Category Archives: Sports

Sunil Chhetri, the Wizard from India

Posted on by

chhetri.jpgI don’t follow soccer closely anymore, so it came as a surprise to me when a friend sent me a link to an article about Sunil Chhetri, the first player from India to sign with an MLS team. What in desi-heaven’s going on here? The Pittsburgh Pirates sign Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, the Indianapolis Colts give John Gill a reserve spot at defensive tackle, and now 25-year-old Chhetri is making waves with the Kansas City Wizards. Someone tell the Chicago Bulls to send their scouts to India immediately. The next Jordan could be jamming and juking on a court in Jalandhar.

Sunil Chhetri was little more than a name on a list when he first popped up on Kansas City’s radar.

The Wizards, like most MLS teams, receive dozens of letters, video links and DVDs each month from players seeking a chance to play professional soccer. The Kansas City staff feels guilty about not giving everyone a chance, so they take a look.

Chhetri immediately caught their eye, even in the limited video clips they were able to obtain. Find a way to get him to the United States and we’ll give him a shot is what they told representatives from the Indian team. [Link]

So Chhetri was smuggled across the Mexican border and taken to the Wizards’ headquarters, where the receptionist was excited to see him: “I’m so glad you came. Windows 7 has been giving me fits.” Actually, he showed up at the Wizards’ training camp in Arizona and dazzled everyone with his feet. And his nose.

Blurry-fast feet. Nose for the goal. Connected with the other players on the attack almost instantly. Good instincts, able to adapt to the team’s style of play without thinking about it. Quick to get the ball ahead instead of holding it too long. Hits well with both feet, uses his entire body to strike it. Pretty good in the air at 5-foot-7.

Even better, Chhetri had a burning intensity to go with his talent.

“We learned he’s extremely competitive, has a desire to be successful and when you have that, you can get a lot out of a guy,” Wizards coach Peter Vermes said. “If someone has the talent and they don’t have the fire in the belly, so to speak, every day you’re struggling to get those guys going. This guy just gets it.” [Link]

Continue reading →

Bollywood on Ice

Posted on by

If you have been following the Winter Olympics than you probably know that tonight starts the ice dancing competition. Competing will be UMich grads, Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who have a “unique Indian-themed original dance” that may or may not be performed at the competitions.

“It’s very cool,” Davis said. “Charlie and I have always been excited about being different and embracing what we could bring to the sport. It’s really exciting to expand the fan base, and expand the fan base to parts of the world that haven’t really experienced it before.” [ap]

Alright, okay. I’ll take that. Respectably not as orientalist as it could have been said. But why did they choose Bollywood?

[C]horeographer Marina Zoueva wanted something that would really make Davis and White stand out. When she spotted an Hermes scarf with brilliant colors and Indian dancers last spring, she knew she’d found the answer. [ap]

A Hermes scarf?!? Continue reading →

Oh, the life of an Olympian

Posted on by

It must be nice to be an Olympian, especially if you’re one of just three athletesIndia team.jpg representing a country of a billion-plus people at the Winter Games. Shiva Keshavan, Jamyang Nangial and Tashi Lundup must feel like kings, what with the Indian sports ministry bending over backwards to give them royal treatment.

From bearing the expenses of their ceremonial clothing to daily allowances of $50 per day, the sports ministry on Tuesday said it has spent around Rs 7.4 lakh on the eight-member Indian contingent at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. [Link]

Wow, a daily allowance of $50 per day! They’ll be able to visit the prestigious French restaurant Lumière, order whatever they want on the menu — six mushroom ravioli, Fraser Valley farm duck, braised eggplant & peppers — and dash out before the bill arrives. No point in being a top athlete if you can’t make a fast exit.

Continue reading →

A Gill in the big bowl

Posted on by

Bobby Jindal wants you to root for the Saints in the Super Bowl, but here’s a reason to root for the Colts: John Singh Gill, son of Ajit and Ann Gill, is a defensive lineman for the team (via Ultrabrown). He was recently elevated toGill.jpg the active roster, so he may see some playing time. Now I know what my friend meant when he said, “I’m looking for 69 during the big game.”

