‘An aggressive approach helps create momentum’

Being aggressive is ‘the thing’ in international sport today. In an era where avoiding defeat is no longer a measure of success, playing for safety is seen as a terrible idea which might drive away the fans, more so in the protracted format that is Test cricket.

In recent times, the Indian Test team has been roundly criticised as being defensive-minded. But on the eve of the Indian squad’s departure for Sri Lanka for the three-Test series, its skipper Virat Kohli gave enough hints of how his team will be anything but that.

Excerpts from the media interaction:

On his aggressive approach

I haven’t done badly. It’s an individual thing. I can’t expect a guy who is mellow to take on an opponent.

As a captain you need to figure out guys who can do that job, and those who will be in their own zone and will still do the job.

But what I personally do remains pretty consistent, and I don’t intend to change.

I believe that having an aggressive approach will always benefit the squad. It helps create momentum and excitement.

On playing three spinners

Yes, that is big possibility. The idea is to take 20 wickets. Your best bowlers will give you that chance.

The whole idea behind playing five bowlers is also for your top six to take more responsibility. It’s more challenging, but satisfying.

And we have people like R. Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harbhajan Singh who are handy with the bat. Ashwin averages 40 in Tests. I don’t see any reason why he can’t be a better all-rounder.

You need a play a stronger bowling side to win Tests.

On Rohit Sharma at No. 3

We figured that he is an impact player. In ODIs he plays up. In Tests he was batting at six. So that was way off.

You play so much one-day cricket that, as a batsman, you would want to play at positions closer to each other in both formats. So we felt that, if he gets going, he could take a session away from the opposition.

That could be the difference between us winning the Test match and being on the back foot. He has done well in Australia in that position. We want to give him that game time. We want to give him ample opportunities.

Once he clicks he could be the catalyst. He doesn’t score slowly, and that gives the side more chance to bowl those extra 20, 30 overs to dismiss sides.

On the competition for opening slots

It’s is a spot that is being strongly contested for. When Shikhar [Dhawan] was not performing consistently, K.L. Rahul stepped in very well. Then Shikhar got runs. M. Vijay too.

We just need to see who is batting well at that stage. We still have a warm-up game. But a problem of plenty is never bad.

On India’s pace conundrum

This is an opportunity for us to make a few plans with the bowlers. What they want, how they plan and what they think is the best way to bowl a batsman out. If it doesn’t work, then we have plan ‘B’ where myself and the management come in.

We need to give the bowlers more responsibility and ownership. I am certain that they will be able to execute them along with our attacking spinners who will provide enough cushion.

On his first full series as skipper

We can plan certain things and prepare. To do that over a period of three Tests is very exciting.

We will have a lot of time to execute plans and then judge as to how we have done. It’s tough to do that in one-off Tests.

So it’s very exciting to play my first full series as captain.

On captaincy affecting batting and vice-versa

Not so far. As a batsman, when you don’t score, it becomes difficult to then focus on the field. But as a captain you don’t have a choice. Your mind is so preoccupied.

So that feeling hasn’t been there, and is unlikely to happen in the future.

I am a very active guy. I like to keep myself busy. I am liking it.

On lessons from Virender Sehwag’s 201 at Galle in 2008

Ajantha Mendis was a big revelation. Sehwag took him on and played him almost like a leg-spinner. I saw the whole innings.

Sometimes we make the mistake of being over cautious or too defensive; taking Test cricket too seriously and magnifying it to levels that’s not needed. That innings taught me that (how to attack).

On Rahul Dravid’s inputs

I wanted to practise batting on pitches that are much more difficult as far as spinners are concerned. Sweeping is one aspect I was looking to improve on.

He has been very helpful in the past five six days as he has been closely monitoring (things). I’m really glad I played [the unofficial India ‘A’ v Australia ‘A’ ‘Test’] here.

All in all, very good preparation.

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/an-aggressive-approach-helps-create-momentum/article7492409.ece

Kohli, the man who makes things happen

Transitions in sport are always dicey affairs. No athlete’s or team’s career is a smooth curve from the beginning to the end. As much as an athlete or a team, when asked how his or her or the team’s development has shaped up over the years, tends to describe it in terms of specific moments of glory, the stories that lie between those moments and how those phases are managed is vital.

An athlete or a team can look jaded, get trapped in troughs or sink into the abyss. The transition upward from each of these situations is perhaps the biggest of challenges. In recent years, the Indian cricket team has had plenty of exposure to such scenarios. The World Cup win in 2011 was followed by whitewashes in England and Australia. In the days after the Champions Trophy win in 2013, India has lost four of the five Test series it has played.

However, in the present era that we are in, teams are forever in transition. Careers are short, longevity is at a premium. As a result, teams seem to be in a rebuild mode all the time. Before the end seems nigh a new process is kick-started. Definitive markers are tough to come by. Every format bleeds into the other. Every series bleeds into the other.

Yet, when India takes on Sri Lanka in a three-Test series those very markers of transition which are otherwise tough to spot, stand up stark. It will be Virat Kohli’s first full-fledged series as India’s Test captain, signalling the end of the M. S. Dhoni era. For Sri Lanka, the period after the second Test will be its first brush with the post-Kumar Sangakkara era.

In the Handbook of Sport Psychology, Gershon Tenenbaum and Robert C. Eklund write, “A developmental approach provides links between the past career experiences, the present situation, and the athlete’s perceived future. Athletes in transition are typically concerned with their current situations or ‘today’s issues,’ and want magic advice on how to solve the issues as soon as possible.

“They often refer to their past transition experiences as resources to cope with the current situation, but they seldom coordinate their coping with anticipation of forthcoming situations or ‘tomorrow issues.’ The developmental principle in consulting means, among other things, helping athletes to be more proactive or ‘to make decisions from the future,’ that is, selecting ways to cope with the current situation, which at the same time may help to prepare for forthcoming demands.”

This roughly explains India’s current predicament. Such was the single-minded focus on replacing the four big batsmen — Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and V. V. S. Laxman — that an equally, if not more, important area of bowling stood neglected. Who after Anil Kumble and who after Zaheer Khan were important questions.

