The Two Horse Race

It’s the beginning of the new football season. This time of the year, one usually encounters a lot of talk about one league being better. Like all others I have my own criteria of choosing one league to be better than another. Sometimes these criteria are not deemed as important to others and obviously theirs to me. That's when I decided to put down a post taking into account a multitude of factors and statistics before reaching a conclusion, if possible. I will safely assume that the only two leagues in competition are La Liga and the English Premier League.

I’ve broken down the comparison into different points. Of course, I could have skipped some, but I’ve put down whatever came to my mind.

• Top of the league

EPL 10 Che 86 Man 85 Ars 75 Tot 70
EPL 09 Man 90 Liv 86 Che 83 Ars 72
EPL 08 Man 87 Che 85 Ars 83 Liv 76
EPL 07 Man 89 Che 83 Liv 68 Ars 68
EPL 06 Che 91 Man 83 Liv 82 Ars 67

Liga 10 FCB 99 RMA 96 Val 71 Sev 63
Liga 09 FCB 87 RMA 78 Sev 70 Atm 67
Liga 08 RMA 85 Vil 77 FCB 67 Atm 64
Liga 07 RMA 76 FCB 76 Sev 71 Val 66
Liga 06 FCB 82 RMA 70 Val 69 Sev 68

o Chelsea and Manchester have dominated, similar to Barcelona and Real
o Similarly if one of the above teams win, most often the other finish 2nd
o Teams in 3 and 4 positions are usually off the winners by a fair bit

As we can see, both leagues are ultimately 2 horse races, which can put to rest the theory of one league being more competitive than the other. Point totals are also similar and equally high, which goes on to show the top teams are significantly and equally better than bottom rung teams. Of course statistics don’t always tell the truth, but they point you towards the right directions.

When we look at the overall history of both the leagues, we observe that Real Madrid lead the Liga with 31 titles followed by Barcelona with 20 and Atletico Madrid with 9. In the English league Manchester United and Liverpool are tied at 18, followed by Arsenal at 13, whereas in the era of the Premier League Manchester United are miles ahead of the rest of the pack with 11 titles followed by Chelsea and Arsenal at 3 apiece. This again reiterates that one or two teams always dominate the league.

• Performances in Europe

Both these leagues almost always send 4 teams to the Champions league and 3-4 to the UEFA Cup/Europa League as well. I suppose, for a CL or EL campaign to be called successful, semi-finals can be set as a benchmark. Some more statistics follow about number of semi-finalists from each country and the eventual winners.

CL 10 1 ESP 0 ENG Int
CL 09 1 ESP 3 ENG FCB
CL 08 1 ESP 3 ENG Man
CL 07 0 ESP 3 ENG ACM
CL 06 2 ESP 1 ENG FCB

Cup 10 1 ESP 2 ENG Atm
Cup 09 0 ESP 0 ENG Shak
Cup 08 0 ESP 0 ENG Zen
Cup 07 3 ESP 0 ENG Sev
Cup 06 1 ESP 1 ENG Sev

While it is evident that in the Champions league, England sends more team regularly to semifinals, Spain has a better track record in the ultimate prize. When it comes to the second rung, clearly, Spain has the advantage with more victories, and semi-finalists. A conclusion is hard to reach because one cannot say one league is better with just these statistics

• Players and Awards

Another central point of argument is the quality of players in each league which statistically can be measured in Golden Boots, FIFA Player of the year, and the Ballon d’or. As for Golden Boot, La Liga has produced 5 and the Premier League 4 in the new format of the award. When it comes to the FIFA award, Real Madrid and Barcelona dominate with 4 and 7 respectively where as the only English entry is to Manchester United. Stats are similar in the Ballon d’or where Barcelona have 6, Real 5 and Manchester 4. This is the first time we can see one league that has a clear advantage over another. It is safe to assume the better players are from the Liga.

• Money Matters

Strength of any league financially is a good measure of how much a better a league is compared to another. This one clearly is in the favour of the EPL because of a much more stable structure where TV money is distributed in accordance to a predefined ratio, which ensures parity being ensured between top and bottom teams. La Liga allows teams to negotiate their own TV deals which creates imbalance at the top, which works against its favour with the view of maintaining equality and competition.


