Chandigarh, Saturday, October 30, 1999
Chandigarh, Saturday, October 30, 1999 |
The future of Olympic
Games IOC’s tribute to Aryton Senna BAI signs contract with DD All about tied one-day matches |
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The future
of Olympic Games THE modern Olympic Games have become numerically so enormous that, sooner or later, the Games may boomerang and slip into oblivion till someone with the passion and zeal of Baron Pierre Coubertin may rise like a phoenix to revive it with the objective of uniting mankind. Says IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch: “The Olympic Movement is enjoying enormous prestige and plays an essential role in the peaceful development of human society and education. However, the scale and importance of this prestige and social role create within our Movement and sport in general a certain vulnerability. Our supporters must protect Olympism against this by taking a stance with regard to the future of this philosophy of life and social phenomenon and by developing serious study to the way they should like sport to develop.” The world’s preeminent Olympic historian, John Lucas, is more analytical and forthright: I have abiding faith in the idea of a near-perfect Olympic Games as a festival of elite sport, as a peace-filled gathering of the human race in a grand union of the beginning and end of life‘through the endurance of affection, of trust, of friendship, and of love.’ The convergence of the Olympic laurel with Olympic gold need not be traumatic, but rather wholly natural. After all, idealism and pragmatism are not necessarily antithetical, just different. The balance is the key, the path to Olympian harmony and progress. But this course of prudence, of Grecian sophrosyne, does not appeal to everyone. The ebb and flow of Olympic history reveals inadequacies, problem created ‘by drift and inattention.’ The Olympic Movement had the means and funds to add to its cadre the very best technically trained people, but it must do so judiciously and with sagacity with an eye for those who accept its philosophy and trust the direction in which the Movement is headed. The Olympic leadership is utterly without visible political power, and yet these past few years under Samaranch’s stewardship, it has gained significant influence, restrained and private. Eternal vigilance is and must continue to be the hallmark of the whole Olympic Movement if it is to make a real difference in helping the world avoid brutal frontal assault or volatile international conflicts. There are far too many people in the modern Olympic Movement who lack global vision and insight and they must be replaced by better equipped people. Olympic strategic thinkers and planners are required, those men and women with focus and flexibility, who will lead the Movement and the Olympics into newer and better realms. Some of the ‘Lucas Observations’ for the 21st-century Olympic Movement are food for thought: 1. Balance is everything to the future of the Olympic Movement. Commerce must be balanced by philanthropy, fluffy if important pageantry by every effort to get most of the world’s great male and female athletes to the Olympic stadia. 2. Quality athletic performance from top to bottom is even more important than getting athletes from all 168 nations to the summer Olympic Games. No athlete who is not among the top 100 performers in the world should be allowed to participate in a summer Olympic Games event. 3. Olympic income is accumulated to be immediately directed towards Olympic ‘family’ constituent members, nowhere else and for no other purpose. 4. No athlete may participate in more than two Olympic Games as a rule; this restriction would be no restriction at all, but rather a form of liberation, an emancipation from the spectre of athletic gladiator to someone even more interesting. 5. There are too many medal-award ceremonies on any given day of the Olympic Games, too many interruptions in the flow of the all-important competitions. A single 45-minute ceremony in the main arena, dignified and symbolically beautiful, would more appropriately honour the winners. 6. The democratic momentum, already and established fact within the Movement, should be increased. More athletes need to be involved, and the magnetism of Mr Samaranch and his successors should allow for expansion rather than restriction of the democratic process. 7. There should be a permanent site for the Winter and Summer Olympic Games. The IOC presently sits in the catbird seat, with dozens of cities desirous of hosting the Games. 8. The best that sport federations, National Olympic Committees and the IOC can do is everlastingly remind the athletes that their every action is a personal account of who and what they are and how they wish to be remembered. 9. The IOC must divest the Olympic Games of those sports that are utterly antithetical to the democratic and pacific nature of the Movement. 10. The Olympic motto ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius, should be substituted by the Coubertin-Talbot exhortation: The important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning, but taking part. The essential thing in life is not conquering, but fighting well. 11. The Olympic Games are not immortal and will some day ‘fade away.’ There can be no perfect Games until there are perfect people. 12. An independent
