A #YehBhiMauka Moment for the “Other” Indian Sports

India has played a variety of sports since its Independence and gained prominence in many of them in various international competitions. However, in recent times, other sports have taken a very conspicuous back seat to the loud, boisterous and very heavily financed game of cricket.

India as a Sporting Disaster became even more prominent last year with its exclusion from the Olympics. However, with multiple gains in various games by the national teams, India seems to be taking its game to the next level once again. But as usual, these games aren’t getting much mileage and that is very disappointing from a nation that probably plays every game except rugby.

Here is why Indians have cause to celebrate its “Other” games:

The Men’s Hockey team is in the World League

The Indian team has already qualified for the Rio Olympics by winning the Asian games gold medal in 2014. Now they are going to play in the penultimate round of the World league and they still cannot garner the kind of support they should expect from their own nation. Let’s support them now and in the Olympics for they do bear the flag of the nation on their jersey and in their hearts.

Three Badminton Players are ranked in the Top 10

Olympic bronze medallist, Saina Nehwal is ranked second in the world in women’s Badminton. K Srikanth is placed third and Parupalli Kashyap is placed tenth in the men’s category. Moreover, PV Sindhu, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa are ranked in the top 20 in singles and doubles categories. If having six players from India ranking in the top 20 in various categories isn’t enough to support them, then what is?

Indian Football team is playing its 2^nd WC Qualifier

The Indian man’s football team is playing its second FIFA world cup qualifier against Oman after winning the first round against Nepal. This time, the team and management are expecting to go quite a long way and hope for the support of the country that has no expectations from the team due to their dismal past performances. In fact, no broadcaster except thenational channel acquiesced to even telecast it.

The Women’s Hockey Team is Playing in the World League

The women’s team will play the semi-final of the World league Hockey, same as the men and try to secure its spot in the final of this tournament as well as try to secure its place in the Rio Olympics, which it is yet to do. The nation needs to reminisce about Chak De India and really cheer both of its teams so that Indian Hockey can be proud to represent its nation.

#YehBhiMauka

Come on India, now is the time to Bleed Blue and support all our sports with the same vigour and spirit. Equal importance and enough motivation can work wonders. Tweet with the hash tag #YehBhiMauka to support all our sports because they too deserve your love and respect for being the champions that they are.

When Castro invited Kom to Cuba

[The retired and gravely ill former dictator ruler of Cuba, Fidel Castro, has reportedly invited the much celebrated Indian Olympian boxer Mary Kom to move to Havana, accept Cuban citizenship and represent the nation as its first woman sportsperson in the sport. This has purportedly been the result of Namibia Flores, Cuba’s only woman boxer, leaving the nation to pursue career prospects in the United States.

Will you come?

Do you think so?

In March 2014, the Cuban Sports Minister was reported saying, “What are you talking about? Women’s boxing? Women cannot do boxing! Women can run and play tennis. Boxing is a man’s game. All this is just US propaganda.” They now seem to have changed their tune.

The Indian Boxing Association is outraged and up in arms against this request by a friendly nation. Vijender Singh, eminent sportsperson, Olympic Boxer and judge-of-a-bunch-of-illiterates-on-a-crappy-television-show says, “Cuba is country? Really? They want Mary Kom? I have in pen drive. They want boxer Mary Kom? This is wrong. Bhai aisa thodi chalta hai? How can they just say they want Mary Kom? We want Mary Kom. We want medal. No, no, no, this is not possible.”

Sarbananda Sonowal, Indian Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent charge) has expressed concern over the matter. Mary Kom is an icon for the little girls of the nation. And I believe that she is very patriotic even if she is from an Eastern state. I have contacted Mr. Bhagwat to convince her to join the organization too. After that, let’s see how she goes.”]

[This is my article for the Faking News website. You can and probably should read it here: Fidel Castro invites Indian boxer Mary Kom to represent Cuba]

Note: This post has been written for Faking news. Did you notice the ‘Faking’ before the word news? That’s because this is a parody of mainstream news and is supposed to be taken in jest and humour.

Images courtesy of: Google Images.

