Sportsperson of the year 2006

"In 2006, Roger Federer played tennis better than anyone else played any other sport."

Here's the full article.

Forgive my sin

I know I'll have to repay for this sin when the account of my life is settled. It will be written in big bold red letters in the debit column: "inf", particulars: "DISLOYALTY". But I am helpless. My dedication as a Fed fan has failed the test. I have jumped the line.

Before you start forming any opinions, let me clarify that I've not joined the Nadal fanclub. I'd rather commit suicide, or better, kill him.

But for this year's US Open, I'm on Agassi's side. I sincerely hope it doesn't turn out like the Wimbledon where he was shown the door a day after I wrote a post wishing him luck.

As he takes on opponents almost half his age the only things he'll have in his favour are his will-power and the crowd. The question is, can he defeat his age, his chronic back problem and focus in spite of the emotions surrounding his last tournament before retirement and emerge truimphant against the likes of Federer and Nadal?

If he does, it'll be a fairytale ending to a fascinating career which saw him change from the long-haired, denim shorts clad, defiant and wild teenager who preferred his style of clothing over the Wimbledon to a meticulous and valiant fighter. He became tennis's first true glamour boy.

He resurrected himself from 142 ATP ranking to the top 10, toiling through tier 2 tournaments where there are no ballboys, leave alone any other facility. He pushed himself to the limits in the last year's US open quarter final to overcome James Blake. He sadly lost in the semifinal to Federer.

If he wins, it would be an effort greater than Jimmy Connors's run to the semi-final in 1991 at the age of 38. More than anything, it will be a fitting farewell to a great tennis player. I just wish he does.

French Open, British GP, FIFA World Cup

Lot of sporting action is coming up this weekend, with the French open's final showdown, the world cup's ties and the GP at Silverstone.

The French Open final between 'Fantastic Federer' and Nadal promises a lot of excitement and great tennis. I've been looking forward to this since the beginning of the tournament and all my prayers would be answered when Federer brings Nadal's clay court juggernaut to a halt. I've a gut feeling that this time it won't be another disappointment for his fans. I was favouring Ljubicic in today's semi-final. Ljubicic was good today, it's just that Nadal, I have to admit, is exceptional on clay. Exceptional, not unbeatable, as we'll see this Sunday. I missed the other semi-final where Fed turned the match on its head with a stroke of his genius. Too bad that the spectators were deprived of the action with Nalbandian pulling out.

I'm not really interested in the FIFA world cup, at least till the initial stages are on. I'll keep myself updated using Google news and Footiefox. I'm not supporting any side, not knowing much about any of them. More about the "Which Team to support?" dilemma by Apoc.

With these high profile events, Formula One has taken a backseat. Lets hope that Alonso widens his gap over Schumacher.

So, stock up all your junk food, get down on that couch, carpet, bed, floor or whatever in front of your TV and enjoy all the action.

Lara or Tendulkar?

This question comes up again and again and people argue with fervour and passion. After all their heroics on the field and careers studded with records, what matters is how high an opinion their countrymen have of them.

Tendulkar is still called Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar in India, while cricket lovers in Lara's home (Trinidad) refer to him as Brian 'Jesus' Lara.

Need I say anything more?

Cricket Commentary

I had mentioned in the previous post about the India-Pakistan cricket series in Abu Dhabi. The broadcast was only on DD and Sahara. Needless to say, the quality was pathetic. It was almost like watching glimpses of the match between commercials. The sound of the last ball of the over hitting the bat was immediately followed by some dumb DLF commercial. The commercials would go on and on you would invariably miss the first ball of the next over also. So, you had to be happy watching 4-ball overs.

