Mihir Bose's Blog, page 86
June 28, 2011
Clive Lloyd: If only India could see the review system is fair
Evening Standard
Clive Lloyd, who captained the West Indies between 1974 and 1985 - arguably the greatest ever Test side - would loved to have been a lawyer. Growing up in Guyana he liked nothing better than to go to the Bridgetown courts and watch the captain of his team, the Demerara Cricket Club, perform."He was a QC and I loved listening to him," he says. "I would love to have been a QC."
This ability to argue a case has proved very handy for Lloyd in his role as chair of the cricket committee of the International Cricket Council. The big issue for the world body's annual meeting in Hong Kong this week has been to convince the Indians to accept the Decision Review System.
Clive Lloyd, who captained the West Indies between 1974 and 1985 - arguably the greatest ever Test side - would loved to have been a lawyer. Growing up in Guyana he liked nothing better than to go to the Bridgetown courts and watch the captain of his team, the Demerara Cricket Club, perform."He was a QC and I loved listening to him," he says. "I would love to have been a QC."
This ability to argue a case has proved very handy for Lloyd in his role as chair of the cricket committee of the International Cricket Council. The big issue for the world body's annual meeting in Hong Kong this week has been to convince the Indians to accept the Decision Review System.
June 21, 2011
Caroline Wozniacki: I haven't won a Grand slam but everyone would like to be in my position
Evening Standard
I have barely started talking to Caroline Wozniacki at the All England Club when we are interrupted, not by rain, but by Novak Djokovic.
He breezes in, hugs the 20-year-old Dane and says: "You're the greatest."
Then, as Djokovic notices me and apologises for interrupting, I ask the world No2 if Wozniacki will win Wimbledon? He smiles as if this is the easiest prediction to make.
"Of course she is going to win," says the double Australian Open champion. "This is it for her. I'm trying to copy her consistency and she is trying to copy my Grand Slam success.
"We are going to do it together. You can write it: Djokovic and Wozniacki for Wimbledon."
I have barely started talking to Caroline Wozniacki at the All England Club when we are interrupted, not by rain, but by Novak Djokovic.
He breezes in, hugs the 20-year-old Dane and says: "You're the greatest."
Then, as Djokovic notices me and apologises for interrupting, I ask the world No2 if Wozniacki will win Wimbledon? He smiles as if this is the easiest prediction to make.
"Of course she is going to win," says the double Australian Open champion. "This is it for her. I'm trying to copy her consistency and she is trying to copy my Grand Slam success.
"We are going to do it together. You can write it: Djokovic and Wozniacki for Wimbledon."
June 14, 2011
Nigel Mansell: Drivers take crazy risks now because they lack respect
Evening Standard
Nigel Mansell is being measured for a dinner jacket to wear at a charity golf event he is organising. "Always had a big neck," he says with a laugh, as the tailor notes down a collar size of 17 and a half.
The 1992 Formula One champion, whose 31 Grand Prix wins are more than any other British driver, has never been scared to stick his neck out. He has no doubts that, if he were racing today, he would be the best.
Nigel Mansell is being measured for a dinner jacket to wear at a charity golf event he is organising. "Always had a big neck," he says with a laugh, as the tailor notes down a collar size of 17 and a half.
The 1992 Formula One champion, whose 31 Grand Prix wins are more than any other British driver, has never been scared to stick his neck out. He has no doubts that, if he were racing today, he would be the best.
June 12, 2011
Blatter lacks the allies to reform FIFA in same way Samaranch did the IOC
Insideworldfootball.biz
Can Sepp Blatter turn round the fortunes of FIFA like Juan Antonio Samaranch once did the International Olympic (IOC)?
To even pose this question shows how far we have come from the dark days of the Olympic Movement back in 1998.
Also, it shows how much we now need to re-evaluate the role of the Spaniard.
Indeed, we need to move away from the caricature of Samaranch being just a lackey of Franco, the Spanish dictator, who only looked after himself and had no vision of sports and left no legacy behind.
Can Sepp Blatter turn round the fortunes of FIFA like Juan Antonio Samaranch once did the International Olympic (IOC)?
To even pose this question shows how far we have come from the dark days of the Olympic Movement back in 1998.
Also, it shows how much we now need to re-evaluate the role of the Spaniard.
Indeed, we need to move away from the caricature of Samaranch being just a lackey of Franco, the Spanish dictator, who only looked after himself and had no vision of sports and left no legacy behind.
June 8, 2011
Exclusive: World Cup gives us opportunity to improve country and perception of Russia, says Sorokin
Insideworldfootball.biz
The last few weeks have hardly been an advertisement for world football with corruption scandals engulfing FIFA, but for Alexey Sorokin, chief executive of the Russian 2018 organising committee, none of this will dim the glory of the World Cup.
"No, no", he tells me, "all the controversies in the world cannot take the glitter away [...]
The last few weeks have hardly been an advertisement for world football with corruption scandals engulfing FIFA, but for Alexey Sorokin, chief executive of the Russian 2018 organising committee, none of this will dim the glory of the World Cup.
"No, no", he tells me, "all the controversies in the world cannot take the glitter away [...]
June 7, 2011
My biggest fear for London 2012 is illegal betting, says Jacques Rogge
Evening Standard
Next July, as Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, opens the London Games, he will have one eye firmly on the cricket.