Shame on Times Now

So what if India reached the semifinals? So what if they won every game convincingly? So what if the team won every match convincingly? So bloody what? They still LOST!!! How did they dare to lose at the semi-finals? It’s ludicrous, shameful, and absolutely wrong!

These are not the ravings of the crazy Indian fan who lost half a lakh on illegally betting on the match but a very carefully thought out strategy by the news channel with the most amount of TRPs in India and something that probably sprang up in the mind of possibly the most influential journalist in the sub-continent.

ArnabGoswami created the hash tag #ShamedInSydney after the defeat of the BCCI cricket team at the Cricket World Cup, 2015. Times Now endorsed this awesome tag because hey why not? Isn’t that what the country is going to do anyway? Start pelting the cricketers’ houses and scream abuses at them and burn their posters and effigies? Might as well make a profit out of it while the rage lasts and might as well add fuel to the fire by aggravating a country that is already deeply disappointed by its team’s loss.

Image Courtesy: Google Images.

It is disheartening to see such a mainstream media house stoop to such levels as incite the public instead of consoling them in such times and congratulating a team that has played really well after performing very badly in a series just before the World Cup.

It goes against the ethics of the broadcaster’s code as well as basic journalism. Hell! It even goes against human morality to aggravate public and turn them violent.

But, the response to this yellow and disgusting piece of journalism is one that I would not have expected from the Indian public. Thousands of people have got together on twitter to condemn the news channel for their actions and have unfollowed and/or blocked the channel on the social media site. This is a true example of the power that the public holds. India has shown this day that it is no longer the sheep that can be led where opinion leaders want them to go.

The people have also created a hash tag #ShameOnTimesNow to vent their anger at the irresponsible journalism of the channel. It is trending at this moment and is a delight like no other to see it do that.

It is the job and sacred responsibility of the media to show the truth, the whole truth, the unadulterated truth and nothing but the truth and Times Now has gone against everything in the above line and they will be punished for it.

Looks like Times Now is going to regret this one for a very long time.

Yeh Bhi Mauka

[Now when I’m sitting down to write this post, I assume that everyone who’s going to read it has seen the ‘mauka maua’ advertisements that Star Sports has come up with in the cricket world cup season. These ads have gone viral and well, in a nation that’s nuts over cricket, why wouldn’t they?

Image Courtesy: Google Images.

Its World Cup season so there’s a little bit more fervour than usual floating around especially with Dhoni becoming the only captain of the BCCI cricket team to win nine consecutive matches; one more than ‘Dada’ Ganguly. Impressive stuff! (I say BCCI and not the ‘Indian’ cricket team because the team is not sponsored by the government of India but by a private organization.)

In any case, this is not a rant about why cricket is given SO MUCH importance in this country; it is more about why football isn’t given ANY importance in this country. This nation chooses to support a supposedly national team playing for a private organization in a “World Cup” featuring just 14 teams selected out of the 106 countries that actually play the game. At the same time, it refuses to even acknowledge the existence of a ‘National Team’ that’s playing for the country in a 32-team tournament that starts out with a qualifying round that had 204 countries participating in the year 2010, making it a ‘REAL’ World Cup.

Now, India plays Nepal in the home leg of its qualifier round tomorrow and no broadcaster in the country is ready to telecast this event.]

[This is my article for the Youth Connect magazine. You can read the entire article here: India is Playing A FIFA Qualifier Tomorrow, But No TV Channel Will Broadcast It. Why?]

Go on twitter to voice your concern at no channel broadcasting football matches with the hashtag #yehbhimauka

India, a Sporting Disaster

India is a cricketing nation they say. We have had amongst the best teams in the world these past few years, especially since Dhoni took over as captain. We won a number tours, some at home and others abroad. We even won more than one world cup and maintained our standing in world rankings for some time before we had a bad spell recently. All is good and well for the Indian cricket team at the moment.

So what about other sports?

Our national team didn't qualify for the Football World Cup in Brazil.

Our players are still not getting paid for playing hockey for the nation.

Our athletes in shooting do not have enough money or facilities to practice.

Our archers borrow equipment from other countries during tournaments.

Our nation is represented by the Olympic flag since we are banned from participation.

And, we have no notable athletes in cycling, high jump, long jump, pole vault, swimming, discus throw, javelin throw and track events. Only tennis and chess are the two other games where we make what little impact we do in the international sports arena.