• Popularity

Again, I think the EPL is the clear winner here. Football is the religion in both countries where newspaper headlines are dominated by footballing matters, but where the EPL has scored points is in marketing the league as a brand to the rest of the world. Shifting the time of the matches in view of getting into the Asian primetime slot because of the potential financial benefits trumps the Liga in terms of popularity where most of the games are scheduled in EU night time which is the wee hours of the morning in Asia. I guess statistics are not necessary here.

• Intangibles

There are certain aspects of football you cannot measure. Bill Shankly famously said that football is much more than life and death. This is reiterated in La Liga. There is a certain romance to games which are not so in England. Football is a culture, more than just a sport. The connection between sporting history and political history is enough to say that it is more than life in that country. I somehow see this aspect lacking with England. Fans are equally passionate no doubt, but it is just not the same. Beauty is a subjective term, but it has been said time and time again that La Liga offers some of the most beautiful football in the world over the years. With a league full of talented Spaniards, Brazilians, and Argentines, this comes as no surprise. England on the other hand seems to have a much more tactical game, which has merits of its own, but surely can appear dull to the eye. In this regard, Liga has the upperhand in my opinion.

• The Verdict

I cannot think of more points to compare, so I guess I will leave it at that. It is clear that while each of the leagues have their own charms and advantages, it is difficult to come to a conclusion as to one being better than another. Liga is proclaimed to have the better history, EPL is said to be the hands down number one in the recent future, but with all said above, I will conclude by saying no one league is better than the other and all we can do is to enjoy the beautiful game and wait for this season to unfold.

Edit : A friend provided me with http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/jonathan_wilson/08/24/epl.observations/index.html?xid=twitter_share another article on similar lines, do take a look.

A-Z of World Cup 2010

This is quite a clichéd topic after every world cup in most newspapers and websites, but I decided to have a go at one on my own anyway. So here's the A-Z of this year's recently concluded spectacle that is the FIFA World Cup 2010

A for Africa : This was always going to be pitched as the Cup hosted by the entire continent, and it's fair to say that the hosts have exceeded expectation in terms of organising.

B for Blue : Blue was a bad colour for jerseys this year as giants like France and Italy crashed out infamously after the group stages putting their nations and footballing legacy to shame.

C for Casillas : San Iker will go down in history as the first captain to break Spain's curse of not winning the World Cup. Of course there was the small matter of the Golden Gloves.

D for Diego Forlan : Forlan wowed us with what Manchester United failed to see in him. This class act showed us some fantastic football capping it off with lots of brilliant goals.

E for Expectations : France,Italy,England,Brazil,Argentina. What was common to them in this World Cup is that none of their teams performed to the fans mighty expectations, which seemed to be the flavour of this tournament.

F for Flops : Flops again seemed to be the bug biting all big name players. Ronaldo, Messi, Kaka, Rooney were all bitten and put on quite a horrendous show.

G for Germany : If there was one team that deserved to win the tournament and didn't, It was the Die Mannschaft. Playing counter attacking football at levels we have not seen since the Brazilian teams of old, they gave us some amazing matches. This team is young and is bound to be around, and hungry for many years to come.

H for Handball : The world cup just seems to love Handball incidents. The Hand of God by Maradona paved way to a new tactic of using the hand to the benefit of the team. Suarez showed us all, a supposedly heroic sacrifice, with good presence of mind, taking his team past Ghana through to the Semi-Finals.

I for Injuries : Most teams were not at their full strength thanks to injuries. Blame the long club season or lack of fitness or desire to come back ahead of recovery period, we were unlucky not to see some good players in action.

J for Jabulani : World Cup's always have controversial balls and this was no different. A Goalkeeper's nightmare, this ball showed us physics as never seen before.

K for Kung-fu : A term that became popular after Nigel De Jong's tackle on Xabi Alonso in the final, justified the way The Netherlands tackled throughout the whole tournament.

L for Larissa Riquelme : The Paraguay lingerie model created waves all across the world and made lots of men Paraguay fans as she promised to strip if they went all the way.

M for Maradona : The man who was the centre of all attention even with the Argentina team boasting of arguably the best player in the World. Only Maradona could have done it, and it is only a pity that his coaching career is not nearly as glamorous as his playing.