committee of Olympic Games experts should write an
‘Evaluation Report’ after the Games and
distribute it to future Olympic Games organisers. |
IOC’s
tribute to Aryton Senna The International Olympic Committee (IOC), in a befitting tribute to one of the finest exponents of formula-1 car racing, has declared the year 1999 as the Aryton Senna year. Senna, a genius of the track who transformed formula-1 car racing into an art, rammed his Ferrari into a wall at 300 kmph at the Imola racing track in Italy a couple of years ago. Aryton Senna’s death and that of every other sportsman who dies in pursuit of advancing his profession somehow reminds one of yet another genius,Pablo Picasso, who once said “It must be realised that there is a price on everything we do in life be it painting, poetry or even sports. Anything of great value carries a shadow zone with it. Every positive value has its price in negative terms and anything great can never be imagined which, at the same time, is not horrible in some respect. The genius of Albert Einstien leads us to Hiroshima”. Any sporting activity also carries along with it a shadow zone. There is no escaping it. Cricketers are dying on the ground, boxers are being jabbed to death in the ring. Senna died and Brazil wept. A Japanese runner became a legend in his death. Training like a man possessed for the Seoul Olympics, Kokichi Tasuburaya injured his left leg and was stunned to know he could not make it to Seoul. Purity of passion took over. Tasuburaya cut his cartoid artery and besides his body was found a note which read ‘No use living. Cannot run anymore’. In sport death is no big deal. It is omnipresent. As a metaphor it refuses to fade away. Sudden death, killer instinct, massacre of the innocents, going for the kill or even the ones like ‘Tendulkar slaughters Kangaroos’ are only some splashed on sports pages day in and day out. Sports reporter deal with death as often as obituary writers — but most of time, with the metaphorical variety. Basically, sport and death lie at two ends of the spectrum. Death signifies the end of life. Sport is synonymous with youthful exuberance. It is a celebration of youth, of the seemingly endless throbbing of life. Sometimes it also acts as a ventillating channel of those turbulent times. No wonder it is during the ‘Sudden death’ shootouts in hockey and football, the tie-breaks in tennis that sport is at its bustling best. Ditto for almost every other sport. In over-limited cricket it is ‘at the death’ that the games turns irresistable, coming alive in all its dramatic intensity even as the players and the crowd — that orchestra of the insane — die a million deaths before the chalk is separated from the cheese. In sport, death is no stranger. In different ways yet not entirely for different reasons the performers and those watching them perform actually seek death, just to revel in its glory, in the searing intensity of its unrecapturable moments. Indeed in sport death is no big deal. Until it actually happens — as in the case of Aryton Senna and so many others — when it ceases to be a metaphor. In the locker room just before a fight, a top class boxer might let his thoughts stray towards death. In the pits, a formula — 1 driver, like Senna, might have pondered over the capracious character of life in his adopted sport. Sportswriter Hunter Davies once said ‘Once behind the steering wheel death is a thought formula-1 drivers throw out of the side window. Off the track they take out huge insurance policies’. How true Davies was. Senna’s biography now reveals that the driver had insured himself for over $ 3 million. Perhaps, he knew it was coming. High speed racing, rock climbing, mountaineering, boxing, bullfighting are some high risk sports which are more familiar with death as compared to a sport like badminton or billiards. One wrong move in the ring, a moments hesitation hanging from a cliff, one wrong turn at 300 kmph can lead one into the valley of the unknown. Yet men who revel in such sports are adults and know what may hit them. When the genius of Aryton Senna lay shattered on the Imola race track, there was national mourning. Trading in Brazil came to a halt. The sensex dropped dramatically. There was shock and grief. Shock not so much that a driver had lost his life — motor racing has seen more such gruesome tragedies — shock because it happened to the most gifted man ever to have tied a seat belt behind a steering wheel. It does not take much
time for sport to shrug off such tragedies. For every
sportsman, who knows his first gear from his fifth, also
knows that on the fast tracks of life, death always lurks
around every fast corner. |
BAI signs
