The last month and this one have witnessed the rise of a small country whose legionaries are well known for conquering many places centuries ago. Known for their bull fighting matadors, Spain, apart from being a lucrative tourist destination, have some fine achievements to their name. Mostly remembered now is in the field of sport, where they are dominantly making waves in soccer and tennis. From the land of Raul and Moya, Torres and Nadal, 2008 has been quite an eventful year for the land of the matadors.

Coming last month, Spain won its first major international tournament in over four and a half decades- the EURO 2008. Thanks to amazing performances from Torres, Fabregas, Xabi and others ; the spaniards had a big reason to celebrate. And they were received amidst much pomp and celebrations- fitting the champions.

Surely coach Aragones must be a happy man. Amidst all this victory celebrations, I would also have liked it if they made a mention of Raul, one of the world class players produced by Spain . May be in the time of Raul, Spain didn’t make any significant international presence excepting for their wonderful league football- Spanish La Liga. One must also not forget that Raul played a part for what the present team is today. However, all credit to Spain.

July 6,2008- History was made by Spain. This time in another sport-Tennis . Rafael Nadal becomes the first Spanish player in over forty odd years to win Wimbeldon- his fifth Grand slam. In the process, he prevented Fedex’s attempt for a sixth consecutive Wimbeldon victory. It was unarguably the most emotional grand slam victory for Nadal and even more undoubtedly the most tearful loss for Roger, considering what he just lost out on. Rafa had Fedex’s weak backhand as well nature’s forces to his command. Clearly, he has breached to what has appeared Fedex’s stronghold. While the world celebrates the king of clay as the newly crowned grass king, it also asks another question- Is Fedex’s dominance slowly coming to a halt? That can only be a spontaneous question. Even though 2008 hasn’t been a great year for the Swiss Master, he will be back. For real. He will be back better than ever.

Spain is really making a mark in the International arena and it is just forcing the other nations to stand up and take notice. The land of the famed Matadors has finally awoken- it seems.

It seems Spain is saying—World! Take notice! Do not even try to take a bull by its horns! We are the bull tamers!

Watch out world!

In what could be seen as a major setback to Indian hockey, it plunged to a new low by failing to qualify for the Olympics for the first time in first time in 80 years. This is no doubt ‘The saddest day’ for the national game of India and is considered to be a disgrace to Indian hockey. This outcome is to be pondered over seriously and in the better interest of the game, serious changes have to be implemented. With cricket already being the toast of the nation and indian cricket doing well now-a-days, this one wouldn’t have come at a worser time. By losing to England 2-0, India failed to qualify for the Olympics. Who is to be blamed? The selecting committee? The IHF president Gill? No one is sure but the blame just passes on from one person to another.

Only a few months back, they went on a hunger strike because they thought they lacked the deservation for their victory in the Asia Cup. The fact of the matter is – If you do not get critized for your losses, you do not get apllauded for your victories as well. Cricket is no doubt the predominant sport and it would very well seem that even a small win is highly celebrated, but considering the pressure that the palyers face due to huge following, it would only come to us as a fair deal. Now in no way am I advocating that Hockey victories do not deserve such parties, but sadly, the fact is it has a mediocre fan following and looking at the ways things are shaping up,I would say hockey is treading on an unknown perilous path. It is potentially in the dangers of becoming one of the forgotten games and would end up like just any other sport, inspite of having the distinction of being the national game of India.

The steps that might be considered as appropriate is to have a transparency in the selecting committee as well as selecting a new coach. Now this coach must be bold and must now succumb to the politics prevalent in the sub-continent and must be able to churn out the best team that India can possibly have. Politics is one of the dominant evil-doers to Indian sports.(Remember how Parthiv patel got into the Indain team without playing even a single Ranji match?) There are even questions about Gill’s tenure as IHF president. What are the steps that the governing body of Hockey will take to decide the future of this once illustrious sport? That remains to be seen. Indian hockey better take some bold changes for its upliftment as it is now walking on the never-before walked path ever.

What is Mr.Gill going to do now? All eyes are on you,president.

A splendid display of teamwork shown by India over the past week to bring it its first ODI series victory overseas since the historic Natwest series win in England way back in 2002. Dhoni has again proved as a captain that he is well worth the responsibility he has been assigned. Great work by the inexperienced Praveen Kumar but Pathan and Piyush failed to fire. The master blaster needs no appraisal since it is just another one of his capabilities.Bah! What would India do without him! Harbhajan showed that he is a man of great character and his over was a vital break-through. Despite the racist allegations and the highly objectionable crowd behavoiur, Bhaji has endured all of that mind games and his wicket especially the one of that of Symonds was really pleasing. Praveen Kumar’s dangerous ability to swing the ball both ways proved too much for the Australians and their power hitters had no answers to his aeroswingionics. Lee was surprisingly unimpressive and he went for a lot of runs.

