SLAM DUNK

For someone who never saw a bigger shop bigger than his arm's reach, it was more than just a cultural shock for the 16 year old 7'2" hoopster, finding himself amidst the Walmarts and Costcos. "When I was a child they looked at my size,” says Satnam, referring to his boyhood in the northern Indian state of Punjab and told me I’d be useless when I grew up. If only they knew how far up he would grow. He Just kept growing. His father, Balvir, is 7'3" and his grandmother stood at 6'9" tall. His father could have been easily a good basket ball player, says Satnam, but Satnam's grandfather, who stands at 6'9" disapproved, asking "who will tend the fields?"

When Justice Troy, NBA's Director of Operations in India, arrived in India last February, he had a task in hand; to search for best young talents in Basketball. For a population of over 1.2 billion, Basketball is more than just a rumour. It is restricted only to cities and towns and accessed by upper class boys by the virtue of their height and resource (read it as money) advantage. 

When Ted Frostmann, the billionaire CEO of International Management Group (IMG), tried his venture through IPL a few years ago, he was shown the door after he asked for a small share in it. Therefore, he was careful in choosing his partner in India the next time. He tied up the wealthiest man in India, Mukesh Ambani to take over sports in this country. Soon, IMG - Reliance had bought all the commercial rights for Basketball (for 30 years) and football (for 15 years).  

Satnam was definitely not planned, confessed Sam Zussman, Managing Director at the IMG Academies, but he seems to be the most promising prospect of the bunch of 29 selected from India. India, a nation four times the size of United States in terms of population and one third its size in terms of area, has no sports lineage currently outside of Cricket. India has never qualified for World Cup Football and as is currently ranked 144th by FIFA and as they say "The ranking only improves when they dont play". Just imagine if the sixteen year old goes on to play in the NBA? In a nation where more than one-seventh of the World's population live, it would be criminal to ignore its potential. 

Forstman's latest girlfriend is Indian stunner Padma Lakshmi who hosts "Top Chef". He feels the talent pool of India is huge but there is hardly anything to do in the country. His first goal is to qualify for 2022 World Cup in Qatar. However, in Basketball, he is trying to create infrastructure at the grass root level: conducting leagues, tournaments and coaching clinics. What remains to be seen is the encouragement of parents towards sports especially outside of cricket. 

Mark Twain once remarked,"So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked. India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only." It was never far from any kind of wonder in the past and it is still happening. Justice Troy left for Punjab almost immediately after his flight landed in India and he was greeted by one of the most pleasing sight for any Basketball enthusiast. The coach at the Ludhiana Basketball Academy had lined up his players in order of descending height.

6'10", 6'8", 6'7", 6'6", 6'6", all teenagers. Would you believe it?

At the front of this queue stood the towering figure, Satnam, extending his long arms to hand over a bouquet. Troy just stood there in bewilderment and almost decided to take him. While Satnam might be the tallest in Indian Sports, he is not so at his own home. He hails from Ballo Ke, a village in north Punjab having 5000 residents. Satnam is right now training under the able guidance of Andy Borman who says he is Division I prospect. 

Who knows what effect Satnam Singh Bhamara will have on Indian sports, on India itself, if he were to become the first of his countrymen to play an American professional sport? The only thing that is certain, Zussman says," is that Satnam's not going to get shorter".

A Small Step for a Long Pair of Legs!!!

:- Rakesh.S.Ranbir

Rakesh S Ranbir

SAINA OVERPOWERS CHINA

20^th of October 2012 would have passed as just any other day for any Indian, but only this time the whole badminton fraternity of the nation was celebrating something unique. The last and the most prized princess of the Wang Dynasty was finally dethroned by Saina Nehwal at the Denmark Super Series Premier. The two players had seen each other six times previously with the Chinese outclassing Saina in all of them. Not in the most convincing fashion though, but the Chinese would not have done anything more to prevent her first defeat to the Indian ace when she was already down by one set and was trailing by 7 points to 12 in the second. With an injured right knee, Saina came into the tournament with not much of a hope but as the tournament progressed it became quite evident that this 22 year old girl was here with a purpose. She finally held the much coveted and awaited trophy the next day, defeating Juliane Schenk of Germany in straight sets. It would be worthwhile to mention that Juliane had defeated Li Xuerui and Yanjiao Jiang of China before bowing down to Saina for a podium finish. Saina now has six Super Series Premier titles to her name with two of those coming this year.

