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

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.

The three shining stars of 2008

Considering that we had the Olympics in 2008, it is natural that the performance in the Olympics will largely determine how well a particular sport fared in the year gone by. But that will not be the entire story. A lot of non-Olympic events will also vouch for the current state of affairs and as well as how the future will be.

We will rate every sport on a scale from -3 to 3. A positive score will indicate a step forward and a negative one will point to a regression. The absolute value will be a measure of the quantum.

So here we go sport by sport in alphabetical order

Archery

Positives
Indian men won gold medal in the men’s recurve team event in the World Cup held in Antalya, Turkey.

Negatives
The disappointment of the Olympics. A Lot was expected of the women’s team and of Dola Banerjee – the winner of the World Cup in 2007. But nobody delivered on the promise. We didn’t even contend for a medal. Another story of under achievement

Verdict
Archery has tantalized us with its medal winning potential for too long now. Time and again it promises a lot and then leaves Indian fans heartbroken. The sport has a decent talent identification program and generally the archers are provided with world class coaching and infrastructure and given sufficient international exposure. If only we could do something about their mental strength and nerves at the big events

Score
0

Athletics

Positives
The Indians topped the medals tally in the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Doha in February ahead of China and did well in the three Asian Grand Prix events in June.
The federation and the govt improved its act – there was a training-cum-competition trip of England before the Olympics and a few athletes were sent to train abroad.

Negatives
A hugely disappointing Olympics where almost instead of going swifter, higher and stronger our athletes ended up being slower, lower and weaker. The selection criterion remains a joke with the authorities’ intent on inflating the size of the squad. The Olympics also signalled the end for our lone world class athlete – Anju Bobby George.
Doping and age violations became even more rampant at junior and sub-junior levels.

Verdict
We are totally stuck in a time warp – happy to win medals at inconsequential events and send the largest contingent amongst the various sports to the Olympics. The consistency of our underperformance at the Olympics is extremely depressing. There isn’t a single athlete coming through the ranks who we can get excited about. This sport needs a major over haul.

Score
-1

Badminton

Positives
The super success of Saina Nehwal who is still a teenager. She missed an Olympic medal by a whisker and has improved by leaps and bounds since then.
Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand form a two man support system for all aspiring badminton players
India has 4 players in the top 50 on the men’s side including Chetan Anand at 15.

Negatives
The cancellation of national level tournaments, the passport fiascos and the haphazard arrangement of training camps.

Verdict
We have the talent and we are making it count to some extent. But we could really do with more exposure and better support systems.

Score
1.5

Boxing

Positives
An Olympic medal and two near misses
4 medals at the AIBA boxing World Cup
World Championship Gold medals for Mary Kom (women) and Thakchom Singh (junior men)
A much better support system and hopefully things are getting even better – thanks to Bhiwani and the Mittal Trust

Negatives
In spite of all the glory and the surge in popularity of the boxers’ post the Olympics, things are back to normal – there was no reception for the World cup squad which came home with 4 medals

Verdict
The talent was always there. Now we have started to believe in ourselves. The depth is also very good. The next Olympics could be even better

Score
2

Hockey

Positives
KPS Gill was finally sacked
The emergence of a talented drag flicker in Diwakar Ram
A movie called Chak De which made some much needed attention to the sport

Negatives
We missed the Olympics
We still have an ad-hoc committee and a caretaker coach

Verdict
We have reached a nadir. And we have stayed there. Full stop.

Score
-3

Shooting

Positives
Abhinav Bindra wins an Olympic gold
Gagan Narang breaks two world records
Ronjon Sodhi wins the World Cup and equals a world record

Negatives
Other then Bindra and Narang all the other shooters stunk at the Olympics
The acute shortage of equipment, practise pellets, infrastructure and support systems continues

Verdict
The talent has always been there but in spite of an Olympic gold life has not changed for the shooters. Is Bindra merely an exception or do we have capability to produce more champions – the jury is still out on this

Score
1

Tennis

Positives
The emergence of Somdev Dev Varman. Barely six months after turning professional he is already India’s highest ranked player at world number 204.
Leander Paes’ becoming a vice president of Bengal Tennis. We shouldn’t read too much into this but it at least creates hope.
The emergence of Yuki Bhambhri. Another one who gives us hope for the future

Negatives
The open infighting in the Davis Cup team
The dismal year for Sania Mirza. Also disappointing years for the other women’s players
Failure to win a medal at the Olympics. It’s not the failure which stinks – it’s the fact that Paes and Bhupathi made every effort to not be well prepared.
Failure to make the World group in the Davis Cup once again
The AITA at its worst. They announced the Indian Tennis League – which was modelled on the IPL but then totally forgot about it. They also picked up a fight with the guys running Apollo’s Mission Grand Slam 2018 program

Verdict
Tennis is extremely popular in the country – there are lots of enthusiastic kids playing it, parents are usually encouraging and there is no shortage of fans willing to cheer and corporates willing to fund the game. But hardly any good players are coming through. We have a big problem with our system and nobody seems to be doing anything about it.

Score
0

Weightlifting

Positives
Absolutely nothing.

