The Sports-India Community

The absurdity of paying an incentive of 100 Euros to the players of a national team...! Can we just have Sahara paying them directly? The IHF appears to be living in the stone ages...

I agree completely, Jay.
The IHF still treats the players like servants -- in classic colonial fashion. The treatment of Dhanraj, Ballal, etc. over the years just drives me hopping mad.

I admire Rajeev Srinivasan's writing, but marginally disagree with some of what he is saying here. Nehru was hopelessly wrong on many things, including much of his economic policy (although Indira Gandhi 1969-74 was much worse, and some of what Nehru did was essential to creating a new nation). Ther...

Wow. IHF has come alive with a terrific concept. And five foreign players per team is an astonishing idea. Finally, India are making a bid to dominate the world of hockey (the way India is now dominating cricket financially -- albeit without any of the other perks, such as determining rule changes e...

Vishal Punna figures twice in your draw list, Jay. I presume Vishal Uppal will play the qualifier, while V Punna plays Yordan Kanev (as shown on today's order of play). Punna must have been one of the last players to make it into the main draw, opening up a WC slot for Manoj or Tushar. The wildcards...

Heck, what happened to that old elan that used to result in lopsided results (like India 18 Thailand 1, if I remember right from Asiad82; or even better India 24 US 1 from the 1932 Olympics)?

Ah, that result is a relief. Barring some utterly unexpected mishap versus lowly Canada, we are headed for Athens.
Now, time to get Dhanraj back into the frame -- and to get Jugraj back to peak fitness soon...

Next week's event in Indian Wells, where qualifiers start mid-week, seemed the perfect place for LP to seek a wild-card (in my view). Unfortunately, the main draw wildcards went to the likes of Safin, Corretja, Haas...why don't these guys get their scheduling acts together? :( Perhaps LP could still...

And Vince Spadea really earned this title in Scottsdale, Arizona. He beat Wayne Arthurs, James Blake and Andy Roddick along the way -- and of course Nicholas Kiefer in the final. Great work! We're looking forward to LP too repeating his Davis Cup singles exploits on the pro circuit over the next few...

Is this an indoor event? It must still be bitingly cold all over England.

From looking at the final entry list, I would imagine that the wild cards went to Somdev DevVarman, Ajay Ramaswami, Vishal Punna and Rishi Sridhar/Manoj Mahadevan (these five did not play the qualifiers, but Rishi's name was not among the alternates so it is possible that Manoj was the lucky one to ...

Vince Spadea, who has played against Leander at the junior level and been along for the ride through the past decade -- on the Challenger circuit, frequently in the doubles arena, and of course in singles on the pro tour -- finally won his first title over the week-end. Here's the rediff story: http...

What are Arjun and Daniel's prize-money totals so far? And what is the magic number they need to attain to secure their PGA cards for next year?

What a wonderful website from the Saturday Club. It helps to have a dedicated tennis player like Jaidip Mukerjea as tournament director!

The 40-year-old Utpal Chatterjee scored 39 in the first innings and then had figures of 27-7-63-4 in the second innings of the ongoing Duleep Trophy final. This is the sort of guy who is an ornament to domestic cricket in India; with two of our key spinners injured, Utpal would be a serious contende...