A Common Fan’s Sports Diary

It’s been two years since I started blogging and it’s time for a special post. No, I am not going to bore you to death by reminiscing, how blogging on ACommonFan has been a life changing experience or thank everyone – right from the person who invented the first blogging platform to the every family member or friend who I have discussed sports with.

Instead I will pay a little homage to The Sportstar – the sports magazine which made millions of sports fans in this country, including me.

What would I have been without you

I say sports fans because The Sportstar stood for more than just cricket. At a time when there was no cable and no internet and other than the Doordarshan’s telecast of the Olympics, the tennis grand slams and the football and hockey World Cups, there was absolutely no other way of knowing what else was going on in the international sports world, I looked forward to the weekly dose of The Sportstar like a drug-addict waiting for his next shot of cocaine. People who grew up in the nineties can never appreciate what this magazine meant in the 80’s. They covered a wide of sports in detail and brought to us some of the finest reporting and writing from the world of sports.

It was because of them that we came to know the players that we had glimpsed on television and understood the nuances of various sport and developed an appreciation for their history.

If not for them, we would have not known for the longest time about the NBA and about the various football leagues in Europe.

And they weren’t just covering different sports. They brought to us the finest works of the likes of Brian Glanville and Paul Fein – a breed of sportswriters that I didn’t even know existed – any die-hard football or tennis fan will tell you that these two are to the world of sports writing what Sachin Tendulkar is to the world of batting. Any article by these guys used to be read slowly and thoughtfully as if I was savouring the finest dessert in the world.

In a country where sports isn’t really part of popular culture or our daily lives, and reading is largely limited to the morning newspaper, it was testimony to their quality of content that they stood the test of time while many others fell by the wayside.

The internet made life really difficult for magazines like The Sportstar. Circulation fell and it was difficult to pack enough into a magazine to compete with the wealth of free content available on the World Wide Web.
They responded by reducing the cost of the magazine and coming out with a paid online format. However, the cost cuts haven’t led to any drop in the quality of the content. The works of Glanville and Fein still figure prominently and die-hards like me continue to do their bit for the circulation.

ACommonFan would have been reduced to just ACricketFan if not for the sustenance that the Sportstar provided for many years.

Thank you Sportstar for making me a sports fan and for making this blog a sports blog.

I have always thought very highly of Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi’s feat of playing cricket at the highest level with just one good eye. It remains for me one of the best examples of a human being refusing to bow down to the dictates of fate and overcoming the curse of deformity with unflinching perseverance, dogged determination and sheer indomitable spirit.

And now Vijay Patel is ready to join Tiger Pataudi. For this one –handed guy has prevailed over all odds to play the game of basketball so well, that he’s been called for the selection trials to the Los Angeles Lakers.

If you don’t think that’s good enough just try it out for yourself. You will be soon tearing your hair out with both hands.

Ever read through all the comments on the discussion board of the sports articles on rediff.com

If you have not, you are definitely missing something. This is probably the only place where quite often the comments are more readable than the article itself. They are so interesting (read random and baseless and without a shred of logic) that you could actually skip the body of the article and head straight to the comments.

I had a lot of fun reading this one, and that one and also this other one

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan has spoken beautifully for me and many others – twenty somethings who have spent their entire adolescent and adult lives watching the Fab Five in action.

How different will cricket be for me; without this extraordinary bunch?

Will it wane my interest in the game?

I think hard and another exodus comes to mind

I was a tennisaholic in the glory days of Becker, Edberg, Courier, Sampras, Agassi and Ivanisevic

Now I only watch when Federer plays Nadal

Related Article

A great supporting cast but no leading man

We are not talking about a goalkeeper here

We are talking about Irish Footballer Rory Delap, who has the most amazing throw-in ever seen in the game of football. His throws regularly travel a distance of 35 plus metres and touch speeds of 60 Km/hr. What makes them even more dangerous is their flat trajectory, making it difficult to pick the ball’s flight and thus creating havoc in the opposition defence.

Many a manager has tried and failed to counter the aerial threat of Rory’s throws. As noted by Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill, these throw-ins are as effective at creating goal scoring opportunities as a corner kick or a free kick. Little wonder that 7 of the 13 goals scored by Delap’s club have come off his throw –ins

Here’s a study of his technique for those of you aspiring to become the next ‘Human Sling’

The following video about his throwing prowess begs the question.

What if Rory Delap had taken to throwing a javelin or a shot put instead of throwing a football?

Are we looking at someone who could have been an Olympic Champion thrower?

The domestic airlines of Nauru – the world’s smallest island nation, Our Airlines, offloaded two passengers to make way for two athletes on their way to the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune. This was the only way these athletes could have made it to the games on time. Their efforts were rewarded when one of the athletes won a medal.

In India such things happen for politicians all the time

Wonder what they are winning for the country

Would you give him your seat?

Pat Tillman chucked a lucrative career in the National Football League, to answer his country’s call to go fight the war in Afghanistan. He died a hero’s death, risking his own life to save a colleague.

Barbaro, a race horse won one of the biggest prizes in American racing – the Kentucky Derby, in his first appearance. He broke his leg in the next race. After an 8 month rescue effort, he was finally put to sleep to ease the pain. His plight brought thousands together and these people continue to share each other’s grief long after the horse’s death.

Nazareth is a small agro based country town in the US, the kind where everyone knows everyone. People face a difficult future with the land losing fertility and no other means of sustenance available. What keeps them going, however, is the town’s High School girl’s basketball team; which has the best record in the country and is well and truly the only reason for the town’s being.

If you find such stories appealing, and want to read more about them and other similar ones in greater detail, go to the E-ticket archives on ESPN.com