Dehra Dun seeks Brazilian boost
Jotirmay Thapliyal

HEROES OF THE PAST: Bhupinder Rawat (L) and Shyam Thapa

To help develop football in India, the Brazilians are eyeing Dehra Dun and, as a result, the city may finally regain its lost football glory.

This also might be the chance to explore its football potential that had produced all-time football greats like Shyam Thapa, Ram Bahadur, Bir Bahadur, and Bhupinder Singh Rawat.

Brazilian top flight football club Cruzeiro has expressed its willingness for a tie-up with local football promoting bodies in Dehra Dun and has proposed to constitute a football club with professional backing.

Mauro Federici of IndiaBras, representative for Cruzeiro in India, said he had high hopes from Dehra Dun which had produced some of the sport’s legends in the 70s and 80s. The region still had many avid followers of the sport.

Federici visited some football grounds in Dehra Dun, including the famous Gorkha Military Football Ground, Mahendra Ground and Pavillion Ground.

Shyam Thapa, who belonged to Dehra Dun and is a football icon in India and Nepal, had recently expressed his concern over Doonites losing interest in football. He recently apealed to the city’s football administrators to revive the golden days of Doon football.

Mauro Federici’s initiative could not have come at a more appropriate time. An avid football player himself, Federici also met District Football Association members to explore possibilities of a tie-up and he got positive feelers.

Cruzeiro’s ambitious plans include bringing in Brazilian coaches and players. It would also provide minimum wages for its players, apart from ensuring the best facilities and infrastructure of the very highest order and matching international standards.

The Brazilian company has earmarked an initial investment of Rs 1.7 crore for the project. The club aims to generate these funds through corporate sponsorship.

The District Football League, one of the oldest leagues in the country, is what survives of football in Dehra Dun.

The city still has as many as 20 active football clubs, a large number considering the overall plight of the sport in the country.

Significantly, the Brazilian club would also bring in some of its most skilful players to the club here. “Ronaldo made his beginning from Cruzeiro and the club continues to be held in high esteem among football-playing nations,” Mauro pointed out.

Few know of the city as a major soccer centre in the 1960s when it stood victorious in championships like the Durand, DCM and Rover’s Cup.

Bhupender Rawat, who still holds the distinction of scoring the highest number of goals (12 goals in six matches) in one Durand Cup (1966 edition), has also called for initiatives to promote the sport.

With this aid coming in and players being assured of substantial facilities, the sun might shine soon on football in the splendid valley of Dehra Dun.

Cuban lords of the ring
Ravi Dhaliwal

With Cuba dominating so overwhelmingly in the boxing ring in Beijing, it surely is time to provide answers to some searching questions about the magic and mystery of Cuban boxing. Cuba won eight medals — four silver and four bronze — at the Beijing Olympics.

Why is this tiny Caribbean nation regarded as the world’s boxing powerhouse? Why are Cuban boxers technically superior than others?

Boxing is taught in innumerable clubs dotting the narrow alleys of Havana. This evening after evening is the same. As the gentle light fades, a sweet chaos prevails in the city. Soft strains of Mozart pervade the air. That is till the ring is invaded by nagging coaches and cloaked fighters.

The gloves are checked, the air is punched and practice begins in earnest. Now Mozart is replaced with a different music — boxing.

Yes, the world does admit that Cubans are good boxers. In fact, they are not good but beautiful boxers. Cubans initially took advantage of East German expertise. Perhaps not directly in coaching, but in setting up comprehensive selection and training systems. Add this to the fact that children are initiated into the sport at a very early age and we may begin to find answers behind this mystique.

Cuban boxers follow a well-thought out pattern. There is much intellect to Cuban boxing. Each weight category demands a different blend of energy, caution, aggression and muscle and the Latin boys are archives material in this respect.

Modern sports science stresses greatly on the virtue of cerebral advantage: talent is not sufficient, an athlete must have the ability to grasp, and assimilate facts, and use tactics, information and advice.

The Cubans are lightening quick to disassemble an opponent. They have their technique down to the pat, follow set patterns though these patterns are interspersed with variations. They follow boxing.

Take the legendary Felix Savon who was virtually a reincarnation of Mohammad Ali. At the peak of his prowess, Savon had superior hand speed, his sinewy arms flicked in and out like a snake’s tongue, and as lethal. And rarely was he hit — for he played the ‘invisible man’, courtesy his agile footwork.

It is a shame that because of his love for his country, he could not turn professional.

Teofilo Stevenson was another Cuban legend whose sense of patriotism did not allow him to turn pro.

A final factor is stamina — the freshness of movement and commitment to dance — which most Cubans can display when the bell goes for the fourth round is enough to destroy the already fragile psyche of their opponents.

Some huff, some puff, some stumble, some duck in agonisingly slow motion but Cubans shoot lefts faster than the first round. Yes, these Cubans can dance all night, under any moon, in any ring.

The question — why are Cuban boxers hot — still remains unanswered.

Yet whenever a Cuban steps into the sanctity of the ring, he is always a favourite. For Cubans, boxing showcases the exuberance of man, it broadcasts his momentary triumph over himself and opponent, it rejoices in human spirit, it reveals the perfection of his physical self. For Cubans, boxing is a celebration of life.

Boxing keeps troubled young men off the streets, it is said. It provides them a legalised channel for their anger, it allows them to dream and to escape dismal lives. In Cuba, rich boys are rarely found in rings.

Sometimes it is better just to sit and watch and marvel at their genius.And not to think, how it happens.

Middle-order crisis
Abhijit Chatterjee

The postponement of the Champions Trophy has given the Indian team time to sort out their batting problems

The Indians, who seemed to have now recovered from the shock of losing in the final of the Asia Cup in Pakistan, might have won the one-day series (their first win in Sri Lanka in a bilateral series in 23 years) against the island nation but they did not exactly cover themselves with glory, especially the way they surrendered in the last of the five games.

And despite the Indian victory, the islanders did pose quite a few problems for the visitors which they would have to iron out.

The biggest worry for the Indians is the way their middle order collapsed time and again in all five games. But then this is a young team which can only improve with time.

Yuvraj Singh, in particular, looked clueless against Mendis, who claimed his wicket thrice in the series.

Yuvraj would do well to go back to the nets to iron out his shortcomings, specially against spinners. For a batsmen who has a reputation for having a typical ODI technique (after missing the Test series), Yuvraj looked totally out of touch in the entire series.

He is does not seem fully recovered from his knee injury, which kept him away from his customary backward point position on the field.

The other middle order batsmen, debutant S.Badrinath and Rohit Sharma looked shaky though they did play key roles in the three games that India won to wrap up the series.

Badrinath, whose debut came rather late, appeared to be a good fielder and should gel well in the team .

Rohit Sharma will have to pull up his socks if he hopes to retain his place in the squad given the fact that Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar are scheduled to return to the team once they recover from their injuries.

Suresh Raina came good and held to his No. 4 batting slot with style and class. He was one of the few players who took on Ajantha Mendis very well and was not afraid to use his feet against him.

The gain of the series was the young opener Virat Kohli. The 19-year-old player was inducted into the big league after leading India in the under-19 World Cup.

With Sehwag out of the squad, he was brought as an opener, a position he is not used to but did fairly well. The biggest plus of this Delhi lad is his fielding, which gave an advantage to the squad, especially since Yuvraj was so off-colour.

In the beginning of the series the biggest problem skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni had to face was that Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar had been rendered unfit due to injury.

But Dhoni’s confidence in young players seems to have paid off and this is the combination, with a little tweaking here and there, which should serve India well in the future.

The postponement of the Champions Trophy could not have come at a better time as far as the Indians were concerned.

The BCCI also showed some foresight by opting out of the one-day tournament, which South Africa is planning to conduct in the gap created by the postponement.

The Indians have been playing non-stop cricket now for nearly a year, and barring Dhoni (who opted out of the Test series in Sri Lanka citing fatigue), most players need a well-deserved rest.

Besides resting the players, the break from international cricket will allow them to participate in the Irani Trophy, which the BCCI plans to use as a warm-up tournament, prior to the upcoming Test series against Australia next month.

No 1 casualty: Ana Ivanovic

World number one Ana Ivanovic’s second round defeat at the hands of 188th-ranked Frenchwoman Julie Coin made it the earliest exit by a women’s top seed at the US Open since professionals joined the field in 1968. Ivanovic lost 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

She said she was not bothered by pain from a recent injury to her right thumb, attributing her poor performance more to lack of match practice.

Ivanovic, who flew to Australia before coming to New York to get treatment on her thumb, said she had totally recovered from the injury.

The 20-year-old Serbian withdrew from the Olympics because of the injury and has played little since her third-round exit at Wimbledon, struggling to retain the form that won her the French Open in June.

The top players in the WTA ranking are so close on points that Ivanovic could still keep the top spot after her early exit, depending on how the other players do in the tournament.

The four women with a chance of ousting her are Jelena Jankovic, Serena Williams, Dinara Safina and Elena Dementieva.

Among the top 10 seeds, five each in the men’s — David Ferrer (No. 4), Nikolay Davydenko (5), David Nalbandian (7), James Blake (9) and Stanislas Wawrinka (10) — and women’s — Ivanovic (1), Svetlana Kuznetsova (3), Vera Zvonareva (8), Agnieszka Radwanska (9) and Anna Chakvetadze (10) — singles have crashed out in round four or earlier in this year’s edition of the US Open.— Reuters