This tournament unveiled quite a few surprises. The Chinese could not feature in all the finals which was quite uncharacteristic of them. They could manage to take the crown only in two disciplines, thanks to Ma Jin and her superb display of combination and drops at the net. She won the mixed doubles title teaming up with Xu Chen and defeating the All England Champions, Tantowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir. Playing with Tang Jinhua, she defeated Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahasi of Japan to take the Ladies Doubles crown. Lee Chong Wei had to struggle to win against Du Pengyu in a three setter while the Korean Men’s pair of Shin Baek Choel and Yoo Yeon Seong prevented Koo Keat Kien and Tan Boon Heong to win the Denmark Super Series Premier for the third time.

Saina was playing her first tournament after a gap of two months and was nursing a knee injury. She started her campaign beating South Korea’s Bae Yeon Ju in straight sets. It would be interesting to note that Saina avenged her defeat to the Korean in Indian Open played in April this year. In the 2^nd round, she went past Mitani Minatsu of Japan in straight sets. Denmark’s only hope in ladies singles was destroyed when World No.6, Tine Baun lost to Saina in straight sets 21-10, 21-11. Tine was probably playing her last Denmark Open.

Are the DRAGONS finally getting tamed?

:-Rakesh S Ranbir

Punching the Wrong Man

Controversial Punch: Great Britain's Freddie Evans' win over Canada's Custio Clayton is subject to an appeal

Changing one’s daily time table to watch the favourite athletes in action in Olympics seems to be catching up in India. Only this time it turned out to be more disappointing than before in the ExCel Exhibition Center for the Boxing event. Thanks to the Referee Decision Imbroglio.  It adds to the agony when one finds himself invariably at the receiving end. 

India sent the strongest ever Boxing contingent to the Olympics 2012 with a hope of getting few medals and why not? There were 8 pugilists in the fray, each qualifying in style and authority at different qualifying tournaments. With the likes of Vijender Singh, Devendro Singh, Manoj Kumar, Sumit Sangwan, Mary Kom and others, Indians were quite upbeat about the event and the medals in specific, but the result unfolded another story. While three of them had tougher opponents, the rest fought bravely only to be denied to reach a higher round for reasons better known to the judges.

While AIBA overturned the result of Indian welterweight pugilist, Vikas Krishan’s victory over American Errol Spence, India’s Manoj Kumar in the 64 kg weight category was not so lucky. He lost to the crowd favourite and home grown Thomas Stalker 16-20. India’s Sumit Sangwan seemed to be a clear winner against Yamaguchi Falcao Florentino of Brazil in light heavy weight (81kg) category, but the judges decided otherwise. He lost 14-15 to the Brazilian much to the surprise of the commentators and spectators. The BBC termed it as “Broad daylight robbery”. It would be interesting to note the Brazilian’s march to the semifinals and eventually losing out to the Gold Medalist Egor Mekhontsev of Russia. After defeating the Indian in the controversial Round of 32, the Brazilian tied up with his Chinese opponent, Meng Fanlong 17-17, only to be declared winner in the reverse count. In the quarter final, he over powered World No.1, Cuban, Julio la Cruz Peraza by 18-15. Cuban Boxing Federation did not have enough money to appeal at AIBA since it costs $500 every time an appeal is lodged. Finally justice prevailed at the semi-final when the Brazilian lost to the eventual winner in a one sided affair, 11-23. 

The BBC reported saying the matches could have been fixed. They said, “We were told $9M had been paid by Azerbaijan to the International Boxing Authorities in return for two medals”. However, the International Boxing Federation (AIBA) denied this report and any wrong doing as IOC did not find any formal evidence of cash for medals.

On 1^st of August, in the bantam weight category, Azerbaijan’s Magomed Abdulhamidov played against Satoshi Shimizu of Japan. The Japanese pugilist floored his opponent at least six times in the final round but lost the fight, much to the dismay of the crowd and the commentators. After an appeal by Japan, the decision was overturned, Magomed was out from the next round, the Japanese fighter was reinstated and the referee was sent back on the next plane to Turkmenistan. 

As if this was not enough, a few days later another Azeri, Teymur Mammadov defeated Belarusian pugilist Siarhei Karneyeu in a narrow margin. In the third round, he committed a number of “Holding” fouls but was not penalized. The decision was not upheld this time even after the appeal by Belarus.

