Wimble'done'

As soon as I saw the first point in Wimbledon this year, I knew I would be writing about it. But I thought I'll wait and see how far Fedex goes.

For the past decade or so, the rules have been changing in Wimbledon, the more subtle ones. The balls are ligther, the grass is slower. And this year is the slowest tennis I have ever seen in the most coveted tennis tournament in the world.

Wimbledon is slowly losing its reputation as the fast surfaced tournament well suited to the serve and volley game. Now, I dont even remember a player with a serve and volley game dominating Wimbledon. This surface currently suits a Gustavo Kuerten than a Pat Rafter. How many Wimbledon Championships would the great Pete Sampras have won on this surface?

Which brings me to Federer. Fedex dominated the grass court just like Pete did. But someone out there wanted longer points and gruelling matches. Enter Nadal. And then came the closed roof. I understand the need for them, but everything seems to be eating into the traditions of the finest tournament in the world.

Wimbledon as we knew it, is gone. Dont worry Federer, you didnt lose at Wimbledon, you lost at Wimble'done'.

Too much, too early!

A few days ago, an important announcement was made in the football world...for the kids...the kids of the under-19 kind. An under-19 Champions League is going to be introduced where 16 clubs from Europe are going to send their kids to fight for supremacy...bah, whatever that means.

Arent these kids going through enough already? Every other kid is being termed the next Zidane, Beckham and what not. On top of that, there's even an under-17 WC, an under-19 World Cup, under-21 World Cup, under-21 Euro championships etc etc...What for? Michael Owen didnt need any of these tournaments to make his mark. He needed one game at the grandest stage of them all to announce his arrival. Oh yes, THAT goal against Argentina...

There has to be a point where you should put your hand up and say, "Thats it! I'm outta here". Thats what I did during the cricket boom in the past decade or so...in India atleast. Cricket became so overwhelming that I got irritated, angry and even cheesed off when live football coverage was blocked to show a replay of the Zimbabwe vs Bangladesh test match. Enough said...

Will football follow the footsteps of cricket? I intend to head off to Pluto before that happens. Amen!