The answers are now to be sought in two 30-year-olds in Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra and one Ishant Sharma who, going into his 63rd Test, is still the spearhead in the making.

The Dhoni era ending in a whimper was precisely due to the above reason, though not entirely his fault. Kohli wants to change this. He likes to act. Not just react. Unlike Dhoni he doesn’t want to sit back and be bound by his team’s limitations. Kohli wants to trust his fast bowlers as he did even on a docile wicket in Bangladesh. He wants his spinners to take wickets and not just contain.

But the team that Kohli inherits would be predominantly Dhoni’s. And the split captaincy that will be in place till the next Twenty20 World Cup in 2016 will be a hindrance for a wholesale change in approach. One might point to the great Australian team of the early 2000s which was captained by Ricky Ponting in limited overs cricket and Steve Waugh in Tests. But the teams were bound by the indomitable spirit of Australian aggression and not by the individual persona of the skippers.

For Sri Lanka, the transition will be mid-series. The first two Tests will help one see the last vestiges of the golden era of Sangakkara. The hope for the Lankans will be for the final Test not to leave a bitter aftertaste.

In the final Test against Pakistan, in which Sri Lanka was without Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, the young side, attacked from the outset. But later on, in crunch situations, it faltered. Would the calming presence of Sangakkara and Jayawardene have helped them keep their heads?

“You’ll have to wait and see,” said Jayawardene in an interview to Wisden India. “We tried to change the culture in the team over the last 10 years and we have managed well. It also depends on the next generation and if they want to stay the path or follow a new direction.

“But I think once he (Sangakkara) leaves, our signature in the side will cease to exist and I don’t think many will take our approach forward. Younger guys have a very different view and different ways of going about things and they should be allowed to pursue their own path. It will be interesting to see how things pan out. We had a great run for over 15 years and no one can stay forever.”

Sport in general is moving towards a culture which despises defensive attributes. Cricket is no different. In a nut-shell, the series will be a clash between two teams struggling to negotiate their space in the broader cricketing universe. But there is a thin line between bravado and foolhardiness, defensiveness and pragmatism. Only the best can draw the line.

http://www.sportstaronnet.com/stories/20150808501700400.htm

PHILOSOPHY IMBIBED, TIME TO ACT

Season review:

For Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal, everything is a process. “If they [players] do as we agreed then we will win,” was precisely what he said at the start of last season. In fact this generation of Manchester United fans would have never heard so much about tactics, formations and systems. Even the players would have had to unlearn a lot and learn things anew. In that sense the first season for the Dutchman was an experiment of sorts.

He constantly changed formations, played players at different positions, allegedly hurt star players’ egos, all with the single-minded attempt to impose his ‘philosophy’. It had its pluses. United had the highest possession percentage among all teams last season – 61.1.

Not since the days of the Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham combine has Manchester United scored so many goals from the midfield. Marouane Fellaini, Ander Herrera and Juan Mata have all fired from the middle of the park (21 goals in total) and Fellaini’s deployment by van Gaal as a ‘deep-lying target man’ was considered a master-stroke. David De Gea’s staggering improvement, who single-handedly kept United in many a game, and Ashley Young’s rediscovery of his own self were huge.

But there were minuses too – lack of creative spark, fewer goals, inability to kill games off and being ‘artless’. The brief from the club was to secure European Champions League football. A fourth-place finish now gives the team a clear shot at it. But it didn’t come without toil. The side won three games out of the opening ten. Then it went on a 16-match unbeaten run. Impressive wins over Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City followed, before a late season fizzle out dashed hopes of automatic qualification.

Worry lines:

United’s strikers seem to have forgotten to score. Top-scorer was Wayne Rooney with 12 goals and Robin van Persie finished with 10. A 20-goal striker is a must if it has to mount a title-challenge and Rooney, at 31, isn’t getting younger. Angel Di Maria’s form in the second half was definitely a concern and now there are renewed doubts over whether he will stay. It is not sure if van Gaal trusts Di Maria, for the Argentine has a tendency to lose possession often. But a ball-carrier like Di Maria is essential. Possession alone can’t win games, as United found out last season. With Europe beckoning, a solution to this should be paramount in the manager’s mind. Also of significance will be De Gea’s future. If the Spaniard leaves for Real Madrid, finding a top-notch replacement will prove tough.

Stats:

Morgan Schneiderlin has made more tackles than any other player in the Barclays Premier League over the last three seasons: 355

United's away record was seventh best in the league: 26 points from 19 games with a goal difference of -1

At 61.1 United had the highest possession percentage among teams

Transfers:

Signed: Memphis Depay, Matteo Darmian, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Morgan Schneiderlin.

The Amritraj management mantra

“This coming year will see peace and harmony in the side.” These were India Davis Cup captain Anand Amritraj’s words in October 2013, a month after he took over. The appointment had come after a tumultuous few months which witnessed a players’ rebellion against the All India Tennis Association (AITA).

In the two years since then, there is next to nothing to suggest it has been anything but smooth sailing. And in September last year, the side, punching above its weight, was within one win of defeating Serbia and securing a place in the World Group.

“It is as good as I have seen in the last 20 years,” says Zeeshan Ali, the coach, of the camaraderie within the team. “The support system each player has is genuinely good. They look out for each other. Not just during the Davis Cup but throughout [the season].”

Team leaders engage in many different roles to improve effectiveness. From structuring the team to establishing its purposes, to helping individual members, to getting rid of organisational roadblocks, everything needs to be taken care of. In the Indian Davis Cup set-up, Zeeshan takes care of the technical side, while Amritraj is in charge of the management part.

“The most important thing is the experience we both bring in,” says Zeeshan. “He has rich Cup experience. I have been coaching for 18 to 20 years around the world.”

“Also, during away matches, there is no luxury of having more hitting partners. I am still fit enough to play and that’s where lies my vital role: that of a sparring partner.”

One of the most significant aspects of coaching is to effectively deal with the reality that different issues need different approaches at different stages.