If the Colts win, Gill won’t be the first desi player with a Super Bowl ring. That distinction belongs to Bobby Singh, who won a ring while on the Rams practice squad in ’99. The Fiji-born Singh is the only player to win a Super Bowl, XFL Championship and a Grey Cup. Other active desi football players include Obby Khan, a center for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and Brandon Chillar, who plays linebacker for the Packers and is perhaps the best desi football player ever (Baichung Bhutia not included).

Gill, a Los Altos, Calif., native, played college ball at Northwestern and answered some questions from NUsports.com:

Q:If you could dine with anyone from any period in history, who would it be?
A: Ghandi (sic)

Q: If you could have a starring role in any film already made, which movie would you pick?
A: The Godfather

Q: What is the greatest lesson in life that you have learned?
A: Always do your best in every aspect of life

Q: Something people would be surprised to know about me is…
A: I am half Indian

Q: My ultimate SportsCenter highlight would be…
A: Returning an interception 100 yards for a touchdown

Q: The person that inspires me the most is…
A: My parents

Q: My favorite food is…
A: Italian food

Q: My favorite pre-game ritual is…
A: Eating

Q: If you were to have your friends attribute one quality to you, what would it be?
A: Loyal

He wants to dine with Gandhi and he likes Italian food? Oh, I get it now: He meant Sonia Gandhi.

Continue reading →

End of Decade Polls #2, #3 #3A: Sports and Cinema

Posted on by

The results of poll #1, on the most influential Desi musician of the 2000s, are pretty clear — with about 200 votes cast, A.R. Rahman wins by a significant margin, with M.I.A. as the second most influential Desi musician of the 2000s.

The topic of the next poll was strongly suggested by the comments following the first one — sports. I tried to use what the commenters were suggesting to guide my choices.

While I am at it, however, I am also doing a poll for the best Desi film of the 2000s. Here, it seemed wrong to put artsy “diaspora” films up against commercial South Asian cinema (Bollywood, Tollywood, etc.), so I created a poll #3 — for commercial cinema — and a poll #3A — for specifically South Asian diaspora cinema.

Choosing the films for the commercial cinema category was challenging, and I kept finding that certain films had a natural pairing (for instance, Lagaan, by Ashutosh Gowariker, goes with Swades). I also realized that some of the most influential commercial films were known not for their directors, but for writers and producers; Vidhu Vinod Chopra, whose name was associated with both Munnabhai films, only wrote the first one. Similarly, Karan Johar’s name is associated with several important films he produced rather than directed. And the directors for many Yash Raj Films are unknowns, but the films have a certain “stamp” to them. So I used the idea of the “filmmaker,” which could be the writer, director, or producer.

I’m sure my approach will seem a little unusual to some folks, but hopefully it’s coherent enough, and you see something there you want to vote for. (At the very least, my approach solved the problem of how to pick just 10 commercial films from over the entire decade.) Finally, people who really know regional cinema might want to create your own “Best Of 2000s” lists in the comments — I simply haven’t seen very much Telugu cinema, for example, so I don’t have any Telugu filmmakers listed here.

All three polls after the fold. Continue reading →

Hard-hitting Coverage

Posted on by

29761705.JPGIf the recent Wall Street Journal and New York Times articles about Indian women in boxing intrigued you then you’ll probably want to keep an eye out for the documentary With This Ring by Ameesha Joshi and Anna Sarkissian, currently in post-production. Joshi became interested in Indian women boxers when she came across a photo of one in a Montreal exhibit and learned the “Indian team was one of the best in the world.”

