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Finally, hope for Indian boxing Age of youth Rahul Dravid (left) and Sourav Ganguly have been left out of the ODI squad for the tri-series and Asia Cup No mercy for Maria
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The Euro ’08, football’s biggest tournament after the World Cup, begins in Austria and Switzerland today.
Vaibhav Sharma looks at the teams and the players who might make a difference
Bill Shankly, the legendary Liverpool manager had once said, “Football is not a matter of life and death, it is more than that". The famous remark has been used once too often to describe the sentiment shared by football fanatics all over the world. After a grueling domestic season, European national teams are set to challenge for the UEFA Euro Championship in Austria and Switzerland. Arguably the biggest football tournament after the World Cup, the Euro is set to test the mettle of some of the existing stars and has the ability to produce many more of them for the future. Defending champions Greece seem to have lost a bit of the grit that coated their defensive display in the last edition and start as underdogs at best. But the fact that they were not among hot favourites even last time might make them feel content with the way things are.
On the other hand, world champions Italy, despite the injury to Fabio Cannavaro, will be quietly confident of doing what the '98 World Cup-winning team of France did at the Euro 2000. The Maldini's and Nesta's might have retired, but the current Italian outfit still has a stomach for a fight as they had shown in the World Cup. France were edged, or rather head-butted, by the Italians for the World Cup. Now might be there chance for revenge. With the likes of Thierry Henry, Karim Benzema and Frank Ribery in their ranks, they surely are an attacking force no team can dare to hold in slight. The only concern might be the injury-scare to captain Patrick Viera, although Mathieu Flamini is an able replacement as he makes up with his hard work, what he might concede with his size. It has been a remarkable year for Portugese winger Cristiano Ronaldo. But an international event of this magnitude has eluded him and his extremely talented outfit in the recent past. He, along with the likes of Ricardo Quaresma and Deco will be desperate to get their bite at European history.
Football’s most talented under-achievers, Spain and the Netherlands are set to make use of the abundant talent that lies at their disposal. Spain has the terrific Fernando Torres along with David Villa upfront and a mid-field studded with stars like Alonso and Cesc Fabregas. Cesc who is only 20, has made the world take notice of his ability in the mid-field with precision-laden passing and immaculate ball control in his time at Arseanl. The Netherlands missed their chances when the likes of Kluivert and Bergkamp were around but even now they do have world-class players like Robin van Persie and Van der Vaart. Ryan Babel will be missing out due to an injury. Croatia had stunned the world of football when they beat England in the Euro qualifiers. But with their ace striker Eduardo injured, they will be back to the drawing board. The same goes for Czech Republic. They miss their captain Tomas Rosicky due to injury and the attack will be headed by tried and probably tired, Jan Koller and Milan Baros. They do have Petr Chech to make their goal “safer than Fort Knox”. The Germans have been there and there abouts in all major tournaments. They have abundant talent and the likes of Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose and Sebastian Schweinsteiger can be a handful for any defence on their day. With Christoph Metzelder, Michael Ballack and Kevin Kuranyi they might be the dark horses. The other teams in the fray are Russia, Poland, Turkey, Romania, Switzerland and co-hosts Austria. While major upsets are part of all big tournaments, for the Euro '08, one has to watch out for teams like Croatia. The other usual suspects apart from France and Italy are Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal. All in all, the players will not be walking on to the field with mind boggling wages in mind, but only national pride. This is the stage for them to show that while they earn billions playing for the clubs, their commitment is higher playing for the country as they try and earn respect as well. Euro History
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Finally, hope for Indian boxing Vijender Singh has made his mark, in the world of Asian boxing, time and again. He has already qualified for the Olympics and is also among the brighter prospects for Indian boxing's hopes to earn a medal. In the recently concluded President's Cup boxing tournament, Vijender had to contend with a bronze after going down to Thailand's Angkhan Chomphuphu in a controversial semifinal bout in Sinjhuang City, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan). Vijender lost 10-14 to Chomphuphu even as the Indian team complained about the "unfair" tactics of the opponent. Angkhan got two warnings during the bout for constant blocking and evasion. The Indian team did not take it lightly, registering a complaint with AIBA president Ching-Kuo Wu. Vijender, a bronze medallist of the Doha Asian Games, had beaten Olympic champion Bakhtiyar Artyev in the quarterfinals to make it to the last four and was the favourite to win the title-bout. Vijender fought neck and neck and trailed by one point for two rounds before Angkhan took the bout away in the last couple of rounds. Four other Indian pugilists had bowed out at different stages of the event, which was being competed only by Olympic qualified boxers. Earlier, in a stunning display, Vijender had shocked the reigning Olympic champion Bakhtiyar Artayev of Kazakhstan to move in to the semifinal. Vijender led throughout the four rounds defeating Artayev 12-7 in the quarterfinals. The Kazakh failed to match Vijender's lightening fast straight punches and jabs as the Arjun awardee avenged his defeat that Artayev had handed him in the 2006 Doha Asiad semifinals. The morale of the Indian middleweight pugilist would be high after this win as a couple of years ago, he also defeated Olympic Welterweight bronze medalist Kim Jung Joo of Korea in an exhibition match in New Delhi. With the victory over the Kazakh, Vijender, who will represent India in Beijing Olympics, was assured of a medal. The other Indians in the fray had a disappointing outing as A.L. Lakra lost to Dmytro Bulenkov of Ukraine in the opening round of the 57 kg category while Jitender went down to Yunusov Anvar of Tajikistan. A total of 126 boxers from 26 countries were competing across the 11 weight categories in the AIBA President's Cup. Dinesh Kumar was out-punched 8-24 by reigning world champion Abbos Atoeve in the second round of 81kg category leaving Vijender the lone Indian challenger in the Cup in Sinjhuang City. Dinesh, who had got a bye in the opening round, proved no match for his Uzbek opponent in the lopsided bout. Vijender, who hails from Bhiwani is a strong character and one can expect him to work harder after this defeat. The controversial nature of his loss might make him think of what could have been, but he also knows that with the Olympics just around the corner, there is absolutely no time to sit and ponder. The pugilist knows that for a country as big as India, we have been starved of any glory at the Olympics ever since hockey departed from the center-stage. This should give him an impetus in putting in his umpteen effort to be upto his very best when he leaves for the Olympics in a couple of months.