“Each guy needs something different,” says Amritraj. “Some guys take advice better than others. Somdev [Devvarman] is a great listener. So I keep talking. But I was pleasantly surprised with what happened with Leander [Paes].”

“He was serving a lot of double faults against Serbia. They were picking his serve. I asked him ‘why serve into Ilija Bozoljac’s forehand just because he has a good backhand. Don’t limit the space you are serving into’. He listened and turned it around. So I say what I need to say. If they are willing to listen, I’ll say more. If not, I tone it down.”

“Advice is always welcomed,” says Zeeshan. “With Leander, a whole lot need not be told. But in the heat of the moment one gets a little ahead. A look from the captain or the coach helps.”

“But, with someone like Ramkumar [Ramanathan], you need to talk more. He is very young and lot more work goes in.”

Much of it also depends on interpersonal relations. Intimate involvement of different players with the coaching staff in strategising is essential for optimum team performance.

“Somdev was with me in Chennai from 1999 to 2003 at the Britannia Academy,” says Amritraj. “Leander was the ball boy in the Davis Cup match against Italy in 1985 when Vijay and I played. I hit with him after that, and he was one of my picks. He stayed in Chennai from 1985 to 1990. He knows this story as much as I do [laughs].”

“I know Ramkumar very well too. In 2007 and ’08, I used to hit with him in Chennai three times a week. Only in case of Yuki [Bhambri] did I not know much. But now I know him better.”

Yet, with players constantly on the move, the time that a Davis Cup coach gets to spend with his or her players is short.

“Anand and I are always in touch,” says Zeeshan. “And we are in turn communicating with the players. So we know where they are playing and how.”

“Before every match we play, each player has something he has already been working on. We just fine tune it. Everything is a continuous process.”

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/tennis/the-amritraj-management-mantra/article7430433.ece

India seeks a World Group play-off berth

In less than 24 hours, India will be up against New Zealand in Christchurch in the Davis Cup Group-I Asia/Oceania second-round clash. At stake is a place in the World Group playoffs.

After the agonising 3-2 loss to Serbia in last year’s playoff, India will seek one more shot at getting back into the World Group — a territory it has not inhabited since 2011.

On paper, India looks way better. Each of its frontline singles players — Somdev Devvarman and Yuki Bhambri — is ranked close to the 150-mark. Devvarman is now 148 and Bhambri 151.

On the other hand, New Zealand’s top two — Jose Statham and Michael Venus — are 345 and 548 respectively. In Marcus Daniell and Artem Sitak, though, the Kiwis have two top-50 players to take on Rohan Bopanna and Saketh Myneni in the doubles.

But, then, rarely is a Davis Cup tie won on paper.

“Weather!” said coach Zeeshan Ali when asked about the main concern. “It’s going to be the height of winter there (about 10 degrees Celsius). Even if indoors (on hard-court) it is going to be very cold. It’s known that we aren’t quite comfortable playing in the cold.”

Form-wise, Bhambri has had a steady year, with his serve seeing much improvement. Devvarman comes into the tie on the back of a win at the AC Nielson Pro Challenger in Winnekta, U.S.A.

Bopanna too has had a fulfilling grass-court season, and, in Myneni, the team has the perfect utility man, who, though chosen for doubles, can play singles too as his ranking of 198 indicates.

Zeeshan said they were working on getting Devvarman to be tad more aggressive. “While hanging behind the baseline, he sometimes tends to fall into a trap. He pegs himself way back,” Zeeshan said.

“Somdev relies so much on his legs,” concurred captain Anand Amritraj. “As you get older you can’t run down every ball. He still is one of the quickest, but needs to be a bit more aggressive.”

With Davis Cup play stipulating that the second-best players meet in the final rubber, something the team would have considered an advantage till a week back was Devvarman, with all his experience, being India’s No.2.

However, Devvarman’s triumph in the Winnekta Challenger over the last weekend has seen him leapfrog Bhambri in the rankings. Not that the team will consider that a set-back; the much improved Bhambri is hardly a weak fifth-rubber player.

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/india-seeks-a-world-group-playoff-berth/article7426116.ece

Chennai Plots its moves in advance

In the inaugural season, Chennaiyin FC was the late starter. This season it has been quickly off the blocks. In an attempt to build on the semifinal finish last year, it signed goalkeeper Edel Bete and striker Fikru Teferra from Champions Atletico de Kolkata, well before the auction. Fikru’s signing is significant especially because the club was unable to retain the services of Colombian forward John Stiven Mendoza, who was highly impressive last year.

While retaining the likes of Harmanjot Singh Khabra, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Balwant Singh, who formed the dependable Indian core of the side, it was surprising to see Chennaiyin let go of Denson Devadas who played in almost all the matches. So it was imperative for the side to find a replacement and it did so in the form of Bengaluru FC midfielder Thoi Singh and its first local talent Dhanpal Ganesh.

Thoi Singh, a tough tackling midfielder, might also supplement the side in a different way. Last season, manager Marco Materazzi, tried to play Eric Djemba-Djemba in front of the defence to break up play. But the Nigerian’s failure forced him to bring himself on. Singh’s signing has the potential to address that lacuna. Dhanpal, the Pune FC midfielder, has also been making a name for himself and recently earned a call up to the national side too.

At the back though, the side might be short-changed. Last year it had the likes of Mikael Silvestre, Bernard Mendy and later in the season Alessandro Nesta. But of these only Mendy has so far been retained. Silvestre was a constant presence and Nesta’s organisational skills were all too visible. Replacements for them are yet to be identified even as the club has signed Justin Stephen, the Mumbai FC defensive mainstay.

Its frontline however looks fiery. Brazilian Elano Blumer was by far the most impressive of the marquee players and his retention is the biggest boost for the club. In Fikru and Bruno Pelissari, it has an attack that can take on the best of defences.

With a few defensive re-inforcements, the side can emerge stronger than last season.

Key players missing from last season: John Stiven Mendoza, Mikael Silvestre, Alessandro Nesta, Denson Devadas.