Boxing had its fair share of scandals and accusations of match fixing. At the Seoul Olympics in 1988 when the American Boxer, Roy Jones Junior lost to his South Korean opponent, three judges were suspended amid accusations that the boxing authorities had been bribed $2M by South Korea in return for two Gold Medals.

 Siarhei Karneyeu lingered in the ring after his Olympic heavyweight loss on August 5th, crying and shaking his head in disbelief after his clutching, holding opponent was awarded a narrow decision victory. When Cuba`s Jose Larduet fell victim to a similar decision about 15 minutes later, the Belarusian Karneyeu came back up the fighters` tunnel and intercepted Larduet on the way out of the ring, holding up Larduet`s hand as the real winner. Both Karneyeu and Larduet felt cheated by their opponents` clutch-and-grab tactics in the Olympic boxing tournament Sunday night, but amateur boxing`s governing body disagreed.

There were at least a dozen more bouts where the decisions looked exactly opposite to what was witnessed by commentators and spectators but I guess I would leave it for some other day. What needs to be seen is, will it continue in Rio or Will Justice Prevail?

:- Rakesh S Ranbir

Anup inches closer

Anup Sridhar

There is something about the latest breed of Indian shuttlers. After the recent Olympic success of Saina Nehwal and Kashyap, Indian badminton is on an upbeat. It just showed its class when 22 year, unseeded Abhimanyu Singh defeated 2^nd seed Shih Kuei Chun of Chinese Taipei in the Li Ning Singapore International Series to enter into the quarter finals. The other Indian, Anup Sridhar, seeded 4th in the tournament also registered win against Chin Hsun Yang of Chinese Taipei to book a quarterfinal berth against Akira Koga of Japan. While Abhimanyu lost to Thammasin Sitthikom of Thailand in the quarters, Anup defeated his Chinese Taipei opponent to meet Thammasin in the semis to be played tomorrow. Anup has not been in his best of form owing to injury and other external factors, but this fine run will definitely do a world of good to bring him back into action. 

Pullela Gopichand has been working really hard with the entire stable and we are already witnessing the results. India has never seen such a meteoric rise in Badminton since the days of the coach himself.

Will India break the Chinese Jinx?

Abhimanyu Singh

:-Rakesh S Ranbir

Archery Ranking Round - Results

As the Archery Ranking Round took off at Lords Cricket Ground in London, spectators around the area started pouring, but much to their dismay they were not allowed inside. There was no television coverage. 

In the Men category, India finished 12th and has to play Japan in the knock out stage to clash with USA in the quarterfinals. India's Tarundeep Rai, Rahul Banerjee and Jayanta Talukdar finished 31st, 46th and 53rd respectively. Korea's Hyun Im Dong scored a mamoth 699 points taking their team total to a World Record 2087 points. 

In the Women section, however, there was some pride restored with Deepika Kumari finishing 8th in the individual section and taking the team to the 9th rank. Bombayla Devi Lashram finished 22nd in the individual and Chekrovolu Swuro finishing a disappointing 50th rank. Deepika started on a low rank but quickly made amends as the rounds progressed.

Will India get a taste of the ever elusive yellow metal?

Join me as I bring in more news...

:-Rakesh S Ranbir

Archery Schedule - Men and Women

Indian Men and Women archers start their campaign tomorrow at the Lords Cricket Ground. Pitted against the best archers of the world, Indian men will have to fight tooth and nail to get into the quarter finals. India's best bet in Men, Jayanta Talukdar and Tarundeep Rai are ranked 19th and 18th respectively. World No.1, India's Deepika Kumari should find it easy getting into the quarter final round. For a podium finish, she will have a tough competition from the Korean, Bae Bo Ki and Chinese, Yuting Fang, currently ranked no.2 and 3 respectively.

In the team competition, however, Indian will face stiff competition from the likes of USA, France and Korea.

WOMEN

MEN

All the best Team India!!!!!

Rakesh S Ranbir

Badminton Schedule - Group Stage

Indians start their campaign with the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V.Diju taking on the World No.3 and All England Champion pair of Indonesia, Liliyana Natsir and Tantowi Ahamd. It would be a tough one for the Indians as the Indonesian pair have won two super series premier title earlier this year and on an upbeat to reign their supremacy with a podium finish. Kashyap should have it easy against his Belgian opponent while Saina will have to wait for one more day to demonstrate her prowess. 

Go India Go!!!!

:-Rakesh S Ranbir