Sports

Accord Sports Priority

The poor performance by Indian athletes and sportspersons at the Rio Olympics has evoked widespread comments including in the international media. Many are intrigued by the fact that a country of 1.2 billion people, which boasts of a growing economy, could at the end get only one silver and one bronze medal.

The failure to excel in sports is not the fault of individual athletes but is a product of the poor sports infrastructure in the country, the lack of public funding for sports and the pernicious grip of a political-bureaucratic nepotism over the sports federations.

The World Cup Is Over, Hail the FIFA!

THE month long football carnival is over and so are the sleepless, night long vigils. The game has once again proved that our hearts and heads need not necessarily be sharing the same vibes. Heart wanted one to win, head said the other will win and win they did. Local favourite and host Brazil lost badly coming out fourth in the competition. For the first time in the history of the game, a European team has won the championship in Latin America. All these are a spectacle for our consumption. Tear off the skin and we will find the real winners and losers.

Ugly Racism Tars Jogo Bonito

JOGO bonito, the beautiful game, (football) – “a liberation of flesh and spirit, a thing of soaring fantasy, the forbidden adventure of freedom” (Galeano) is back. Not that it ever left us. It is now back as a carnival – the biggest sporting event on the planet – the World Cup. And it comes with its set of controversies. Seven years since it was awarded the hosting rights, Brazil is slogging to get dressed up for the big day.

The Businessman’s Game

WITH the Mumbai Indians crowned champions at the final at Eden Gardens, the sixth season of IPL comes to an end. But as it was never free of controversies, this series too had its share of scandals; apart from the fact that this time the cricketing aspect was clearly overshadowed by one of the biggest sporting controversies in the history of the game. With the Lords Gate scandal still fresh in their memories, the average cricket lovers are stuck in a dilemma on whether to believe the scoreboard anymore or not.

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