N for Nigeria : Nigeria's FA gave us some humour by initially banning the national team from all competitions for the forthcoming two years as a punishment for their performance, which was later revoked after the firing of 3 top officials.

O for Oranje : Once again, the Oranje made it to the finals, and once again they would not win. I personally felt this was a good thing because the way they played would not do justice to the great Netherlands teams of the past, if they did better.

P for Paul : The most valuable person of the tournament would end up being the Psychic Octopus Paul who got the predictions right for all of Germany's matches and the finals. He has now become a betters’ favourite and German enemy number 1. Rumour has it that he has retired from his newfound profession.

Q for Questions : Some questions will never be answered. Was he offside? Did the ball cross the line? Were the FIFA officials right with that decision? Expectedly, this world cup was full of such Questions.

R for Referees : The refereeing this tournament was clearly sub-par. Barring a few excellent performances, most Referees, and linesmen made some rather horrible calls. Time for Video Technology.

S for Spain : Spain has at long last won a World Cup. The team always full of talent, and years of lack of unity due to regionalism and other reasons finally delivered with what is not becoming known as the Golden Generation of Spanish Football.

T for Tiki-Taka : The Spanish (Catalan) word for touch football used by Spain(Barcelona) has evolved into the new(boring) style of possession football and ended up winning the tournament(It was Villa!)

U for Uruguay : If everyone were to bet which South American team would qualify for the semis, nobody would have predicted Uruguay. Yet this bunch of no nonsense footballers, led by some spectacular goals by Forlan and Suarez did their country proud.

V for Vuvuzela : Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. 'nuff said.

W for Waka-Waka : The jumpy number from the ever sizzling hot Shakira became the anthem for this World Cup with every Tom-Dick-Harry addicted to it, including my 3 year old cousin.

X for Xavi-Xabi : The X-Men (Ok, that was bad) were a solid centre of midfield pairing carefully picking out passes, became one of the hardest duo's to play against.

Y for Young Players : Every World Cup produces some fine young players, and this one no different. Germany being the most impressive with their youth gave us some fantastic promise in players like Ozeil, Mueller et al.

Z for Zuma : I was running out of creative thoughts, and thought I had to do justice to South Africa being such great hosts for this spectacle. The guy may be really boring with speeches but heads a country the loves football, which is now loved by the footballing world.

I hope that puts in a nutshell what this World Cup was about. Let me know your views, or if I've forgotten any important thing. Joga Bonito!

Yearbook Entry : Basketball Diary

Chapter 1: The Beginning

When I first came to this college, I didn’t think much of my chances of getting to play quality ball. Quite frankly, nobody expects an NIT, to have a basketball team worthy of any praise. I would realise I was wrong, the moment I stepped into court on my first day. There were 4 other guys on court. As it would turn out, we were the golden batch in NITK Basketball, in more ways than one. For the first time in NITK’s recollectable history, 5 guys from the same batch would have to join the team. Alok brought his Karnataka State Captain experience along with his superb ball handling skills. Nitin brought a style element and a work ethic unrivalled by anyone. Sharan, Abhishek and I, brought to the team technique and determination that the rest of NITK was very happy to see. The Basketball team is once place where ‘jugaad’ does not exist. If you’re good, you’re in – That’s the mantra which is followed. It was safe to say a few seniors were disappointed that 5 of us had joined. But the true ballers knew that NITK Basketball was going to change, and for good.

The time had come for me to experience my first tournament. MBC is a Mangalorean Club that hosted a couple of tournaments every year. They have a sleek indoor court, with wooden flooring, shot-clocks and what not. It was quite an intimidating fact for a bunch of first years. We were told that we had not beaten MBC in this tournament ever before. This was also going to be the first time we would see our talisman Hardeep in action. Along with Bogie, Ham and Krum, Alok was the only first year who was chosen to play in the match. The finals was close, and Hardeep hit an amazing buzzer beater 3-pointer, to send the DK district into a state of shock. NITK finally had a recipe to create a successful basketball team. This victory qualified us to represent the district in a tournament in Mysore, my first out-station trip with the team. Planet X, Bopi’s Beer Bar, Old Mylari Butter Masala Dosa, were the highlights of this trip, more than the tournament itself.

