Sports Smarter

ICC is going to change some rules from 1 October. This blog is about the new changes made by ICC. 1.RUN OUT RULE: Earlier the rule stated that if the batsman had his bat in air(even after crossing the line) at any point of time at the time bails are clearly dislodged from the wickets then he would be considered out. But according to new rules if he gets his bat on ground at before the bails get dislodged he would be considered not out. 2.The DRS rule Earlier each team could get only two reviews per innings. Every inncorrect review would result in termination of the review. But according to the new rules if during a review the third umpire has to stick to field umpire's call in case the bowl hits the wickets partially. Then the review would remain. Also after 80 overs no additional review would be given to the team. 3.Thickness of bat Earlier there was no limitation for the thickness of the edges. But now the maximum thickness of the bat can be 67mm. Although there is no ...

The problem of overage fraud has been eating away the sports in India since so many years.This blog is about this problem and ways to curb this issue. Overage fraud has been a very old problem that exists in India.From cricket to badminton it has left no sport.Players deliberately cut down their ages to get an edge over the other players.The impact of this is very adverse.Due to this they definitely get an edge in the junior level but when they move to the senior level this starts to fade away as after reaching the senior level everyone reaches a stage where only talent matters.Because of this the talented honest players could not come up and eventually leave the sport. Though there exists a law over which finds this as a punishable offense but there is no system to find out this offense.The officials rely upon Date of Birth certificates which can be easily manipulated.Also cross checking of the certificate is done only if someone objects.Due to lack of evidence most of the play...

Harbhajan Singh and Gautam Gambhir are the two players who were a part of 2011 World Cup team but out of the team since last 5 years.This blog is about whether they will ever get a chance to make a comeback. Gautam Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh,the two greats of Indian cricket are out of the Indian One-Day team since last five years.Gautam Gambhir was out of the One Day team since 2012 while Harbhajan was also out from the One Day team since 2012,only got a chance to play against Zimbabwe in 2015.The selection committe has been quiet reluctant in getting these two players back.The most disappointing fact is that Gambhir was the second highest run getter in the 2017 IPL season and was in an excellent form in that period but the selectors turned a deaf ear towards his performance and took players like Rohit Sharma who was in poor form.My question is simple to the selectors Why do they show double standards in team selection?When players like Mohit Sharma,Ashwin got into the te...

The most awaited trophy of the year is about to see its owner in few months.This blog is about who can win this award this year. Lionel Messi.Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar will be trying their luck for the Ballon d'Or this year.Both Ronaldo and Messi have been nominated 9 times for the finals where as it is only the second time for Neymar to be nominated after 2015.Interestingly both Ronaldo and Messi have won this award for four times,which is more than any player in the history of football.The power packed performance by the three players is the reason why they have reached the finals.Cristiano Ronaldo has played 36 games this season and scored 37 goals and also 7 assists.Messi has played 40 games this season and scored 39 goals with 9 assists.Whereas Neymar has played 33 games and scored 16 goals with 12 assists.Seeing at the numbers it seems that Neymar is almost out of contention for this award.The real fight is between Ronaldo and Messi.This award is decided by coaches,...

Test cricket is on the road for a major change in the form of the color of the ball used.This blog is about whether this ball is going to change things for test cricket and is there a need to change ball. Adelaide Oval was the first ground to witness a day and night test match between Australia and New Zealand in 2015.Since last few years there has been a wide discussion on the topic of increasing popularity of test cricket.Day and Night test match was found as a solution for this purpose.In such games the rules remain the same only the time of start of the match is changed and half of the match is played under lights. I believe this is a very temporary solution for increasing the popularity of test matches.May be this method works for a few test matches ,only until people are just curious to see this for the first time.There are several problems attached to this kind of test match.The major problem is the fact that one day and night One Day International soaks in so much ener...

The exit of Vijender Singh from amateur boxing has brought the level of boxing in India.This blog is about the inability of amateur Indian boxers to win medals at the major events. The country which has produced boxers as good as Vijender Singh M.C Mary Kom is now failing to maintain its level of boxing.In the recently concluded World Boxing Championships,India just managed to win one bronze out of 10 events.Gaurav Bidhuri won a bronze in the batamweight category.The game which has given a good performance in the Olympics with Vijender Singh winning bronze in 2008 Olympics,M.C.Mary Kom winning a bronze in 2012 London Olympics has seen a great fallback after that.With no medal in Rio Olympics and only one medal in World Championships there seems something going really wrong in boxing. The poor administration of the Indian boxing association is the main reason for this situation.This is also the main reason that a coach as respected as Stephen Cortalorda had to resign as the coac...

India will be playing against the visitors this September and October.This blog is about the various aspects and predictions of this series.  After a triumph against Sri Lanka India will gear up for its series against the mighty Australians.It is the first series this year against a higher ranked opponent.The memories of the 2013 India-Australia series serve as the reason for excitement for this series.That series went the full distance where India managed to win the last match.The Indian team since then has not changed much,but Australians do not have their two main bowlers who where there last time.Mitchell Johnson who has retired and Mitchell Starc who is out because of injury.The loss of Mitchell Starc is a big blow for Australians as he was their strike bowler.Even then Australia has a pretty good side Steve Smith and David Warner and Glenn Maxwell are the biggest threats in batting.James Faulkner will lead the fast bowling attack and will also be acting as their finish...