New players needed: Of major concern will be to find good enough players at the centre of the defence. Silvestre, in spite of his age, took on the burden of an anchor last season. Then Nesta’s presence gave the side the much needed direction. With both not among the retainees, Chennaiyin has to plug this hole.

Pre-season: The club practically did not have a pre-season last year. Now, ahead of the second season, Materazzi is planning to take the side to Italy for three weeks.

http://www.sportstaronnet.com/tss3831/stories/20150801508005600.htm

Better to embrace the here and now!

Romanticising the past is as old a human trait as human civilization itself. It was way better back then, more glorious, a lot purer and innocent is a refrain that is hard to miss in those taken over by nostalgia. It’s no different in sport. Perhaps, this kind of sentimental revision and craving for the yesteryear is best seen through sport. And in modern day tennis lies its best example.

“Real sports fans” would root for Roger Federer felt London’s Daily Mail on the morning of the Federer-Novak Djokovic Wimbledon singles final. “Federer is supposed to have been overtaken by the gym rats and the musclemen, the men who awe us with their stamina and their shot-making. No one means it as a sign of disrespect to Djokovic but most people who love sport will be hoping Federer makes it a record eight,” it said.

At once it seems like a simplistic argument which trashes in one stroke the Djokovic-phenomenon and the supernatural levels to which it has elevated tennis in recent years. But not for the purist, who is tired of the monotonously long baseline slugfests that supposedly dominate tennis today.

It is no coincidence that such arguments fill the air during the Wimbledon fortnight. For, no other place has kept its links intact to the game’s origins as much as SW19. And it is a given that every perceptible shift in the game will be viewed through the Wimbledon prism.

In 2001, Federer beat the serve-and-volley of Pete Sampras and went on to lose to the serve-and-volley of Tim Henman, who went on to lose to the serve-and-volley of Goran Ivanisevic, who went on to beat the serve-and-volley of Pat Rafter, to win the title. In the 2002 final between Lleyton Hewitt and David Nalbandian there was not a single serve-and-volley point.

It was also at this edition that the mix of the grass was changed from a quick 70% rye / 30% creeping red fescue, to a slower 100% perennial ryegrass and a larger tennis ball, called the Type 3, which travelled more slowly through the air, was developed. Federer in fact served and volleyed 80.8 per cent of the times in 2002. In the 2015 edition it was a little over 10 per cent.

The above two instances do serve up as evidence to buttress the fact that tennis has changed beyond recognition — from the time Federer won his first Wimbledon in 2003 till now, from the time Serena Williams won her first ‘Serena Slam’ in 2002-03 till now. But is it to the detriment of the game as it is being projected? Shorn of variety, yes. But of excitement, not really.

Tennis as a game didn’t exactly start off as being predominantly serve-and-volley. Fred Perry and Don Budge, the 1930s greats, were known for their ‘backhands and forehands that never went off’. Both seldom followed their serve to the net. Perry came in to the net only for the assured kill. In fact Perry’s groundstrokes were such that he never had to volley competently.

“In any match between the perfect baseline player and the perfect net-rusher, I would take the baseliner every time,” said ‘Big Bill’ Tilden many years ago. “The future will see a growth of hard-court play the world over,” said Bill Tilden, in his book The Art of Lawn Tennis. “Grass must fight to hold its position.” Note that in the 1920s Tilden was considered an ‘artist’ and was overwhelmingly voted the greatest tennis player of the first half of the 20th century in an Associated Press poll.

The Kramer theory of modern tennis in the 1940s and 1950s was what completely changed the game’s complexion. His style of play came to be known as ‘The Big Game’ — a cannonball serve followed by a decisive volley. There were many attacking players before Kramer, but none who consistently came in behind every serve.

Then followed the decades-long domination from the likes of Tony Roche, John Newcombe, John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg and Pete Sampras. (Note: Rod Laver was never an out-and-out serve-and-volleyer).

It is this era that a certain generation of fans yearns for, calling it aesthetically pleasing. But aesthetic sense is subjective. Why serve and volley was lapped up then was because it was a winning tactic. The courts were fast and racquet technology was yet to see advancement. “The game we play — I play, the Australians play — is to pressure an opponent,” said Newcombe. “Serve and volley works best — so we use it. But it’s just a means to an end. We could change.”

In the eyes of the current generation, the change, in the early 2000s is like a course correction. Because in the 1994 Wimbledon final between Sampras and Ivanisevic only three of the 206 points lasted more than four shots. In fact matches between the two were described as three hours of serve and ten minutes of tennis.

“Aces were once that single unanswerable assertion of dominance or defiance, and were remarkable for the surprise and thrill of their appearance,” wrote Paul Fein in his book Tennis Confidential. “These days, if they were a golf stroke, they’d be a tap-in.”

The changes in the last decade and a half have made it a baseliner’s game again. For example, those with big serves, but devoid of a return game don’t win much anymore. Djokovic, who once had the dubious record of having served more double-faults than aces in a single season, hit 13 aces to Federer’s 14 in that Sunday’s final. Most of it was clutch serving, like he saved two set points at 5-6 in the first set with back-to-back service winners.

What this suggests is that tennis, like everything else, has evolved and will continue to. It has always marched with the times. Training methods are better and nutrition has improved. There is a greater scientific understanding and the resulting improvement in performance and technique is as good as inevitable. The differences in games are not as stark as they were before but very subtle. The ultimate goal is to become an all-court expert.

True it might not have the variety of say a Borg-McEnroe clash or that of a Sampras-Agassi or even a Federer-Nadal. That may be due to homogenising of the courts but it is also because perfection has become so commonplace. The idea of a glorious past is fine, but only a cynic will refuse to see the greatness around him.

http://www.sportstaronnet.com/tss3830/stories/20150725501900400.htm

Chennaiyin welcomes its first ‘home’ player

In the first year, Chennaiyin FC left no stone unturned to appeal to the local community. The customary vanakkam , the club’s name, its logo et al can be seen as attempts to do precisely this. But, the most important thing was missing — a player from the home State of Tamil Nadu.

