Pranab: bring back country’s past glory in sports

KOLKATA: External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday urged the sports fraternity here to excel in their respective sporting arenas and recreate the country’s past glory in sports.

Speaking at a function to mark the release of a cricket-based documentary film “Hum Sab Ek Hain” that has been produced by the Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs, Mr. Mukherjee said: “We were world leaders in hockey not many years ago. Can we not recreate history as a nation of one billion people…I would like the sports fraternity to think and suggest to us what we need to do towards that end.”

Several well-known sports personalities including cricketers were present.

On the game of cricket and its immense popularity in the country, Mr Mukherjee said that it was more than a game, “It is a national obsession.” He recalled how the former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, had appreciated the Indian team’s World Cup win in 1983.

Mr. Mukherjee said that although as a village boy he was familiar with football, he was invited to become chairman of the Board of Control for Cricket in India about 28 years ago when he became the Finance Minister for the first time. “I took the shelter of my political mentor, Indira Gandhi, and she drove home the point [to the selectors] that I did not have the time,” he said.

Mr. Mukherjee praised a host of cricketers - starting from Sunil Gavaskar, Lala Amarnath, Kapil Dev, and Ajit Wadekar, to Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble and Mahendra Singh Dhoni - for their contribution to the game.

“Today in Dhoni, India has found a young and dynamic captain who has maintained consistency in the team’s performance,” he said.

Virender Sehwag INTERVIEW

Virender Sehwag
He does not lose sleep before a match, he does not worry about the pitch - Virender Sehwag just hums ...
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
I sing songs to keep my mind uncluttered: Sehwag
New Delhi: He does not lose sleep before a match, he does not worry about the pitch -Virender Sehwag just hums Sai Baba bhajans and Kishore Kumar songs till the bowler is about to deliver the ball.
Here is the dashing opener's simple formula for success in his own words: "I want my mind to be absolutely free while facing up to a bowler. I try to hum songs, Sai Baba bhajans and Kishore Kumar songs, especially those pictured on Amitabh Bachchan till the bowler is about to deliver.
"I then tell myself: watch it. I try to sing songs as perfectly as possible in order to keep my mind completely uncluttered," he said in an interview.
Excerpts from an interview:
Q: When you look back, do you fret about why you went for a six when you were on 294 in Multan?
A: I never look back. I have never looked back on that innings. What is gone is gone, it's over.
Q: Surely a triple century ought to mean something. Not one but 2 triple centuries?
A: They don't. Surely not as much as winning a match for your team. All of us play to win. Nothing is more thrilling than winning a match for your team.
Q: What is the most important aspect of your batting?
A: For me, the most important part of batting is my still head. I try touching my helmet with my left shoulder to keep it still. Once Sunil Gavaskar asked me to take middle or off-stump guard. And I think it has suited me. With a leg stump guard, you could be chasing a wide delivery. Or leaving a gap. With a middle-and-off stump guard, the bowler doesn't know where to pitch his stuff. If it is in stumps, you could whip it to onside. If it's outside the off-stump, he is allowing you to play your favourite shots. I always take middle stump guard.
Q: Like Tendulkar who doesn't sleep before a Test match, do you also worry about bowlers and conditions and pitch?
A: I don't. I do have an idea on whom to treat with respect and who to go after. It would surprise most to know that I never look at the wicket. Never. I don't worry about whether the pitch has grass or moisture or is flat. When I captained in South Africa (when Rahul Dravid was injured in the One-day series in 2006-2007), I looked at the wicket in the first match but not thereafter.
Q: It has been said that don't give room to Sehwag; tuck him up; don't allow him free swing; post fielders at third man and sweeper cover and bowl bouncers and you would get him. But after 66 Tests and 15 centuries, they are still trying!
A: I never hook. Only recently I tried it against James Anderson and Andrew Flintoff but it was because I saw it pretty early and knew how to keep it down. The thing is, it's impossible for a bowler to bowl six deliveries in an over which rise to chest-high. The moment a bowler errs, I pounce on him.
Q: Taking quick singles is an important part of your batting style?
A: The thing is, I am exceptionally aware about the nuances of the game. I know what's happening, who is where and how to take advantage of him in the field.
Q: Even the likes of Ajantha Mendis couldn't worry you?
A: I studied him during the Asia Cup in Pakistan. Even at non-striker's end, I kept following his methods. His style when he is bowling off-spin, googly, or pushing it through middle finger. So I have no problem in attacking him. A bowler is demoralised if he knows that a batsman has read him completely. Besides, a bowler like him keeps three of four fielders close to bat. It means there are open spaces in the field. Even a mishit can give you boundaries.
Q: You don't mind hitting against the spin. Like you did to Muttiah Muralitharan over covers?
A: Unlike the accepted norm, I find hitting against the spin more profitable. It allows one to free one's arms.
Q: Eleven consecutive scores of over 150? Sure such long innings must be a big ask on your forearms and legs?
A: I follow a very strict regimen of fitness.
Q: You feel India could be ruling the world by 2010. But we no longer have Anil Kumble?
A: Kumble was in a league of his own. It's impossible to get a bowler like him. In his absence, Harbhajan Singh is our frontline spinner. On foreign pitches, it would be three pacers and Harbhajan. So there would be added responsibility on him. He is now sufficiently experienced and one hopes he would rise to the occasion.