contract with DD Badminton would now have an easy access to the domestic-level national tournaments on Doordarshan, a significant milestone achieved with the signing of a contract between the Doordarshan Prasar Bharti and the Badminton Association of India on October 6 this month at Delhi. As per the informed sources, one of the important landmark decisions involves that DD would pay Rs 8 lakh per year to BAI in two equal instalments payable on December 31 and June 30 for the financial year April 1 to March 31 as TV rights fee. As per the agreement ,which was signed between the Deputy Director General( Sports), DD Prasar Bharti, Mr K. Kunhikrishnan and Mr V.K. Verma, President of BAI, all nationals, sub junior, junior, senior, and senior grand prix circuits and inter-zonal meets would now be covered by Doordarshan thus enhancing the sponsorship for the events. The TV rights though would belong constitutionally to BAI, but DD will have the coverage produced by them for sale to the third party. The revenue generated by instadia advertisements will remain with BAI and similarly the revenue generated by the telecast of commercials on DD would be with DD. No production charges will have to be paid by BAI to DD. In the world of cricket and tennis, badminton is also getting immensely popular in the world, the less electronic media coverage had always been the hindrance for the proper backing by the sponsors and with the latest move, the extensive coverage would give more returns to those who had put in lot of money for sponsoring the particular tournament. But in this agreement, the tournaments conducted by the International Badminton Federation (IBF) like the world championship, the Thomas and Uber Cups, the Asian championship and international grand prix circuits and the Olympic Games would be outside the perview of the said contract. The contract also envisages that BAI would recognise DD as the host broadcaster and thus the latter will have the domestic rights of any event held under the aegis of BAI in the country. The finals of all national and international events would be telecast live on the available channels of DD, preferably on DD sports channel, but would be subject to technical feasibility , and the important regional events could be considered for the live telecast depending upon the time slots . The highlights of such events will be telecast on available DD channel. The present agreement has been made for five years but it is subject to review by mutual consent after three years, the sources added. Another point of importance is the help BAI would provide DD in acquiring the TV rights in India for any international tournament under the control of International Badmintion Federation (IBF) to which BAI is affiliated. It has been circulated
to all state associations to get available all the
necessary facilities for the telecast of the matches by
DD and also to keep it advised on the date and venues
plus the timings of the events for deriving full
advantage due to this long term promotional campaign of
BAI.
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All about
tied one-day matches The fifth one-day international match of the series between the West Indies and Australia at Georgetown, Guyana, on April 21 ended in a tie. Needing three runs to tie and four to win of the last ball Australian captain Steve Waugh hit the left arm spinner Keith Authurton’s offering toward Stuart Willians at long on. By the time he and partner, vice-captain Shane Warne, completed two and tried for the tying third run, the crowd had stampeded across the ground and reached the pitch, snatching stumps and bouncing into Waugh and Arthurton. After 90 minutes, International Cricket council match referee Raman Subba Row declared the match a tie. The West Indies made 173 for five in 30 overs while Australia second 172 for seven in the same number of overs. It was 14th tie match in the history of one-day internationals and second at this ground. Six years ago in similar circumstances on the same Bourda ground in a one day international between the West Indies and Pakistan, Row also ruled a tie. Then West Indies batsman Ian Bishop completed the winning second run off the last ball, but Row ruled the Pakistanis had been impeded by the marauding spectators. The match between the West Indies and Australia on February 11,1984 at Melbourne was the first ‘tie’ match in instant cricket. Batting first, the West Indies scored 222 for five in 50 overs, In reply, Australia ended at 222 for nine in 50 overs. The scored ‘tie’ match of the history of one day internationals was played between England and Australia at Nottingham on May 27,1989. It was second match of the three match series. Batting first England scored 226 for five in 55 overs, In reply. Australia made 226 for eight in 55 overs. The second match of the three match series between Pakistan and the West Indies was the third ‘tie’ match of instant cricket. This match was played at Qaddafi Stadium, Lahore on November 22,1991. The West Indies made 186 for five in 39 overs after put in to bat. In reply, Pakistan scored 186 for nine in 39 overs. Asif Mujtaba’s six off the final ball of the match lifted Pakistan into a tie with Australia at Hobart on December 10,1992. It was the fifth ‘tie’ match of limited overs international matches. Australia made 228 for seven in their allocated 50 overs, while Pakistan replied with 228 for nine in 50 overs. The fifth and final one-dayer between the West Indies and Pakistan at Georgetown on April 13,1993 was the sixth ‘tie’ match of instant cricket. Batting first Pakistan