Chapter 2 : First Time, Big Time

The team was chosen to represent us at the Inter NIT Games in Rourkela. Nobody knew what to expect from the other NITs. Would they be a bunch of nerds? Would they have random tall built guys who could dunk? We would find out that only Trichy had a team that they thought could beat us and we blew them out by 30 points. Highlights of the trip : Annapurna breakfast, Bogie’s admit and the never ending supply of spirit, and card games. Once we returned it was time for Inci. Now, for the basketball team, Inci is a World Cup of sorts. Playing in front of the NITK crowd is like being in a pressure cooker. Every shot you make pumps you up with 300 people applauding, but then every shot you miss is greeted with a seemingly larger number sighing ‘Ohhh’. The best of Bangalore teams turn up, and it is almost as if we have a point to prove to them that we can play in the big league. We would go on to lose to Christ, the eventual winners, in the semi-finals. Inter-Year was for the first time won by first year, who against all odds defeated the favoured third years, and the unbeatable Final years, much to the surprise and delight of college crowd. We would wrap up first year with the traditional Basketball farewell at Malpe Beach, where you get wasted without second thoughts. The final years would leave on a high note, with Krum going to Amdocs, Ham to Accenture, Brat to IIM Bangalore, NJ to Trilogy, and Bogie setting the benchmark at UC Berkley.

Chapter 3: Let’s rag ‘Em Juniors

We had finally become seniors on the team. One year after bearing the brunt of ragging and other silly chores that we had to do, just because we were the youngest, the time had finally come for the next batch of first years to feel the wrath. There were lots of players who came into this batch as well. Ewin and Nashath would make it directly into the starting 5 thanks to their sheer determination and size. Appi, Nikki, and Ravi would join the team in the following year. Our team finally looked like a strong unit. It was a team that we thought could even take on the Bangalore powerhouses. MBC and other local teams were dismantled with such ease that you would wonder, ‘Was this the team we once used to lose to?’ We decided to push things up one level by taking part in the RV tournament. After a comfortable 20 point win in the first game, we were all ready to play Ramaiah in the next. Ramaiah were perennial powerhouses in the Bangalore circuit. We knew it was not going to be easy, but we thought with this team, we should be beating them. 40 minutes later, we would fall right back down to earth. 15 point loss. More than the score, it was the way we played, we weren’t ready for the big time yet. Work had to be done, and quick, before Inci.

Chapter 4: Redemption

The Ramaiah loss hit us hard. We realised things had to change if we were to do anything useful in Inci. Practise intensity doubled, team bonding tripled. They say tragedy brings people together, this was the first time the team started to feel like a family. We wanted to work hard together. We wanted to win together. We wanted to push each other to make sure we achieve success. Just prior to Inci, we won another local tournament held by MBC very comfortably, which gave us some confidence. We had made the fixtures in such a way that we would meet Ramaiah in the semi-finals and that could be our redeem game. Unfortunately, Ramaiah ended up losing to Baldwin. Now the frightening part of this was Baldwin comprised of 5 African giants, all of whom were at least 6 foot tall, and built like ox. Scary as it seemed, a valiant effort from our side, we lost a humdinger of a game by 1 point. Once again our dreams were shattered at the semi-final stage, in the cruellest of fashions. But a statement was made. Teams came and congratulated us on the way we played defence. We were now considered worthy opponents. But the dream was still a dream.Yet another Malpe treat worth remembering, although our senses wouldn’t allow us to, and second year was wrapped up. Hardeep got himself a job at GE. Navin, Jeff, and G went to Carnegie Mellon, Boston and Georgia Tech respectively, maintaining the stud image of the team.

Chapter 5: Coping up

The beginning of the year was swarmed with comments from fellow college mates, other teams, referees, almost everyone connected to NITK Basketball you can think of, that we could not be the same team that we were without Hardeep. We all knew he was our star player, but we also knew, what the others didn’t, that we can be just as good, if not better without him. This served as motivation that year. Vind and Shank joined us, bringing a new dynamic to the team. MBC tournaments were swept once again with ease as people in the DK district were getting ready kill to see us lose. Yet again, we decided to step our schedule up one notch by taking part in another Bangalore tournament. As fate would have it, we had to play Ramaiah first up. We had a point to prove, more than that, we had a score to settle. A superb team game hence, we emerged victorious. People in Bangalore thought it was a fluke. We knew it was meant to happen, it just took one year more than it should have. This was by far the most meaningful and thrilling victory we had had. We now knew, there is no looking back, and up, is the only way to go.