That reminded me of the days when ESPN and Star Sports had the rights for most of the major cricket tournaments going on all over the globe. World Cup 1999, Champions Trophies, India's tour of Australia etc. They at least used to make sure that people don't miss out on the cricket. Their commentary and analysis team, made the cricket all the more enjoyable. Harsha Bhogle was great with all the numbers and statistics and used to raise really good points during the post match and lunch discussions. He was my personal favourite among the Indian lot. John Dykes and Alan Wilkins were also good at anchoring the analysis sessions. Among the former cricketers commentating for these channels, Boycott was the best, as many would agree. He was ruthless and precise but interesting and funny at the same time. He was entertaining without being ridiculous like Sidhu. Gavaskar was also good, though a little biased towards India. Tony Greig and Ian Chappell were good too. I can still recall Tony Greig shouting himself hoarse during the Sandstorm innings by Tendulkar at Sharjah in 1997. I never liked Ravi Shastri, Rameez Raja and Richie Benaud. Shastri's analysis and commentary had no substance, Rameez Raja was too biased towards Pakistan. He was almost like their agent. Richie Benaud is quite popular and respected as a commentator.I hear he was a star commentator for Channel 9. But I personally think, he is plain boring.

The happy ESPN Star days came to an end with Setmax winning the rights for the 2003 World Cup broadcast in India. Charu Sharma was absolutely dumb. I would've had no problems with Mandira Bedi, had she kept quiet. But thanks to the mute button, Extraa Innings was a bearable show. As if these two were not enough to drive people away from the discussions, they hired lots of former cricketers with no brains for commentary and analysis.

Today, we have Srikkanth, Manjrekar, Arun Lal, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan. All of them, bad beyond words. DD dropped lower with people like Atul Wassan and Maninder Singh. Their analysis show was called Fair and Lovely ......... (yuck! Fair & Lovely?!*#$@*), their female host knew nothing about cricket and she was not even worth watching with the TV on mute.

Hindi commentary is the ultimate torture. "Bahut hi powerful shot maraa hai, mid wicket ke upar se, bowler shocked. Behtareen shot tha, fielder ke paas koi chance nahi. Bahut hi unorthodox player hain, bowler ko poori tarah se dominate karte hain, yahi unke game ki speciality hai". If you want Hindi commentary, my advise is to put the TV on mute and switch the radio on. It is true that there are no Hindi equivalents for cricketing terms like mid wicket or gully or slip etc, but they can at least do better than this khichdi.

But with Nimbus having won the bid for TV rights for the coming years, there appears to be no light at the end of this tunnel.

Australian Open, Federer and Baghdatis

I don't know when I started watching tennis. I have faint memories of a few matches I saw on TV when I was very young.

Gabriella Sabatini was a collective favourite of the family. I remember a few of Boris Becker's matches and how he used to fall every now and then. I also recall some matches involving the extremely vocal Monica Seles. Aaji was convinced that she knew Marathi and that she was shouting "Aahey!" or "Nahiye!" while hitting the ball. But I always liked Graf more than Seles. Graf was more graceful.

As with any other sport, even with tennis I have a special liking for the underdogs in the game. I always cheer for Kenya when they are not playing against India, I was cheering right throughtout Wimbledon 2001 for the wildcard entrant Goran Ivanisevic. I was really sad when he lost 2 previous Wimbledon finals to Pete Sampras. Agassi has been one of my favourites after his comeback, maybe because he was being counted as down and out.

Over the past few years, Federer has been my favourite in mens tennis. I don't think I need say anything about Sharapova. Well, she's cute isn't she? And she has beaten the Williams sisters quite regularly, what more can I ask for?

Coming back to Federer, I just love the way he plays tennis, it comes so naturally, so easily to him. It's like he was born to play tennis. Calm, collected and immaculate with his shots.

But now I'm confused. Whom should I cheer for in this year's Australian open final? Not that my prayers really matter, but I have to take somebody's side. On one hand is Federer. On the other, there is the underdog, Baghdatis, who is on a dream run at Melbourne. Having beaten Roddick in the second round and after a brilliant comeback act against David Nalbandian in the semi final, he looks unstoppable.

May the best man win!