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!

Pat on the back..

Spreading rumours on the back pages of newspapers has become an everyday thing. And it has come to a stage where, if there are no rumours present, the newspaper is just not worth reading.

It has become so bad that even previously trust-worthy websites like Skysports has succumbed to the pressure and started indulging in rumours. But, the alarming fact is, this much I actually get. And understand. And accept. And shake my head.

But journalism has become a new world order. Due to the enormous amount of rumours piping in/out everyday, the general public have become oblivious as to which newspaper came out with which rumour. Now, if by accident (or by a divine intervention), even one of those rumours comes true, it is a field day for THAT newspaper. And to make matters worse, they do their digging and remind us that they brought you this rumour first on so and so date.The journalists rejoice that one of their "stories" has come true. Oh my god.

A recent headline in a newspaper read : 31st Jan 2011 : "Player signs for Club, just as we told you on 24th April 2009."

Can anyone tell me which newspaper I need to contact to have this headline on the backpages? "Dynamic tall striker linked with Liverpool - and you read it here first"...

Dogs have gone to the journalism. Amen!

A Fab-ulous joke

On a weekend when there were just too many things to talk about (United's late winner, the penalty that wasnt for Liverpool, the continuation of Torres' barren run etc etc), there was something more melodramatic that required words on this blog.

Fabio Capello has re-instated John Terry as the permanent captain. For the Wales game. Well done. Sense the sarcasm.

The arm-band being passed out like a frisbee in the recent friendly was an insult. So Fabio decides he needs to have a "permanent" captain. Oh wait, captain for the Wales game. So he overlooks Frank Lampard and gives the arm-band to John Terry. This, after he had said a year back that John Terry will "never" be England captain again. There are 4 dummies in this whole picture. Fabio, John Terry, England supporters and the armband. Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard - get over it..The Don has spoken!

A lot of football pundits (sense the sarcasm again) said John Terry should not have lost the captaincy in the first place. I concurred with their view. The Don made the captaincy issue a front page headline a year back. Was he satisfied with that? No, he wanted to out-do himself when he still had the chance. Now, he's on the front page of my blog.

Clap clap!

A long shot

I have to say I didnt have much of a complaint about the TV schedule of ESPN Star at the beginning of the season. Feb 19th 2011 changed all that.

I can only say that this was always on my mind but I was too lazy to do something about it, other than ramble of course. And when someone has finally done something about it, it is my pleasure and duty to acknowledge it..

http://www.petitiononline.com/123footy/petition.html

This might not make an ounce of difference this year and may not even make it to ESPN Star, but hey, worth a shot!

Priveleged, and not so much...

After yet another long gap, where both life and Liverpool Football Club were firing blanks, we are back. I guess this blog does portray the state of Liverpool Football Club at any given point of time.

Anyway...

Here I am, watching the Barcelona - Stuttgart game and thinking how priveleged I am to see Barcelona play. Awesome movement, awesome passing. Reminds me of Arsenal except that Barcelona can finish as well.

But again, I am thinking how under-priveleged I am to see the genius of Messi, Iniesta and Henry only in the Champions League this season. I say only, because there is no TV rights for the La Liga this season in India. My god, are we under-priveleged...which got me to this post.

Real Madrid and Barcelona and the rest of the Spanish clubs negotiate their own TV deals, unlike the Premier League. It is time to get a Richard Scudamore like figure for La Liga and make La Liga a product instead of Real Madrid and Barcelona..

On that note, Liverpool - here WE come...

Politics 1 - 0 Sport

In my previous post, I talked about how the focus was shifting from sport to politics. Now, the focus has truly shifted to politics leaving the sport to suffer, right where it hurts the most.

Now, Rio Ferdinand has been named captain and Steven Gerrard vice captain following the sacking of John Terry as captain - because Terry had an affair.

Mr. Ferdinand has a fantastic reputation (what with missing the drugs test and banned for nine months) and Gerrard has a pretty decent brawling experience as well. Fabulous replacements. Who's next on the list? Wayne Rooney? I'm pretty sure he has a clean reputation under his belt.

John Terry being axed as captain of the English Team is a ridiculous decision in my opinion. Hey, who am I to question? But all I want to know is, was Capello's hands forced? If yes, Capello - I'm sorry to say your reputation has just flown out of the window. If no, well, your reputation stays, but England has flown out of the window.

As the title suggests, Politics 1 - 0 Sport