Chapter 6 : Trophies, Trophies and More Trophies

The sem started out with Inter NIT which was held this time in Warangal. I have never witnessed our team performing a better demolition act than at this tournament. We owned each team by at least 30 points, distinguishing us as the clear winners. Our egos were well massaged when we would see teams clearing the court when we entered, teams giving us standing ovations when we entered the mess, and other acts of the same ilk. Highlights of this trip would be – Nikki’s traffic control after smash session, Bhimsingh’s downing skills, and Chennai stopovers. Yet another MBC tournament was won comfortably. We were set up for a grand Inci, which we hoped would finally be the one. The demolition continued, as we not only beat the Bangalore teams, but tore a couple of them apart, so much so that we won our semi-finals, which seemed like a perennial hurdle, by 20 points against RNS, which had just beaten Ramaiah. NITK had arrived at the big stage, but the crown was still missing. Jain outplayed us in the finals, not by better basketball, not by bigger hearts, just by pure experience. Our Cinderella run ended, but we were happy with the way we performed. Our year ended with another tournament win at Yenapoya. We had captured 5 Winners trophies and 2 Runners up trophies. This was by far the most successful year for NITK Basketball. A bigger year, called for a bigger celebration at Malpe, with everyone living up to prior standards, making wine shop owners very happy. Sam would go on to Georgia Tech, BD to North Carolina and Camel would make the trip to IIM Calcutta.

Chapter 7: The Beginning of The End

Everything that is associated with NITK peaks during Final year. For us though, it was a little crooked. The batch, being worst hit by recession, suffered during placements. GRE and CAT givers also had a slightly tough time, hence bringing a sort of irregularity towards practise. Few were beginning to wonder if we had peaked last year and the only way to go was down. Doubts were starting to creep in among ourselves too. We tried to convince ourselves that that was not the case, and we were still the same hungry team that wants to win Inci. An extended rainy season resulted in not much practise, and some unrest between players. The lack of tournaments didn’t help much either. We hosted another tournament this year, to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the institution. A confidence boosting win in front of home crowd is always welcome. Thus ended a relatively drab penultimate sem, with all leading up to the last one.

Chapter 8: The Swansong

The final sem started on a good note with placements, and admits coming the team members’ way. Inter NIT victory at Surat would follow, reinstating our dominance at the NIT level. Nitin got his second successive MVP at Inter NITs. Highlights of the trip included Bombay Thanni, Sasumaa Gujarati Thali, The forgetting of Swami incident and our epic journey from Bombay to Surat in the general compartment. A couple of months of heavy practise was required to reach optimum levels for Inci. Prior to Inci, we had a confidence building win at KMC Mangalore, where a couple of differences in the team were settled, to show the emergence of the complete team game. Organisers almost always gave away best player awards to the losing opponents, because each player in our team would have scored the same amount of points. The final Inci had arrived. Bigger than the prior editions, this one witnessed some really close matches and a superb exhibition of stylish basketball. There were a couple of annoying incidents, but what’s an Inci without a controversy? We sailed through the group stages to reach the semi final against Josephs. Josephs were one of the co-favourites to lift the title. We knew we had to bring our A game to the court, and by god we did. The entire team played at a level we ourselves did not know we could reach. To take such a team to overtime is no mere task. We would eventually go on to lose by 3 in OT, but we went out with our heads held high. This was our last chance to win Inci, as the outgoing batch. It is nagging when college randoms ask you why we never win our home tournament, but how we perform above our expectations and limits year after year and give it our best, is difficult to explain in words. The year ended with a victory at the Manipal tourney, one that had eluded us the first 3 years. Not only was that fact special, but also the way it was achieved, a stroke of genius from Alok and a lot of luck is the only thing that could have saved a hungover team from losing the finals at 7 in the morning. As I write this, I am wondering how my last Malpe will be, because this time it will be the others bidding farewell to us, something I don’t want to happen as soon as it seems to be happening. Resigning to the fact that all good things come to an end, I would always look back to my days with the basketball team of NITK, where teammates turned to friends, and friends in turn became brothers. This team shaped us to what we are in this college and it would only be appropriate if I said that We may not be a part of this team anymore, but the team will always be a part of us.