— Agencies |
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Age of youth After twenty20 cricket, its time for some longer version of the game. The one-dayers, once considered to be the fastest form of cricket, have become a long 50-over game in common parlance. Still the fans who relish the game will be looking forward to the India-Pakistan-Bangladesh tri-series beginning on Sunday. The most interesting part of the series will be the renewal of the rivalry between archrivals India and Pakistan after more than six months. The two neighbours, where cricket is part of life, had last played each other in November 2007 and India won the five-match series 3-2. India have maintained the young character of the team with senior players, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, missing the cut. Two youngsters — Yusuf Pathan, a right-hand batsman, and Pragyan Ojha, a left-arm spinner, will debut in the ODI’s in the series. The inclusion of Yusuf was on expected lines after his stand-out performances for the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League. He had scored 334 runs at 27.83 from 13 innings with three fifties, and recorded the fastest half-century of the twenty20 tournament: off 21 balls against the Deccan Chargers. He also took five wickets at 41.60 with his offspin. Ojha was an exceptions in an otherwise lacklustre performance by his team, Deccan Chargers, who lost 12 off their 14 matches. He took 11 wickets at 25.81, and his best figures were 2 for 18 in their IPL opener against the Kolkata Knight Riders. However, Ojha was picked not only for his performance in the IPL. He came into the limelight last August when he picked up 22 wickets in India A’s tour of Kenya, including 9 for 85 in a three-day fixture that India won by an innings and 87 runs. He also made a mark in the league stage of the 2006-07 Ranji Trophy by scalping 29 wickets at 19.89 in six games for Hyderabad and ended up among the top 10 bowlers. Though it will be a different ball game in the 50-over game, but their exceptional performances in the IPL will surely boost their confidence helping them to create a niche in this format of the game too. India will miss Sachin Tendulkar as he has aggravated his groin injury. However, heavyweights like skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag will be a threat to the bowlers and they would be ably supported by in-form youngsters like Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina in setting imposing targets for the opposition. On the bowling front, lanky Ishant Sharma and S. Sreesanth will head the pace battery and look to provide the team with early breakthroughs. An upbeat Piyush Chawla will surely be looking forward to take his IPL form to Dhaka. On the other hand Pakistan have stuck largely with the tried and tested in a 16-man squad led by Shoiab Malik. Bangladesh have dropped four players from the squad that had toured Pakistan. Mohammad Ashraful will lead his side with Mashrafe Mortaza as his deputy. This tri-series carries more weight as the winner here will have the psychological advantage in the Asia Cup, scheduled to be held in Pakistan between June 24 and July 6. |
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No mercy for Maria The crowd here are never reluctant to make their feelings known, even if the reasons for their sympathies are sometimes less than clear. They do not like what they see as arrogance or bad sportsmanship, but on occasions just being rich, beautiful, successful and American or sounding like one can be enough to earn their contempt. They must have thought the former Wimbledon champion fitted the bill on a lot of these counts. Sharapova’s shrieking did not endear her to the spectators, who also whistled their disapproval if she queried a line call. At the end she left in haste without acknowledging the crowd, which also seemed to contribute to the booing. Twelve months ago the Parisian public had given her a similarly hard time. On that occasion Sharapova said that it was “tough playing tennis and being Mother Theresa at the same time” after she was booed for changing rackets in the middle of a game against Patty Schnyder and for acing the Swiss when she was holding up her hand to indicate she was not ready. “I can’t please everyone,” Sharapova said. “It’s not in my job description. I’m an athlete. I go out there and fight my heart out”. By arrangement with The Independent
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Ivninderpal Singh
Do not try talking to Maria Sharapova about the joys of Paris in the spring. Not only did the 21-year-old Russian suffer a bruising 6-7, 7-6, 6-2 defeat at the French Open but she also left Court Suzanne Lenglen to the sound of boos and jeers.