The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Medal mettle

The gold glut at the South Asian Games in Colombo has some value only if India is able to increase the lead over its rivals, writes Vikramdeep Johal

After their success in Colombo, much tougher challenges await squash sensation Joshna Chinappa (left) and swimming champion Lekha Kamat. — Photos by AFP/PTI

India has always bestrode the narrow world of the South Asian Games like a colossus. At every edition of the event (earlier known as the SAF Games), it has reaped a rich haul of medals, mostly gold, leaving the rivals way behind. The ongoing games in Colombo are proving to be no exception.

With India’s superiority being a foregone conclusion, are these games merely a feel-good exercise for the country? Not really — the key is to tighten its stranglehold and widen the gap separating it from other participating countries.

Any upset dents not only the player’s pride but also of the "superpower". Most of the Indian swimmers romped home winners in Colombo, some of them setting games records, but Rehan Poncha lost a gold medal to Sri Lanka’s Andrew Abeysinghe in the men’s 200m backstroke. This defeat was the only blot on India’s clean sheet in swimming (at the 2004 games in Islamabad, India’s Rahul Batra had been pipped to the post by Sri Lanka’s Conrad Anthony Francis in the 50m butterfly event).

Boxing has been India’s weak link at the South Asian Games. This time, the pugilists managed to win four gold medals, vastly improving upon their one-gold flop show in 2004, but they still finished second behind Pakistan.

Promising youngsters like swimmer Lekha Kamat, who began her international career on a resounding note in Colombo, can use their success as a springboard to put up a decent show at the Asian Games later this year.

Winning gold medals at the subcontinental level should not be an end in itself — the athletes must strive to win by big margins or even have a go at the Asian record, provided they are good enough to give it a shot.

Indian champions also have to guard against complacency. Squash gold medallist Joshna Chinappa refuses to call the South Asian Games a dress rehearsal for the Doha Asiad in December. She admits there is a vast difference in the level of competition at the two events.

It boils down to how emphatically India can stamp its authority. At the 2004 games, India had finished with 101 gold, while hosts Pakistan had stood runners-up with 42. India’s victory margin had been much higher during the 1999 games in Kathmandu, where it had bagged 102 gold, followed by Nepal with 31. It will be a Pyrrhic victory if a similar narrowing of the gap occurs this time too.

Sponsors call the shots
K.R. Wadhwaney

There is more to it than meets the eye in South Africa’s pullout of the Unitech tri-series in Sri Lanka. Security is the third reason. The first two important ones are South Africa’s indifferent performance in Tests against Sri Lanka and intense rivalry among sponsors, some of whom were hell-bent on hampering the rise of Unitech.

Rain, however, played spoilsport as the remaining two teams, India and Sri Lanka, could not play the three-match series.

The “evil” that is destroying the very fabric of cricket, once a noble game, is money, which has seeped into the system of the game worldwide. The International Cricket Council (ICC) is merely a mute spectator; a majority of its officials are wearing thick scales over their eyes. They have granted “unconstitutional liberty’ to sponsors who are meddling in every aspect.

Sponsors have more “say” in cricketing matters than officials of the ICC and affiliated boards. The sponsors’ view is: “We pay, so we have to play the piper”. The ICC only blinks instead of saying “go to hell”, as the International Olympic Council (IOC), international football federation (FIFA) and International Tennis Federation (ITF) do in dealing with “pampered” sponsors.

The role of sponsors in cricket is decisive. It is proved by the fact that they have succeeded in coercing the ICC to move out of its virtually permanent abode at Lord’s to Dubai.

Why did the ICC agree to walk out of Lord’s, known as cricket’s cathedral? Not because of love of the sport but because a majority of the officials, belonging to England, wanted to make a quick buck through TA and DA (travelling and daily allowance).

Kerry Packer introduced coloured clothing in the 1970s. Now the sponsors have forced “coloured vision”, compelling the authorities to submit to their whims and fancies. Their hold on officials, including selectors, is so strong that they manage their “product” to be on view in Tests and one-day matches. The sponsors send their trusted emissaries to “win friends and influence people who matter in selecting teams”.

Cricket has degenerated into an industry, a money-minting machine. Now it is an ocean of corruption where money talks, and talks loudly. The ICC and affiliated units are merely “money distributing agents”. Not for nothing are all cricket evils, from chucking to ball tampering and racial undercurrents, are growing rapidly.

Useful Knox
Y. Sarangi

When Australian trainer Derek Knox joined the preparatory camp of the Indian hockey team last month, one player was happy for more reasons than one.

Indian captain Dilip Tirkey was elated to see Knox, his former on-field rival, training his team. On his debut tour for the Indian team in 1994, Tirkey had played against Knox, a member of the Australian squad, in a Test series Down Under.

Tirkey said the innovative methods of training introduced by Knox, who joined the fitness camp in Bangalore on July 23, had helped to raise the fitness standard of the team members.

“He introduced us to a host of new things, some new exercises. He asked us to stretch ourselves to the limit,” Tirkey said.

“Knox taught us some strength-building exercises, put us through endurance tests and told us how to strike a balance between exercise and rest,” he added.

Tirkey admitted that Knox’s assistance has helped him regain his fitness after being out of action for several months nursing an ankle injury.

“I have gained a lot from his methods. Also, I think other players enjoyed the new things he taught us and followed these happily,” he said.

Tirkey said following a successful camp, the team was upbeat about their showing in the World Cup, which will be held at Monchengladbach, Germany, from September 6 to 17.

