Sports and Games Archives - Page 5 of 9

Cricket is not war

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Sport is not war. Cricket is a game and should be treated as such. In football and hockey many times players get physical. Sometimes football players play karate or kick boxing for which they deserve red card. In cricket scope for getting physical is limited. Some people talk of cricket as of war. They talk of India-Pakistan match as mother of all battles or the biggest battle. That should be avoided.

In a tournament there is one final. There is no final before the final. Some people first talked of India-Australia quarter-final match as final before the final. After that they talked of India-Pakistan semi-final match as final before the final.

Cricketers and walking

Posted on March 26, 2011 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

There are people who praise cricketers who walk without the umpire having given them out and criticize cricketers who do not walk without the umpire having given them out. A batsman has to do his job and the umpire has to do his job. If a batsman is not out but the umpire gives him out he has to go. Umpireâ€™s decision has to be followed.

Cricket is a team game and when a player represents his country he has to think of the consequences for his team and country. Sachin Tendulkar in the match against West Indies walked even though the umpire ruled him not out. Ricky Ponting in the match against Pakistan did not walk. He was given out by the third umpire after watching TV replay. Ricky Ponting was right when he did not walk.

Bangalore tie

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Looking forward to the game between India and England today should be a cracker. My prediction a tie.
That was Shane Warneâ€™s prediction about India versus England match on 27/2/2011 which came true.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat. That was a good decision.
India scored 338 runs and were all out in 49.5 overs. They did not bat 50 overs. Two batsmen were run out at the end. The score looked good enough for India to win the match. Vivian Richards said if they can not win this match they can not win the world cup.
The match swung between England and India. When Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell were batting I hoped India would win by one run as Australia had done against India twice. Then wickets began to fall and when England had to score 42 runs off 24 balls to win the match Indiaâ€™s victory seemed assured.
In the 49th over Tim Bresnan reduced the margin before being bowled by Piyush Chawla.
When the last over began England needed 14 runs to win the match. India needed to restrict England to 12 runs to win the match. There was hope for India.

Boring tournament

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Cricket World Cup 2011 is proving to be a boring tournament. It has 14 teams and spread over 43 days. Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games are of 14-16 days. Football World Cup with 32 teams is about 32 days.

When Cricket Word Cup began in 1975 there were eight teams and four matches per day. The gap between matches was not long. In 1987 there were three matches per day. In 2011 it is one match or two matches per day with long gaps for teams in between. India played Bangladesh on 19/2/2011 and its next match against England is on 27/2/2011. In an ODI tournament a team having to wait for 5-8 days to play its next match is strange.

India and Cricket Word Cup 2011

Posted on January 22, 2011 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

India hosts Cricket Word Cup 2011. If India wins it will make history. No host country has won Cricket Word Cup. Sri Lanka was a co-host country that played semi-final and final outside Sri Lanka in 1996. India hosted Cricket Word Cup in 1987 and 1996. Both times it lost in semi-finals. Some say Indian…

Journalists and exaggerations

Posted on January 8, 2011 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Journalists are expected to report facts without exaggerations. They do not have the liberty to exaggerate. Poets and writers of fiction have the liberty to exaggerate. “De Villiers was quick to get to the ball, running Dravid out at the striker’s end by a mile.” (Aditya Iyer — Gambhir, Tendulkar keep India in hunt —…

Sunil Gavaskar and BCCI

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Sunil Gavaskar claims BCCI owes him money. BCCI disputes the claim. Sunil Gavaskar says he has not demanded dues from BCCI but has sent gentle reminders. If someone says I will pay you X and I say no and he says I will pay you X + Y and I say yes it is not a demand. The payment regards to membership of IPL Governing Council. How much was X and how much was Y? It seems X was one crore rupees per year and Y was four crore rupees per year. X was in writing. Y was promised orally by Sharad Pawar, then BCCI president. How to deliver Y was not decided because of logistics.

M. A. K. Pataudi and Ravi Shastri were also members of IPL Governing Council. When BCCI decided not to make payments to cricketer members M. A. K. Pataudi and Sunil Gavaskar chose to quit and Ravi Shastri chose to continue. How much M. A. K. Pataudi and Ravi Shastri were paid?

A Tale of Two Scams

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

After Commonwealth Games were over investigation into corruption in Commonwealth Games began by various agencies. There was lot of noise about raids. Contractors were raided. No raid on residence or office of any IOA official or minister associated with the Games.

Then Adarsh Society scam made news. Ashok Chavan, chief minister of Maharashtra, offered to resign. The scam reports exposed many ministers, bureaucrats and defence personnel. Ashok Chavanâ€™s predecessors who wanted to replace him were also exposed. Media reported about Adarsh Society and forgot about Commonwealth Games.

Rugby stadium built for Commonwealth Games at the cost of three hundred crore rupees is dismantled. Money spent on it is a waste.

http://go4quiz.com/vincent/2010/india/a-tale-of-two-scams/ ?

Shunglu Committee is an eyewash

Posted on October 26, 2010 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

On 15/10/2010 Shunglu Committee was appointed to probe into Commonwealth Games corruption. It was given 90 days time. Someone said it was cover-up. The corrupt people had two months for cover-up before Commonwealth Games and now they have three months. V. K. Shunglu was a CAG. He is out of country, no idea when he will return, may be after 90 days.

On 23/10/2010 on Big Fight on NDTV 24×7 a panellist said Shunglu Committee is an eyewash. It has no powers. Under what law it is appointed? Can it question Manmohan Singh? Can it question Sonia Gandhi? This is not the time for political correctness. Money has gone all the way to the top. Money has gone to Suresh Kalmadi, Sheila Dikshit, Jaipal Reddy. Money has gone to Manmohan Singh. Money has gone to Sonia Gandhi. A junior engineer will be punished. The panellist said that.

Fall of Lalit Modi

Posted on October 16, 2010 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Lalit Modi is wanted. He built up IPL and got lot of money for BCCI. All was well till he tweeted about Kochi IPL franchise and put Shashi Tharoor in trouble. BJP wanted Shashi Tharoor out from cabinet. Shashi Tharoor being a Congress member had to resign. If he had been a member of DMK or NCP it could have been different.
Congress would have its revenge. There was pressure on BCCI. BCCI suspended Lalit Modi. Lalit Modi was defiant. He did not quit. Court cases followed. BCCI reconstituted IPL Governing Council and Lalit Modi was out of IPL and BCCI.
Continue Reading: http://go4quiz.com/vincent/2010/india/fall-of-lalit-modi/ ?