People at Work & Play

~ Being Successful at Work& at Play

Category Archives: Sports

India at Rio: 2016 Olympics

24 Wednesday Aug 2016

Posted by Prem Rao in In the News, People, Sports

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2016 Olympics, Abhinav Bindra, Aditi Ashok, Dipa Karmakar, Jitu Rai, P V Sindhu, Rio Olympics, Rohan Bopanna, Saina Nehwal, Sakshi Malik, Sania Mirza

The 2016 Summer Olympics at Rio de Janeiro came to a spectacular end recently. India had sent its biggest squad till date, of 119 athletes and sportsmen. We were widely expected to do much better than our performance at the last Olympic Games at London in 2012. You may recall that we had won 6 medals then, 2 silver and 4 bronze medals. Our Silver winners were Sushil Kumar in wrestling and Vijay Kumar in shooting, with Bronze medals being won by Gagan Narang in shooting, Mary Kom in boxing, Saina Nehwal in badminton, and Yogeshwar Dutt in wrestling.  Continue reading →

Advertisement

My Memories of The Olympics

13 Monday Jun 2016

Posted by Prem Rao in People, Sports

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Al Oerter, Cassius Clay, Milkha Singh, Muhammad Ali, Munich 1968, Olympic Games

The passing away of boxing legend Muhammad Ali a few days ago brought back a flood of memories. I remember him winning the light heavyweight boxing championship at the Rome Olympics in 1960, only though at that time he was still known as Cassius Clay. Later I came to know that he threw away that precious Gold medal in the Ohio River following an incident of racial discrimination. Some years after the Rome Olympics, Clay became what was then called a “Black Muslim” assuming the name of Muhammad Ali. I remember reading about some of his famous fights over the years when he defeated Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and many others. This article in the Indian Express details ten of his best fights. Reliving those moments brought back memories of the different Olympic Games I read about or saw on television. Continue reading →

So Near Yet So Far, Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2016

04 Saturday Jun 2016

Posted by Prem Rao in In the News, People, Sports

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, IPL9, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Shane Watson, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Virat Kohli, Yuzi Chahal

When Shane Watson fell at 164 in the 16th over, a silence fell upon the 30,000 odd people who thronged the Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bengaluru that day. Could the tail for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) score 44 in the last 3 overs? Hyderabad had scored over 50 in their last three overs but we didn’t have their fire power. At one stage it had seemed that even 208 the target set by the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) could be chased down. Now it appeared inevitable that RCB would fail in their bid to win the coveted Indian Premier League (IPL). It was not to be third time lucky for them having lost earlier finals in 2009 and 2011. Continue reading →

IPL 8 : RCB Stocktake At The Half Way Mark

30 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by Prem Rao in People, Sports

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

IPL8, Royal Challengers Bangalore

The eight edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is on. Probably the richest cricket tournaments in the world, this T20 tournament has 8 franchisees vying for the prestigious cup. The Chennai Super Kings and the Kolkata Knight Riders have both won this twice in past years. It has been galling for faithful fans of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) the team that I support, as I live in Bengaluru, that we have never won the trophy even once, despite the rich talent we had. We have been losing finalists twice.

Continue reading →

FIFA World Cup 2014: My Take

15 Tuesday Jul 2014

Posted by Prem Rao in People, Sports

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Argentina, Brazil, FIFA World Cup 2014, Germany, Messi, Neymar, Schweinsteiger, The Netherlands

The frenzy of the finals is over. Germany, deservedly in my view, won the recently concluded FIFA World Cup 2014 played in Brazil. The first thing I did as we approached the dates for the World Cup dates was to find out the difference in the time zones between Brazil and India, where I live. I watched most of the matches on TV, they being played, as per Indian Standard Time, at 7.30 p.m. ( which was fine), 9.30 p.m. ( which was fine, too) and 1.30 a.m. (which was fine, depending upon who was playing!). Continue reading →

IPL 7 Auction

12 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by Prem Rao in In the News, Sports

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Dr. Vijay Mallya, IPL, IPL Auction, Yuvraj Singh

Charles Dickens wrote in his classic, ” A Tale Of Two Cities” : “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…”, Continue reading →

The silence of the Indian Gods of cricket is deafening

26 Sunday May 2013

Posted by Prem Rao in Cricket, People, Sports

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

IPL, match fixing

Cricket is a religion in India. Cricket stars are demigods. Bring on the clichés, you might say, although they are largely true in this case. What shocks me and many other cricket lovers in India is that no cricketer worth his salt, past or present, has spoken out about match fixing, spot fixing and all that’s going wrong with the Indian Premier League (IPL.)

Gurunath Meiyappan, the son-in-law of N. Srinivasan, President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India ( almost definitely the most powerful cricket body in the world) and the man we knew as the “owner” or ” principal” of the Chennai Super Kings is languishing under arrest by the Mumbai Police. Three crickets of Rajasthan Royals including Test cricketer S. Sreesanth have been suspended for spot fixing. There are rumours galore everyday. Unconfirmed reports speak of the likely involvement of more teams and, of course, more players.