The Olympics have only had one cricket match, Great Britain beating France in the 1900 Paris Games, but for Rogge, the leader of world sport, this is still the greatest of games.
We are in his offices in Lausanne and he is telling me how he combines his love of cricket with work. "Whenever I can, I catch up with some cricket.
Next July, as Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, opens the London Games, he will have one eye firmly on the cricket.
The Olympics have only had one cricket match, Great Britain beating France in the 1900 Paris Games, but for Rogge, the leader of world sport, this is still the greatest of games.
We are in his offices in Lausanne and he is telling me how he combines his love of cricket with work. "Whenever I can, I catch up with some cricket.
June 2, 2011
England in the Valley of Death after their disastrous Blatter charge
Insideworldfootball.biz
The past, in football, is not a foreign country. It is ever present and always points the way to what is going to happen. The FIFA Congress in Zurich was a wonderful illustration of that.
What it showed was that Sepp Blatter uses the football past as if he owns it, and the English Football Association never seem to learn from history.
Sepp Blatter proved the ultimate politician, as he has done so often in the past, and the English FA, showed, once again, that the country that gave us the game still cannot work out how the modern game, particularly the modern football political game, works. The defeat inflicted on England was, in some ways, an even more shattering defeat than the one England suffered in the same hall back in December when it only got two votes for its 2018 World Cup bid.
The past, in football, is not a foreign country. It is ever present and always points the way to what is going to happen. The FIFA Congress in Zurich was a wonderful illustration of that.
What it showed was that Sepp Blatter uses the football past as if he owns it, and the English Football Association never seem to learn from history.
Sepp Blatter proved the ultimate politician, as he has done so often in the past, and the English FA, showed, once again, that the country that gave us the game still cannot work out how the modern game, particularly the modern football political game, works. The defeat inflicted on England was, in some ways, an even more shattering defeat than the one England suffered in the same hall back in December when it only got two votes for its 2018 World Cup bid.
June 1, 2011
FA come under attack as Blatter wins by landslide
Evening Standard
England were left humiliated and isolated today as Sepp Blatter was re-elected by a landslide as president of FIFA.
Football Association chairman David Bernstein's brave, but ultimately futile, attempt to have the presidential election postponed failed spectacularly as the 61st Congress voted 172 to 17 against his proposal.
Blatter then promised reforms to FIFA and to the way the World Cup hosts will be chosen after the 2022 tournament in Qatar and later won his fourth term in office with a comprehensive vote after lunch.
England were left humiliated and isolated today as Sepp Blatter was re-elected by a landslide as president of FIFA.
Football Association chairman David Bernstein's brave, but ultimately futile, attempt to have the presidential election postponed failed spectacularly as the 61st Congress voted 172 to 17 against his proposal.
Blatter then promised reforms to FIFA and to the way the World Cup hosts will be chosen after the 2022 tournament in Qatar and later won his fourth term in office with a comprehensive vote after lunch.
Sepp Blatter pulls off biggest masterstroke of his long reign
Evening Standard
The mix of farce and politics that has marked the 13-year reign of Sepp Blatter as FIFA president has ensured again today that the Swiss will have another four years at the head of world football.
The farce came when the delegates from the 208 nations on the stage of the Congress were asked to test the voting system by answering the question of who won the World Cup last year.
FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke told them a billion people had watched the final: "You must have been among them," he said. Well apparently seven of FIFA's national associations were not because they pressed the wrong button.
The mix of farce and politics that has marked the 13-year reign of Sepp Blatter as FIFA president has ensured again today that the Swiss will have another four years at the head of world football.
The farce came when the delegates from the 208 nations on the stage of the Congress were asked to test the voting system by answering the question of who won the World Cup last year.
FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke told them a billion people had watched the final: "You must have been among them," he said. Well apparently seven of FIFA's national associations were not because they pressed the wrong button.
The warlordism that undermines football
Financial Times
Fifa struts about on the world stage as if it is the Vatican of sports – a nation state that does not have territory or an army, but one that brooks little questioning of its authority and which through football can reach places no one else can. Its problem is that unlike the Church of Rome, Fifa has never acquired moral authority. And there is no evidence that, despite facing its gravest crisis, Fifa is prepared to accept that its moral standards may be deficient.
Instead, it continues to insist it is so unique it is answerable only to its own members, or the "football family", to use Fifa's favourite phrase. Like the sort of extended family that has gone out of fashion even on the Indian subcontinent, it bristles at the very thought that non-family members may have any right to pry into its affairs, let alone say how it must behave.
Fifa struts about on the world stage as if it is the Vatican of sports – a nation state that does not have territory or an army, but one that brooks little questioning of its authority and which through football can reach places no one else can. Its problem is that unlike the Church of Rome, Fifa has never acquired moral authority. And there is no evidence that, despite facing its gravest crisis, Fifa is prepared to accept that its moral standards may be deficient.
Instead, it continues to insist it is so unique it is answerable only to its own members, or the "football family", to use Fifa's favourite phrase. Like the sort of extended family that has gone out of fashion even on the Indian subcontinent, it bristles at the very thought that non-family members may have any right to pry into its affairs, let alone say how it must behave.
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