Batch of 2010

Alok Shankar
Nitin Chandra
Abhishek Premkumar
Sharan Basavaraj
Kaushik Lakshman(author)

Cracker of a Diwali!

It was the first Diwali of my 4 years of college that I spent back here and not at home. Many reasons for that, but this would have all the makings of a great day. I woke up with a sore knee from previous morning's game against the tribals. Woke up anticipating a difficult game against a rejuvenated MIT team, in the finals of Golden Jubilee Cup. We were conducting this extra home tournament this year, and even though competition from the local teams isn't anything worthy of a mention, there was pressure to win. We had lost Dasara, which we had been winning from when I can remember. We were just not in that free flowing zone that we were in by this time last year. We needed the win. Come 5 o clock in the evening, we went in to the game with a funny line up. A gamble to start our freshman center payed off. The gamble of going in to the game with not much height and presence inside, which again payed off. We shot the ball like never before this year. 'I knew after the first shot, that we were winning this easily' said Captain Blok. That's the feeling we all got. 40 minutes and a dirty game hence, we won. We won by 9, much easier than we thought. After being robbed off the best player award to many worthy candidates, we celebrated the festival of light and our victory with a team dinner. Little bit of DSP, and we took 3 hours to answer one simple question the above mentioned freshman posed. All in all it rounded up a great day, possibly the greatest of my final year so far. Happy with my game, Happy with the team's, Happy that we're such a nice unit, Happy that Diwali away from home would end up being such a great day, Happy that I've got to go pick up our brand new red jerseys in a few minutes - Oops, Gotta Run. Happy Diwali, everyone :D

Dream team of our generation

While I've grown up watching the beautiful game, I have often wondered, who are the greatest set of players that I have been priviliged to grow up watching. If there was ever a dream team of the greatest players of our generation, who would it be. Here's my list. Opinions and refutations are mot welcome.

Goal Keeper - Iker Casillas - He's my favourite. He's won so many titles in so few years, when he's so young. And in my opinion the number 1 shot blocker in the game. Buffon's better in some aspects, but Casillas is the overall package for me.

Right Back - Cafu - What a joy he was to watch spring up and down that right wing. A great champion, a great man, and also a great football player. Probably one of the greatest ever to play the position, barring Garrincha. He's an automatic choice in this team.

Centre Backs - Alesandro Nesta and Paolo Maldini - Nesta is one of the modern day greats and Italians have always led the way in showing how one defends. Maldini, is one of the game's elites, possibly the greatest defender. These two would make a killer twosome at the centre of the defence.

Left Back - Roberto Carlos - Complementing Cafu on the right, Carlos would be an awesome add to the left side. One of the best long range shooters ever to have played the game, he was a terror on the wing in his days, and is almost an automatic choice for this position

Right Wing - Luis Figo - What a winger, multiple winner of the World and European player of the year awards and a menace down the wing in his days, has scored plenty of wonderful goals and almost carried the Portugal team when he led it.

Centre Midfielders - Claude Makelele and Pavel Nedved - Makelele is the best ever DM that I have seen. Pre Galactico era, Madrid were that stable because of him, and Galactico and post that, they weren't because of the same guy. Rock in front of the defense, is actually a pleasure to watch even if he is the DM. Nedved, although plays for my most hated team Juve, takes this place mainly because of one performance against Real where he scored a hat-trick to send us out of the CL. What a class performer, truly deserves the spot on this team.

Left Wing - Zinedine Zidane - My footballing god, the greatest player to have ever touched a football, the scorer of the most beautiful goal, I cannot stop talking about this guy. If there's one person I miss in the Real team and the world of football its my beloved Zizou. So versatile, so classy, nothing more needs to be told I suppose.

Forwards - Thierry Henry and Ronaldo - Henry, I personally do not like him that much, but his records stand out. He will always be one step below the greats because of his money minded move to Barca, but he is a classy striker he is on the pitch. Fatty Ronaldo, who is the greatest striker of our generation, is well, a shame to a young fan, but his talent was undeniable. Those stepovers, those quick dashes, and not to mention, the great finishing skills make him truly deserve this spot.