Yet, none of India’s cricket super stars have spoken. Not Sunil Gavaskar, not Kapil Dev, not Ravi Shastri, not Kris Srikkanth until recently the Chairman of the Selectors, not even Anil Kumble who has a magnificent reputation for his maturity and probity. For that matter, there has been no word from the “God” of Indian cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament. One would have expected him to speak about what was going on.

Are Gavaskar and Shastri forbidden by their contracts with the BCCI to speak? Is Srikkanth quiet because he is the mentor of Sunrisers Hyderabad? Is Kumble not speaking because he is the mentor of the Mumbai Indians?

Admittedly, one cannot expect the same from another Member of Parliament, Md. Azharuddin, (like Sachin, Gavaskar, Shastri, Srikkanth and Kumble, a former India captain) because he was involved in match fixing in 2000 and is in no position to come down on the fixers. Ajay Jadeja, the other Indian star of those days who was involved in the match fixing issue was happily commenting as an expert on Sony Max until recently. He seems to have vanished since the day the betting news broke out. He hasn’t been seen on the program since.

We tend to blame the politicians for all that is wrong in India, including Indian cricket. However, in this case, don’t the former stars or the present ones have no role whatsoever in keeping the high standards of probity by speaking about wrong doings. Are they gagged by their contracts so much that they can’t say a word? Are they scared of getting on the wrong side of the powerful cricket establishment? Are they more concerned with their own coffers than their reputations?

I don’t know the answer, but I do know the average Indian cricket enthusiast is utterly disappointed with the so-called gods of Indian cricket. Everyone expects hell to break loose after the final of the IPL this evening. Who knows? They may all speak after everything is done and dusted.

The Controversial IPL, Welcome back!

05 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by Prem Rao in Cricket, Sports

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

IPL, IPL6

The IPL is back again. As they say on TV these days, “Welcome back!” The Indian Premier League (IPL) comes with its attendant share of controversies. What is dubbed as being amongst the richest, if not THE richest cricket tournament of its kind in the world, has just begun its sixth season. I was crazy about the IPL in the initial years and a huge fan of the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Continue reading →

The Impact of Stats

06 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by Prem Rao in In the News, Organisations, Sports, Trends

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

BMTC, Indian elections, IPL6, Michael Dell, soccer

Some people seem to be more hooked on stats. than others. I have always been interested in stats. and here are a few that caught my attention in articles in the DNA newspaper of the recent past:- Continue reading →

“Citius, Altius, Fortius” Faster, Higher, Stronger

13 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by Prem Rao in In the News, People, Sports

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

London Olympics, Michael Phelps, Sushil Kumar, Usian Bolt

The 30th Summer Olympics ended yesterday. It saw some amazing feats, truly in keeping with the motto of the Olympics: “Citius, Altius, Fortius” which is the Latin for “Faster, Higher, Stronger.” This was coined by Baron Pierre de Coubetin, the founder of the International Olympic Committee and the person considered to be the father of the modern Olympics. Continue reading →

← Older posts

Prem Rao

Blogger: Prem Rao

Author, Book Reviewer, Coach, and Social Commentator based in Bangalore, India. View B P Rao's profile on LinkedIn
February 2023
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728  
« Oct    

Categories

  • A Step A Day
  • Best Employers
  • Blogs
  • Books and Authors
  • Careers
  • Communication
  • Compensation
  • Cricket
  • Employee Engagement
  • Employee Productivity
  • Employee Satisfaction
  • Entrepreneurs
  • Events
  • Executive Coaching
  • Executive Effectiveness
  • Executive Health
  • HR Function
  • In the News
  • Indian Economy
  • Numbers
  • Organisations
  • People
  • Personal
  • Personal Finance
  • Quotations
  • Sports
  • Technorati
  • Tips
  • Trends
  • Uncategorized
  • Work Life Balance
  • XLRI

Catch My Tweets

  • Digital India- Part 1, my first podcast on digitalisation in India and how it is changing our lives.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2 days ago
Follow @premrao

Prem Rao, Story Teller

Prem Rao, Story Teller

Recent Posts

  • Tapering Off
  • India at Rio: 2016 Olympics
  • Do We Indians Protect Law Breakers?
  • A Phenomenon Called Rajinikanth
  • Dr. Raghuram Rajan

People At Work & Play

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

RSS Feed RSS - Comments

Archives

Blogroll

  • Bob Sutton
  • Dan McCarthy
  • Daniel Goleman
  • David Maister
  • Ed Batista
  • Gautam Ghosh
  • It Can't Be You by Prem Rao
  • It Can't Be You on Facebook
  • Looking At Life
  • Marci Alboher
  • Mark McGuinness
  • Marshall Goldsmith
  • Penelope Trunk
  • Rachael Silverman
  • Tom Peters
  • Writing To Be Read
  • XLers Blog Spot

Blog Stats

  • 401,932 hits

RSS From My Writing Blog

  • Blog Moves To “Prem Rao, Story Teller.”
  • More on Querying
  • “Devnaa’s India:Delicious Vegetarian Home Cooking & Street Food”
  • “Christmas Mysteries”
  • The Best of American Magazine Writing
WriteUp Cafe - Together we Write

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • People at Work & Play
    • Join 156 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • People at Work & Play
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar