Skip to main content

Indian tennis - the cast is bigger than the plot

By

The Olympics has not yet begun and we already had a thrilling episode wrt the Indian tennis team for London.   We saw the personalities come out in full colour.  Mahesh “He is a back-stabber” Bhupathi, Rohan “no one but Mahesh” Bopanna, Leander “it is all about India” Paes and Sania “I am a victim” Mirza– what a joke.  This was a soap opera playing out in the open and every actor (and atleast one dad) wanted his or her 15 minutes in the limelight.  For those who didn’t follow the story, here is one version of it
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/london-olympics-2012/news/Controversies-mark-Indian-tennis-ahead-of-Olympics/articleshow/14861893.cms

Amongst all of this, what was lost was the quality of Team India in Olympics.  We have a 39 year old and a 38 year old representing us in what is clearly a young man’s sport.   Whatever happened to the Yuki Bhambri’s of the world? I remember seeing Yuki play 4 years ago in the juniors in US open and being really impressed by him.  And what about the next Sania Mirza?  We have not seen one women’s player at the top since Sania gave us a lot to cheer 7 years ago.

With the growing economic prosperity in India combined with the fact that India had produced good players of international calibre like Vijay Amritraj, Ramesh Krishnan, Leander Paes,  Sania Mirza, etc  - we were expecting many more top Indian tennis players.   While we have seen some hope in the likes of Somdev Devvarman, the results have been largely disappointing.

There is no way India is going to medal in singles in the Olympics – that is a given.  Our best chances of medaling in doubles are with Mahesh and Bopanna – Paes and Vishnu are un-tested as a pair and neither Paes nor Sania can play a decent backhand.    Even if our players are able to perform exceedingly well and do India proud, we have a singular larger issue to contend with. 

Why is India not producing a steady crop of top tennis players?  
Reactions:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Peshawar Zalmi vs Multan Sultans - Post Match Blog.

By
The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Ain't it true. Newcomers Sultans thrash Peshawar Zalmi by 7 wickets in PSL 2018 opener sending shockwaves through the league. Being a defending champion did take a toll on Peshawar Zalmi. Not easy walking into a tournament with everyone looking at you assuming you will win.


When the Sultans came in to bat, they had an early upset when they lost the opener for a duck. With a target of 152, it took the experienced Kumara Sangakkara to set the ship on course towards the target. He was calm and composed as he has been throughout his international career. Singles and doubles. And planned boundaries. By the time he was out, caught behind, the team was fairly stable. Shoaib Malik’s captain knock along with Kieron Pollard finished the match in style.
Earlier in the day, Peshawar Zalmi came in to bat. Apart from Mohammad Hafeez’s 59, with twenty-something runs from Dwayne Smith and Darren Sammy; the rest of the batsmen barely contributed. Like I s…
Post a Comment
Read more

Editor’s Pick ( PKL)

By
Zone B match - Bengal meets Bengaluru. The Warriors and the Bulls. Wonder what the logic behind the name was. Oh well. These two teams are neck-to-neck with 22 points each. Bengaluru has played nine matches as opposed only 7 of Bengal. Which puts bengal at a better place in comparison. Bengal Warriors - Squad strength: 18 (16 Indian, 2 Overseas) Defenders –  Young Chang Ko, Ameares Mondal, Sandeep Malik, Surjeet Singh, Virender  Singh, Rahul Kumar, Shashank Wankhede Raiders – Jang Kun Lee, Maninder Singh, Deepak Narwal, Vinod Kumar, Virender Wazir Singh, Kuldeep, Anil Kumar All Rounders –  Bhupender Singh, Shrikant Tewthia, Ran Singh, Ravindra Kumavat, Vikash Bengaluru Bulls - Squad strength: 18 (16 Indian, 2 Overseas) Defenders –  Ravinder Pahal, Sachin Kumar, Navjot Singh, Pradeep Narwal, Kuldeep Singh, Mahender Singh Raiders – Rohit Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Sumit Singh, Harish Naik, Sinotharan Kanesharajah, Gurvinder Singh, Rohit, Sunil Jaipal All Rounders – Sanjay Shrestha, Ashish Kumar, Ankit…
Post a Comment
Read more

Fan Data Analytics: Key to drive sports company growth

By
Over the last several years, the buzz word in business and IT circles has been "big-data" and analytics. Many many articles and write-ups talk about them so I won't go into the details. You could get enough to last a lifetime with just the first few results of a Google search of these terms. But do you really know how it applies, specifically to a sports company?

For long, sports franchises have been one of the biggest users of analytics. Before this was a buzz word, coaches and managers have relied up numbers and finding patterns in them to drive on-field performance. Indeed, the major leagues of the world have relied on performance analytics for everything from scouting for talent to calling the action on the field of play.

But that never transcended to the off-field, more mundane but equally important task of managing the sports business. As more and more options come up vying for the fan's attention - live events, travel, other sports, TV, the Internet - the war…
3 comments
Read more