PS - Near Misses : Del Piero, Giggs, Pirlo, Ferdinand

PPS - Far Misses : Kaka, Messi, Iniesta, CR9? They have to achieve lots more before being considered for this.

Comment away people.

Criminal Financial Dealings

About a year back, I wrote an entry on this blog about how Marca sells newspapers by publishing false football rumours. Some of these news items materialise into deals, and most don't. While the earlier article talks about the hype rumours create, this one is for the hype, the actual transfers that come through, create.

Yes, Yes everybody knows Real Madrid splashed out 65m Euro for Kaka and 93m for Ronaldo. That's a hell of a lot of money. Now it would be a legitimate question if people ask, why Madrid overpay for their transfers. A possible explanation to that is that, teams know Madrid will pay close to whatever they demand, so they just inflate the transfer fee. This does have its bad effects on the transfer market, yes. What I find ridiculous is, not just fans or players or managers, but the management of several clubs are criticising the Madrid transfer system.

Some facts before you start jumping at me. Clubs in Spain are not owned by individuals, like the case is in England. You have Oil tycoons, Arab Sheikhs, American finance big shots and many more funding the English clubs, whereas in Spain, specifically Real Madrid, no single owner exists. There is a president who is the authority on the business dealings, and Perez being the shrewd businessman that he is, has pulled off some amazing deals. Our money, Our dealings, anything wrong with that?

People often complain, why do Madrid buy superstars of every club, why can't they grow or develop talent like some of the other clubs. The answer to that is pretty complicated. Madrid is a club where patience is unheard of, fans want success all the time. Such is their history and they have every right to be that way. It is not as if they do not produce good kids at all. They don't use them properly, but that's a different issue altogether. People who know the Spanish game will know that Negredo, Granero, Mata, Diego Lopez, all of whom are product of the Real Madrid Castilla, are superstars in the making at lower clubs. Coming back to the point, one way, and the right way in my opinion, to look at the transfers is this. A club X develops a player from its youth system, and his value increases. They do well with him, but after a point, he seeks newer challenges and better avenues for success/money whatever. This is where Real come into the picture. They pay a lavish sum and all parties are happy. X has not much more it can offer to the player, and also end up making a profit on the sale. This is how most transfers to Madrid work. Now your non Madrid big shot clubs, cannot afford such lavish sums, what do they do instead? Steal other clubs' youth talent for dirt cheap sums and 'develop them'. Such is the case with the top 3 players in the world at the moment. Ronaldo was nicked off a Portuguese club, Kaka similarly from a Brazilian club, both at around 18 years of age. Messi, the third was stolen at 12! 12- the kid would not be knowing percentages by then, but Barca recruit him and now call him one of their own. Now which policy is more criminal? You tell me.

Inci Bball Review

It's that time of the year again. When everything that you looked forward to in the year is over. You are terribly bugged and experiencing a hangover of sorts. You tend to look back and think of how you got to where you got. You tend to look at what you wanted to achieve and whether you did. You think about whether you justified all the work that you put in. You finally boil down to whether you are happy with what happened or not. Before you think I'm getting really philosophical, all I'm thinking of is just reviewing how Inci went from the viewpoint of my team.

People said our team wouldn't be any good. Every now and then we heard 'Oh - What will your team do without him?', 'NITK team is not that strong this year right?' etc. We wanted to set and end to all that. The way we trained changed, the way we played changed. And the results showed just that. We've made a few friends, a few enemies as well in the course of the year. But all that seemed worth it. Until last year we were known as a team that plays fairly well at home, a team that has some great shooters and not much else. A bit of that changed when we went to PESIT this year, and all of it was about to change during Inci.