On Friday, at the ISL player auction/draft, that prayer was finally answered. Dhanpal Ganesh, a 21-year-old from the city, who plays as a central midfielder for Pune FC in the I-league, was picked by the franchise for Rs. 9 lakh.

“It was unexpected,” Ganesh told The Hindu . “I knew I would be picked by some club. But this was not expected. It gives me an opportunity to play in front of my parents, which I have never done. I am very happy.”

Ganesh did his schooling (till eighth standard) in Vyasarpadi, after which he spent four years at the Neyveli Sports Hostel (2004-2007). This was where his footballing journey started.

“Former India international Raman Vijayan came to the hostel and spoke about his journey in football. He was sort of a role model. He had left a secure government job and gone to play at the higher levels. So, I too decided to do that and didn’t consider playing in the Chennai senior division. I went for the trials in Pune and got selected.”

It was a risky move. He came from a humble family. His father used to whitewash houses and his mother was a homemaker. “It was a risk. My parents were against it. My father used to struggle to even buy me boots. I had to leave my studies too. But, I wanted to play for India.”

He finally realised his dream of turning out in national colours when he came on as a substitute in the preliminary round World Cup qualifier against Nepal in March.

Back in 2011, Ganesh was the first player to graduate from the Pune FC academy to the first team. “Manager Ashok Kumar helped me a lot. He was the one who promoted me. I owe him a lot today. I learnt my football skills there and got my first taste of professional football. All the coaches and owners treat me like their son.”

The ISL, though, will be a different ball-game. “I have watched players like Marco Materazzi only on TV. It will be great to play alongside them. But, I need to practise a lot. There is a huge difference between the level we are at and the level at which they play.”

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-sports/chennaiyin-welcomes-its-first-home-player/article7409527.ece

'The team has settled down'

In the past five years India’s journey in the Davis Cup has been topsy-turvy. From the heights of being in the first round of the World Group in 2010 and 2011, the subsequent two years were spent languishing in the regional Asia-Oceania Group I competition. The danger of slipping to Group II and thus into tennis oblivion was there but was warded off. A players’ rebellion against the All India Tennis Association ensued too.

However, in the time since then, much has eased. There is a certain camaraderie in the Davis Cup team that’s hard to miss. The bunch helmed by captain Anand Amritraj and coached by Zeeshan Ali is more of a family, sure about its abilities with each player standing up for the other in times of need. Last September, it punched above its weight and was just a match away from qualifying for the World Group again but lost to Serbia 3-2.

Ten months on, it is up against New Zealand. A win will give it another chance to qualify for the World Group in September. Ahead of the tie, which he termed ‘winnable’, captain Amritraj shared his thoughts with the Sportstar on his time so far.

Excerpts:

Question: What were the goals you set yourself when you took over in September 2013?

Answer: It has pretty much been the same — to get us into the World Group. Last time we were one match away, losing to Serbia 3-2. It was a lot closer than anybody thought we could come. It was a shame that we couldn’t pull it off. So that is still the goal.

What are the improvements that you have seen in these past two years?

Somdev (Devvaraman) has performed as well as he could. He was unbelievable against Korea when we won 4-1. Then against Chinese Taipei. He had an amazing third day against Serbia. Yuki has played well in the past six months. People were tough on him initially. But he had an injury lay-off. Against Serbia his fitness was not 100 per cent. But he has come a long way since then. I am expecting him to be really good this year.

So was it a gamble to play him against Serbia?

It was. But I chose him because it’s hard to replace somebody who is ranked 150 or so. If he had been 300, yes, I would have replaced him. But it was hard to toss him out. Also Saketh Myneni wasn’t in the four. Rohan Bopanna, if chosen, would have given his best shot. But he had not played singles in four years and in best of five matches it is extremely difficult.

What are your views on the talent pool in India?

If you get away from the 28-year-olds and 30-year-olds we have Yuki and Ramkumar. Then come Sumit Nagal, who I have never watched, and Sasi Kumar Mukund. These guys have a long way to go. It’s always tough to jump from juniors to seniors. Unless you are one of the top juniors it is very, very tough. Every 50 spots is a huge jump.

What can you do to improve it?

In the days I played the Nationals had much more importance. So was the grass court Nationals. Not so much today. You need to attract players to play there — either with money or with ranking points. The ATP points are out of question. So if you give the winners say five lakhs, there is some incentive for them to play. Also, if one isn’t in the top-200, you should make it mandatory for them.

Also one needs to understand that you cannot make a life out of playing the Futures tournaments (the lowest rung). You need to get out of the rut as soon as you can. It’s a complete waste of time going to Spain and playing Futures. Rather play the qualifying of some Challenger. Also these days the top players don’t play each other. They don’t want to play sets, let alone matches. It’s done in the US. They get all the players at a place and organise matches. The whole level of play goes up.

Indians have traditionally done well in doubles. Why is that they drift towards the format? Don’t we need quality singles players to make a name in the Davis Cup?

Absolutely! We need two top 100 players to get ahead. I will say that all the youngsters should focus only on singles. There should be no thought about doubles for a good 10 years. No thought at all. Leander (Paes) and Mahesh (Bhupathi) played singles before switching. Rohan too played singles early on. If you want to play doubles, do it later in the career.

You have been the captain for two years now with a good amount of coaching involved. And you also travel to a lot of tournaments, see different players and coaches. How do you see this era of the high-profile coaches?

Who doesn’t have a coach? When Vijay (Amritraj) and I played we were each other’s coach. These days even doubles players have coaches. It is very helpful with the mental aspect.

So are you an advocate of court coaching like in the Davis Cup? The women’s game even had it.

No. It shouldn’t be even in the women’s event. It’s an individual sport. You are playing for yourself. You should be able to figure out things on your own.

http://www.sportstaronnet.com/stories/20150718506103800.htm

Fighting tooth and nail!

Most of the rivalries in sports are way bigger than just the actual games themselves. Geopolitics, economic warfare and even religion play a role and lend to much of the hysteria surrounding them. With the Ashes now round the corner, here is a look at five such rivalries from world over.

