Corruption in Sports: Is Sport losing its integrity ?

The Olympic motto reads: Citius, Altius, Fortius (faster, higher, stronger) and the Olympic creed reads: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

The creed and motto are meant to inspire the athletes to embrace the Olympic spirit and perform to the best of their abilities.

But today, with corruption seeping into the culture of sport, is sport losing its integrity?

In the multi-million dollar world of sports,  political and private parties have a big play.  Deals are signed behind closed doors allowing room for corruption.

The IOC holds a monopoly in Olympics decisions and a lot of palm greasing and power broking go behind decisions to select the city to host the Olympics. This became public when,  Salt Lake City won the rights to host the 2002 Winter games  via a series of bribes to the IOC.  Infighting and corruption are endemic to other sports as well.

The lucrative Indian Premier League and Commonwealth Games exposed corruption in cricket. A series of scandals has tarnished the image of the cash-rich IPL, which boasts a host of celebrity owners including India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, spirits and airline magnate Vijay Mallya and Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.  Five uncapped Indian cricketers have been provisionally suspended following allegations of corruption.

Match fixing is now a well-known part of soccer. Players and middle-men  take bribes to fix matches. Club owners  demand high sums of money to transfer high profile players.  Before the start of events like the Commonwealth games, companies  try to rig bids for construction contracts.

Recently, Singapore soccer players were identified to be behind many of the betting scandals that have dented soccer’s reputation.  Money laundering  takes place through sponsorship and advertising arrangements or through television rights, purchase of clubs and players. Complex techniques are used to launder money through football and other sports.

Apart from this, use of performance-enhancing drugs, anabolic steroids and recreational drugs have severely dented the credibility of athletes. With the exposure of Lance Armstrong who has topped the cycling circuit for decades, sport is beginning to lose its essence.

What are your views?

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India win Cricket World Cup 2011 – after 28 years

A  glorious new chapter has been scripted in cricketing history when India lifted the World Cup 2011 today.  All the team members wanted to dedicate the cup to Sachin Tendulkar.

SriLanka opted to bat first after winning the toss.  The highlight of the SriLanka innings was a brilliant 103 not out by Mahela Jayawardene.  SriLanka put up a total of 274/6.  The match was nerve-wrecking with many exciting moments.

A brilliant and gusty 97 from Gautam Gambhir, Kohli’s 35 and a captains innings from MS Dhoni (91 not out)were the highlight of the Indian innings after the openers Sehwag and Tendulkar were out to Malingas bowling.  Victory was sealed  by 6 wickets with 10 balls to spare.  Dhoni who had promoted himself up the order hit 2 consecutive boundaries off the bowling of Lasith Malinga when 15 runs were needed from 17 deliveries.

The tense crowd at the Wankhede stadium erupted in wild celebrations as Dhoni hit the winning six runs of Kulasekaras bowling  to give India their biggest cricketing moment.

This victory will long be remembered as it is after 28 long years that India has been able to achieve this feat!   The team mates lifted Sachin  as celebrations began.  It was also a fitting farewell to coach Gary Kirsten.

(Picture courtesy: NDTV, Zeenews)

Cricket World Cup – India, Sri Lanka eye second title!

All roads lead to Wankhede today for the cricket world cup finale!  Who will win the cup this year? Will it be India or Sri Lanka? This is India’s best chance to win the world cup! Muralitharan and Nehra are unlikely to play today.  A keen contest is on the cards and hoping that the Indian team puts up a good show today!

With favourites India looking to win the trophy for the first time since 1983, newspapers summed up the mood of expectation, with many focusing on whether local hero Sachin Tendulkar could secure a victory on his home ground.

(Source: Hindustan times.com)

India vs Pakistan – The final before the final

In yesterdays quarter-final, India ended Australia’s 12-year reign as world champions with a five-wicket win in Ahmedabad. Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Gambhir and Sachin chipped in with nice contributions and it was a team-effort. In the other quarter-final, Pakistan vanquished the Windies.

Now, the stage is all set for what is being termed as ‘the final before the final’ as Team India sets up a clash with perennial rivals Pakistan in the semi-final of the ongoing ICC World Cup 2011. India, and their neighbours, Pakistan, battle against each other on March 30 in Mohali.