made 224 for the loss of six wickets in 50 overs and the West Indies replied with 244 for five in 50 overs. The Hero-Cup match between India and Zimbabwe at Indore on November 18,1993 was the seventh ‘tie’ match of instant cricket. In this match Zimbabwe made 248 in 50 overs in reply to India’s 248 for five in 50 overs. The eight ‘tie’ match of the history of instant cricket was the fourth match of series between Pakistan and New Zealand at Auckland on March 13,1994. Batting first, Pakistan scored 161 for the loss of nine wickets in 50 overs. In reply, New Zealand were all our for 161 runs in 49 overs. The first one-day international match of the series between Pakistan and Zimbabwe at Harare on February 22,1995 ended in a tie. Zimbabwe batting first made 219 for nine in 50 overs. In reply Pakistan were all out for 219 runs in 49.5 overs to tie the match. It was ninth ‘tie’ match of one-day international cricket. The fourth match of the Singer Champions Trophy at Sharjah between New Zealand and Sri Lanka ended in a tie on November 11, 1996. In the low scoring affair, New Zealand, making first use of the pitch struggled to reach 169 for eight in their 50 overs. Sri Lanka virtually had the match in their hands when Danny Morrison turned it around with three wickets in the spare of ten balls to send the islanders crashing to 169 all out in 48 overs and produce the first ever tie at this desert venue. The eleventh ‘tie’ match of the history of one day international was played between India and Zimbabwe at Paral on Januray 27,1997. Zimbabwe who won the toss and elected to bat first, made 236 for eight in 50 overs. India were all out for 236 runs in 49.5 overs. India needed two to win off the last ball, Brandes bowled a wide of leg stump. As the batsman ran a bye the keeper aimed the ball at the near wicket and missed, Brandes pounced on it and threw down the wicket at the other end to run out last Indian batsman Robin Singh. New Zealand and England were involved in the 12th tie match of limited over cricket. In the match played at Napier on February 26,1997, New Zealand made 237 in 49.4 overs. Needing just two runs off the last ball, Gough missed Allott’s last ball of the match. The batsmen scrambled for a bye so this seesawing contest finished all square. England’s final score was 237 for eight in 50 overs. The first match of the
three match series between Zinbabwe and New Zealand at
Bulawayo on October 1,1997, was the 13th ‘tie’
match of the history of the one dayers. Zimbabwe, batting
first after winning the toss, made 233 for 8 in 50 overs.
In reply, New Zealand scored 233 for nine in 50 overs to
tie the match.
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Balbir Singh sets an example I WAS carried away by the noble gesture of Balbir Singh, the great hockey player and three times gold medallist (The Tribune, October 19). Balbir Singh has donated his entire one year’s pension to his alma mater, Dev Samaj Secondary Boys School, Moga. This is how an illustrious student remembers the contribution of his school in shaping his life. He had his first lessons in hockey there. Not only is Balbir an illustrious student, he is also an illustrious son. Mr Dalip Singh, who himself was a teacher in this school, was a freedom fighter and a recipient of Tamra Patra. The money which Balbir Singh has donated will be used to provide a scholarship annually to an outstanding boy of the school in sports. Balbir Singh has set an example for all sportsperson. Vijay
Sheel Jain India’s win India scored a thrilling eight-wicket win with just one day to spare against New Zealand in the second Test at Kanpur. Full marks to the Indian cricket team for beating New Zealand. The performance of all team members was superb. They seemed to be in a winning mood after the draw at SAS Nagar. In the first innings of the second Test, D. Gandhi and S. Ramesh gave India a solid start and raised 162 runs for the first wicket. Besides Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Bhardwaj, Prasad and Joshi scored useful runs in reply to New Zealand’s 256. Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh played a wonderful role to turn this Test match India’s way. It was India’s second win in six Tests this year and 14th victory in 39 matches over New Zealand and fourth at this venue. SUNIL
DOGRA Pak showing Pakistan continued their purple streak to record an 81-run victory over Sri Lanka in the final of the Three-Nation-Tournament and lifted the Coca Cola Trophy Sharjah. Pakistan kept their awesome reputation intact with another outstanding display of skill and temperament. Special credit goes to medium pace bowler Azhar Mahmood who took five wickets and broke the back-bone of the islanders. Pakistan batted magnificently and bowled superbly. ANKIT
ARORA Sport ties The decision of the BCCI chief to play against Pakistan is appreciable. India did not play against Pakistan in Toronto because of the Kargil crisis. Playing once again with Pakistan is a welcome step. In fact, cricket is a sport and India should not have stopped playing against Pakistan. It is much better for both the countries to improve their relations through games. AJAY
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