Of sporting greats, magical moments and unbreakable records

I’ll start with India’s national sport.

It is actually not Cricket, but Field Hockey. (Hockey is a fast paced sport including wooden sticks, rolling substitutions and miked up umpires. To my American, Canadian, Russian, Czech readers etc., this sport predates the one played with protective clothing and helmets in an ice rink with a puck).

India won the men's gold medal in seven out of eight Olympics from 1928 to 1964. After that, Astro Turfs were introduced. A recently independent country like India could not afford artificial turfs and it all went downhill from there. Considering over hundred years of Olympic history, no team (including the US Basketball team) has ever come close to that level of domination in any sport. 

Speaking of longevity at a sport, how can one forget the British rower Steve Redgrave? Five gold medals in as many Olympic games is unprecedented. Lot of factors come into play like form, health, age, desire and motivation. To be able to participate and win a medal in one Olympics is great but to be at the top of their game for 20 years and peak during Olympics is something extraordinary. 

Jan Zelezny is in the same mould as Redgrave. At 2000 Sydney Olympics, I saw the Czech javelin thrower in a match up with long-time rival Steve Backley. Each time Backley threw a challenge, Zelezny responded by throwing the javelin even further. The final was over after couple of throws. Zelezny won 3 Olympic golds to go with 3 golds at the world championships and remains a giant of the sport. 

Very rarely an athlete does something so great that their name gets associated with sporting jargon. Bob Beamon did just that by breaking the Long Jump world record by nearly two feet. In a sport where athletes are separated by centimetres and inches, you know what two feet means. 

To describe such an incredible phenomenon, the word “Beamonesque” was added to the sporting dictionary. The only other sportsman to have earned such a distinction was Donald Bradman.

Beamon’s record stood for nearly 23 years and was finally broken by Mike Powell. Powell was so tired of playing bridesmaid to the great Carl Lewis, that he went out there in 1991 and broke the one record Lewis never held in his lifetime. As Powell himself said he had to break an unbreakable record to get past the great man. 

Yuvraj Singh did something similar to Beamon and I don’t see his record being broken. In 2007, he hit Englishman Stuart Broad for 6 sixes in an over. Now you might say Sobers, Shastri and Gibbs have all done this before Yuvraj. Well, these fine players hit spinners out of the park. Broad is a fast bowler. The speed difference between a spinner and fast bowler is over 60 kilometers an hour. I don’t see any other fast bowler from top 6 test playing nation being hit for 6 sixes in an over in an international match. 

Another record which looks unbreakable is the record for the highest chase in One Day Internationals. 

I am a big Roger Federer fan and followed him for most part of his career. It goes without saying that I never liked his rivals. However, with time, one rival truly earned my respect – Nadal. His never say die attitude and ability to come back from seemingly impossible positions separated him from the rest. It was his drive, determination and hard work that enabled him to win 9 Roland Garros title, a seemingly impossible record to beat.

We all know that the only thing that stood between Federer and completing a grand slam was Nadal at Roland Garros. In 2009, Robin Soderling did the unthinkable and beat Nadal in the 4^th round. Suddenly the entire pressure was on 13 time grand slam champion Federer who was playing Tommy Haas the next day in the 4^th round.  

Haas lead by two sets and 4-3 in the third with a break point on Federer’s serve. The winner hit by Federer of Haas’s return of serve, in my opinion, must be the most pivotal of his career. Haas capitulated and lost in five sets. In the semi, Del Potro came out all guns blazing and led two sets to one before fatigue got the better of him. Federer went on to beat him in five and then take Nadal’s conqueror in four sets. That’s destiny for you.

Another magical moment happened with Goran Ivansevic at Wimbledon. After losing in three finals and forever finding Sampras in his part of the draw, Goran had given up hopes of ever getting his hands on the famous trophy. In 2001, he was awarded a wild card to play in Wimbledon. 