Tickets for the near-28,000 capacity stadium were sold out in a record day-and-a-half, with PCA officials claiming that 16,500 tickets were sold and the remainder were sold to ICC, who in turn would be issuing tickets to its guests and officials.

India and Pakistan have played each other four times in past world cups and each time India has emerged victorious against their fiercest rivals. Proceedings in the matches themselves have been nothing short of hugely entertaining and even now images of the clash in 1996 when Pakistani opener Aamir Sohail carted two successive boundaries off Venkatesh Prasad, showing him the bat and then Prasad clean bowling him off the very next delivery still come to mind.

‘India v Pakistan in semi-finals – it doesn’t get better. A World Cup hosted by the sub-continental nations and India and Pakistan making it to the semis,’ said India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

‘There will be more pressure on the Indian side and it will be from outside. People will say ‘win the semis, we don’t care about the final’.

Pakistan coach Waqar Younis said it will be ‘awesome’ to take on India for a place in the final at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on April 2.

‘There is no bigger rivalry in the game than that. We have not played each other in our own country in recent years,’ he said.

Source: Times of India & AFP

ICC World Cup fever starts

There are only 2 days to go to the start of the ICC World Cup and cricket fever has started.
In the  ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, 14 Teams will take part, these 14 teams are divided into 2 groups:

The first Match of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, will commence with India and Bangladesh at Mirpur, Dhaka on 19th February 2011 and Final Match of of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, will be played at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on 2nd April 2011. 10th ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, will be played at 13 venues in Asia (India-Sri Lanka-Bangladesh).

Following is the Indian squad for the world cup:

Based on earlier world cups, the following are the statistics of teams winning and making it to runner-up.

Past statistics:

Country	Win	Runner-Up
Australia	4	2
India	1	1
SriLanka	1	1
South Africa	0	0
England	0	3
Pakistan	1	1

My predictions for the semis are that the following teams will qualify:

Australia
India
South Africa
England

India win Kolkota test against SA; retain No.1 spot

A superb team effort both in batting and bowling saw India beat South Africa in the 2^nd test at Eden Gardens and retain the No.1 test ranking.

One South African stood like a rock and offered stubborn resistance to the Indian bowlers.  Hashim Amla thwarted our win hopes until the fag end of the fifth days play nearly carrying the South Africans to safety with an unbeaten 127 to deservedly win the man of the match and man of the series. 

With rain ruining the 4^th days play,  South Africa resumed the fifth day at 115 for three after conceding a lead of 347 runs, the South Africans were all out for 289 with just 15 minutes remaining on a nail-biting last day.

Spinners Harbhajan Singh (5/59) and Amit Mishra (3/84) were the wreckers-in-chief as they ripped through the South African middle order but it was the stout resistance from Amla and the tailenders which delayed the victory.

After the tea break, the Indians were literally racing against time to dismiss the last three wickets in the tense post-tea session and the injury-induced absence of Zaheer Khan did have a bearing.

Harbhajan claimed the last wicket of Mornie Morkel, trapping him leg before wicket, to mark India’s victory and send the vociferous Eden crowd into a frenzy. The fiesty off spinner ran towards the boundary line and was soon hugged by his teammates who celebrated the victory. Amla and Morkel defied the Indians for 124 balls to frustrate the hosts who just could not get the breakthrough despite deploying an attacking field right through the day.

But it was Amla, who achieved the rare feat of scoring centuries in all the innings he played in the series, who took the centrestage with his superb batting, occupying the crease for more than a day and facing 394 balls.

With the Test series ending with honours shared, both the teams will now gear up for the three-match one-day series beginning in Jaipur from Sunday.

With this win, India not only avenged their defeat in the Nagpur series-opener but also nixed South Africa’s bid to snatch the number one Test team’s tag

Cricket may be played in Olympics 2020

Cricket was cleared to pursue its bid to be included in future Games after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rubberstamped the sport’s recognition on Thursday.

Cricket, powerboating and sports climbing became the latest sports to be officially recognised by the IOC, a status necessary before launching a bid to become part of the Olympic programme.

source: Reuters