2013: What to look forward to?

 Happy new year fellas! Another exciting year ahead for all you sports fans. Here is a quick glimpse of some of the tournaments to look up to in 2013. So mark your calenders and get ready for a sporting new year ahead!! 

Cricket:

January 11-27: India vs England, 5 ODIs
February 22- Mar 26: India vs Australia, 4 Tests
April 3- May 26: IPL  6
June 6-23: Last edition of ICC Champions Trophy in England
June 28- July 11: West Indies- Sri Lanka- India, ODI tri series
October: India vs Australia 7 ODIs, 1 T20
Nov-Dec: South Africa vs India, 3 tests, 7 ODIs, 2 T20s

Tennis:

 January 14-27 :Australian Open
May 26- June 9: French Open
June 24- July 7: Wimbledon
July 26- Sept 9: US Open

F1:

October 27: Indian GP

Basketball:

February 17: NBA All Star game
June 6: NBA Finals (best of seven)

Hockey:
Jan 14- Feb 10 : Hockey India League

Football:

EPL: 2012-13 season till May 19
Liga BBVA: 2012-13 season till June 1

UEFA Champions League 2012 Draw

All the eyes were on the beautiful city of Monaco as some of the biggest names in the world of football gathered to unleash the draw of the biggest club competition in the world - The UEFA Champions League! The fate of all the clubs depended on 4 pots. The teams were divided into 4 groups according to their seeds. The first seeded teams were allotted pot 1, second seeded teams with pot 2, third seeded teams with pot 3 & fourth seeded teams with pot 4. Here were the 4 groups according to their seeds:-

Pot 1 - Chelsea, Barcelona, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Porto and AC Milan

Pot 2 - Valencia, Benfica, Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit-St. Petersburg, Schalke, Manchester City, Braga and

Dynamo Kiev

Pot 3 - Olympiakos, Ajax, Anderlecht, Juventus, Spartak Moscow, PSG, Lille & Galatasaray

Pot 4 - Borussia Dortmund, Celtic, BATE Borisov, Dinamo Zagreb, CFR 1907 Cluj, Malaga, Montpellier and Nordsjaelland

One chit per pot had to be picked every time. All the four chits picked would form a group.

The groups were picked as follows:-

Group A: Porto - Dynamo Kiev - PSG - Dinamo Zagreb

Group B: Arsenal - Schalke - Olympiacos - Montpellier

Group C: AC Milan - Zenit St. Petersburg - Anderlecht - Malaga

Group D: Real Madrid - Manchester City - Ajax - Borussia Dortmund

Group E: Chelsea - Shakhtar Donetsk - Juventus - Nodsjaelland

Group F: Bayern Munich - Valencia - Lille - BATE Borisav

Group G: Barcelona - Benfica - Spartak Moscow - Celtic

Group H: Manchester United - Braga - Galatasaray - Cluj

Here is an analyses of all the groups and what to expect from each group:

Group A: This group contains the likes of Portuguese champions Porto and French Power-house PSG. The other teams that complete the group are Ukraine's Dynamo Kiev and Croatian giants Dinamo Zagreb.

Prediction - Porto and PSG are expected to clear the group without much difficulty

Group B: England's Arsenal have been drawn into the group along with Germany's Schalke, Greek champions Olympiacos and French champions Montpellier. Interestingly, Arsenal and Olympiacos have been drawn in the same group for the third time in four years.

Prediction - Arsenal and Schalke are expected to clear the group. But both the other competitors are more then capable of producing an upset. Montpellier, in particular can give both Arsenal and Schalke, a run for their money.

Group C: Serie-A runners-up AC Milan have made it to the group along with Russian power-house Zenit, Belgian champions Anderlecht & Spanish club Malaga.

Prediction - AC Milan are the firm favorites to clear the group as toppers while Zenit, Anderlecht and Malaga are all capable of making it to the knock-out stages. Expect a stiff competition for the 2nd place.

Group D: This is the group of death to say the least. All the teams in the group are the champions of their respective countries. La Liga champions Real Madrid, English champions Manchester City, Dutch Eredivisie winners Ajax & Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund have made it to the group. This is the first time in the history of Champions League that all the teams in a group are champions of their country.

Prediction - No prediction is relevant here. All the clubs know what it takes to win. All the matches of this group will be mouth-watering clashes. Looking forward to see this group in action.

Group E: Defending champions Chelsea have been drawn in this group. The other teams to make to the group are Italy champions Juventus, Ukraine champions Shakhtar Donetsk and Danish Superliga winners Nodsjaelland.

Prediction - Chelsea & Juventus are expected to clear the group easily, Shakhtar Donsetsk can cause some problems though. This will be a fight for topping the table rather then surviving one.

Group F: Last year's runners-up & German giants Bayern Munich have made it to the group. The other teams are Spainsh side Valencia, French club Lille and Belarusian champions BATE Barisov.

Prediction - Bayern Munich are the firm favorites to top the group. The other team expected to make it to the knock-out stage is Valencia, Lille would give a tough fight to the Spanish club though.

Group G: The group contains last year's semi-finalists Barcelona. The other teams to make it to the group are Portuguese giants Benfica, Russia's Spartak Moscow and Scottish champions Celtic.

Prediction - Barcelona should top the group quite easily, followed by Benfica in the second place. Spartak Moscow & Celtic would have everything to play for and thus are capable of securing some unexpected results.

