A SPORTS FAN"S TRAGEDY

How can a poor sports fan not that good academically study at a high time like this. The examinations are near and neigh and to add to that we have a spate of sporting spectacles that we just cannot take our eyes off. Actually targeted at a time when the bacha log and the baba log escaping from the hot sun are in for the summer vacations. We the post graduate laggards have to suffer the abomination of giving exams at this bloody time of the year.

We have the T20 IPL and following that the world cup coming up. We sleep live hear near and dear cricket at this time of the year. All you could hear is board meetings, yuvraj’s form sehwag’s injury Nehra’s selection, Uthappa’s omission. We would like to concentrate on the academically unsound subjects as well. But fate has it that we have to suffer the examinations at a very very bad time.

Add to this Chelsea giving a lifeline to Manu and you have the perfect combination to make me want to flunk these bloody days and get over it. Alas in India flunking is equal to poverty, high taxes and children going to Municipal schools. So to prevent my children going to Municipal schools I have to skip one of the most exciting and thrilling ending to an EPL season. What a shame.

IF we also consider the Champions league where the world’s best attacking lineup goes up against the world’s best defense , I am talking about the Inter Vs Barcelona match. All one can do is sneak peek to some of the breathtaking Messi moves, or a Cambiasso run. All these like some intoxicating drugs are pulling my kids from private schools and colleges to municipal run colleges.

This is more of test of my resistance and tempatation rather than a test of management skills and stuff like that. How can a living man resist things like these only you tell me MR. Almighty.

SPORTS-A-MANIA

Now its that time of the year when nobody has really anything interesting to do. Its July and you have all the sports coming to a halt. All the seasons whether it is NFL,NHL, PHL or FA League everything has come to a grinding halt. You have people especially sports buffs like me and having nothing more important to do asking for more. The cricketing season has just shifted gears onto the test mode where all the nations are busy playing the purest form of cricket . After six months or so of pyjama cricket some sanity has prevailed. You have two big transfer deals almost complete. That of Kaka and Ronaldo. Amidst so much sports one cannot help but miss the Confederstion Cup. You almost would have missed the Wimbledon was it not that Federer would have reached the finals and gotten through. You had the poor American Roddick getting thrashed quite gracefully by the great man. You had almost everyone in the tennis world present there to witness the greatest man ever to play tennis . Before this you had India defending the T20 cup as though they had been forced to do so. Before that you had the IPL spanning almost 40 days. With this edition not generating the same fanfare as before.

Just when you thought that cricket was over we have the Ashes where Australia had some extra practice on English conditions following their early exit from the tournament. After Ashes it’s the Champions Trophy following which there is Champions League T20, followed by IPL again and then another T20 World Cup. Really ICC should do something about it, otherwise how will John Abraham give us more horrendous expressions from his usually docile face.

August is the beginning of the EPL , the Spanish premira and the Italian league followed by the world cup of soccer next year. Boy I am sweating as I write this . As you come out of this in between you have the AustralianOpen followed by the U.S. and then the French and the Wimbledon where Federer would win his 16^th Grand Slam. If between this you are considering the F1 race that is around 18 then you better not switch your Television off . With so many sports channels working around , you just cannot take your eyes off. If hypothetically you consider the eight F1 teams break-off and create their won Ivy League then again you have another 18 races with some of them held in India.

So if you are a sports fan my advice to you would be shut the hell up and cut your cable televisions otherwise you just cant take your eyes off this one.

The race is on :EPL

V/s

As Saturday came to an end we are about to see a scrappy,dappy race till the end of the Barclays English Premier league. With Manu going down to Liverpool in a crucial tie at Fulham, chances of Liverpool catching on the league champions this time around looks very much obvious. With Liverpool captain Steve Gerrad in the form of his life Sir Alex has to do more than just strategize to get this done and dusted. The down slide started from the home game against Liverpool. The Nemanja Vidic error gave Liverpool the much needed space to get the goal and then dominate the entire game with utmost arrogance. They thrashed the world champions like they were some 3^rd division clubs. This is where Liverpool has improved in the past .Earlier after securing the lead they used to sit back and defend the game out. Actually Manu were a wee bit surprised with the new found attacking vigor that Rafa has instilled in their players. That was seen when they defeated the Spanish side Real Madrid in their champions league tie. They absolutely routed the Spanish runner up team. The combination between Torres and Gerrad has been working very well for the reds. The team it seems has started to amalgamate and they are true like true champions. Their defense led by English defender Carrragher has been very well organized and their wing attacks have also started to find precision. This time around however they are not relying on pumping long balls into the box and more importantly are not relying solely on Gerrard to find them those crucial goals.

However there are certain flaws that might just stop them from getting their hands on that coveted trophy that they have so long desired. First of all is Chelsea threat .Under Guus Hinddik they have found the organization threat they so lacked during the Scolari era. Their attacks are now more purposeful with less unforced errors Chelsea are a team to watch out for during the title race. This will be more clarified during their champion’s league clash. However Rafa is known to be an expert at winning tournaments, but this time around can Gerrard really stop the Chelsea juggernaut, let’s see.

The second threat is Manu itself. Although they are wounded for now but they still stand a very good chance as they have their flaws not that late in the season. With the return of Vidic they will find their feet back .With Ferguson he knows how to win in these crucial situations because he is really a veteran and nobody knows it better to win this league than the old guy himself.

The third threat for them is the flaws within. Firstly they rely too much on the crankshaft mechanism of Steve Gerard and Torres very much. Teams might just play and dirty and might just make them drop two points which in Liverpool’s case would be disastrous. Secondly except for Torres nobody in the Liverpool ranks are innovative in their attacks which might just make the opponents think less. The opposing teams simply have just one mantra against Liverpool, stop Torres and block Gerrard things would be smooth later on. Although this is easier said than done this would require a lot from teams to stop these two world class players.