India vs. Pakistan (hockey)

Much before the Indian and Pakistani cricket teams gained traction, it was men’s hockey which was in the forefront. Those were the days when the two sub-continental nations ruled world hockey.

The two have a record of facing each other in the first six Asian Games hockey finals. In all they played in seven finals against each other with Pakistan winning six. From 1956 to 1964, they faced-off in three successive Olympic hockey finals. India won gold twice while Pakistan won once. In between all this, the two countries fought three wars too.

USA vs. USSR (Olympics)

From the arms race to the space race to nuclear interests, the Americans and the Russians competed everywhere. Sports was just an extension to it. In the 1972 Munich Olympics basketball final, the Russians won the gold under acrimonious circumstances which included two clock resets. The Americans appealed, but were rejected 3-2 by a five-member jury including Cuba, Poland and USSR! Then in 1980, came the ‘Miracle on Ice’ when the Russian hockey team, which had dominated the event in almost every Olympic tournament since 1954, was beaten by a set of amateur and college-level players from the U. S.

Springboks vs. All Blacks (rugby)

These are considered the two best rugby teams in history, dating back to 1921 when the All Blacks beat the Springboks in Dunedin 13-5. Such is the rivalry, it is said that when one plays rugby in South Africa, he always plays the All Blacks. It doesn’t matter where, but your opponent is always an All Black. Though the sides have had periods when they have dominated each other, the overall equation has been fairly balanced. Of the 89 played, New Zealand has 51 wins to South Africa’s 35. Like most, some of the battles were off the field too, like in 1981, when there were protests in New Zealand over the Springboks’ arrival due to the South African government’s policy of apartheid.

Argentina vs. Brazil (football)

It is perhaps the most sporting of rivalries. But like others, its genesis too lies in politics. It dates back to the territorial disputes the two nations inherited from their colonial powers (Spain and Portugal). Now, the South American giants compete fiercely to earn intra-continental bragging rights. In the 1990 World Cup, a Brazilian player accused Argentina’s trainers of giving him bottled water with a harmful substance in it which then came to be known as the “holy water” scandal. But now, with the European leagues in the forefront, the Argentina-Brazil rivalry is more associated with the perennial debate as to who is the greatest player ever? Diego Maradona or Pele?

The U.S. vs. Europe (Ryder Cup golf)

This rivalry is peculiar in the sense that the competition isn’t between two nations but between a nation (U. S.) and a continent (Europe). Named after the English businessman Samuel Ryder who donated the trophy, it first started in 1927 between the U. S. and Great Britain. Beginning 1979, European golfers were allowed to compete with the Brits, largely to shore up the team in light of American dominance. Golf is a sport involving multi-million contracts, corporate interests and huge TV deals. Yet, such is the pedestal at which the Ryder Cup is placed, that the winners don’t get a single penny as prize money.

http://www.sportstaronnet.com/stories/20150718504601900.htm

Every step you take

On the eve of the 2012 UEFA Champions League final between Chelsea and Bayern Munich, Petr Cech, the Chelsea goalkeeper, was given a two-hour DVD of every penalty kick that Bayern had taken since 2007. It was enough to calculate the probability of which way the ball would be placed when a penalty was taken. Chelsea went on to win the match following a penalty shoot-out and thereafter Cech said, “Six penalties the right way and I saved three, so basically the homework was very good.”

This March, at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston, Michael Niemeyer, Bayern’s head of match analysis, said of Pep Guardiola, the famed former manager of Barcelona and the current Bayern boss, “As he came to Bayern, the first thing he said was: ‘The match analysis department is the most important department for me.’ The second thing was: ‘I see a big part of my work in the auditorium.’ The auditorium is the place where he has video sessions.”

Football, as a sport, has long held out against numbers. Heart, soul, and the desire to win have always been cherished and rightly so, but the theoretical dimension of the game has been tough to take into account. The two instances above show that things are finally changing. In the words of Chris Anderson and David Sally who wrote The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know about Football is Wrong, “The datafication of life has started to infiltrate football”.

Charles Reep, a wing commander with the Royal Air Force, was the one who started it. In 1950, he logged data for a match involving Swindon Town. He is said to have noted 147 attacks by Swindon, extrapolated from there and concluded that close to 99 per cent of attacks were failures. He may have been right or wrong but he proved to be a pioneer, going on to log data for more than 2,000 matches.

Kick off

The real number crunching, however, took off only in the mid-1990s with the arrival of companies such as Opta and Prozone and their high-end technology. What is the percentage of goals scored from corners? What are the pass completion rates? How effective are throw-ins? What do teams do in the first few seconds after losing or winning the ball? What is the recovery time for a player between matches? Opta records something close to 1,500-2,000 events, of which the above is just a microcosm.

“Every step on a football pitch is measured now,” Roberto Martínez, the current Everton manager, told The Guardian. “We monitor each session with GPS and heart-rate profiles. From a physical point of view, the most significant stats are probably the number of sprints, the sprint distance and the amount of high-intensity efforts a player gets through. We look at these through the season and they give us a good indication of how fatigued a player is and the recovery he needs.”

As a discipline, analytics is slowly shaping how teams are built, how games are strategised, and how prospective players are scouted. Football now increasingly deals with abstracts. Every part of the pitch and every area off it is broken down and analysed. What it does is to destroy preconceived notions and eliminate experience bias. Someone who has been in the game all his life might not be able to spot everything. There is finally the realisation that metrics help you see the unseen. And this has been proven by Arsene Wenger, manager of Arsenal, who studied economics and mathematics and turned to a fitness ace to solve his problems; by Sally and Anderson, behavioural economist and professor of politics, respectively, who wrote The Numbers Game; and by the maths wizards whom Billy Beane appointed to revolutionise baseball.

Getting the numbers right

Simon Kuper, a Financial Times columnist and co-author of Soccernomics noted how Manchester City winning the English Premier League title had much to do with data. “The analysts persuaded the club’s then manager Roberto Mancini that the most dangerous corner kick is the inswinger, the ball that swings towards goal. Mancini had long argued (strictly from intuition) that outswingers were best. Eventually he capitulated and City scored 15 goals from corners, the most in the Premier League.” City won the League on goal difference.

