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| SPORTS & WELLNESS |
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Reckoning
with the rest Whither
West Indies? Look, the
label! Hip and
happening |
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Reckoning
with the rest
The new-look Indian cricket team, which will take on the West Indies in a one-off Twenty20 clash and then a series of five One-Dayers, might just be the thing which Indian cricket direly needs at this point of time. Why does one say so? For one, if India are to remain on top of the ICC pecking order this is the right time to develop its bench strength. Secondly, over the coming years a number of players might want to hang up their boots and now is the time to test the likely replacements. So, in a way, the forced absence of a large number of established players either due to injury or rest will probably do Indian cricket a world of good! One thought that initially the national selectors had done well to rest some of the senior Indian players, who have been on the road for months on end. But then as player after player dropped out of the squad, citing either injury or tiredness as the reason, one was encouraged to question the attitude of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which had drawn up such a demanding schedule for the players. The players did not even get time to rest after the energy-sapping World Cup win and instead jumped headlong into the IPL, which many think is more of entertainment than competitive sport. And it was during the IPL matches that the small niggles grew into major injury problems, specially for players like Gautam Gambhir, who had initially been named to lead the squad in place of the rested skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and Virender Sehwag. Sachin Tendulkar was initially not named for the One-Day series but later he pulled himself from the Test squad as well, saying that he needed to spend some time with his family. In Gambhir’s absence the task of leading India in the first segment of the West Indies tour has fallen on Suresh Raina, whom many rate as the fittest player on the Indian circuit. The rest and forced absence due to injury saw the national selectors opt for a brand new squad, with most of the players having very little experience of playing on the international stage. For Gautam Gambhir this was yet another opportunity to show that he has it in him to lead the country in the future. He had led India in the home series against New Zealand last year, where the visitors were routed 5-0 in a five-game series. The Delhi opener has also done a reasonable job while leading Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 4, but then blotted his copybook by playing for the team when not fully fit. And earlier, too, Delhi’s Virender Sehwag had pulled out of the IPL when he knew that his squad Delhi Daredevils could not qualify for the next stage of the tournament. But till that time, Sehwag was right in front, nursing his previously injured shoulder and it is only now that he has opted for surgery which will keen him out of the game, and the tour of the West Indies. Gambhir, who was the costliest player in the IPL auction this year at $ 2.4 million, sustained the injury during the World Cup final against Sri Lanka while taking a catch. He aggravated it during KKR's last IPL league game against Mumbai Indians but went on to play in a later knockout game. It is the injuries to players like Gambhir and Sehwag, players the nation needs if it hopes to do well in the West Indies in the coming tour, that raise the question: is the BCCI really concerned about the players or is it just content with filling its own coffers no matter at what cost. Having failed to get the IPL included in the annual calendar of the ICC, the BCCI is using its financial clout to ride roughshod over not only the cricket establishment but also its own players. But in its quest for money it seems to forget that without the players it would be reduced to nothing, IPL or no IPL. The clout of the IPL team owners can be gauged from the fact that while skipper Dhoni (who plays for a team where the BCCI secretary has a major stake) was rested for the one-day series, no such rest has been given to the likes of Harbhajan Singh, who has also been on the road for an equal span of time. Yuvraj Singh, who has also been part of the national squad for the entire duration that Dhoni or Sachin Tendulkar have been, has now been forced to take rest on medical grounds although he himself was fairly keen to play in the West Indies. And even if they were tired, all the rested players, including Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan, did turn out in the IPL for their respective teams. A new twist has been added to the club vs. country debate by former Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar, who has said that players should have the right to miss the tours they want but should not be selected for later series. But everybody is quiet on the issue of these replacement players being dropped even if they do well when these stars want to return to the squad, as they are bound to do in the tour of England, which follows the tour of the West Indies.
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At one time, the West Indies were the strongest team in the cricketing world, both in Tests as well as in the one-day format. But no more. They struggle to find adequate replacements for their fading stars and have to battle a huge migration from cricket to other games, notably basketball and athletics. From the mid-1970s to the early 1990s, the West Indies team ruled the cricketing world. A number of cricketers considered among the best in the world have hailed from the West Indies. Sir Garfield Sobers, Lance Gibbs, Gordon Greenidge, George Headley, Clive Lloyd, Malcolm Marshall, Andy Roberts and many more have been inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame not to forget Brian Lara and Sir Viv Richards. The West Indies have won the World Cup twice in 1975 and 1979, the ICC Champions Trophy once in 2004 and have been runners-up in the Under-19 Cricket World Cup in 2004 and the semi-finalist in the ICC World Twenty20 in 2009. The first cricket team to win the World Cup twice, their record was surpassed by four World Cup wins by Australia, and equalled by India in 2011. And as they prepare to take on a new-look India team with some of their stars missing in a one-day series, one needs to look at their recent results to know where the West Indies team stands today. Their performance in the 2011 World Cup was not impressive. Placed in Group B along with India, South Africa and England they just barely managed to go ahead to the quarterfinals, getting the better of fifth-placed Bangladesh on the basis of net run rate after being tied on points. In the quarterfinals they were handed down a comprehensive 10-wicket defeat by Pakistan. The West Indies have recently played a five-match series against a new-look Pakistan squad at home in the run-up to the series against India. They lost the first three games but then clawed back to win the last two games to end the series at 3-2 in Pakistan’s favour. What ails West Indian cricket? Everything. On and off the field, it lurches from crisis to crisis. With the players and the Cricket Board at loggerheads over issues of pay and playing conditions it is unlikely that things will improve in the immediate future. The West Indies are No 7 in the ICC Test rankings and No 8 in the ODI rankings. Senior players like Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan have been dropped amidst a lot of acrimony even though Ramnaresh Sarwan figured in the final two games against Pakistan, which the West Indies won. Gayle and Kieron Pollard, two of their best known players, figured in the IPL but could not find a place in their national squad. — AC
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Look, the
label!
"You will find the serving information listed right at the top of the nutrition facts label in any product. This is where the people are misled, because they assume the information given is for the entire product and they end up happily finishing it," Samaddar says. Explaining this, Samaddar says: "Take your regular namkeen bhujia packet. It says in a serving there are 56 calories and per serving is equal to one tablespoon or 20 gm. But if you are eating the entire packet, which is 400 gm, you will end up eating 1,120 calories!" "So, this is where reading a food label smartly is applied. A lot many people are deceived by this and it is a common problem," she adds. Water is the only true zero-calorie food that occurs naturally; so food items that label themselves as "less trans fat, less calories or zero-calories" are deceptive and misleading. "For the marketing people, they will talk about their product in such a manner that it looks appealing to the consumers. So, we can't blame them. The average consumer needs to be on guard against preservatives, added fat, colourings and calories in the label," said nutrition consultant Geetu Amarnani. Samaddar also points out that reading the calories count on the food label is just one part of the process; one also has to understand the source of these calories. "For any person who is aiming to lose weight, the best sequence is to follow a diet high on protein, then carbohydrates and then fats. But again, one has to see whether the carbohydrates are coming from simple sugar or complex sugar?" she says. "Complex sugar takes time to be absorbed by the body, whereas simple sugar is absorbed quickly, hence one puts on weight. Well, we don't expect people to know so much complexities, but one has to know these things as our nation is battling obesity," she adds. So, how can one get educated on this? "While you meet a nutritionist, don't just ask them about diet plans or what to eat, insist on knowing how to read food labels," she said. VLCC Health Care Ltd's head of preventive health care Anju Ghei says while one shouldn't avoid outside food altogether, knowing what you are eating is vital. "We believe fitness is a state of mind and one should not count calories all the time. We educate our clients on how smartly they can choose options from the menu while dining outside as we believe one can't stay away from eating outside. "We also teach them how to read food labels, because this is from where uncounted calories come in picture," Ghei adds. — IANS
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Hip and happening
NC State biomedical engineers Dominic Farris and Gregory Sawicki said the finding could help inform the best ways of building assistive or prosthetic devices for humans, or constructing next-generation robotics. The study showed that hips generate 44 per cent of the power when people walk at a rate of 2 meters per second, with ankles contributing 39 per cent of the power. When people start running at this 2-meter-per-second rate, the ankles really kick in, providing 47 per cent of the power compared to 32 per cent for the hips. Ankles continue to provide the
most power of the three lower limb joints as running speeds increase, although
the hips begin closing the distance at faster speeds. "There seems to be a
tradeoff in power generation from hips to ankles as you make the transition from
walking to running," said Sawicki. The study has been published in Interface,
a Royal Society scientific journal. — ANI |
Abhijit
Chatterjee
Wondering
why all your gym sessions and health food are not making any difference
to your expanding waistline? The problem may be your reading skills!
Experts say that getting the true meaning of food labels and culling
precise facts from them is often the difference between flab and fit.
Ritika Samaddar, chief dietician at Max Healthcare, points out the trap
most of us fall into while reading a food label.
Researchers
at North Carolina State University have for the first time compared the role of
hips, knees and ankles for human walking and running motions. They found that
hips generate more of the power when people walk, but the ankles generate more
of the power when humans run. Knees provide approximately one-fifth or less of
walking or running power, according to the study.