With such a performance on their backs, India has surely built  a strong core but the question still remains- Only one out of the big three are currently playing in the team and it looks like India is not really missing Dada and the wall Dravid. Surely India can use their experience and their expertise but has their ODI tenure coming to a halt or will it persist? This is left to the selectors. Vengsarkar did not do a bad job this time around-The Indians did have a memorable series Down Under lest the controversies. One thing surely can’t change. Players may come in and go out, but Tendulkar isn’t out until he has an injury. The fact that even though Dhoni and Tendulkar were not fit during the match, they played really well. Sachin persisting groin pain and going on to score another important knock just justifies how great an individual he is. Dhoni, even though not his swashbuckling self now a days, was good in captaincy especially his brave and interesting choice of bowlers. All along, it was quite an interesting series and India did have a lot of experimentation. Finally what matters is India has dispelled critics and brought home the cup. Way to go,India!

Well, i cant really think of anything socially concerning to blog about , so here i am basically jobless here and blogging about something which i found rather dull and boring to blog about, nevertheless i am here for that.

I had my first basketball stint last week, and whoah did i dig it or what!! i loved every moment of it. Basically i watch a lot of NBA and i really wanted to play it big time, now that NIT has got one, i thought why not make use of it.

Saturday, 4.00 pm: a group of pros are working hard for the possession of the ball. Right onto the side walks a stranger, keenly interested and watching from the sidelines, but not having had a single moment of playing basketball before. The stranger asked them whether he coulod practise and the pros told him that he could . And there started my first basketball stint. As great one. I made good use of my height but obviously my dribbling basics were low and i could not get the accuracy i wanted. I learnt a few moves about the basics and i was taking a break while all of a sudden, the pros started playing a match. I opteed to watch from the sidelines as I didn’t want to put them in a dilemma .

Minutes pass by and one of them asked me to play for him while he went to take a break. Hence began my first experience at playing this not-so-popular-in-india game. Basically very enthusiastic about the game, i braced up as i tried to defend one while he approached me. Then rather to my own then their confusion, i had blocked my own side from scoring a goal. Then the ball came into my possession and i was asked to pass the ball. But the beginner that i am, i looked down while dribbling and zap- the next moment the ball is nowhere to be seen- its in the hands of my opponent. Minutes tick by and ithis time i was trying to adopt a full front on approach while trying to defend the ball. I was confident that it would be difficult for the opponent to get pass me, considering that i tried to cover a large space, but still no, he got it pass under my legs and i was wondering how can i do anything to my team. Further losses were undone as the player returned and i was back in the spectator or may i say bench corner.

It was a good and cool experience for me, the first real sporting experience as I never really got a chance to play it during my life. Its been areally lon time since i blogged and i could’nt think of anything else to write about.

Hey do comment on how this blog was because i want to know whether i still have those writing skills with me.

Roland Garros looks all set for a potential Nadal-Federer clash as the top 2 seeds have eased their way through the qualifying rounds without having to break a sweat, especially Roger.. who lost his only set against Robredo.. His only block before the final might be Canas.. who has defeated the champ in their previous two meetings..

The prospect of winning the french open looks all the while more difficult for Rafael.. who might have to be facing a much improved Fedex with the latter changing his game a bit according to the slow paced, high bounced clay court.. Canas will be facing a tough opponent in Davydenko, a russian who is known for his resilience….

Nadal meanwhile has to face countryman Moya after making mincemeat of the tenacious Hewitt, the latter being out of focus for quite a period of time now..

Coming to the women’s draw, the favorites are clearly Maria, Serena and Henin.. Serena looks in good nick and this may not look good for the others… Clearly there seem to be a lot of dark horses here and Vaidisova is in really good form…

Absolutely no need to mention ‘Chaani’ Mirza who has been humbled by some unknowns in both formats of the game… Atleast there is hope for Mahesh Bhupathi, who seems to have a decent run so far at the open..

Whatever the outcome of the french open is,, it may be noted that an upset is definitely not ruled out but upset victories over Nadal or Fedex are unlikely to occur.. and in which case their rankings wont get affected as they are way ahead of the rest.. with Fedex 7500 something and nadal at 5300 odd… The next one is placed at just below the 3k mark… Anyways Roland Garros is not something to be missed… so u better watch out for the action on star sports ( geez… not to mention the tiny scorecard that they display making it difficult for viewers to see even who is playing he he )…