The end of U.S Open 2017 has revived a battle that all tennis lovers love to see i.e the fight for maximum number of grandslams. This blog article is about this record and its future prospects. If some one had said that Nadal could break Federer's most number of grandslams record last year,he would have been considered pretty ambitious but after this year,this would really be an exciting contest to see.At the present moment Federer has 19 grand slams to his name and Nadal has 16 grandslams in his kitty.,which means the deficit if of only 3 grandslams.The age difference between the two is 5 years which suggests that out of the two it is Federer who is going to retire first.But there has been a great difference in which the both have played in last 2-3 years.Last 2-3 years have been very difficult for Nadal.He has been suffering from a lot of injuries.Infact Nadal was not able to even reach the quarterfinals of the Grandslam events.But Federer had a lot smoother jour...

The last grandslam of the year ended leaving behind too many surprises.This blog is about the results of the concluded U.S Open 2017. Finally the answer has come as to who would win the U.S Open this year.But unfortunately we could not see Federer vs Nadal playing against each other.The result of men's singles is no surprise as one of  Federer or Nadal was predicted to win.Federer ,who looked that he was unfit after playing two back to back five set matches in the opening round lost in the quarter finals against Del Potro.Though after the match he confessed that he was absolutely fit and lost because he was not determined mentally.But the person who deserves applause is Juan Martin Del Potro.I mean what a great comeback he has made.The former U.S Open champion was out from competitive tennis for so long,struggling to make a comeback finally registers an epic performance.And who does he choose to register his comeback,the contender himself Roger Federer.The second impressive ...

This phase of badminton is the best phase ever in Indian badminton.This blog is about what badminton has done right to reach this stage. Last two years have been exceptional for the Indian badminton players.From a hint of glory in men's singles to the dominance in women's singles,badminton has grown a lot as a sport.P.V Sindhu,K.Srikant are among the best known faces today in India.From Olympic silver to back to back superseries titles,hints of dominance of Indian badminton can be sensed.But when did the fate of Indian badminton change? Badminton has a great connection with India.It is believed that badminton started in this very country.In the 1980's the world saw a great badminton player Prakash Padukone.One of the very few known sportspersons at that time.The All England champion had set a tone for other coming badminton players at the time when sports(that too badminton) was hardly considered a profession to be taken.After that in 10 years there were a few good ...

Last 4 years have been the best year's for batsman in World cricket. Scoring 300 is no longer a massive feat. This poses a big question where the quality of cricket is degrading. This blog will talk about the shift of this game in favour of batsman. The first 200 in one day cricket was made by Sachin Tendulkar in  2010. Sehwag broke his record in 2011.But since 2013 this has no longer been an extraordinary feat. Batsmen are regularly scoring 170+ runs. In the year 2015 two batsmen reached this feat. The dominance of batsmen can be seen by the fact that England team scored 300 consecutively 4  times before coming to the semi finals of Champions Trophy. But what is the reason for such a rise in the ability of batsmen. Is there actually a rise in ability of batsmen or the reason is something else. One reason is surely the rise in the ability of batsmen. The T-20 cricket has helped batsmen to accelerate whenever they want. In  today's one day cricket there is a common ...

The coaches of the great players play a very important role in making them great.This Teachers Day I am writting this blog about some of the coaches of the greats. Pullela Gopichand is one of the most famous coaches.He himself was a great badminton player and a former All England Open champion.He has been felicitated with Arjuna award in 1999, Dronacharya Award in 2009 and Padma Bhushan in 2014  .He has been the person who is responsible for the upliftment of Indian players in the recent years.He has trained two Olympic medallists Saina Nehwal who won bronze in 2012 London Olympics and P.V Sindhu who won silver in Rio Olympics.He runs the Gopichand badminton academy in which he trains players from a very young age and makes them champions.P.V Sindhu is an example of such nurturing.He is doing a great job for Indian badminton . Satpal Singh is the most successful coach in terms of number of Olympic medals.Sushil Kumar, who won a bronze in 2008 Beijing Olympics and silver in ...

Shooting has been a very successful sport in India.This blog is about the laurels and the shortcomings of this sport. Shooting has been among the most successful games for India at the Olympics.India has managed to win 4 Olympic medals which includes 1 bronze,2 silver and 1 gold.Abhinav Bindra is the first and only Indian athlete to win an individual gold which was in Shooting only.India has done quiet well in the World Championships also.Recently Jitu Rai set a world record in the 50m pistol event.He scored an astounding 240.1 to set the new record and also take the gold medal at the World Championships.Interestingly the silver was also bagged by India by Amanpreet Singh.The shooters have been pretty consistent in the big events like Olympics and World Championships.The heroics of the 2010 Commonwealth Games is also unforgettable.Indian shooters managed to win 30 medals which included 13 gold,11 silver and 5 bronze medals. But there are some shortcomings also.The biggest drawb...

U.S Open has started and it is worth discusing the most unpredictable event in all grandslams i.e the women's singles. The most unpredictable event in any Grand Slam event since many years has been Women's Singles event.In fact No.1 and No.2 seeds have never played finals among them in Women's Singles.Each and every year there has has been an unknown champion in Women's singles event.There have been times when  players like Venus Willams seeded 23 went on to win the Wimbledon in 2007.The very unpredictable nature of this event makes it exciting and gives new faces a chance to gain recognition in World arena.The interesting thing to note is that Women's Singles is highly unpredictable and to its contrary Men's singles is dominated by the Big four(Federer,Nadal,Djokovic,Murray). Another interesting fact in Women's tennis is the big gap in number of Grandslam victories.Among the current players Serena Willams has 23 grand slams following her is Venus Wil...