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| SPORTS TRIBUNE |
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Lethal
weapon IN THE NEWS |
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‘All is not lost’ All
is not lost. We can still regain our former glory in hockey,” says three-time Olympic gold medallist Balbir Singh
Sr, even as he is dismayed at India’s dismal performance in the Champions Trophy recently. “Physical fitness is an important area in which we lag behind other top teams. There is no dearth of talent but we must exploit it fully. The results could be different if we work harder on speed, stamina and consistency of our players”, says Balbir. Born on October 10, 1924, he has been member of three Olympic gold medal-winning teams — 1948 (London), 1952 (Helsinki) and 1956 (Melbourne). Recalling the glorious days, he says with pride that he was the flagbearer of the Indian Olympic contingent at the 1952 and 1956 games. He played two matches and scored eight of the 13 goals in the 1948 Olympics. In 1952 four years later, he played three matches and scored nine of the 13 goals. In 1957, he became the first hockey player to be awarded the Padma Shri. He was also a member of the Indian team that won the silver medal at the Asian Games in 1958 and 1962. Apart from being one of the greatest centre forwards India has produced, he was also the manager of the team that won the 1975 World Cup and finished runners-up in the 1971 edition. He penned down his experiences in “The Golden Hat-Trick” published in 1977. Balbir, who retired as Director and Head of the Sports Department, Punjab, in 1982, was adjudged the “Indian Sportsman of the Century” in an opinion poll held in New Delhi Regarding contemporary hockey, Balbir says, “It is difficult to compare it with the game in our days as there used to be no physiotherapist or trainer. The infrastructure, too, was inadequate, yet the results were mind boggling”. He thinks that coaching camps should also be conducted abroad to help players get acclimatised to foreign conditions. The Indian Hockey Federation should conduct seminars from time to time involving past and present Olympians and
NIS-trained coaches and a policy be adopted for training various teams for short as well as long periods on the European pattern, suggests Balbir. In his view, these ideas, if implemented, can help India make a grand comeback in the national sport.
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Raw deal for Sourav It
is unfortunate that Sourav Ganguly has been shunted out of the team in an unceremonious way. Despite his recent lean patch, he has been a successful captain, a good run-getter and at times a breaker of partnerships with his bowling. Even in the second Test against Sri Lanka in New Delhi, his performance was satisfactory compared to a few others — he scored 40 and 39 runs and his fielding was also up to the mark. The decision on his retention or otherwise should have been taken after the series against Sri Lanka. Ganguly seems to have suffered due to the change of guard in the BCCI. His omission smacks of vindictiveness. D.K. Aggarwala,
Hoshiarpur II It goes to Sourav Ganguly’s credit that he accepted the Selection Committee’s decision not to take him in the team for the third Test against Sri Lanka at Ahmedabad. He also appealed to his fans not to disturb public life over his exclusion. Gurudev Singh Jain,
Baltana III It was shocking to know that Sourav Ganguly had been excluded from the Indian team for the third Test against Sri Lanka even though he played fairly well in the second Test. The Tribune has rightly observed in an editorial “Back to the pavilion” (December 16) that Ganguly should have been handled with grace. Ironically, he was dropped when he was regaining form. Subhash C. Taneja,
Rohtak IV Congratulations to the Indian team for winning the Delhi Test by 188 runs. The 10 wickets taken by man-of-the-match Anil Kumble shaped India’s victory. However, it was a great disappointment that despite his valiant efforts, Sourav Ganguly was dropped from the team for the third match. Rajan Malhotra,
Nurpur Hats off to Sachin Kudos to Sachin Tendulkar for breaking Sunil Gavaskar’s world record of 34 Test centuries. With his epoch-making feat, Sachin has silenced his detractors who of late had started casting aspersions on his run-making prowess in the wake of his elbow injury. He is undoubtedly a batsman par excellence who also holds the ODI world record of 38 centuries and is the only player at present to score over 10,000 runs in both versions of the game. No one from the present crop of batsmen is within striking range of Sachin’s twin world records of centuries. And he is capable of setting many more records which his contemporaries would find extremely difficult, if not impossible, to break. Future generations will look at his stupendous feats with awe and wonder. Tarsem S. Bumrah,
Batala II Sachin Tendulkar created history when he became the top century scorer with his 35th century in the first Test against Sri Lanka. He is just 32. He has already scored 38 centuries in one-dayers, besides creating so many records. Although records are meant to be broken, no batsman is likely to break his record in the next two decades. Not long ago, when he was going through a bad patch, his detractors started saying that he should be rested. He has certainly silenced them all. Pritpal Singh, Patiala |
