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Rabble Rousing Random Ramblings by S Jagadish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Boycott the Delhi Commonwealth Games
Every news item I read about the Commonwealth Games, scheduled to be held in New Delhi between 3 and 14 October this year, increases my conviction that the event is just a forum for one man, Suresh Kalmadi, to project his power, charisma and organizational ability.
Other than that, there does not seem to be any reason for the existence of the event. On the face of it, that should alone be sufficient reason for everyone to boycott the Commonwealth Games.
But that's not all. The man has made quite a few demands in the last week or so.
- He wanted the BCCI to re-schedule the India v Australia test series since it would clash with his pet event.
- When that request was rejected, he was brought down to earth, and asked if the BCCI could help him out with a sponsorship worth Rs. 100 crores.
- He wants more money from the government (and hence tax-payers, by implication), over Rs. 700 crores to be precise because of various creative budgeting screwups by the organizing committee
- He wants New Delhi to undergo a total revamp before the games, and the tax-payer foots the bill.
That's why he resorts to these gimmicks. If he was really convinced that the stadia would be ready, the crowds would come to watch at the venues, the quality of the events at the games as well as the telecasts would be of a very high standard, he wouldn't be asking for all this.
This reminds me of the (still existing in some forms) restricted release of non-Kannada movies in Karnataka that started in 2004.
Labels: boycott, commonwealth games, delhi, kalmadi, public money
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IOA announces withdrawal of India's IOC membership after Abhinav Bindra wins gold at Beijing
In an unprecedented move, Suresh Kalmadi, President of the IOA since 1996, announced that the Indian Olympic Association would be withdrawing from its membership of the International Olympic Committee.
Mr. Kalmadi's announcement came in Beijing, shortly after Abhinav Bindra won India its first ever individual gold medal at the Olympics. Mr. Kalmadi was quoted as saying
We won a bronze in 1996 through Leander Paes and in 2000 through Karnam Malleswari. In 2004, we won a silver, thanks to Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. Now, we have won gold. The progress is fairly obvious.
I had a frank discussion with the IOC board about instituting Diamond and Platinum medals for higher achievements, but the IOA's request was rebuffed. Having won gold, there're no more challenges. Since there is now nothing more left for India to achieve, we do not see any point in participating in the Olympics henceforth. However, all athletes who have been picked for the current games in Beijing will get to compete. Thanks to Abhinav Bindra, there's so much less pressure on them now to win more medals!
I congratulate the honorary officials of the Indian Olympic Association, our Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs, the MLAs from all the states, the National Rifle Association of India and the various officials of the Olympic contingent in Beijing for this achievement. Since our various sports federations and committees have proved that we can produce Olympic gold medallists, I am pleased to announce that the elections to all federations have been postponed by 25 years.
Labels: abhinav bindra, gold medal, india, kalmadi, olympics, shooting, sports
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Yesterday was a pretty historic day in Indian Olympic history. It was the first time in 104 years that India won an individual medal higher than a bronze. Major Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore got the silver (by a slim margin of a point) in the double trap shooting competition. The accolades have started pouring in for him. I'm fairly sure the IOA will piggyback on his success and claim that the performance at this Olympics has been far better than in the previous ones. People like Suresh Kalmadi or Randhir Singh are never held accountable, invariably its the athletes who are at the wrong end of the bargain.
The hockey team managed to claw back from the jaws of defeat to win 4-2 against South Africa, with 2 goals being scored in the last couple of minutes. With Argentina drawing against Australia, and India having games against both those sides, all the games are essentially must-win games. The defence is just far too weak and was really embarassing against Holland.
The tennis duo of Paes and Bhupathi won fairly easily against the Swiss pair of Federer and Allegro. The first set was a display of superb doubles tennis with great anticipation being shown by Paes and Bhupathi. In the second set, Federer and Allegro raised their game, especially Allegro who tried to do justice to his name, and put the Indian pair under a fair amount of pressure. But ultimately, the fact that doubles is almost always greater than the sum of the parts meant that Paes and Bhupathi had enough resources and skill to win the tiebreaker. They did commit a fair share of unforced errors, especially Bhupathi and they really have to cut out these errors against the more established doubles pairings they will start coming up against now.
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