So why is it that we have no standing whatsoever in any other game but cricket, I wonder. Taking into consideration what I've seen happen all these years, I can only come to the conclusion that cricket is the drug that is being injected into the public to keep them occupied. That cricket is being used just like the Roman games at the Coliseum. It was a well known fact even then that an entertained populace is a satisfied and lazy populace which will keep one on the throne as long as they are entertained.

Cricket in India is not controlled by the government but by an independent body known as the Board for Control of Cricket in India. This is not a government body and does not come under anyone’s purview but the justice system of India. There is no regulation or audit by anyone and therefore the so-called ‘Indian’ cricket team actually does not even represent the nation. They play for a private organization which hires politicians and bureaucrats to enhance its political leverage.

On the other hand, almost every other outdoor game is controlled by the Government of India through the Sports Ministry. But still they are doing nothing at all to give these games and their prospective players a chance to flourish not only at the state and national, but also the international stage. Building a cricket ground in a city that already has one is alright, but building a hockey or football pitch where there are none is probably a waste of money.

Being the second largest population on the planet, we can be sure to find enough players for every sport there is and win half of them at the very least. Instead, we don’t even qualify or participate in over half of such events and get banned from the one true world championship, the Olympics. The problem is that we have the players, we have the passion, we have everything except equipment, infrastructure and funding to let our players practice and develop to the standards of the world.

To this I can only say, “Well played India, well played.”

World Cup Woes

[Football is to Brazil what cricket is to India; an obsession, almost a religion.

The opening ceremony is slated to take place on the 12th of June, 2014 and it seems that still over half the stadiums out of the total twelve are not ready to host such a major tournament. This, in spite of Brazil getting seven years to prepare; more time than any other country has received till date.

Even though the Brazilian government has put in an estimated $14 billion into this hurried program and the cities who are hosting expecting to put in some more of their funds, it is widely believed that it may already be too late for few of the cities and that FIFA might consider changing their venues altogether and in the process, shaming the host nation before the international community.]

[This is my article for the Youth Connect magazine. You can read the entire article here: FIFA 2014 Woes: Brazil Unprepared For The World Cup?]

Hang the Blundering Bowler!

The 19^th of October, 2013 was a very interesting day for Indian cricket. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli’s thunderous innings against the Australian bowlers  was brought to naught, some claim, by the lone disastrous over by Ishant Sharma, wherein he conceded around 30 runs to the opposition and thereby handed them the match on a silver platter. It was widely believed that after such an overwhelming hammering, the Aussies would simply not be able to take the match home but they managed to win it and people claim it was only and only because of one over that India had to face defeat.

I've been getting hateful (albeit hilarious) Facebook shares and Whatsapp messages from the moment the match was lost. Here are some of the things I received, displayed below for your pleasure:

This is just a fraction of what is happening to the poor guy for the past two days and if this was an important match, this poor guy would have probably be stoned by the crazy Indians who happen to get overzealous at anything that has to do with cricket. It is as if they don’t know that India also plays other games like hockey, tennis, badminton, rifle shooting, football, chess, billiards, boxing, wrestling among others. And it is not only the people, but also the national media that is giving rise to this notion that the only game worth playing in this country, is cricket. Agreed, India got thrown out of the Olympic Games and doesn't qualify for the Football World Cup but that doesn't mean that there isn't anywhere else where we don’t play at all.

It is indeed a sad state of affairs that other sports don’t even have a fighting chance to stay in the game, literally! I’m speaking with reference to what I've observed in Gujarat and it pains me immensely to say that though the government can build a number of cricket stadiums and to speak on an international stage, even introduces a new sport in Formula One racing, it cannot support the infrastructure of games that are unfortunately dying out due to its negligence. In my city, there’s hardly one football ground that’s any good and one hockey ground that’s bearable. Table tennis players, chess players, tennis players, badminton players, volleyball players all have to fend for themselves.

Shouldn't the State and Union governments take a look at other countries like Russia, China, Great Britain, Australia and the United States and at least try to reach out a helping hand to those who are trying so hard, despite such difficulties, to help players and athletes play their game?

