Sports
When a cricket writer met the don of Bombay
Rex Clementine in Bombay
During Sri Lanka’s first Test tour of India in 1982, not following protocol when the team met former Indian President Zail Singh created quite a stir. Apparently, Board President Gamini Dissanayake was very angry. Some say that the players weren’t aware who Zail Singh was while others say they were too jaded after a long flight.
The post of Indian President is a five year term. Zahil Singh was President from 1982 to 1987. He had succeeded Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. There is a joke that for Zahil Singh’s inauguration when the photographers asked, ‘Mr. President are you ready,’ Zail Singh had replied, ‘I’m not Reddy. I’m Zahil Singh.’
Security is tight in Bombay the day before Sri Lanka’s game against India. The reason being the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Eknath Shinde is expected to be here. He is not coming here to interact with either of the teams. He is here for the unveiling of a statue of Sachin Tendulkar at the Wankhede Stadium.
Tendulkar began his Test career as a 16-year-old and it stretched for 24 long years. His batting exploits are well documented although his captaincy wasn’t spectacular. Some of Sri Lanka’s cricket highlights came when he was leading the Indian team.
During the famous 952 six declared game at RPS, Tendulkar graciously declared, ‘I haven’t seen Don Bradman, but I have seen Sanath Jayasuriya.’
The same year during the Asia Cup final, when Sri Lanka chased down India’s target with plenty to spare, Ravi Shastri at the post-match presentation asks Tendulkar what is a safe total against Sri Lanka. Tendulkar wonders around and declares, ‘Maybe 1000’.
Time was when India feared Sri Lanka like the plague. Many of their bowlers like Manoj Prabhakar and Venkatesh Prasad suffered at the hands of Jayasuriya and Aravinda de Silva.
India in fact had not beaten Sri Lanka in a World Cup fixture until 1999.
You can only reminisce about those glory days and desperately hope that good times will come back. The locals keep asking what ails Sri Lankan cricket. Someone who is really worried for Sri Lankan cricket is G. Viswanath, who has made many visits to Sri Lanka as the chief cricket correspondent of English daily The Hindu.
Many Sri Lankan players are Viswanath’s friends, and he keeps in touch with them regularly.
Viswanath is a curious reporter. Although he writes on sports alone, he keeps himself busy exploring other interesting subjects happening in the city.
Born and bred in Bombay, once in 1982 he had gone to meet Varadarajan Mudaliar, a powerful mob boss. He was adored by the locals, but the law enforcement was after him.
Viswanath had visited the underworld kingpin around lunch time. So Varadarajan requests him to come with him to feed his dogs. As they are feeding the dogs, one of his accomplices turns up to inform that two cops had come to see him. Varadarajan then tells his confidante, ‘I will feed these dogs. You go and feed those dogs.’ Apparently a reference to cops who had come to collect bribes.
There is a movie made on the life of Varadarajan Mudaliyar titled ‘Nayagan’. Leading Indian actor Kamal Hasan plays the role of Varadarajan in the film directed by Mani Ratnam, and it goes onto win several national awards.
To this date, Varadarajan is adored in Bombay by a certain section of the public for he looked after their interests. It’s hard to think that someone who was born and raised in south India will go onto become the leading don of India’s financial capital. And to this date, ‘Nayagan’ remains the best movie of Kamal Hasan.
As for Viswanath, he is still very active writing some fine stories on cricket. If you get to know him, he will kill you with his love. However, you need to make sure that you don’t go on unscheduled trips like the visit to Varadarajan.
The press box in Bombay is named after Bal Thackeray, a local politician and a right-wing Hindu nationalist. He had nothing to do with cricket and that’s why you keep telling the locals that the Bombay press box should be named after Viswanath and not after a politician.
For the World Cup, the Indian board had provided each cricket ground a donation to refurbish facilities at venues. Bombay looks fabulous but the problem with Indian grounds is that they don’t maintain these facilities. That’s where Sri Lanka is far ahead of India as our grounds are very well maintained.
For each match that the grounds host during the World Cup, the ICC gives US$ 700,000. So, if a venue hosts five games, they are walking away with a cool US$ 3.5 million.
Lionel Messi marked his record sixth World Cup appearance with his first hat-trick at a FIFA tournament as Argentina beat Algeria 3-0 to open the defence of their global crown, he also became the joint highest scorer at World Cups with the feat.
The former 38-year-old forward thought he had opened the scoring in the eighth minute in Kansas City on Tuesday when he slotted home from close range, but the offside flag was raised.
The dream start to his record-setting appearance, which will be matched by Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal against DR Congo on Wednesday, was not to be denied for long though.
A trademark, mazy run was capped by a drive on the edge of the box from that famed left foot. The power too much for Algeria keeper Luca Zidane, son of World Cup winner with France, Zinidine.
Messi doubled his tally on the hour mark with a simple tap in from a rebound off the keeper following a drive from Alexis Mac Allister.
The moment that even a player as decorated as Messi came in the 76th minute when he drilled low past the keeper from just outside the box.
The strike took Messi level with former Germany striker Miroslav Klose on 16 World Cup goals.
