Are we ready for the Beautiful Game???

Its been long since I jotted down my views upon recent happenings in the world of sports......... But nevertheless it is important to do rather than thinking of doing it........

After the huge success of the Indian Grand Prix and a disappointing Metallica affair, India definitely announced itself on a bigger platform and certainly raised many eyebrows for sponsors to step in and help sports authority develop more world class facilities for their people.

What I kept on wondering was, whether or not my dream of seeing a Football World Cup Match in India will ever be fulfilled......... I guess it should be right???? Seeing the present infrastructure India has on offer, obviously you must be thinking that 'dilli bohut door hai' but what I see, or rather I should say, I want is India putting its bet on for the chance of hosting a Football World Cup (Maybe the only chance India will get to book a seat for the world cup ;))

With the bids till 2022 being already won by Brazil in 2014, Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022, I definitely have to wait till 2022 but still I hope that the wait turns out to be sweet..... According to Wikipedia "The host country is now chosen in a vote by FIFA's Executive Committee. This is done under an exhaustive ballot system. The national football association of a country desiring to host the event receives a "Hosting Agreement" from FIFA, which explains the steps and requirements that are expected from a strong bid. The bidding association also receives a form, the submission of which represents the official confirmation of the candidacy. After this, a FIFA designated group of inspectors visit the country to identify that the country meets the requirements needed to host the event and a report on the country is produced. The decision on who will host the World Cup is usually made six or seven years in advance of the tournament."

The recent world class events hosted by India such as the Commonwealth Games and the F1 race have definitely raised hopes of seeing more such world class events coming India's way..............I just hope that some of the higher govt. officials notice the opportunity and let my and many of the other football fanatics' dream come true!!!!!

Formula Won!!!!

The much awaited Indian Grand Prix is no more a dream...... After all those permutations and combination which went through in deciding the fate of the Indian Grand Prix, we can finally have a sigh of relief. Official now!! India will be hosting its first ever Grand Prix on the 30th of October. After all those speculations upon the credibility of the country to prepare itself for one of "The Most" costly sport, India proved its mettle!!!

Since 1997, there had been plans to host an Indian Grand Prix at Kolkata and since then strong contentions were shown by Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai, which penultimately resulted into five options; Bangalore, Gurgaon, a permanent track somewhere near New Delhi , a street circuit in New Delhi, as proposed by Vijay Mallya and a site in Lucknow. Following months of negotiations, the Indian Olympic Association and Bernie Eccleston announed in June 2007 a provisional agreement for India to host its first Indian Grand Prix in the 2009 season. The track was supposed to be built in Gurgaon, on recommendation by Hermann Tilke.

The "track" for hosting its first ever F1 race was not as smooth as we would have wished!!! A lot of 'Ifs and Buts' were still hovering over the race. The Indian customs department denied the organisers' demand of tax exemption for the event, giving a disgraceful excuse that the F1 race is not an event of national importance. The Indian Govt.'s point of view was total nonsense, which portrayed F1 as a form of 'entertainment' and not as a sport. Can you believe it??? The Formula 1, which has the second highest no. of followers next to soccer was not considered to be of national importance!!!

Taken aback by the criticism from all quarters of the public, the Indian Govt. finally announced that it wouldn't force the organizers to pay the custom duty. The Government after facing all the criticism looked at the positives of hosting the event rather than sticking with a criteria of the past.

And after waiting for years....... dreams of many Indian F1 fans will finally come true!!!

DIS is your Ability!!

I have always wondered!!! Why on earth did God gave diseases and disabilities to Human Beings?? Always thought that how nice it would have been if there were no diseases or any physical disability in this world. But to my astonishment, I realised the fact that these diseases and disabilities were nothing but a challenge that God threw to us...........

A lot of people would have accepted their disabilities as a curse and would have adjusted with them to suit there comfort, but there are a lot of strong and brave men who overcomed their disease and disabilities to emerge out as Champions. A real sportsmen knows no disability accept one that is the disability to avoid sports!!! The disease might be making the body weak and lethargic but it surely adds strentgh and power to the will of a sportsmen. This reminds me of a famous saying and the most appropriate one in accordance to the life of a sportsmen "Gold does not rust on the ground, and rocks don't get soaked in the rain."

You may have seen many inspirational stories about how people fought hard to defeat their disabilities and made the world stand in appreciation. Lance Armstrong, seven times Tour de France champion fought his way hard with Testicular Cancer and emerged out as the only men to have won the championship seven times. The Sultan of Swing Wasim Akram and his opening partner Waqar Younis, both had their own disabilities to fight with............ Akram who suffered from Diabetes was very stressed and disturbed when he was diagnosed with the disease and it took him almost 6 weeks to get over the news. Also it was diagnosed in the peak years of his career when he was 31 years old, being a sportsmen, he was ready to accept to challenge and fight with it and the rest is all history. We all know what he has acheived in his career. Waqar Younis had cut his finger in his left hand after he had jumped into a canal. It took him quite long to recover from the accident but he emerged victorious.

