A Common Fan’s Sports Diary

Another step towards being the best in the world

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

I spent last night in agony watching Jeev Milkha Singh miss the half-way cut at the Augusta Masters by one stroke. He was comfortably in till the front nine, but 4 bogeys in 7 holes on the back nine killed his chances. Even the company of Tiger Woods couldn’t help him survive this uncharacteristic collapse. Considering that Tiger just about managed an even par score, himself, I don’t know if he was the best man to help the Indian.

I then woke up to find this front page headline in the morning paper.

It says that Jeev ended up tied 28th after Rd 1 at the Masters

I had a good mind to tear the paper apart.

And then there was a half page coverage of the first round performance in the inside pages as well.

Who is the TOI trying to impress with a story which is not just one day late, but also hopelessly out of place by trying to spread cheer when it is time to lament?

Does the paper really care about Indian Golf?

Or are they just making a half –baked and completely ignorant attempt to show that they do.

Would they have done the same for a cricket match that had ended late at night?

Let’s try to tear at least a hundred copies of the Times of India today. I just started the count . I know it doesn’t help in any way and is very juvenile but what the heck.

India have won the test series in England. Will talk no more about it. Its a massive achievement in itself and we have to be proud of it. We always do well, when our batsmen fire. And this was a major collective effort – the likes of which we have seen very few.

On April 5, 2007, Jeev Milkha Singh became the first Indian to play at the US Masters in Augusta. This event is the golfing equivalent of Wimbledon. Two days later, he went one better. He is now the first Indian to make the halfway cut; being placed a creditable 15th after two rounds. He has held his own against the best players in the world, tying with world no 1 Tiger woods, and being comfortably ahead of no 2 Phil Mickelson. Well done, Jeev.

The day after, however, there is collective ignorance of this massive achievement. The BCCI meeting and UP polls are all over the media waves, and Jeev fails to get, even an honorable mention.

His glorious title winning run made many head-lines last year. The achievements of other golfers like, Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa, have also been well documented. So, how come, nobody took notice, while history was being made on the hallowed greens of Augusta National?

It’s called the affliction of cricket. The media, for all their rhetoric on, ‘thinking beyond cricket’, seems beset with a similar cricketing myopia.

I’ am not going to let that bother me, though. I will be cheering for Jeev all night, as our man goes in pursuit of further glory. All the best to you, Jeev