Group H: 2011 runners-up Manchester United have been drawn into the group along with Portugal's Braga, Turkish champions Galatasaray and Romanian champions Cluj.

Prediction - Manchester United are expected to top the group easily, subject to some surprises like last year. This group will be more of a fight for second place with Braga as well as Galatasaray fancying their chances.

The only thing left to add to the excitement of Champions League is the kick-off of the prestigious tournament. The star studded event is scheduled to start on the 18th of September.

Will Chelsea retain it or will Barcelona win it? Will Bayern come back strongly or will it be Unted's year? Will Madrid claim it or will Mancity stamp their supremacy?

All your questions will be answered, come 18th of September. Till then keep waiting and enjoy footbal!  

Dhyan Chand- India's first sporting legend

Years pass by, Generations pass by, but some people are never ever forgotten! Major Dhyan Chand is one of them! Today, India celebrates the birth anniversary of the greatest man ever to grace the hockey field! Here are some quotes on the WIZARD of hockey!

"He scores goals as runs in cricket' - Sir Don Bradman

"He is the greatest, yes I want him in my team but he is too patriotic to come here" - Adolf Hitler, after Dhyan Chand straight away rejected his tempting proposal of 

joining the German team

Team India in 2017

It was a strange feeling not seeing Dravid and VVS in the batting card for team India last week in the first test against Kiwis. The team was without the services of the two veterans after almost 15 years. 

With 5 out of the 11 players in our squad in their 30's, we should be prepared to see more such replacements in the near future. 

Keeping that in mind, youngsters like Pujara and Kohli have shown tremendous promise and considering the performance of recent Under 19 team, the future of Indian cricket looks bright.

Here's a prediction for the Indian test team 5 years from now keeping in mind the 7 batsmen 4 bowlers combination used often by the Indian team. In bracket the members of the current playing 11 which they will replace are shown.

• Ajinkya Rahane (Gautam Gambhir)
• Unmukt Chand  (Virender Sehwag)
• Cheteshwar Pujara
• Virat Kohli(c)
• Manish Pandey (Sachin Tendulkar)
• Suresh Raina
• Parthiv Patel (wk) (MS Dhoni)
• Ravichandran Ashwin
• Umesh Yadav
• Harmeet Singh (Pragyan Ojha)
• Sandeep Sharma (Zaheer Khan)

While its almost certain that players like Pujara, Kohli, Raina, Ashwin will be there for many years to come (hoping that they are not prone to any career threatening injuries), players like Sandeep Sharma, Harmeet Singh, Manish Pandey also present a strong case for themselves.

Olympics Aftermath: a statistical overview

India sent 83 athletes to this year's Olympics, largest contingent so far for the country which returned with 6 medals, which too is the highest number of medals we could get thus far. Let's take nothing away from the athletes who gave their best and fought hard but it is not a satisfactory result  

India is at the bottom when you look at medal to population ratio. 1.2 billion are represented by mere 83 athletes who bag 6 medals and stand 55th in the medal tally.

To analyse this problem, we traverse the nation dividing by the states.

Here's a graphical analysis about the athletes we sent, the sport they compete in and where they belong. (Hockey is not considered in the study)

Here's what I make of the study:-

· Gujarat, MP, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya , Arunachal Pradesh, J&K, Tripura, Tamil Nadu , Mizoram did not have a single athlete from their state.

Indian hockey and its defensive crisis!

Almost every aspect of the Indian Hockey team has grown under Micheal Nobbs. “Almost” in the above sentence has the maximum weight. I have used “Almost” because there is still one area in which India has not grown. Our attack line is awesome, our midfield is creative and disciplined, but what about our defense? Is it disciplined enough? The simple answer to the question is – NOT AT ALL!

What’s the problem?

Sandeep Singh & VR Raghunath! When you look at these names, the first thing that comes to our mind is – drag flicks. And why not, we are gifted enough to have 2 of the best drag flickers in the world. But my question is, isn’t hockey beyond Drag Flicks? Why aren’t they famous for their defensive skills? Yes, Sandeep is an exceptional drag flicker. Yes, he makes those lovely solo runs. But he is an average defender.

Our defenders are very poor in marking & look vulnerable at times. Such is our helplessness that Ignace Tirckey has to drop back and play as the 3rd defender for most of the matches. At times, we defend poorly than most of the 2nd tire teams in world hockey. Yes we do have Rupinderpal Singh but let’s be realistic, he ain’t good enough! The problem is, we have attacking minded defenders and not one out-and-out defender. We now realize the importance of Dilip Tirkey and his calm & composed solid defending.

All eyes on Britain

bird's eye view of the Olympic park

                August 2011, the world saw an ugly face of otherwise regarded as 'sophisticated' Britishers. England was burning, London was no exception, the riots had spread wide open. With less than a year to go, the question aroused about whether or not the British forces were capable of pulling off a safe Olympics, but 11 months into the riots, the picture has changed.

            

Britain in 2012 has shed the image of the riots , they have presented themselves as a Sports-friendly nation, playing host to numerous sporting events this year, range of sports including the likes of Cricket, Tennis, Football, Formula 1 and Golf. Here's a quick look at the major tournaments which took place on the British soil this year.

Cricketing Summer:

The summer saw West Indies and Australia touring England for their respective bilateral series against England, the hosts coming out victorious in both the series.

EPL:

The EPL ended in May with the most dramatic finale one would have ever imagined, Manchester City coming from behind to clinch the title.