“The fitness camp in Bangalore was very fruitful. Thereafter, we had a skills development camp, where we focussed on hockey. Last but not least, the four matches we played in the Independence Cup in Chennai provided some valuable match practice,” he said. — PTI

Swansong time
Ivninderpal Singh

Tennis icon Andre Agassi will make his farewell appearance at the US Open

He dominated the world of tennis for 20 years through sheer talent and charisma. Shedding his bad-boy image, he not only became a much-loved player but also a role model.

Andre Agassi, one of the all-time greats of tennis, will make his farewell appearance at the US Open beginning on Monday. This will be his 21st consecutive appearance at Flushing Meadows as he has never missed this Grand Slam event since he turned pro in 1986.

Agassi is the only male player in the Open era to have won every Grand Slam singles title, the Masters, the Davis Cup and the Olympic gold medal. He is one of the five men to have won all Grand Slam titles in a career, along with Don Budge, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver and Fred Perry. He is also the only player to be ranked in the top 10 in three consecutive decades.

Son of an ethnic Armenian, Emmanuel Mike Agassi, who represented Iran in boxing at the 1948 and 1952 Olympic Games before emigrating to the USA, Agassi won his first top-level singles title in 1987 at Itaparica, Brazil, and triumphed in six tournaments in 1988. By December, 1988, he had surpassed $2 million in career prize money after playing in just 43 tournaments — the fastest ever anyone has done it.

In the early years of his career, he became a youth icon and acquired the image of a rebel. He grew his hair long like rock stars, wore colourful shirts and sported an ear-ring that pushed the still-strict sartorial boundaries of tennis. He boasted of a cheese-burger diet and endorsed the Canon Rebel camera, whose ad line was “Image is everything” — it became Agassi’s as well. His bad-boy image proved popular with corporate sponsors as well as women. Millions of dollars worth of endorsement deals rolled in and he was seen on the arm of a bevy of women.

He even chose not to play at Wimbledon from 1988 to 1990, and publicly stated that he did not wish to play there because of the event’s traditionalism, particularly its “predominantly white” dress code to which players have to conform. But it was here only that he made his Grand Slam debut in 1992.

But he shunned his rebel image in 1998 and rededicated himself to tennis. Agassi shaved his balding head just before the 1995 Australian Open and worked his way back up the rankings. Perhaps most remarkably, the one-time rebel emerged as a gracious and thoughtful player, looked up to by younger players. After winning matches, he took to bowing and blowing two-handed kisses to spectators on each side of the court — a gesture seen as a humble acknowledgement of their support for him and for tennis.

Agassi, whose singles record stands at 868-273, has won the Australian Open four times (1995, 2000, 2001, 2003), the US Open twice (1994, 1999) and Wimbledon (1992) and French Open (1999) once. In 1996, Agassi won the men’s singles gold medal at the Olympic Games in Atlanta. He is the only player besides his wife, German tennis legend Steffi Graf, to win all four Grand Slam titles and the Olympic singles gold.

He remained the subject of tabloid gossip with his much-publicised two-year marriage to Hollywood star Brooke Shields and equally written-about divorce in 1999. He again hit the headlines when he married Steffi in 2001. The high-profile pair wed on October 22, 2001, at a private ceremony in Las Vegas.

He is also known for his social activities. In 1994, he founded the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation (AACF) to provide recreational and educational opportunities for underprivileged, abused and abandoned children in Southern Nevada.

In 1997, Agassi founded the Andre Agassi Boys and Girls Club, a 25,000-sq-ft facility that features an indoor basketball court, outdoor tennis courts, a computer lab, library and a teen centre.

Ranked 59 on the Forbes list of top celebrities, Agassi will be sorely missed by tennis lovers. Though he couldn’t play in the Australian Open and French Open earlier this year due to injury and lost in the third round at Wimbledon, he surely will have something in his kitty for his final Grand Slam event.

IN THE NEWS
Too good
Mark Lamport-Stokes

Tiger Woods is by far the best golfer in the world today. — Reuters photo

Tiger Woods, by winning his 12th career Major at the 88th PGA Championship last week, has elevated his already lofty status in more ways than one.

Not only has he pulled away from everyone, barring Jack Nicklaus, in the all-time standings but he has once again distanced himself from his peers where it matters the most — in their minds.

"He’s going to be dominating whether he’s playing well or not," fellow American Shaun Micheel said after finishing second to Woods in the PGA Championship at Medinah, five strokes adrift.

"We all kind of smirk and laugh when he says he’s got his B game but that’s better than most of our A games. He’s just that good," said Micheel.

World number one Woods has won four of the last eight Majors, becoming the first player in history to win at least two of them for two years in a row.

He trails his childhood idol Nicklaus by six in career Majors but is well ahead of the Golden Bear relative to age.

Nicklaus won the 12th of his 18 major titles at the age of 33. Woods has done so four months short of his 31st birthday.

The latest victory was his third in a row on the PGA Tour, including the year’ final two Majors, and Woods believes he is on a run similar to the one that swept him to the 2000-01 "Tiger Slam" of all four major titles.

Disturbingly for his rivals, he considers himself an even better player now because of his accumulated experience.

"Mentally I’m so much better prepared now to handle situations than I was then. Physically, I feel like I’m hitting the ball extremely well."

As a child, Woods was inspired by the glittering list of records racked up by his idol Nicklaus, sticking newspaper cuttings up on his bedroom wall as a perpetual reminder.

The Nicklaus benchmark of 18 career Majors has long been his overriding target and he has now completed two-thirds of that journey.

"I’ve just got to keep plugging along and keep trying to win these things," added the American, who has claimed three more Majors than Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh combined. — Reuters