This is what we do to sportspeople with real talent and then wonder why it is that a country with over a billion people sucks so bad at winning anything in the Olympics and other world arenas.
Penury makes player sell medals! : HTTabloid.comPenury has driven a woman powerlifter from Orissa to sell all the medals she has won in national and international meets.How sad is it that at a time when worthless, corrupt politicians hoard crores of rupees in their vaults, a talented woman has to sell her awards and medals to try to finance her trip to an international sports competetion? I cannot believe there wasn’t a single organization or sponsor to help the poor woman bring pride to the country. I am just flabbergasted.The 29-year-old Mandakini Mahanta, a resident of Goladihi village in Mayurbhanj district, won a gold medal in the Asian senior powerlifting championship in Kerala in May.
“I have no option but to sell my valuable medals,” Mandakini, who is single, said.
She was selected for an international meet in London that started on Monday. But due to lack of finances, she could not participate.
update: Of course, we cannot be completely satisfied with just stopping aspiring athletes. We now have to issue a fatwa against rising tennis star Sania Mirza for the dastardly act of - get this - wearing short skirts while playing the game. Some parodies just write themselves I think - you just cannot makeup crap anymore when reality is so out there! They are even proposing an alternative to her dress…
The fatwa - in effect, a demand that she cover up - was issued by a senior cleric of the Sunni Ulema Board, a little-known group. Similar fatwas have been issued against Mirza, who comes from a devout Muslim family, but none has ever gained popular support among India’s 130 million Muslims.[emphasis mine]“The dress she wears on the tennis courts…leaves nothing to the imagination,” Haseeb-ul-hasan Siddiqui told The Hindustan Times. “She will undoubtedly be a corrupting influence.”
He said she should follow the example of Iranian women who wore long tunics and headscarves to play in the Asian Badminton Championships.
First they cut Chad Hutchinson and now Quincy? I hope Bill Parcells knows what he is doing after sending both our QBs from the last season packing…
SI.com - NFL - Cowboys cut QB Carter - Wednesday August 4, 2004 2:21PMOXNARD, Calif. (AP) — Quincy Carter was cut by the Dallas Cowboys on Wednesday, leaving the team with 40-year-old Vinny Testaverde and newcomer Drew Henson at quarterback less than six weeks until the season opener.
That ended up being some game now! What a thrilling end to an awesome second half - of course, and to imagine that this is the first time I watched a full football game in my entire life ;) Seriously, I could never really get into football before, but this game just did it for me in terms of building tension and somme superb moments. I feel terrible for the Carolina Panthers - they fought very hard and did not deserve to lose. The Patriots just deserved to win more.
As for the half-time show, my husband and I had a combined jaw-drop-to-floor moment when we saw Janet Jackson’s breast hanging out in full view - my husband kept arguing with me it must have been a plastic something and could not have been her breast, since that couldn’t be on regular TV, now could it? The poor man - he was in shock for a long time :)
The best way to express how much I loved tonight’s game? I have never missed an episode of “Survivor” in all 8 seasons so far, ever since I started watching the show sometime in the middle of the first season - tonight, I didn’t much care about the All-star season’s premier, I was that absorbed in the thrill of the football game.
I guess there are people who think animal lives are worth a lot more than human lives. Don’t get me wrong - I would probably rush into a burning house to save my four dogs - but intimidating people and threatening violence because of research is waaay too loony for me.
New activism: Up close and personal“IT’S GOING exactly the way I said it would eight years ago,” says criminal justice professor Gary Perlstein, referring to a “Mother Jones” magazine interview that looked at how the more extreme activist groups might evolve. “They’re going to go more violent and eventually attack human beings,” Perlstein feels, in large part because of a decentralized structure that lets anyone join the cause without taking orders from above.
How long before someone makes it into a race issue, saying that Sosa is being persecuted for being black? Either that, or they are going to mandate corked bats for all "minority" baseball players to make the playing field "level"....
ESPN.com - MLB - Recap - Devil Rays at Cubs - 06/03/2003
Once Sammy Sosa was caught using a corked bat, there was one big question: Was he cheating when he hit any of those 505 home runs?The Chicago Cubs' star slugger, 17th on the career home-run list, was ejected in the first inning of Tuesday night's 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays after umpires found cork in his shattered bat.
