Monthly Archives: June 2009

Viren Rasquinha – The new milestone in the road of Indian Sports!!

Viren Rasquinha Few would have really known about Viren Rasquinha, until he had been assigned as the COO of the Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) Foundation. Though the fact that he has led the Indian Hockey team to the Olympics, his newly gained position has surely brought him to the limelight.
Hailing from a country where people are more worried about their job security, this passionate player’s decision to quit the game at the age of 28 still when his playing was at good standards and join The Indian School of Business (Hyderabad) does give him a dignified impression of high maturity and ideal sportsmanship. Armed with a Management Degree this former Indian Captain does spring out to be a man full of surprises with his decision to work for the OGQ. Having founded by Prakash Padukone, Geet Sethi and Niraj Bajaj who are great personalities in the field of sports and business, OGQ aims at identifying budding talents in India and train them out for fruitful medals at 2012 Olympics. Rasquinha does want to make the people realize that earning a medal at Olympics is not like a cakewalk and the pressures and training that one has to undergo to reap the fruit of success is beyond our imagination. Working on the initial phase of fund raising, the OGQ has already spotted some talents and has started training them. Gagan Narang the current record holder in shooting, now under the OGQ, seems to give them a bright hope of gold at 2012 London Olympics. If OGQ does stand against all odds, there is a sure hope for every talent across the nation to find its place!

ICC – A lesson to learn from for Dhoni

DhoniCarrying the aspirations and dreams of millions of his fellow Indians, Dhoni should have been lot more careful about the teams coordination, strengths and weaknesses to have avoided such an embarrassing defeat at the ICC World twenty20, which surely would take ages for the captain to forget. With the fitness status of Virendar Sehwag posing a serious question to the team’s Victory Fator, the Indian team did have a rough and perplexed start. The fact that the opener failed to recover in time, did cause a serious backfire on the team. Dhoni got himself into a mess with his statement regarding the opener but he was right since it is the BCCI that normally issues a statement when a player is being rendered unfit. This created a misunderstanding between the media and the skipper thus making him the Bull’s Eye every time the team failed to perform.
The West Indians clearly exposed the weakness of the Indian Top-Order batsmen against short-pitched deliveries, thus leaving the Englishmen to exploit their weakness. The Indian batsmen who were strong at front foot drives had to set back foot every time since their weak areas were clearly out show. Moreover the inclusion of Ravindra Jadeja didn’t help much though he showed his best. Though Yuvraj held a psychological edge over Stuart Broad & company, Dhoni’s decision not to send him in earlier did reflect on the results. Having got a lesson to learn from, it’s really the time for Dhoni to realize that any captain’s cricket career cannot be a clean slate because it’s a field where things change in the blink of an eye and as a Captain he cannot afford to make even the slightest part of a mistake.

Federer proves himself once for all!!

Roger-FedererWinning the French Open this week, Roger Federer attained his utmost happiness of satisfaction and divinity, for he had won the title which had been a so hard for him to reach for, every time he made it to the championship. Having got 13 Grand Slam titles with the prestigious fact of winning five titles at Wimbledon in a row wouldn’t have made Roger this much happy had he not made it up at French Open this time. Since his first Wimbledon debut in 2003, Roger had not failed to strike past any odd that lay in his track except the French Open.
All these titles added to his incompleteness with his graph on the clay courts of French Open not striking high. But his final and victorious attempt during this match on the French soil did leave the Swiss player morally uplifted with utmost satisfaction of completing his career debut! All that he said after his victory was, “It might be the greatest victory of my career. It takes away so much pressure. Now, I can play in peace for the rest of my life”. After leaving the court in tears when he failed to tie Sampras’ record in the last Australian open, very few would’ve believed that Fed would rise again and prove himself. What adds more the astonishment is Fed didn’t win any of the tournaments in beating Nadal in the Madrid Final. Now with the victory of French Open shining over his shoulders, Roger puts the end to the debate of who’s the best ONCE FOR ALL!!

Messi marks his presence

MessiThough Lionel Messi’s five foot hung in air like an NBA star to score a goal against the Manchester United Goalkeeper Edwin Van Der Saar on May 27 did leave millions of fans open their mouth in awe, it was really a deserving but hard to believe recognition when he replaced Cristiano Ronaldo as the World’s Best Footballer. With this huge achievement which has been achievable only by great players over the years, Messi has probably placed himself in line for winning the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA World Player of the year award this year. Both the great players of the present – Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi do have many things to contrast themselves out from each other than the one single skill that makes them look alike – their pace. Though they both have emerged to be the fastest players of the present, the way they apply their pace does differ!
Ronaldo paces out in a straight line just like a bow from an arrow while Messi combines his pace with a 360-degree awareness of everything around him to skid in and out frequently to confuse the opponent with his dribbling style that comes from the oldest of the football tricks history! With his goal against Getafe two years ago, Messi has managed to repeat Maradona’s most famous goal – his second goal in quarter final of 1986 World cup, frame by frame with his similar dribbling skills. While the question, “Is Messi the opt guy for the award?”, still in debate Messi does continue to shine with his pace packed game on and on!