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Leander to stay back and cheer Anju
Leander Paes has put off his departure from Athens by a few days. The reason: he wants to spend some time watching other Indian athletes compete at the Olympics.
Leander Paes has put off his departure from Athens by a few days.
The reason: he wants to spend some time watching other Indian athletes compete at the Olympics. And, long jumper Anju George will have an extra fan rooting for her at the Olympic Stadium on Thursday.
"The last three times (Olympics), I hardly watched anything else excepting maybe a couple of hockey games. But this time I want to see athletics, and I want to cheer for Anju George.
"I would also like to go for the India-Pakistan classification match and maybe watch some wrestling too. I want to soak in the Olympics. They might be my last."
Paes leaves Athens and goes straight for the US Open.
"I will be playing doubles with David (Rikl) and mixed with Martina. Actually Martina and I were play a doubles exhibition in New York later this week, but she has a slight cold so that got put off."
Here in Athens, Martina came and checked out on Paes and wished him all the best for the matches, even though the Indian pair was up against Americans Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish in the first round.
"She is simply amazing," said Paes, who also counts Merlene Ottey as one of his all-time favourites. "God I cannot believe it, she is here for her seventh Olympics and I have been to only four."
Grand Old Men of Indian sport
There are two Grand Old Men who seem to follow the fortunes of Indian sportspersons in at least one or two disciplines every day.
One is Ashwini Kumar, a former International Olympic Committee member and still an honoured guest of the IOC at every Games. The other is T.D. Ranga Ramanujam, a guest of the International Table Tennis Federation.
Ashwini Kumar was there when Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi battled it out till well past 1 a.m. in the morning, and Ramanujam was there a row behind him.
Ashwini Kumar is 84. Ramanujam is 87.
Ashwini Kumnar, who was the Chef de Mission of the Indian contingent in 1956, 1960 and 1964, is attending his 12th summer Olympic Games, while Ramanujam, who received the Olympic Torch when it first came to India in 1964, is at his 10th Games. They try and not to miss any of the hockey matches either.
Ashwini Kumar, who is usually accompanied by his daughter whom he named Hockey, and granddaughter, Ranga, mostly moves around on his own.
"I am fine and I like going to various venues. Who knows, these might be my last Olympic Games," said Ramanujam.
Injuries galore
Jagbir Singh, who played for India in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, still looks fairly fit. In fact, when player after player was getting injured, the joke was they might soon need Jagbir to take the field.
William Xalco (broken thumb), Deepak Thakur (breathing problem), Baljeet Dhillon (niggling shoulder problem), Dilip Tirkey (hit hard on the left forearm) and Adrian De Souza (hit in the chest) have been on the injury list, though Baljeet did take the field against Argentina. Tirkey and De Souza left the field after being injured against Argentina.
Pillay's plea
It almost seemed like bolting the door after the horse had fled.
Dhanraj Pillay, when he came to the mixed zone after the match against Argentina, came to the media and very dramatically requested reporters to let the hockey team play and not do stories which could harm the interest of the sport.
Somebody ought to tell him that he started it all by criticising German coach Gerhard Rach in his column and that's when the media began picking up the goings-on inside the Indian hockey camp.