As destiny would have it, Sampras who was again in his side of the draw was beaten by a fresh faced Roger Federer in the 4^th round. Goran then faced an epic battle with Tim Henman in the semi-finals. He would have lost the match if rain gods had not interrupted the match. He then played a five setter against Pat Rafter in the final to win and become the only wild card to ever win a grand slam. 

Less than a year ago, Jonas Gutierrez was suffering from a serious medical condition. After making a successful recovery, he came back to play for Newcastle United and scored in the final match of the season to keep them in the premier league for another season. Although he was soon released by Newcastle, he made an endearing contribution to the club and the fans.

I hope this off season post allowed you to relive some of the greatest moments in sport. Please share your comments below.

Previous article - A matter of respect

 

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A matter of respect

Respect is slowly going out of the modern game. 

By respect, I mean respect for the club, for the fans, for the manager and for the players.

Youngsters, brainwashed by selfish football agents, are willing to switch clubs for quick money and fame. Stable players are ready to join arch rivals in the hope of ‘game time’ and ‘medals’. Former players, once celebrated, are booed by fans on their return. Players celebrate goal against their former teams. Manager’s neck seems forever on the line in the wake of unrealistic expectation from the club and fans.

A hot topic over the last few months has been Raheem Sterling and his contract saga at Liverpool. This is surprising and befuddling at the same time. Anyone who grew up in the 80’s and 90’s would give a limb to play for an institution like LFC.  So Sterling’s decision is surprising. The great season that LFC enjoyed was mainly due to the menacing presence of Luis Suarez and not due to Sterling or Sturridge or even Gerrard in his quarterback role. Sterling was “nobody” before he signed for the Merseyside club and many would suggest he is still “nobody”. They offered him an improved contract but the kid is unwilling to sign on the dotted line. This befuddles me.

Whom does he want to play for? Madrid - Even Bale is finding it tough there. Barca - Where would he fit in with the Trinity? City - Has he forgotten what good time a promising Everton youngster Jack Rodwell had at City for two years? At such a young age, why would anyone compromise guaranteed playing time and settle for time on the bench? Many good players have moved to bigger clubs in the hope of silverware and glory and all they end up doing is get a fat pay check and grow frustrated. Just recall how well Pienaar, Sidwell, Adam were doing for their clubs before making the jump to Spurs, Chelsea and Liverpool respectively?

What is common to Van Persie, Tevez, Figo, Laudrup? Other than they are/were good players and demigods at their clubs, they controversially switched to rival clubs. I just cannot understand such moves, even if these moves carried the blessing of their former manager. These guys are nothing but footballing mercenaries. Show them the money and they are willing to die for you. Club loyalty in my eyes has always been sacred.  Even if one has to part ways with a club, it should be to another club which is not a direct rival of your existing club. Go to a smaller club in the same country or go to a different country. Matt Le Tissier was chased by the who’s who of English football but decided to stay at Southampton and he was some player! Do you remember Buffon and Del Piero going to second division of Italian league with Juventus rather than opting to sign for any other club?

Players leave their clubs for various reasons. Many a times the club itself wants to get rid of them. However, the fans have no right to jeer the players on their return.  They served you well during their time here and now deserve the same respect that was once accorded to them. We have seen numerous instances of booing during this current season and I think there is no place for such behaviour. Similarly we don’t want to see antics similar to Emmanuel Adebayor’s most asinine reaction after scoring against Arsenal.

It is impossible to comprehend what was happening at Chelsea and is happening at Madrid for many years? Yes, I am hinting at the constant managerial changes. What more could Ancelloti or Grant or Di Matteo have done during their time at Chelsea? Not much. Still they were shown the door for no reason. For all his cockiness and confidence, I don’t think Mourinho will be able to stay there if he has two barren years. However, in this regard, Madrid is the mother of all clubs. Nothing is guaranteed to a Madrid manager except a piece of footballing footnote as lots of managers have found out.

 
Just as in life, most things related to football even out over a long period of time. Clubs, managers, players will go through ups and downs and all they need is for us to show is a bit of R-E-S-P-E-C-T (Aretha Franklin, huh?).


