Hello Friends,
Hope all of you are doing good and already gearing up for the upcoming festive season. Good news is that during the festive season we are going to witness some exciting sporting actions too. As far as sporting action for this month is concerned it was not a great month for us, be it our overall performance in the Paris Olympics or the ODI series loss for the men's cricket team against Sri Lanka after 27 years. Cricketing action in other parts of the world continued throughout the month. The Caribbean island was buzzing throughout the month with packed cricket at both international & franchise level. The home team lost the test series to the Proteas by 1-0 but bounced back in their most favorable format T20Is to clinch the series. The island nation also hosted a T10 league named MAX60 & another season of CPL (For both men & women).
In another world Bangladesh men's cricket team exhibited extreme mental toughness to win their first ever test match against Pakistan in a time when their country is going through severe political turmoil. English men's team continued their juggernaut in red ball cricket with a winning start against Sri Lanka. They also successfully conducted yet another season of unique 100 ball competition called The Hundred. As far as Indian cricket team is concerned they got a reality check against the Lankan tigers on their backyard in some really challenging spin friendly conditions. This was Sri Lanka's first ODI series win against India in 27 years. This was also the first ODI series for their new captain Asalanka. Although Indian captain denied that this series posed serious question marks over some of the senior players' ability to tackle spin it will be interesting to see whether the team management will still opt for rank turners for the upcoming home test series against Bangladesh & New Zealand.
Towards the end of the month cricketing world was mourning over the death of former England cricketer Graham Thorpe who took his life after a long battle with anxiety & depression. How heartbreaking it is to hear such stories from the life of a sportsperson. On the other hand former Indian men's cricket team opener Shikhar Dhawan said goodbye to his cricketing career after a really successful international stint for his country.
Despite several cricket tournaments this edition of our monthly story Sports Talk Of The Month is going to feature India's performance in the recently concluded Olympics games held in Paris.
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| Image credit:pixabay.com |
Yet another year of Olympics and we again fell short of our expectations in the global competition. India's medal tally this year tells the story which didn't change much in the recent past. Despite the controversy surrounding the disqualification of Vinesh Phogat overall performance of the Indian contingent wasn't satisfactory at all. Six medals in all including five Bronze & a Silver is not what a country of 1.5 billion people dreamt of. But yet again the same question arises that as far as sports is concerned whether India is slowly becoming a cricket dominated country. Or it has already? Budding cricketers in the country today are equipped with several lucrative opportunities along with proper facilities for training and recovery including high standard state of the art infrastructure, quality coaches & trainers, sufficient fund to fulfill any additional requirement. But such amenities are not so easily available for any other sport in the country.
Haryana over the years has produced several quality athletes across sports who have made our country proud at the global stage. Have we implemented sufficient methodologies to ensure that even other states are able to nurture world class athletes? Questions are plenty which are being asked time and again but a prolific answer is yet to come. Blaming the athletes is never a solution as they are trying their best with the the limited opportunities & facilities available. If we have to compete with the countries like China, Japan or the USA first and foremost prerequisite for that is to build a support system that is at par with theirs. There has to be enough encouragement at the grass root level for other sports to grow.
Despite all these limitations we must appreciate what our players have achieved in this Olympics or so far. Their individual brilliance, hard work & sacrifices played a major role in what they have achieved. That's why that additional support system can play the role of a much needed cushion for them. But until that happens athletes need to continue their hard work in their pursuit of making the country proud at the global stage.
Stay tuned for more at this space.
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