However, much depends on how one uses the data. Technology is such that when one buys into it, he or she does so completely. There are no half measures. The trick lies in what to see and how to see. As Nate Silver, the master American psephologist who was once a baseball analyst, said, “Most of the data is just noise, as most of the universe is filled with empty space.”

In 2011, when Liverpool signed Andy Carroll for a whopping £35 million, it raised quite a few eyebrows. The then director of football Damien Comolli thought that Carroll, who had the highest conversion rate from crosses, in combination with Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing, both of whom had the best passing numbers and a high percentage of winning the ball in the opponents’ penalty box, would bring in a goal rush. But he didn’t see the data that said that crosses are not always an effective way to score goals. The plan as a whole was a spectacular failure.

What this calls for is more refined metrics. No one thinks that intuition will ever go out of the game. The players are the ones who win you matches. But data, by being dispassionate, helps them maximise their talent. It is said that nothing has altered the way football has been played in almost a century except for the modern-day offside rule. In the years to come, analytics might be the next game-changer.

http://www.thehindu.com/sunday-anchor/sunday-anchor-every-step-you-take/article7386976.ece

Rapid evolution

No other professional sport has integrated technology into its world as well as tennis. Playing surfaces are ever newer. The International Tennis Federation recognises 160 of them. Ball-tracking technology, medical technology, social media interfaces, advancements in broadcasting have all revolutionised the way the game is played and consumed. It is evolving so rapidly that the 2014 Rules of Tennis have been amended to permit International Tennis Federation (ITF)-approved devices to be used during play. While the public, on one hand, focuses on the Roger Federers, Rafael Nadals and Novak Djokovics, the role of technology at the backend is unmistakably huge. Not for nothing did English novelist Martin Amis say, “a beautiful game, but one so remorselessly travestied by the passage of time.”

Yet, it is a fact that tennis is a sport full of conservatives. Players have always been slow to change. Old habits die hard. And the tension between the old and new, a feature of many a value system around the world, is glaring. Ask the old hand, he will decry the role of chance and luck. What used to be four radically different surfaces (the four Grand Slams) are now almost homogenous due to technology, he will say. Why should the same players with the same set of skills be rewarded again and again, he will ask. Why is that fate and human failings decide less and less and instead computers and sensors have a say more and more, he will wonder.

But everything has to move with the times. There will be pros and cons but evolution is inevitable. Here is a look at some of the technological advancements in tennis:

Racquets

It was wooden first. Then it became steel. Steel then turned into carbon and now graphene seems to be the new trick. American Jimmy Connors, when he won the Wimbledon in 1974, was the first to put the metal racquet in public minds. Billie Jean King did win the 1967 U.S. Open with metal but later returned to wooden racquets.

When Connors did what he did, it divided opinion. The wooden racquets were 65 square inches in size. The carbon ones can now go up to 137. There was once something called the ‘sweet spot’ and it required a bit of talent to make contact with the ball at that precise point. Now, the whole of the racquet is a sweet spot. Are players the primary determinants of a match result anymore is the underlying question.

But what technology did do was to customise the racquet for an individual player and increase the potential for improvement. It is no longer the look and feel of the equipment but the level of detail to the last grain that decides which racquet gets used. The latest among these is the ‘Babolat Play’ where sensors equipped inside the handle measures movement and vibrations from where a ball hits the string bed and captures data about every type of stroke. The data can then be transmitted to a smartphone or computer and analysed.

Hawk-Eye

One area where the traditionalists and the modernists seem to converge rather easily is on the use of Hawk-Eye which allows a player to challenge an official line call. It traces the arc of a bouncing ball, maps the path the ball takes and establishes whether it bounced in or out. It even takes into account how the ball skids and changes shape during contact with the ground. At an error threshold of 3.6 mm, it is almost perfect. The skeptics initially said it would interrupt the flow of the game and take out the human element. On the contrary, what it does is to place that human element in the players’ realm. In allowing just two unsuccessful challenges in each set, the interruption is minimum and the players need to know when and what to challenge, and this decision making is now considered an art in itself.

Biomechanics and video analysis

A tennis stroke is a thing of sophistication. Early research involved only the serve. Ground strokes were secondary. But with players getting all the more fitter, rallies extending, the need was for a well-rounded game. This is where biomechanics and video analysis come into the picture. How does one develop power and control? What is the stretch-shortening cycle of muscles? How much should one vary the pace, spin and direction of the ball? A plethora of video analysis systems are in place for the same. Why, players scout each other on YouTube these days and especially in Davis Cups when one draws obscure opponents, this is a God-send.

Low-compression tennis balls

Something that changed the fundamental way tennis was played was the introduction of low-compression tennis balls. These are lightweight balls that are easy to hit. The flight of the ball is slower and the bounce true, giving more time for one to play the ball and lengthen the rallies. This has come under severe criticism from some quarters for making certain aspects of the game like the volley and the drop shot rare and thereby making the game a one-dimensional baseline slugfest. But what is also true is that it really helps a youngster shape his strokes better and gives them more time to control and play the shots.

Did you know?

The net cord sensor’s first-ever version introduced in 1974 was a pick-up from the electric guitar — a mechanical effort (of ball hitting the net) being converted into electric charge (picked up by sensors).

Around 35 km of cables are wired through Melbourne Olympic Park during the Australian Open.