Previous article - FPL - The numbers game

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FPL - The numbers game

My first complete season of FPL has been freakish to say the least. I’ll elaborate with a very recent example. I stuck with Bolasie for weeks on end and he repaid my faith by scoring a hat-trick for Palace. Low ownership differential and I was “bubbling high”. Last weekend, I transferred Mane after having in my team for many weeks and he scored the fastest hat-trick in premier league history. It left me “absolutely low on spirits”.  One could look at stats all week long until the eyes gouge out and still end the game week looking like a fool! In other words, nothing is guaranteed.

From the very beginning, I didn’t want to let vagaries of fate decide my FPL destiny. I realised that form, class, good run, bad run, easy fixtures, tough fixtures, home records, away records, injuries, suspensions, player combinations are all interdependent variables that make or break your game week. Therefore, I authored two highly complex (supposedly ingenious!) spreadsheets over countless hours to help me with FPL. 

After the hard labour, all that I could manage after 37 weeks was the occasional dabble around the 800K mark before finally resting below 1.2 million peeved managers. When one considers that there are approximately 1.5 million “season long” active managers out of the total 3.5 million managers, one realises how poor the season has been. 

Last week, while reading this engaging interview with FPL Manager Abu Bakar Siddiq (he was World No. 2 at the time of the interview), something else caught my attention - the total points scored by the winner of FPL this season (Simon March) - he was on 2,427. 

I asked myself – why am I lagging so far behind? After all, I had fair knowledge of the game, teams and players. What can I do differently next season so that I am at least “in the race” rather than being an “also ran”? I decided on the following strategy: 

-          Zero hits (why lose those hard earned points?)

-          Limited substitutions (why sub and regret?)

-          Stick with best players (why not retain players who give the best returns over the football season?)

The third point seemed key to everything. Once you have the best players, you have fewer substitutions to make and therefore lesser hits. Virtues such as patience, wisdom and the ability to control the urge to change cannot be disregarded.

To test my theory, I checked the overall Dream Team (GW37) from the FPL website (see below). The team average is 181 points and if you consider that as the Captain’s (double) score, the overall team score comes to 2168 (1987 + 181).

Not a bad score, right? However, this team has 4 Chelsea players and therefore invalid. 

Dream team
Name	Team	Position	Points	Cost
Ivanovic	CHE	DEF	177	7.70
Terry	CHE	DEF	175	7.00
Jagielka	EVE	DEF	141	5.80
Hazard	CHE	MID	226	11.10
Sanchez	ARS	MID	202	11.50
Silva	MCI	MID	188	9.60
Fabregas	CHE	MID	165	9.20
Aguero	MCI	FWD	210	12.80
Kane	TOT	FWD	184	6.20
Austin	QPR	FWD	170	6.20
Mignolet	LIV	GLK	149	5.40
Total			1987	92.50
Captain			181
Final score			2168

I tried all the possible combinations (in the order of most points scored) and found two of them to be valid:

4-3-3 (Valid)

Name	Team	Position	Points	Cost
Ivanovic	CHE	DEF	177	7.70
Terry	CHE	DEF	175	7.00
Clyne	SOU	DEF	141	6.00
Jagielka	EVE	DEF	141	5.80
Hazard	CHE	MID	226	11.10
Sanchez	ARS	MID	202	11.50
Silva	MCI	MID	188	9.60
Aguero	MCI	FWD	210	12.80
Kane	TOT	FWD	184	6.20
Austin	QPR	FWD	170	6.20
Mignolet	LIV	GLK	149	5.40
Total			1963	89.30
Captain			178
Final score			2141

3-4-3 (Invalid)

