A Mismanaged Promise

The title may suggest this write-up as a one which instructs or tries to draw conclusions, but let me clarify that neither does this piece intend to do that nor is this penned for the sake of it.

A couple of days after the incredible night of 2^nd April 2011, India & Indians were struck by Anna Hazare and his colleagues. The support was infectious, age was no bar, job status didn’t matter and most of the 1.2 billion Indians thought this was the ‘change’ everybody wanted with the Indian system. You felt that this was the moment when fantasies could realize, India would be devoid of any black money stashed abroad and life could be different. It was euphoric, it was unprecedented, it was fantastic and it was real! Today, the media has a strong influence the way and amount of stories they cover and present; as the movement came about suddenly the media didn’t have time to prepare for it. Primetime debates were occupied by unstoppable chatter about the movement, the characters involved and the legislation desired. The support strength quickly grew from a few hundreds to a few thousands to a few millions! I liked the campaigned, believed in it, but wanted to wait and watch.

India's Olympic Dream!

Over the next fortnight or so 81 Indian athletes will compete in London, a few thousand Indians will root for them at the stadiums, and about a billion in India will have overwhelming hopes pinned up! There are reasons to believe why these 2 weeks could be the game changer for sports in India - not only do we have a the largest contingent in our history, we also have athletes with realistic medal-winning possibilities. Indian participation at the Olympics now is ‘expected’ to win medals and not ‘hope-to-do-so’, the build-up has been injury-free and there is a buzz about the contingent.

There would be a few who wouldn’t want to believe the rosy side of the story, and rightly so. India has a track record of less than a medal at an Olympic, India’s highest tally is 3 at a single edition and India has participation at only 50% events that would be organized at London. Realistically we don't have too many out of the 81 with a strong medal contention. Given India’s history at the games, there would a few who would support the athletes only once they notch up numbers on the medals tally. South Africa’s sports minister bid their contingent expecting 12 medals, we are left to wonder whether Ajay Maken would really want to predict a number.

Women's Tennis Has A Few Questions To Answer!

Gilles Simon generated quite a flutter with his seemingly outrageous comments on women’s tennis. The reaction to that statement was weighed towards opposition and rejection of what Simon had to say and propose. Serena Williams went onto win her 5^th Wimbledon which has resulted in Victoria Azarenka sitting at the pedestal on WTA rankings. In the last 5 years the numero uno ranking has fluctuated 17 times between 9 players. Out of the 21 slams during that period we have witnessed 12 different champions! During th last 5 years there have been 3 occasions when the player on the pedestal didn’t have a slam to her name. Serena Williams has won the most slams during this period with 6 titles, but managed to stay at the top of the table for only 66 weeks during the last 5 years. She has been off the number one ranking for about a year and a half now.

These are too erratic stats for a sport! Either they suggest extensive close competition or too much fluctuation; those following women’s tennis would vehemently pick the latter option. Simon’s thoughts appear sexist and outrageous for the way they were articulated, but what we can draw from it is the concern of quality tennis from the women’s circuit. If anybody is suggesting lack of effort from the women players or less work more pays kind of thing, then that demands opposition as was the case with Simon’s statement.