Sports Smarter

Why has Federer managed to win 8 Wimbledon titles but only one French Open?How has it been that Rafael Nadal has been beaten only thrice in clay court but still lesser grand slams than Federer?Surely the surfaces in tennis play a key role in the performance of players.This blog will answer this question. Roger Federer the most successful all-time tennis player has recently hinted that he would be backing out from the French Open for the second consecutive time.This surely poses a question as to what is there in clay court that he is backing out.What is there in grass court that he is almost unbeatable.There are primarily three different types of surfaces in tennis hard court, clay court and grass court.Out of these hard courts are most common and nearly 70% of tennis tournaments are played on hard courts.Out of the four grand slams Australian Open and U.S Open are played on hard courts while French Open and Wimbledon are played on clay and grass courts respectively.Let's look...

Cricket is the most watched sport in the country.Thousands watch every game in the stadium while millions watch it on TV.Considering the cable charges that we pay for watching TV, we almost watch every game for free.But the recent developments in the auction of satellite rights of IPL and India matches poses a serious challenge for the broadcasters to make profits.This blog is about the future of cricket match viewership.Will it still remain free in future? Star India acquired the television rights for broadcasting IPL at a whopping 16,347.5 Crore for five years.Other than this star has also acquired the BCCI rights for 6138 Crore for a span of five years.Let me break it down for better understanding.First, let us consider IPL. 16,347 Crore ---->3300 Crore -----> 60 Crore------>1.5 Crore ------> 25 Lakhs (5 years)                (per year)           (per match)        (p...

One of the most awaited events of the year has started.There are a lot of expectations from the Indian contingent.In this blog, I would analyse the past week and go through as to what can we expect in the closing week. Week one was good for India.Until Sunday 12PM, India managed to win 6 gold medals and is positioned at number four.Weightlifting contingent has given an exceptional performance, winning five gold medals.The gold medals have been bagged by Punam Yadav in the women's 69 kg category Venkat Rahul Ragala in the men's 85 kg category Satish Kumar Sivalingam in the men’s 77kg category Sanjita Chanu in the women’s 53kg category Mirabai Chanu  in the women's 48 kg category while the sixth gold medal 10m women's air pistol where Manu Bhaker won gold. This performance by the weightlifters is commendable and unprecedented.Not to forget is the outstanding performance of the teenager, Deepak Lather who won a bronze medal in the 69 Kg category a...

The last one week of has pulled out many controversies.These incidents are so ugly that one might still wonder if cricket is still a Gentleman's game.This blog is about these incidents and where the future of cricket is heading to. It is so disheartening that there have been not one but three incidents in past one week which have put a dark spot on cricket which is considered a gentleman's game.To start with the ugliest 1.The ball-tampering scandal This tampering was done during the third test match between Australia and South Africa.The whole Australian team was involved in ball tampering.This is not the first ball tampering incident but this is the first time when the whole team is involved in ball tampering which also includes the coach.It also started when the two on-field umpires called Cameron Bancroft in suspicion of tampering the ball.But he said that he had a sunglass cleaner which he used to clean his sunglasses and not tamper the ball.But later in the day vi...

The U-19 team from India made all of us proud by bringing the U-19 World Cup to India after six years.This blog is about this victory and what businesses can learn from this victory. Prithvi Shaw and his team has made India proud by winning the U-19 World Cup 4th time.This victory is even more satisfying as we lost in the semi finals of last edition.The main hero of this World Cup has to be Rahul Dravid.He is probably the most selfless cricketer I have ever seen.He has let go tonnes of money,commentary carrier,IPL coaching carrier for coaching team India.Yes this is all he did to coach U-19 team.He had offers from Delhi Daredevils devil to work as coaching staff but he just let it go so that there are no objections on his position of Indian coach.The U-19 team has also worked really hard to achieve this feat.They have been playing many tournaments in last one year.This must had given them a lot of exposure of International cricket.They also lost to Nepal in a match after wh...

Australian Open 2018 will be remembered for many reasons. Whether it is because of Roger Federer's 20th grandslam victory, the pay hike controversy or Caroline Wozniaki's first grandslam victory after being in this sport for last 10 years. This blog is about this year's Australian Open. The 2018 Australian Open will be very much remembered as the tournament of underdogs. The foremost reason is because of the player named Hyeon Chung who had a dream run in this tournament. He beat Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev in his amazing run to the semi finals.The other underdog was Kyle Edmund who also made it to the semi finals after beating the mighty Grigor Dimitrov who was also a favourite for this tournament. But the major attraction of the tournament was Roger Federer's 20th grandslam victory. Now what do I say about this wonderful player.The way he has played after 2016 is just outstanding.winning a grandslam at this age shows his class and passion for this ga...