Life is a Game…

The biggest problem that the football referees are facing is to counter the players who dive inside the box in order to win a free kick or a penalty. Since this cannot be easily identified by the referees, there is an alarming increase in the number of divers.

The biggest and the high profile diver is the Ballon d Or winner, Cristiano Ronaldo. He earned the wrath of the media and public alike, when he orchestrated Rooney’s send-off in the 2006 world cup. He then went on to become a freelance diver and he irritated even the Manchester United fans. Another high profile diver is Chelsea’s Didier Drogba. His dives are so well timed that even the viewers are misled by it. Then imagine the spite of the refs.

But how do you justify this shameful act? Some argue that if the dive is made in such a manner that it escapes the eyes of the refs, then it is perfectly all right. But this is a lame argument and is completely against the spirit of the game. This ignominious act can be weeded out only if the rules are modified such that, the players who dive can be reprimanded after a post match analysis.

After all, if you cannot stand on your feet, get a rehab coz you might be suffering from tendinitis and for heaven’s sake don’t ruin the beauty of the game with these ludicrous dives.

We are in a modern era in which tournaments such as IPL and T20 World Cup attracts the maximum viewers and astronomical amounts of currency do all the talking. But our national game hockey, in contrast, sports a deserted look. Our national game has become extremely unpopular among the people and the media alike.

The root of this problem lies at IHF’s politics at the top level, lack of advertisements, worrying infrastructure, dearth of sponsors and to make matters worse, even the raw talents are seeking greener pastures. Every big money sponsor is directed towards cricket and even if our Hockey team wins something, due credit and coverage is not provided to them. The time has arrived to rebuild the whole system, address the priorities, find a decent sponsor and make it lucrative for the youth to take up hockey as their career – an arduous task but not beyond our reach. We have to start from the scratch.

A country’s sporting prowess is judged by the number of Olympic Medals it bags every 4 years. How can a country claim to be a superpower, if the total number of Olympic medals won by that country in the history of the Games is not even equal to China’s one year haul?

We have to go a long way and as they say it’s better late than never.

With Cricket’s oldest tournament Ashes series about to begin in a week, let’s have a glance at the glorious history behind it. It was 1883 and England had lost to Australia at their home. An Australian newspaper notoriously claimed that the English Cricket is dead and that its body would be cremated in England and the ‘ashes’ would be taken to Australia.

The stung English side started a mission to regain the trophy and thus the 1882-83 became the first Ashes test series. After winning, England were handed a small urn with the ashes of a bail (now found in the museum at the Lord’s). A replica is given to the winning captain of each series. England drew the first blood as they won 11 out of the first 12 series. But Australia has made it up with a 34-5-28 head to head record. The ‘Bodyline’ series and the ‘Invincibles’ are the two most important series in the history of Ashes.

In the 1932-33 series, Australia was formidable with Sir Don Bradman in an imperious form. The English were worried about this and they bowled with an intention to hurt the Aussies by bowling into their body. This is infamously called “The Bodyline” series. In the 1948 series, Don Bradman led Australia went through their entire tour undefeated (31 matches) and this team is called the Invincibles.

No wonder, both the teams take a great pride in winning the Ashes and even place it a notch higher than the World Cup.