sportsmen

Exorbitant salaries may be under the microscope in banking, but sportsmen seem never to have had it so good. Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen shared top billing in last week's Indian Premier League (IPL) auction, each netting $1.55 million. My former team-mate Tyron Henderson, a little-known South African domestic player when he came to Middlesex two years ago, was snapped up by the Rajasthan Royals for $650,000.
But don't be fooled: the downturn will bite in sport, too. The IPL is a special case because much of its treasure chest was stashed away before the recession. Among the rank and file professional sports teams, sponsorship is getting harder to come by. And just ask Boris Johnson or Tessa Jowell how it is shaping up for the 2012 London Olympics.
Ironically, some money draining out of sport might be a cause for rejoicing. The sports industry – itself an uncomfortable phrase – has always had a complex relationship with money because the product revolves around human beings. It isn't like selling bars of soap or luxury cars. If "the market" collapses, far from sport imploding, you might be left with the essence of the thing itself.
Economic downturns have often prompted sport's most elevating narratives. In the mid-1930s, with the Depression at its bleakest, America became transfixed by a racehorse that had long been written off as too small and lacking guts. Seabiscuit, of course, conquered the racing world and captured American hearts. To many, he wasn't just any old horse running round the track – he was the underdog spirit brought to life. Americans did not respond to Seabiscuit despite the Depression but because of it.
And in 1947, as the world recovered from war, cricket and baseball, as if by intuitive genius, provided two of their greatest stories. At Lord's, Denis Compton, whose carefree glamour was the perfect antidote for grey times, danced and smiled his way to 18 first class centuries in one season. Meanwhile in America, Jackie Robinson, born in Georgia to a family of sharecroppers, became the first black man to play major league baseball, overcoming constant abuse and death threats to be named Rookie of the Year.
Resilience is at the heart of sport's appeal. It is not a house of cards, built on credit default swaps and the fickle winds of financial confidence, and it matters more than ever when the need for distraction and inspiration is greatest. That is the market sport should serve.
Today's crisis is, then, a moment to take stock, to re-evaluate our priorities. What is sport for, and what must we do to protect its specialness? One early lesson of this recession is that for too long we have been in thrall to the money-men. The free market has done a great deal for sport, especially in allowing athletes to command good salaries. But there is an appropriate balance in everything. Sports administrators need to consider the long view, not simply indulge a short-term rush to raid coffers that may well be drying up.
It is salutary warning that America, usually far more capitalist in tooth and claw, has long practised a redistribution of wealth in its sporting leagues. Not only does money flow from the richest teams to the poorest – so too does talent. The "draft pick", the new intake of graduate players coming into the National Basketball Association and the National Football League, is structured to give last season's worst teams the first picks. Compare the Premier League, where no such restrictions exist. Not only do the big teams buy up all the playing talent, but a great club like Liverpool can become a pawn in the egotistical battle of feuding billionaires.
The US system of competitive equipoise, as they call it, is far from perfect. One structural demand is that all professional players in basketball and football must go to university. Sadly, the result is an industry of bogus degrees, not a league full of Renaissance scholar-athletes.
But the inequalities within English sporting leagues are mirrored by the problem of English sport's declining social base. Last year's "Olympic triumph", when Britain's medals were predominantly in the heavily subsidized disciplines of cycling and sailing, shouldn't mask how hard it is for many schoolchildren to get any access to proper games fields or decent coaching.
If winning becomes too obviously a matter of which teams have most money, which players are most privileged, it's as if a magician had shown you his book of tricks. We want sport to have a narrative we can believe in. But questions like these – who had access to this field, and were others unfairly left behind? – provide a prequel to the story we are watching in the stadium. Sponsorship and advertising give sport its corporate gloss, but its real engine is the story of one man's struggle against the other – and against the odds. And those odds cannot be insurmountable.
The lesson to take from the "recession-proof" IPL auction is counterintuitive: invest in grass-roots sport now, while we can. Tomorrow, it might be too late.

Rodriguez Tested Positive for Steroids, Sports Illustrated Says

By Bob Bensch
Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003 while a member of the Texas Rangers, Sports Illustrated reported on its Web site, citing four unidentified people familiar with the results.
Rodriguez, who now plays for the New York Yankees, was among 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball’s 2003 survey testing, Sports Illustrated said.
He declined to comment to Sports Illustrated when asked about the report. Rodriguez won the first of his three American League Most Valuable Player Awards and led the major leagues in home runs in 2003, when he was playing shortstop. He’s due to make $32 million in 2009, more than any other baseball player.
“I am just shocked,” former Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin said on MLB Network. “It’s just very disappointing. What he has done on the field, he’s a tremendous player. It certainly changes my view on some of his accomplishments.”
The report comes as Barry Bonds, the baseball’s career home-run leader, prepares for a March 2 trial on charges he lied to a grand jury about using performance-enhancing drugs. Steroids testimony to Congress from Roger Clemens, a seven-time winner of the Cy Young Award as his league’s best pitcher, is being investigated by a grand jury to determine whether there is probable cause to indict him on perjury charges.
Players union general council Michael Weiner had no immediate comment. Yankees spokesman Michael Margolis declined to comment. Scott Boras, Rodriguez’s agent, didn’t immediately return telephone or e-mail messages for comment, while Rangers spokesman John Blake said the club had no comment.
Survey Tests
The 2003 anonymous tests were done to determine whether there was a need for more complete testing. As part of the agreement to conduct the tests, players who had positive results can’t be punished.
Baseball and the players union agreed in 2002 to the sport’s first plan to randomly test players for illegal steroids the following season. The two sides then agreed in 2005 on a new policy that included penalties for first-time steroids offenders.
“Because the survey testing that took place in 2003 was intended to be non-disciplinary and anonymous, we cannot make any comment on the accuracy of the report,” Rob Manfred, MLB vice president of labor relations, said in a statement.
“Any allegations of tipping that took place under prior iterations of the program is of grave concern to Major League Baseball,” he added.
Mitchell Report
Former U.S. Senator George Mitchell released a 311-page report on doping in baseball in December 2007 listing more than 70 current and former players, including Clemens. Rodriguez wasn’t named.
Rodriguez said in an interview with “60 Minutes” four days later that he never used steroids or human-growth hormone.
“I just hope this is an isolated thing, maybe he tried it,” former Yankees coachLarry Bowa, currently with the Los Angeles Dodgers, said on the MLB Network. “I know Alex and right now I feel sorry for him. If he did it, he has to face the music.”
12th in Homers
Rodriguez, 33, ranks 12th in major-league history with 553 home runs over his 15-year career. A 12-time All-Star, he signed a record 10-year, $275 million contract with the Yankees in December 2007.
Rodriguez was the first overall pick in the 1993 draft by Seattle and made his major-league debut the following year at the age of 18. In his first full season in the majors in 1996, he led the AL with a .358 batting average and 141 runs, while hitting 36 homers and driving in 123.
He became a free agent after the 2000 season and signed a 10-year, $250 million contract with the Texas Rangers, at the time the most lucrative deal in sports history. In his first season with the Rangers, he set a club record with 52 homers and 133 runs scored.
Rodriguez captured his first MVP award in 2003 after tying for the major-league lead with 47 homers, driving in 118 runs, scoring 124 runs and batting .298. It was to be his last season with the club, and he was traded to New York in February 2004.
Move to Third
Rodriguez cleared the way for the trade by agreeing to move to third base with Derek Jeter already at shortstop for the Yankees. During his first season, he became the youngest player to reach 350 homers and third-youngest to top 1,000 RBI.
He won the MVP again in 2005 and 2007. Following the 2007 season, he exercised an option to cancel out the remainder of his contract to become a free agent, before signing a new deal to stay in New York.
Former Yankees manager Joe Torre criticized Rodriguez last month in his new book, saying his addition to the team put a strain on the clubhouse. He also said Rodriguez was known as “A-Fraud” rather than his “A-Rod” nickname by his teammates and was obsessed by a rivalry with Jeter.