We were a little apprehensive while making fixtures this year. Because the standard of the tournament was going to be so high, we had to take on a semi-decent team in the quarterfinal league itself. After lots of speculation and arguments we decided to put PESIT and MVJCE in our group. Our debut game was against PESIT. Although we beat them by 20ish we had a big team talk after the game because clearly we could have played a lot better, and wouldn't get away with the tougher teams if we played like that. Next day our previous captain arrived with the idea of helping us in the form of a coach. Apart from that we went out with the intention of seeing to it that we did not make the same mistakes as we did the previous night. Also, we had no idea how MVJCE were and usually not knowing the opponent has always worked to our favour. A nearly perfect game was played that night by us, resulting in another 20 point win. Now for the hurdle of semi-finals that we hadn't cleared ever in the previous five years of our home tournament. RNSIT did us a favour by beating Ramaiah, Jain and Josephs would meet in the other semis as we had planned it out earlier. The prospect of playing RNS was scary, yet comforting. Scary because they had 2 huge 6 foot 5 giants and a good defence. Comforting because they are a poor offensive team and we are one of the best defences in the tournament. Come Saturday evening, we had a good chance to finally break the jinx and reach Inci finals for the first time. The first semi between the two powerhouses Jain and Josephs was a humdinger of a game. A buzzer beater three pointer to settle it says it all. That was followed by arguably the best dunk contest performance ever seen live for us here in college. A little tension was in the air, but that had to be gotten rid of. Smart play and some sweet shooting by our star shooter made sure of another 20 point win. Finally, we were there. A hurdle for all these years had been passed. There was so much joy that it felt as if we were content enough to have got this far. But we wouldn't let that ruin a golden opportunity. We could feel the nerves even before the game began. A tough game, after which a little inexperience probably showed but a lot of character was also shown when we lost to Jain, Basketball royalty in the state just by five, thus bringing to a close, by far the most successful year for our college's basketball team.

As, I reflect back upon these memories, I only wonder of what's to come next year. As of now, I'm just sitting, wishing and waiting.

Inci Preview!

SlamDunk was first added to Inci 6 years ago. What was once a small time tournament has now become one of the biggest college level tournaments in the state. A total of 20 guys teams and 10 girls team meet in this exhibition of professional basketball every year to produce some great matches. And boy, do we have some awesome teams coming this year to contest for the prestigious title and cash prize.

The guys tournament has always witnessed some of the closest, some of the most fast paced, some of the most tactically played out games you can see. The best teams from Bangalore, a certain team from Kerala and local teams along with us round up the participant pool for the tournament. This is what we have been waiting for the entire year and here is a preview of what you can expect from the basketball court during Inci.

Let's have a look at the teams. In no particular order, a jist of some of the favourties.

· Jain - Defending Champions, surely this year too a frontrunner for the title.

Star Players : Kaushal, John, Puneeth

Strengths : Scoring machine with tremendous experience in tournaments.

· Ramaiah - Always strong contenders in any tournament, known for their game intensity, they are always a force to be reckoned with.

Star Players : Abhishek, Chandy

Strengths : Intensity. They have a chant that goes 1-2-3 Team and that is the essence they play with.

· Nehru - The second most popular team among the NITK Crowd after the home team, who give us the match of the tournament year after year.

Star Players : Rahul, Mahesh

Strengths : Tremendously fast paced game with incredible ball movement.

· NITK - Home team. Home Ring. Great shooters. Makes for an almost perfect recipe.

Star Players : Alok, Ewin

Strengths : As mentioned earlier home team and crowd support coupled with the fact that shooting is very accurate especially on own ring.

· RNSIT - A very beautiful team to watch, on their day can beat any of the other strong teams.

Star Players : Krupesh, Pradeep

Strength : Excellent team game and a pleasure to watch.

· Josephs - They have the most superior record in Bangalore tournaments this year and will be looking to add to that.

Star Players : Markesh, Sood, Chimpu

Strength : Superb team game, Superb accuracy, Superb speed, arguibly the best team when put on court.

· MVIT – A team that has grown over the years and have a reputation to be very motivated during important games.

Star Players : Abhishek
Strength : The above mentioned player can at times single handedly turn around games and lift up the entire team’s spirits in no time.

Potential Surprise Packages : PESIT, NIT Trichy, BMS, Surana, Dayanand Sagar, MVJCE, NITTE, PA College, Aloysius, RV, NHCE, BMS, Father Muller and NITK-B

With added attractions like the Dunk Contest, a record high of 10 girls teams, and a debutant planned for this year – A three point shootout, SlamDunk promises to truly live up to Inci’s punchline – BEYOND EXPRESSION.