The filmmakers have been following female boxers in India for a few years and were there when Indian women claimed victory at the 2006 World Women’s Boxing Championship in Delhi, winning medals in eight out of 13 categories. Joshi writes, “Mary Kom in particular caught our attention, she was and still is the most successful amateur boxer ever, yet no one in India or elsewhere even knew she existed. We were inspired by their incredible achievements despite all their struggles and wanted to share their stories with the world.” Continue reading →

Paes wins, hugs Navratilova

Posted on by

Leander Paes’ triumph at the French Open was cause for great celebration, especially for me and others members of the Association of Rabid Fans of Doubles Tennis. We threw a party last night and really had a good time, all three of us.

Paes and his partner, Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic, won the men’s doubles title, beating Wesley Moodie of South Africa and Belgium’s Dick Norman 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. (Ignore the first set. Paes was preoccupied, exchanging glances with Martina Navratilova.)

Paes now has nine Grand Slam doubles titles (five men’s and four mixed), just two behind his former partner Mahesh Bhupathi (four men’s, seven mixed). Bhupathi  has won titles with seven different women, including most recently Sania Mirza at the Australian Open. He’s truly amazing. It doesn’t matter whom you pair him with — Mary Pierce, Martina Hingis, Venus Flytrap — he’ll probably win a title.

Paes and Bhupathi won three Grand Slam titles together, the last in 2001, before having some sort of falling out, much to the chagrin of Indian tennis fans. They did get back together for last year’s Olympics, somewhat reluctantly, and lost in the quarters to Stanislas Wawrinka and some guy named Roger.

Continue reading →

Handicapping the semi-finalists

Posted on by

This is sick. Out of the 41 semifinalists left standing today, 15 of the are Indian Americans. The Kenyans have running. The Cubans, baseball. The Chinese, ping-pong. Indian Americans own spelling.

It was a moment to savor. Of the record 293 participants at 82nd Scripps National Spelling Bee, only 41 moved on to the nationally televised semifinals that start Thursday morning (10 a.m. ET, ESPN)…

Expected to be in that final group are several returning favorites. Fourteen-year-old Keiko Bridwell of Duncan, S.C., back for the fourth time after tying for 17th last year, had no problem with “swivel” and “mahout” (one who keeps or drives elephants) in her oral rounds and breezed into the semifinals.

Is it easier now because she’s a veteran?

“More pressure,” Keiko said. “Everybody wants me to do better.”… [Link]

When ESPN calls you the Spelling Bee favorite it is just like putting an NFL player on the cover of a Madden game. You are probably cursed. Therefore, based on my own intensive scouting I offer up the following thoughts for those people who have bookies in Vegas and want to bet on these young horses. Word of advice: always bet on brown.

The first one I want you to keep an eye on is Vaibhav S. Vavilala from Indiana. Double V as he is known on the circuit is a 4 time competitor. Experience helps, but it can also prove to be a mental block because you can better visualize past failure.

Click for full profile

The next contestant I want you to watch for is Kavya “The Destroyer” Shivashankar. Like Double V above she is a four time veteran. According to her profile the thirteen year old looks forward to becoming a neurosurgeon. The Kavyas we know stop at nothing when the smell of success is in the air.

Click for full profile

Continue reading →

Deccan Chargers win IPLSAE final

Posted on by

The Chargers were charged up and the Challengers just weren’t challenging enough. As a result, the Deccan Chargers beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore today and were crowned champions of the IPLSAE (Indian Premier League, South African Edition).

Deccan Chargers beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by six runs in Johannesburg in the final of the second season of the Indian Premier League.

Having lost captain Adam Gilchrist for a third-ball duck, Herschelle Gibbs (53 not out) and Andrew Symonds (33 from 21 balls) helped Deccan post 143-6.

And despite Roelof van der Merwe’s 32, Symonds took 2-18 and a late collapse left Bangalore six runs short.

The tournament was staged in South Africa because of security concerns.

It clashed with the recent Indian general election and with the government unable to provide security assurances, South Africa pipped England to act as replacement hosts. [Link]

It’s pretty amazing that a tournament of such magnitude could be moved to another country on fairly short notice. South Africa deserves a lot of credit for what Stuart Hess of The Sunday Independent calls a “terrible inconvenience.”

Continue reading →