Name	Team	Position	Points	Cost
Ivanovic	CHE	DEF	177	7.70
Terry	CHE	DEF	175	7.00
Clyne	SOU	DEF	141	6.00
Hazard	CHE	MID	226	11.10
Sanchez	ARS	MID	202	11.50
Silva	MCI	MID	188	9.60
Fabregas	CHE	MID	165	9.20
Aguero	MCI	FWD	210	12.80
Kane	TOT	FWD	184	6.20
Austin	QPR	FWD	170	6.20
Mignolet	LIV	GLK	149	5.40
Total			1987	92.70
Captain			181
Final score			2168

4-5-1 (Invalid)

Name	Team	Position	Points	Cost
Ivanovic	CHE	DEF	177	7.70
Terry	CHE	DEF	175	7.00
Clyne	SOU	DEF	141	6.00
Jagielka	EVE	DEF	141	5.80
Hazard	CHE	MID	226	11.10
Sanchez	ARS	MID	202	11.50
Silva	MCI	MID	188	9.60
Fabregas	CHE	MID	165	9.20
Henderson	LIV	MID	160	6.60
Aguero	MCI	FWD	210	12.80
Mignolet	LIV	GLK	149	5.40
Total			1934	92.70
Captain			176
Final score			2110

5-4-1 (Invalid)

Name	Team	Position	Points	Cost
Ivanovic	CHE	DEF	177	7.70
Terry	CHE	DEF	175	7.00
Clyne	SOU	DEF	141	6.00
Jagielka	EVE	DEF	141	5.80
Baines	EVE	DEF	139	7.10
Hazard	CHE	MID	226	11.10
Sanchez	ARS	MID	202	11.50
Silva	MCI	MID	188	9.60
Fabregas	CHE	MID	165	9.20
Aguero	MCI	FWD	210	12.80
Mignolet	LIV	GLK	149	5.40
Total			1913	93.20
Captain			174
Final score			2087

3-5-2 (Invalid)

Name	Team	Position	Points	Cost
Ivanovic	CHE	DEF	177	7.70
Terry	CHE	DEF	175	7.00
Clyne	SOU	DEF	141	6.00
Hazard	CHE	MID	226	11.10
Sanchez	ARS	MID	202	11.50
Silva	MCI	MID	188	9.60
Fabregas	CHE	MID	165	9.20
Henderson	LIV	MID	160	6.60
Aguero	MCI	FWD	210	12.80
Kane	TOT	FWD	184	6.20
Mignolet	LIV	GLK	149	5.40
Total			1977	93.10
Captain			180
Final score			2157

5-3-2 (Valid)

Name	Team	Position	Points	Cost
Ivanovic	CHE	DEF	177	7.70
Terry	CHE	DEF	175	7.00
Clyne	SOU	DEF	141	6.00
Jagielka	EVE	DEF	141	5.80
Baines	EVE	DEF	139	7.10
Hazard	CHE	MID	226	11.10
Sanchez	ARS	MID	202	11.50
Silva	MCI	MID	188	9.60
Aguero	MCI	FWD	210	12.80
Kane	TOT	FWD	184	6.20
Mignolet	LIV	GLK	149	5.40
Total			1932	90.20
Captain			176
Final score			2108

4-4-2 (Invalid)

Name	Team	Position	Points	Cost
Ivanovic	CHE	DEF	177	7.70
Terry	CHE	DEF	175	7.00
Clyne	SOU	DEF	141	6.00
Jagielka	EVE	DEF	141	5.80
Hazard	CHE	MID	226	11.10
Sanchez	ARS	MID	202	11.50
Silva	MCI	MID	188	9.60
Fabregas	CHE	MID	165	9.20
Aguero	MCI	FWD	210	12.80
Kane	TOT	FWD	184	6.20
Mignolet	LIV	GLK	149	5.40
Total			1958	92.30
Captain			178
Final score			2136

The two valid teams cost 89-90 million.  Substitutes should not cost more than 4 million each. All that is required is one player change from the team and then we should be able to accommodate all 15 players. 

That being said, there is no guarantee that the same set of players will shine next season but you get the point. That’s my two cents for this week – and if doesn’t work out for you next season – please forgive me (Bryan Adams, huh?).


Previous article - Glory Glory Man United - Part II

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