And shouldn't the government try to get us back into the Olympics or that isn't necessary because cricket isn't a part of it?

Sometimes when I ponder upon this topic, I feel that there is truly no hope for Indian sports (except cricket of course).

The Youthfest Chronicles #3 – The Event

If you managed to read the previous two installations of this series, you’ll know that we were still hard at practice for the first stage of the competition. Now, twelve days later, finally I’ve got the chance to update you on what took place in the actual competition.

The event was scheduled to be held on the 23^rd, 24^th and 25^th of September, but due to heavy unseasonal rains, the last day of the event… and obviously my event was postponed to Sunday, the 29^th of September and so was the valedictory function. My new college had participated in around 14 events in the first stage of the competition out of which it won two, my event being one of them. It also won 2^nd place in the rally that that takes place at the beginning of the Youthfest, not unlike the Olympic unveiling ceremony.

My former college, my much loved and cherished home participated in almost every event and won in more than half of them (obviously, it always does). I was a proud man in the Youthfest this time. It was indeed special for me since I was about to participate against my former college, standing in competition against my friends and that too in more than one event. This first round of the Youthfest was especially close to my heart because I had supporters from not one but two colleges. It was very heart warming to see my former college mates sit through their events as well as mine, just to support me.  to see them clap and hoot for me as if I was still one of their own, to feel so close to home when so far, to feel their cheers through my being, to gain courage through their prompting and win and then see them cheering when I went to receive my award.

Even though I owe my allegiance to my present college, I still believe, 

“Once a Xavierite, always a Xavierite!”

The Youthfest Chronicles #2 – The Hullabaloo

It’s been about two weeks and a half that the invite for the youthfest reached our college. Since then it has been just noise and chaos in the institute, mixed with lots of excitement and tons of enthusiasm. All the professors and students alike have no time to eat or even rest, now that the youthfest is just three days away. Sometimes, things get so hectic that it feels as if our college was hosting the event. I dare not think what would be the case in that eventuality.

The college is participating in more than half of the events in the competition and that alone has sent hearts racing to give good performances and grab a number of prizes. Practice times running till late in the evenings, tired students sleeping in lectures, computers working overtime on music editing, logistics department running around for costumes and orders being placed for tea and snacks on the hour… This is the Youthfest.

This is the first time that the college is participating in so many events and so it becomes a matter of even greater importance that we perform well in our biggest youthfest participation of all time. Last time around we won in only one event and so it is highly imperative that we improve the performance of this college. Since this is a post-graduate institute, there are many previous rival contestants under one roof, many of whom will be most likely competing against their own Alma maters. It remains to be seen how they perform in that respect.

Since we have students from various fields and backgrounds, the youthfest has become a bonding catalyst where everyone, from whichever field they are, have a definite role to play in the triumph of the institute in this prestigious competition. It gladdens everyone’s hearts to see how one event can bring such camaraderie and healthy competition not only in one college but across all the educational institutes’ participation at this stage.

More on this story as it develops…

The Youthfest Chronicles #1 – The Notice

It’s that time of the year again when a multitude of college from all over the country get together to participate in what is possibly the biggest student competition in the country – The Youthfest. And this is also my excuse for not being regular to post on the blog recently.

The Youthfest is a series of competitive events much like the Olympics, but on a national and student level. Colleges from a majority of Universities send in their entries to participate in events based on art, theatre, literature, dance and music.

To participate at the national level stage though, the participants get screened about three times at different intermediate levels. Here are the levels:

Inter-College level

Inter-Zonal level

Zonal level

National level.

The first level events are hosted by a college in a city, the second level in another college wherefrom the university selects their team. The third level is hosted by a university in a university from any of the four zones of the country and the fourth level is hosted by any one of the eminent universities of the nation where the best competitors from each zone gear up for national glory.

My college received an invitation to this year’s Youthfest a week back, but the anticipation for the same was high long before that. The preparations in many colleges begin in July, though the first level competitions begin only in September. This is not only to gain the upper-hand over local competition but also a matter of pride for those institutes who advocate the all-round development of their students.

Rehearsals and practices have begun in almost all disciplines and we hope that this we can do well for our new institute. Last year this college won Gold in only one event, but this time, with the entrants in many fields, we are sure of defending our previous title as well as achieving even more of the same.

Poker Face

I stayed in my college hostel the first one and a half years out of three and it was the best time of my life. Of course we later left that place because of a rather notorious priest, but while we were there it was fun giving him sleepless nights while we wrecked havoc through the three floors of youngsters sleeping, studying, playing, and hogging in the middle of the night. Cooking with illegal water heaters, talking on the phone during study hour, reading after lights-out and jumping from one floor to another and then outside the premises of the hostel were some of the minor offences we engaged in during our stay there.

One of our favourite pastimes was playing cards. We had bought around four decks and we used to rendezvous at one room or another much like smugglers, and play till two or three in the morning. It was quite safe for us to traverse the corridors when the rector was either sleeping or not in the hostel, but if he was around, we used to sneak into rooms through window sills and balcony ledgers, risking our necks for a game of cards. Sounds stupid, but it was the only diversion we had in that mundane and rigid hostel. So, putting our bodies on the line and trying to behave like Spiderman just for the thrill of it and a lively game to pass the time was pretty OK in our books.

So it was just another boring, gloomy and wet Sunday evening in August, 2011, and the eight of us were wondering what to do except study, you know, because you don’t do THAT on a Sunday! So we decided to have a go at the cards till we managed to decide which roadside dhaba to invade for dinner.

We started around 2 pm, after an atrocious lunch at the hostel mess; where we were served ‘neck-severing’ rotis, ‘radioactive’ daal, ‘sedative-laced’ buttermilk and other “Khana bane Hathiyaar” type of food. At around 4 pm, one of us complained that he needed some tea, it was probably me. But then there was a problem, none of us wanted to pay for it; yes, we were cheapskates back then. So we decided that whoever lost the most games from then on would have to pay for everyone’s evening tea. We reached this amicable solution and started playing again. Fortunately for us, one guy lost almost all the games from that time and he got to pay for everyone’s tea and smokes, which amounted to around a hundred bucks at our favourite Kitli.

We had to pay for his dinner that night…

A Happy Coincidence

Now, just as I was wondering what to do with all the free time on my hands, I decided to go watch the ‘Rajkot City Police & Jyoti Challenge Cup’ Football Tournament 2013, where my Dad was one of the organizers. Here’s the part where the Universe said, “You want to do something? Fair enough.” It so happened that the announcer at the tournament had to leave the city in an emergency and they had no backup. This caused something just short of panic among the organizers.

Who would speak now?

Who would make the announcements?

Who would declare results?

Who would read out advertisements?

Who would entertain the public?

At that moment my Dad said to me, “Brendan, take this list of names and go make the announcements – in English AND Gujarati.”

I said, “OK.”

I went right ahead and read the whole thing off. The Gujarati speaking crowd were quite impressed, even if it’s I who say so. The organizer’s then handed over the department to me entirely and I got promoted from audience to announcer.  It was a new experience for me but challenging nonetheless since Gujarati has never been my strong suit but I think I managed it and before long I was making other announcements and issuing instructions to people on and off the ground.

On the day before the quarter-final matches were about to be played, I started a running commentary during one of the matches and fortunately for me, the people in charge loved it. That gave me a certain modicum of confidence and I started giving full-fledged commentary in three languages: English, Gujarati & Hindi. I had now been promoted from announcer to commentator. It was fun to describe the fast-paced game in all its glory. 32 teams from all over the state of Gujarat in India had gathered to play in this tournament.

It was quite the adrenaline rush to put into words the passing of the ball, the sprinting of the players, the right or wrong tackles, the marvelous headers, the venomous volleys, the searing attacks, the solids defences, the arcing clearances, the diving saves, the occasional tiffs, the fleeting injuries and the fantastic goals that were the highlights of this tournament.

At last I had found something to do that I loved. I continued my commentary till the end of the tournament and I at the organizer’s after-event meet, I was declared the official commentator for the Challenge Cup 2014. And so, April 21-28 was quite eventful for me.

Looking forward to more opportunities such as this. I wish they would come like this:

“Knock! Knock!”

“Who’s there?”

“OPPORTUNITY!”

Here’s hoping…