Championships in 1947

India's first great badminton player

Nandu Natekar’s remarkable run in 1954 when he won three international tournaments on the trot and rose to world number 4. These were also the first international titles won by an Indian player

Dinesh Khanna winning the singles crown at the Asian Badminton Championships in 1965.

The 1951-52 side’s 6-3 victory over Denmark in the Thomas Cup. This Danish side had two All –England champions and both were beaten in this tie.

The 1987-88 side with an ageing Padukone and a fading Modi which made the Thomas Cup finals after beating Japan and Thailand 3-2

The finals appearance of the 1999-00 side lead by Gopichand and Abhinn Shyam Gupta – this was the last Indian side to play in the finals

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