Bitter medicine for the Aussie doctor Things never seem to change in Indian sport. Callous attitudes, disregard for a good player or coach, ego clashes, bad planning and many such reasons have ensured that sport in India continues to be mediocre at best.
The recent episode of Indian hockey's technical advisor Ric Charlesworth allegedly quitting his post after being fed up with the way things work in the country has hopefully made people sit up and take notice. As if failing to qualify for the Olympics was not enough for people to get serious about hockey!
Island challenge beckons Indian cricket has been on a mission over the last few years, a mission to set the record straight, to obliterate the widely-held belief that they are poor travellers, tigers at home but meek lambs abroad. Through Test victories in all countries they have visited in the last five and a half years, bar New Zealand not to mention series wins in Pakistan, England and the West Indies they have gone some distance towards establishing their credentials as one of the strongest cricketing nations going.
Women make a mark on the pool deck There was Amanda Beard, who last year posed for Playboy in an effort to change stereotypes of what it means to be strong and female, sitting for an interview last Saturday and baring her own gender bias.
Stage set for spitfire sprints With one night's quicksilver race in New York back in May, Usain Bolt altered the world sprinting equations in dramatic fashion in the Olympic year. Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell had threatened to make the race for the most coveted of athletic gold medals in Beijing a two-pronged contest but with his astonishing burst of speed that night, Bolt added a third and most exciting angle to the 100M dash.
Passive play poses danger A draw does not sound like a bad idea when a lower rated player is pitted against a higher rated one! This is good if the position is dead equal and nothing comes out of it but if a player tries to play passively without trying for any initiative in order to force a draw, then chances are that the opponent might soon wrest the initiative.