It is the sporting spirit and the lessons of 'never giving up' that makes these iconic sportsmen stand out in the league of great men. Also some of the biggest examples of fighting hard agianst your own disabilities are the sports events such as the Olympics for the disabled, Basketball on wheelchair, Blind Cricket and many more.......... the list will go on and on....

So Stand up and fight...... Its not your Disability.....DIS is your Ability!!! Give yourself a Chance!!

5 Gifts IPL has given to us.....

IPL-Indian Premier League!! The "golden-egg laying hen" for BCCI has knowingly or unknowingly given many gifts to Indian cricket which are surely noticed by the fans but with closed eyes and cotton-plugged ears, that is what I have seen. It all started with the controversies between BCCI and Zee Network Ltd. upon the broadcasting rights which resulted into ICL-a rebellion effort against the most powerful sporting board in the world (at least in the monetary terms).

As soon as ICL came on field, the talks were on for a big ticket come back from BCCI, as ICL was a direct attack on the supremacy of the board in India and so was born the Indian Premier League. Lalit Modi came up with a blueprint of a cricket league based on the English Premier League format and it surprisingly drove the cricket crazy nation crazier. It was launched with promises to take Indian cricket a level higher and indeed it did, here are 5 gifts that IPL gave to Indian cricket

1. Increase the revenue of the Advertising Industry - Whether the upcoming cricketing generation was benefited or not is a different scenario altogether, but the amount of opportunity that has been on offer for the advertising world is definitely a strong statement in itself. The amount of different mediums that the advertising world was presented with, were surely high in no. as compared to those provided to the upcoming cricketers. Being an advertising professional myself, I should not be commenting against my own daily bread, but I can definitely write another blog dedicated only to the benefits, that IPL has given to the advertising world, rather than the cricketing world.

2. An awesome World Cup winning celebration - It took a 28 year long wait for us to see India lift the cup and it just took one IPL season to take all the celebrations away. For many of us, including me, it was the first and may be the last chance to see India lifting the cup in its own backyard and when I was waiting for that grand celebration that should have been happened in Mumbai, it was the IPL fever which kept the players away from their well-deserved felicitation.

3. A Chunk of Injuries - I don't think that you will deny the fact that a lot of back to back cricket has taken a toil upon the bodies of our cricketers and all credit to the board for giving a new money making fish to our boys. It is obvious that if you flag off chunks of money to people they'll surely go after it, isn't it? Big corporates paying good money to the players make them neglect their body fatigue and play. The most recent result being the shameful loss in England because of the unavailability of our top performers.

4. A list of upcoming cricketers who are already running after money and glamour - Rather than focusing on their performances, the upcoming so called bench strength of the Indian Cricket Team is already addicted to a lifestyle filled up with leisure and fun. I am not contradicting that Indian cricketers are not working hard, they surely are, and the likes of R. Ashwin, Varun Aaron etc. cannot be ruled out but there are also players who are addicted to the glamorous and monetary benefits of the league and have shifted their focus from the national side.

5. Degrading the importance of our domestic trophies - IPL has completely taken over the scope of making the likes of Ranji, Irani or The Duleep Trophy popular. The board gave a commercialized look to cricket which could have been done with the Ranji or any other domestic series, in turn refurnishing the lost glory of the Ranji Trophy or the Irani Trophy.

Declaration: All thoughts and belief are a personal opinion of the blogger and are not intended to comment or criticize any one.

Sport - The best test of tenacity

SPORT!! The language that has been a definition of heroics, strength and honour since ages......Ageing way back to the Roman era.... sports had been the most popular and useful way to unite people and spread the word. From times then to times now, sports have changed and so have changed the values attached with them. But one thing that has definitely not changed is the spirit and the passion that accompanies with the sportsman.

As Nick Seitz says, "The breakfast of champions is not cereal, it's the opposition", a sports field is no less than a battle ground where people sweat out blood to conquer what they are fighting for. Sports brings out the real caliber and strength of an individual alongwith the emotions that flow on the field. As the great saying goes... if you wanna see the varied emotions that a human being can show!!! Go to a sports field!!

Alongwith the emotions, strength and caliber it is also one of the best way to test the patience of a man. The art of taking defeat with a smile and sweating hard to win next time is what shows us to live life like a sportsman. "The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle", and the more you work hard in your life the more you get out of it when the opportunity strikes.

Sport is all about winning, it is all about walking out of the field as the Champion. Injuries, defeat, bad-luck.... no scope for them!! You have to win to make it count.... surely there is always a next time but being on the field next time is never assured, what is assured is the time when you are actually on the field. The one who makes the most of the opportunity has the last laugh and the one who doesn't stands in the field thinking of what went wrong!!!!!

Never drop your shoulders, no matter how many times you get defeated!! Remember.... Strike hard when the time is right!!