"I use that bat for batting practice," Sosa said. "It's something that I take the blame for. It's a mistake, I know that. I feel sorry. I just apologize to everybody that are embarrassed."
Sorenstam Thinks She Can Win; Brushes Off Singh's Comments
Whatever happens next week in the Colonial, the first woman in 58 years to play in a PGA Tour event says she just wants to see how she stacks up against the world's best.
"I'm testing myself, but I'm not trying to prove anything to anybody," she said Wednesday. "That's not why I'm doing this. This is for myself. ... I'm coming to a stage that's totally different than I'm used to: tougher course, tougher competitors, all the attention. It's just going to be so different."
Let us know how you feel about this issue - discuss in our forums - Ashwini and I are already at it :)
Atleast one Dallas team has clinched the top seed in the West. I am still keeping my fingers for the Mavs to keep the top seed in the West and the league - it would so awful to lose it this close to the end, when they had pretty much lead wire-to-wire. Unfortunately for us though, the San Antonio Spurs just refuse to lose. If only Tim Duncan and David Robinson were not such great guys - I would so hate them! Grrr!
BTW, I finally got the Mavs comic book last Friday. It was a kinda cool and the villainous Gargamon does look a little like Shaq..... if Shaq were gree and hairy :) The comic would have done much better with a little less Mark Cuban and a little more Mavs, but I guess it is cool. One thing I was wondering about though, was about the absence of Nick Van Exel - the comic has the Nelsons, Dirk, Nash, Finley, Raef, Shawn Bradley and Popeye Jones (why?) - why not Nick? Oh well, it just costed $2.96, so I guess I can't complain too much about it.
DALLAS (AP) - At the beginning of the season, goaltender Marty Turco and the Dallas Stars had the same objectives as everyone else in the NHL. Turco wanted to allow as few goals as possible and the Stars wanted to get as many points as possible.When the regular season ended Sunday, both met their mark.
The Stars beat the Nashville Predators 2-0, wrapping up the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference while Turco's seventh shutout of the season dropped his goals-against average to 1.72, lowest in the NHL's modern era.
It really is - this is taking the equality thing a little too far, doncha think? By the same token, what if the men wanted to start playing in the LPGA? Will the women let them in? Nature made men and women as two different genders with a lot of physical and mental differences. There is nothing anti-feminist or anti-equality in accepting the differences and making the best of the abilities of each gender. When you try to deny the differences and insist that everyone can be equally good at everything, it goes far beyond stupid - it is nuts!
Tour pros welcome Sorenstam
SAN DIEGO – PGA Tour players welcomed the news of Annika Sorenstam's decision Wednesday to play at the Bank of America Colonial in Fort Worth.
They say it could create more interest in women's golf and that it will be good for the game.
But the men also say Sorenstam is taking a risk.
It looks like India is finally being recognized as a formidable contender for the World Cup scheduled to start in February 2003. Until now, you always heard things like
India can only play in India, outside the country they are worth nothing
Without Sachin, India has nothing to offer
On bouncy tracks, India crumbles without trace
Well, the tone has changed now. With a batting line up that includes Virendar Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly,Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, not necessarily in the same order, we have the best batting in the world. As we have been proving in the past few months, it does not require for all of them to do good at the wicket on any given day, we just need a couple of them to do well and the game is in our court.
The only concern though is our bowling attack, which still has some glitches.If our pacemen and can improve before the world cup, that cup will be back in India where it rightfully belongs.
A few links echoing the strengths of the Indian team to the same effect
Indian Express
Rediff.com
Times Of India
—Kalyan
Oh no! Rain again. I guess we have to share the cup after all!
Love this song:
U and Me, were meant to be
to always live in harmony
one fine day, we’ll fly away
after all Rome wasnt built in a day
Hey, hey, hey
Unfortunately, dont remember the artist’s name
—Geetha
So bad we have to play all over again! Why cant they start from where they finished. I think the lankans are being partial because they scored so less 244! And on top of that they can make changes to their teams. I hope the Indians keep up their good work today also.
And I also hope the cricket correspondent gets over his hangover and keeps us posted on the details and some insights on todays match :-)
Hooray for India - was that a great victory or what! It was really a miracle they had pulled it off. I watched the last hour of the match and it was so good to see Sehwag in action. He deserved his man-of-the-match award. Well, I look forward to seeing what happens sunday in the Finals. I hope this is a sign of how things will turn out for the Indian cricket team in the World Cup.