His substitution came just three minutes later to a standard ovation, even old maestro seemed disappointed to be removed – and most likely rested for Argentina’s tilt at becoming only the third side to defend a World Cup title.
Algeria – the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations winners – offered little, but were themselves denied an early goal when Fares Chaibi’s ninth minute strike was ruled out for offside.
Messi saw to it that there was no opening game upset to be had tat this edition, having lost their opening game at Qatar 2022 to Saudi Arabia.
Messi, who spent the majority of his club career in Spain with Barcelona before moving to French giants Paris-Saint Germain, plys his trade in US football’s Major League Soccer with Inter Miami.
Jordan and Austria open their account in the group later on Tuesday in San Francisco.
[Aljazeera]
Iran twice came from behind to draw 2-2 with New Zealand in an exciting World Cup clash at Los Angeles Stadium as protests against Tehran’s government and a peace deal signed to end the US-Iran war formed a charged backdrop to the match.
High security presence and protests outside the venue were among the off-field concerns surrounding the match on Monday.
And when New Zealand took an early lead through Elijah Just’s volleyed shot from inside the box, after being set up by Chris Wood, some fans critical of the Iranian government celebrated with New Zealand supporters.
Many of these anti-regime spectators also carried Iran’s pre-Islamic Revolution Lion and Sun flag, against FIFA’s rules. Several also booed Iran’s national anthem before kickoff.
But most of the crowd of more than 70,000 appeared firmly behind Team Melli, chanting “Ir-ran! Ir-ran!” and erupting when Ramin Rezaeian equalised shortly after the half-hour mark.
Rezaeian, one of several Iran players who had not played club football since February after the domestic league was suspended amid US and Israeli air strikes, reacted quickest to a blocked shot and poked the ball past the advancing goalkeeper.
Wood and Just combined again early in the second half, the New Zealand captain sliding a precise pass into the 26-year-old forward’s path before Just hammered home to restore the All Whites’ lead.
Iran responded 10 minutes later with a superb goal from Mohammad Mohebbi, who headed Rezaeian’s perfect cross in off the far post to make it 2-2.
The stalemate means all the teams in Group G have one point after Belgium drew 1-1 with Egypt earlier on Monday.
New Zealand, making their third appearance at the tournament, remain without a win at a World Cup after seven matches. Iran are looking to reach the knockout round for the first time.
The match laid bare divisions among Iranian American fans, many of whom said they felt torn between pride at seeing Iran on the sport’s biggest stage, anger over Tehran’s crackdown on protesters and concern over Washington’s bombing campaign.
Before kickoff, about 300 to 500 protesters gathered outside the stadium, waving anti-government signs and flags.
Some Iranian Americans had said attending the match would imply support for Iran’s government, while others said they wanted to set politics aside and support the players.
Iran will next return to Los Angeles to face Belgium on Sunday when New Zealand take on Egypt in Vancouver.
[Aljazeera]
United States sprinter Noah Lyles has set the world’s best-ever time over the rarely-run 150 metres race, clocking 14.67 seconds at the Golden Spike meet in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava.
The 28-year-old Lyles on Tuesday beat the previous best of 14.72 set by Kishane Thompson of Jamaica in Florida in April.
At Ostrava, Lyles beat Sinesipho Dambile of South Africa with 14.78, while Australian teenager Gout Gout finished third in 14.96.
“Was there ever any doubt? Was there ever any doubt? We came for a show,” an elated Lyles told Czech TV.
Earlier this month, Lyles took a comfortable win at the Wanda Diamond League meet in Rome with a 9.88 in the 100m, his fastest since clinching gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The high-energy, anime-loving showman has had strong indoor and outdoor performances throughout the year so far, and was named on this year’s Time100 list of the most influential people.
Dutch star Femke Broeders-Bol had to bow to in-form Swiss Audrey Werro in her outdoor debut in the 800m.
The 26-year-old Broeders-Bol has switched from 400m hurdles, in which she had won two world gold medals, and clocked an impressive 1 minute 57.13 seconds for second place.
“It was so cool, I love racing in Ostrava. It was tough, but I enjoyed it,” she said.
Broeders-Bol has also claimed multiple medals as the anchor leg in 4x400m relay teams, notably a gold in the mixed event in the Paris Olympics.
She ran her first 800m since 2017 in February, clocking a national record of 1 minute 59.07 seconds before withdrawing from the rest of the indoor season to nurse a foot injury.
The 22-year-old Werro won in 1 minute 54.45 seconds, half a second behind her personal best from March, after shedding Broeders-Bol with 200 metres to run.
“It was a really crazy run, but the time is very good, so I’m really happy,” Werro said.
Having set the eighth best time ever, she stayed over a second behind the oldest world record in athletics of 1:53.28 set in 1983 by Jarmila Kratochvilova of then-Czechoslovakia, who watched the race from the stands.
South Africa’s 20-year-old Bayanda Walaza won the men’s 100m as he equalled his personal best of 9.94 seconds, beating Emmanuel Eseme of Cameroon with 9.99 seconds.
US favourites Ronnie Baker and Jordan Anthony were demoted to the fourth and fifth spots, respectively, with times well over 10 seconds.
[Aljazeera]
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