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A Beautiful Olympic Sunday Morning

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After a lovely late night…read earlier blog….got up early at 6.30 am for the Sunday Morning Massage…later at 8 am saw our 18 year old Saina Nehwal enter the Round of 16 in Badminton winning her second round match against a Ukranian Opponent in straight games at 21/18 and 21/10..she’s really in great form and is blooming under the Tutelage of Gopichand in Hyderabad…If you recall Gopichand also emulated Prakash Padukone when he too was crowned the All England Open Champion

Moments later saw our Ladies Archery Team, who were sixth of Ten Teams selected for today’s rounds,lose a close battle with China…It went to the last Arrow with China slipping into the Semi Finals 211/206 at our Cost

Anup Sridhar, our Men’s Hope in Badminton, plays his first match later this evening ,against an opponent from Portugal and is a favourite to win

…..And US Sensational Swimmer, Michael Phelps, bagged his First Gold in his quest for Eight Golds this Olympics… He won the 400m Individual Medley in a World Record Time of 4m 3.84 sec… he broke his own Record…. he hopes to better Mark Spitz’s Seven Golds  in the Munich Olympics in 1972 

And just some advice to DD Sports… Thanks for the Live and Deferred Live Telecast… but can you cut out local commentary… and more important… whatever you show, can you please show it to the end… Just as the Olympic Flame was to be lit…you blacked out…. luckily we switched to another Indian News Channel that was also showing it Live…yesterday you switched from Cycling just as the 200 kmEndurance  race was in it’s Final Km !… also you switched from Boxing in a close match just as Final Round 4 of Two minutes was to begin !  

And now to a lovely Sunday Morning Breakfast of Vegetable A-la-kiev on Toast…Cheers

What a Lovely Day 8/8/8 !

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What a Lovely Day ! August 8,2008….8/8/8….got up at 8.08 am too!…Olympics Opening Ceremony begins in Beijing at 8.08 pm Beijing Time tonight

Must be a coincidence that My Daughter, represents her school today in the Mahatma Gandhi Inter School Elocution Competition Finals….Champion of Human Rights and the Father of our Nation when the Olympics Open in China…accused by Amnesty of Gross Human Rights Violations 

Cricket : Introducing Third Umpire Referrals introduces Controversies

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We all know How Poor and Bad Umpiring Decisions ,sometimes deliberate and biased,can spoil a Match and often change the Course…..we all saw how Steve Bucknor of West Indies did us in when we were on a winning course against Australia in a Sydney Test match last year and how the tour was nearly called off and the Prime Minister of Australia had to caution the Australian Team to play the game in the Spirit of the Game

All this brought about welcome changes….One of them was introduced for the first time in the ongoing India and Sri Lanka Test Series in Sri Lanka…..It allows three Referrals to the Third Umpire by each team in each innings of any Umpiring Decision

The Problems that have cropped up are several….Referrals show

  • Third Umpire Bias….Dravid was given not out by Umpire Billy Doctrove for a lbw appeal by Bowler Murli and his team mates…Captain Jaywardene took his time to see the angle,walk up to the Umpire inquiring why he had made such a decision…this in itself should  not be allowed….and then asking for a referral to the third umpire….here the third umpire is Dsilva,a Sri Lankan…and as he has shown earlier too in this test match,he ruled Dravid Out when the ball had pitched outside the off stump and was spinning in and Dravid was well forward 2 meters when he attempted to sweep the ball…Doctrove had to change his decision and give Dravid Out
  • Technology is not the Final Answer…..Another Leg before Decision was given Not Out and Gambhir survived….Captain Jaywardene took his time,asked the Umpire why the decision was Not Out and asked for a referral to the Third Umpire….It was given Not Out even by the Third Umpire…but the point here is that Technology was simply not able to decide the turn… Replay showed that the ball pitched on middle and was spinning away way past leg stump…probably would have missed a fourth stump too…However Hawk Eye showed the ball would have hit Leg Stump…this was simply not possible…Fortunately Hawk Eye visuals are not allowed to be seen by the Third Umpire on a referral…..Camera angles cannot be used to gauge the spin and turn
  • Referrals should be instantaneous and not after more than a few seconds
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