Negatives
Once a medal generating sport, women’s weightlifting slipped a little more in 2008, with our weightlifters falling a little further off the international pace.
The doping controversies
The selection controversies

Verdict
We are going from bad to worse and to add to it are also doing it disgracefully and with shame

Score
-1.5

Wrestling

Positives
The bronze medal won by Sushil Kumar at the Olympics.
A decent performance at the Commonwealth Youth Games
The emergence of Indian stars in professional wrestling like the WWE – the likes of the Great Khali and Sanjoy Dutt. At least it motivates young kids to take up the sport.
As compared to the previous Olympics, Indian wrestlers were trianed by better foreign coaches and were given more international exposure.

Negatives
We are not making the Olympic success count. Absolutely nothing has been done to take advantage of the increased interest in the sport

Verdict
The sport is extremely popular in certain pockets of the country and there is no shortage of talent. In fact the sport continues to prosper, in spite of govt and corporate apathy, because of its huge popularity in these regions. And now Sushil Kumar has shown all the budding wrestlers that we can be true world beaters. This is a great time to harness this surging potential and make Olympic medals a regular feature. Sadly the govt hasn’t awakened to this possibility. And for some reason the corporates also stay away. Why isn’t Sushil Kumar endorsing energy drinks and breakfast cereal?

Score
1

This article was originally published on www.IndiaAtLondon.com

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

Saina Nehwal has landed her first endorsement contracts. According to her management firm Globosport, the shuttler has been signed up by MTV, The Cancer Society of India and Herbalife. Each of these contracts is worth Rs 10-15 lakhs each.

You read that right. 10-15 lakh rupees each!!! . A pittance for getting the image and media rights of India’s most popular sportswoman – One who has the country’s entire sporting fraternity following her every move. Even sports scholarships pay more than this. Even the state governments reward sportspersons with more money than this. These companies will pay ad agencies ten times as much to make commercials featuring Saina Nehwal

Saina deserves a lot more than this

This is daylight robbery and nothing else. These companies have got the steal of the century. Even the farmers who lost their land to the SEZ’s will have sympathy for Saina.

So who’s to blame? Globosport obviously

This company had been under tremendous pressure because of their inability to land any endorsement deals for Saina in spite of her growing reputation. So much so that other management firms were willing to buy out Saina’s contract with Globosport.

So what do they do to save face?

Sold her to the first bidder they could find. Rather let those companies steal her

Somebody get Saina Nehwal some help. She has every right to cancel her contract with Globosport for the shoddy manner in which her image and media rights have been handled.

Important notice to the Apollo Group – The AITA is the least of your worries. You should worry about the money you have handed over to Globosport to manage Mission Grand Slam Champion 2018.

The statistical relevance and bias prevention steps for this poll are the same as all the other Commonfan Polls.

Poll – Who is your favourite Indian sportswoman?

Results – Saina Nehwal (33%)/Koneru Humpy (33%)

Sania Mirza (12%)

No sports woman is good enough to be my favourite (9%)

Mithali Raj (6%)

D Harika (3%)

I didn’t know women played sports in India (3%)

The message is loud and clear

Humpy and Saina - Two Unlimited

We have two brilliant young women who ended up in a dead heat in this poll and justifiably so. They are already the most accomplished Indian sportswoman in their chosen sports and world beaters too.

Koneru Humpy is the second best women’s chess player of all time and getting better – She is the female version of Vishwanathan Anand and the rightful heir to his mantle – a more rightful one than the likes of Harikrishna and Sasikiran. She could easily end up becoming the strongest female grandmaster of all time surpassing Judith Polgar and the undisputed women’s world champion – and then even Vishy Anand will have to doff his hat to her. After all he couldn’t do the same thing in the men’s category

Saina Nehwal missed an Olympic medal by a whisker and is knocking on the doors of a top ten world ranking. While she is yet to match the All -England winning accomplishments of Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand, she has managed to do something which no Indian –man or woman has ever managed before – develop a knack for beating the best Chinese players in their own den. If you can do that in badminton, you are capable of winning anything. So basically we are talking of someone who could be the female equivalent of Prakash Padukone here.

We have a female Anand and a female Padukone in the making. Indian women sportswomen have never had it this good before

There is quality and there is quantity too.

We have female champions all over the place – so many of them that the likes of Anjali Bhagwat and Anju Bobby George have already faded from the national consciousness. You can no longer rest on your laurels and benefit from a lacuna of top talent. Even Sania Mirza has slipped to a distant third on account of one bad year. The likes of Dronavalli Harika and Mithali Raj are also rising. Go Indian woman go

And that brings us to the ignorant and the uninformed

For those who voted – ‘No sports woman is good enough to be my favourite’ – Your standards are obviously very high. Don’t think you have a favourite Indian sportsman either. You should either move to Baltimore and start cheering for Phelps or to Jamaica to start rooting for Usain Bolt. Don’t think anyone else is good enough for you.

As for the others – the ones who voted – ‘I didn’t know women played sports in India’ – you better start following the Common Fan – We will keep you updated with all the exploits of the Indian sportswomen. You will surely have a favourite next time round.