"Somewhere, a kid runs like the wind but never seems to catch up. Somewhere, a little star looks up, but the sky is always too far. Somewhere, a bright eyed youngster leaps high but cannot reach his dream…." India a country of 1 billion has been a perennial underdog at the international sporting arena. India's abysmal record at the Olympics is the diamond in our crown of sporting shame. The reason is beautifully captured in the lines above. The problem is not the lack of talent but the lack of ...

Saina Nehwal’s brilliant run at the World Super Series Masters Final ended today when she lost to World No. 6 and No. 3 seed Chen Wang (HKG) in the semifinals. In a thrilling semifinal, Saina matched Wang point for point but Wang's experience turned the match in her favour in the third game. The turning point in the third set came when Wang won four points in a row to go ahead 18-13. Chen Wang finally won 21-15 14-21 21-16. Earlier in the ...

Cricketers are by far the richest sportspersons in India, with the exception of Vishwanathan Anand and a couple of golfers probably. But when was the last time a cricketer gave away his money for a good cause? I don’t remember ever. And don’t count the charity games they play in. On the other end of the spectrum, there is hardly any money in amateur boxing. The AIBA Boxing World Cup was a rare event that offered prize money. Our bronze-medal winning boxers won 2,500 USD each – ...

One of the key reasons for India’s decline as a hockey power has been the lack of a proven penalty –corner expert. Almost all the nations that have done well have had a dead-eye shooter in their ranks. Taeke Taekema, Taco Van Der Honert and Floris Jan Bovelander for Holland, Santi Freixa for Spain, Jorge Lombi for Argentina and Calum Giles for England have been some of the very best. Even fellow proponents of the Asian style like Pakistan and Australia have benefitted from the presence of Sohail Abbas ...

After world record breaking performances in recent World Cup finals, Gagan Narang has moved up three places in the men's 10m air rifle to be sixth in the latest world rankings issued by the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF). Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, who has not played a competition after the Beijing Olympics, managed to cling to his second spot while Chinese shooter and Beijing Olympics silver medallist, Zhu Qinan retained the number one spot. Meanwhile, Ronjan Sodhi, who briefly occupied number one spot in the men's double trap event after winning the World Cup in Belgrade in June with a ...

Sania Mirza became the first Indian woman and the third Indian to win a grand slam when she won the mixed doubles at the Australian Open partnering Mahesh Bhupathi. They won the finals comprehensively beating the French-Israeli pairing of Nathalie Dechy and Andy Ram 6-3 6-1 in a one rather one sided match. After the match, in typical Indian fashion, Bhupathi apologized to the opponents for "being too hot" for them and I hope he didn't mean it, because January has been a ...