Indian Sport : The Good ,The Bad and The Ugly

The Indian Cricket team were stuttering at 69 for 5 at lunch against Rest of South Africa in a warm-up game.But I won't continue talking about the Men in 'Blues' (couldn't resist a mention though) - it will take decades to finish if we rant about them.

Looking at the Indian performance in the Doha Asian Games , one observes varied facets of Indian Sport-

The Good:
There were certainly some performances worthy of applause including that of Pankaj Advani in billiards, Jaspal Rana in shooting or the Kabbadi team.Much is expected from hockey and tennis as well.

The Bad:
Last time I heard of Anjali Bhagwat she was crying out loud on not getting the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2003(the committee had to give in and she was jointly awarded along with K.M.Beenamol) or complaining about stiff muscles during the Athens Olympics as the reason for her dismal performance.This time too she finished a distant 22nd, her less illustrious compatriots fared better-one even made it to the finals.
The hockey team selected had some serious omissions like Viren Rasquinha ( KPS Gill even said that they need not give any reasons for the omissions).Well, a lowly China beat them 3-2 in the last match and they now face the ominous task of beating South Korea on Sunday to keep their hopes alive of making the last four.

The Ugly:
Can any Indian outing be complete without a whiff of dope?Only this time discus thrower Seema Antil took over the mantle from the usual suspects-the weightlifters.
And talk about washing dirty linen in public, the Leander - Bhupathi spat took an ugly turn with Paes questioning his commitment after a 1st round loss to minnows Chinese Taipei.Later, for the doubles , Leander is believed to have opted for Rohan Bopanna but was persuaded otherwise by the AITA secretary Anil Khanna.
Paes had, in the build up to the games,turned down his offer to reunite on the tour to strengthen their bid for a maiden Olympic medal at the 2008 Beijing Games.Bhupathi had also made his displeasure clear on the decision that Paes will play the mixed doubles with Sania Mirza.What could have been resolved with maturity inside the dressing room has come out in full scrutiny of the media.It will only make a huge dent in the team's morale.
What remains to be seen is whether they can put aside their egos and defend their doubles gold medal- the whole nation is certainly expecting them to.