At Wimbledon, spare balls are kept at 20 degrees centigrade at the side of the court to keep them in perfect condition.

http://www.sportstaronnet.com/stories/20150711503801400.htm

FIFA should turn the page

Just a week ago, on the day of his election as FIFA president for a fifth term, Joseph S. Blatter remarked: “We don’t need revolutions, we need evolutions.” After resuming office he went further and said: “Why would I step down? That would mean I recognise that I did wrong.” However, days later, in a widely welcomed move he resigned, saying the organisation needed a “profound overhaul”. It is unclear what prompted the hard-nosed football administrator, who displayed such Machiavellian ability to stay in control of the body even as it was engulfed in a series of corruption scandals. Whether it was because the noose was tightening around the FIFA general secretary and his second-in-command, Jérôme Valcke, alleged to have authorised $10 million in bribes for World Cup bidding votes, and fears that it would finally reach him, or pressure from the Michel Platini-led UEFA, or ultimately his own conscience, remain questions. Mr. Blatter believed he was a part of the solution and not the problem, although hardly anyone accepted that. In politics it is said ‘perception is reality’, and in the political theatre that FIFA had become over the years it was no different. Any effort to turn FIFA around would have rung hollow with him at the helm. Accountability has to begin at the top, and Mr. Blatter’s resignation is the first step towards that.

Going forward, the need is to transform the way FIFA works. In 2011, before starting his fourth term, Mr. Blatter engaged Mark Pieth, a Professor of criminal law at Basel University, to create a road map for reform. His recommendations included fixing term limits for the president and executive committee members, proper scrutiny of candidates nominated to the executive committee and greater financial controls. None of these has been acted upon, and the time to do so is now. The deeply entrenched quid pro quo system between Mr. Blatter’s regime and regional football associations, with the development funding route turning into a tool to buy votes and thereby creating divisions within the footballing fraternity, has to end. But that shouldn’t mean a throwback to an era when Europe dominated the football scene: that was precisely the reason why Mr. Blatter was so popular in the developing world. It is imperative that a truly democratic system is put in place. And the leader should work not just for his backers but for everyone. The selection process of World Cup hosts should become more transparent. The mess that a flawed system can create is there for everyone to see in the fact of Russia and Qatar having become hosts. It is high time the lessons were learnt.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-on-fifa-after-sepp-blatter/article7282986.ece

TFA, State govt. racing against time

Barely months ago, Chennai was nowhere in the picture as one of the prospective venues for the 2017 FIFA under-17 World Cup to be held in India. It seemed to have passed up every opportunity to make its bid count.

Yet, it has managed to come back into the reckoning. A few question marks over other venues and the good conduct of the inaugural Indian Super League (ISL) matches in 2014 meant that the city was named as one among the prospective venues. As project director Joy Bhattacharya recently told The Hindu in Kochi, “FIFA is waiting for that big push from the Tamil Nadu government to get things moving.”

Add to that the fact that the tournament authorities might be looking at expanding the list of host cities to include more than six centres has given it hope. “The under-17 World Cup is a development tournament,” said Bhattacharya on Saturday. “FIFA has picked India as the host for the 2017 edition only to promote the game in the region. Chile 2015 has seven venues, so even in India there can be more than six venues, as long as it is commercially feasible.”

But how did things reach such a stage where Chennai has to play a catch-up game? From the time the original shortlist of eight host cities was made in late 2013, the administrative limbo, first in the Tamil Nadu Football Association (TFA) and then the State government, has ensured that it has missed every deadline.

“We got the TFA’s letter of interest after the deadline had expired,” AIFF secretary Kushal Das had told The Hindu in April last year.

“But, we made an exception and asked them to submit the required documents related to the host city agreement.”

It is to be noted that the bid documents have not been sent till date. The effort to finalise the bid documents had in fact started in July 2014, when the general secretary of the TFA wrote to the State government, through the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT), seeking permission to use the SDAT Jawaharlal Nehru stadium. The list of FIFA-mandated requirements that a host city needs to fulfil was also attached.

The government, within days, sought clarifications on certain technical issues through its legal team to take the process forward. Almost a year has passed since then, but the TFA is yet to reply.

When quizzed on the delay, its president, Jesiah Villavarayar, who took over in September 2014, refused to dwell on the past and said he was hopeful that everything would turn out well in the end.

“We are meeting the Sports Minister in the first week of June, and are hopeful that things would move quickly,” he said. “We are trying our best to make it happen. We are in the process of readying the bid document. We continue to maintain a good rapport with FIFA.”

But, the task seems daunting. Four cities — Guwahati, Kolkata, Kochi and Mumbai — have already been given provisional nods after the recent round of inspections. The certification, as Bhattacharya said, “allows the selected venues to speed up the work and avail themselves of necessary central funds”.

Goa and New Delhi may have encountered a few hiccups — relating to one of the training venues in the former’s case and discussions with the stakeholders (the State and Central governments) in the latter’s — but they are expected to be resolved soon.

The ISL has no doubt given a much-needed facelift to the Nehru stadium, but more needs to be done outside it too (see box).

One among those is with respect to the practice grounds. It is learnt that in the report the FIFA inspection committee submitted last December after its visit to Chennai, the four practice grounds — MCC Tambaram, University Union ground, SDAT Nehru Park and Nehru Stadium ‘B’ ground — weren’t rated highly.

“The FIFA team will visit Chennai if and when the local organisation shows some tangible progress,” said Bhattacharya.

The onus is thus on the TFA and the State government to show that.

(Additional reporting by K. Keerthivasan & Ayon Sengupta)

What comprises the bid?

A snapshot of what the bid document consists of:

Stadium agreement: Stadium plan and the fulfilment of norms as listed by FIFA. For example, the pitch size has to be 105x68 metres and with three to five metres of grass around. Commentary box and media centre with 100 workstations having cable, internet facility, four equal size dressing rooms, match official rooms, one for dope testing with refrigeration, VIP area, 40 TV monitors with live match feeds etc.

Host city agreement: Four practice grounds, exclusive zones identified by FIFA in which the host city has to ensure that commercial and non-commercial activities shall not operate, environmental concerns, comprehensive public liability insurance to cover possible losses, bodily injuries, property damage etc, and the same is to cover FIFA and its personnel etc.

Government guarantee 1 (Security): VIP guest protocol and traffic clearances.

Government guarantee 2 (Taxation): An undertaking regarding exemptions with respect to indirect taxes without any pre-conditions.

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/football/tfa-state-govt-racing-against-time/article7265296.ece