Sport – HarshadOak.com

Degeneration Of Sports Clubs – Dogs & Indians Not Allowed!

March 15, 2015Harshad Oak

I have been frequenting multiple Pune sports clubs over the past two decades. So I have kind of been a witness to how sports establishments seem to have moved from being open, sports centers to elitist recreation clubs. It seems like it will only be a matter of time before a “Dogs & Indians Not Allowed*” kind of board gets put up at these clubs. Through this blog, I hope to highlight what I think has gone wrong and some possible solutions.

This blog is primarily based on Deccan Gymkhana and PYC Gymkhana in Pune, as those are the clubs where I have spent most time over the past 20 years. However I believe most of the points below would apply to many such clubs across India. Read more →

Pune Marathon Runner Report

December 7, 2009Harshad Oak

pune-marathon I ran the Pune Marathon 09 (10 kms category) and finished in 1 hour 26 minutes which was more or less as per my expectation. I think I could have shaved off 5-10 minutes from the time, but with few distance markers along the way, I couldn’t pace my run properly so left my final acceleration for too late in the run. Read more →

Maharashtra Premier League (MPL) T20 Cricket League Risks Mega Failure

May 6, 2009Harshad Oak

I would love to be proven wrong and see the Maharashtra Premier League (MPL) 20-20 cricket league be successful. The MPL concept sure had the potential, but unfortunately the format and packaging makes it seem like the MPL will not deliver. Read more →

Tendulkar Creates Something That Would Last For Centuries

October 17, 2008Harshad Oak

Tendulkar today created something that might well last for 100s of years. No, not the record for the highest number of runs in Test cricket…

Sachin Tendulkar today gave a super quote. When asked about the severe criticism he has faced in recent times, he said “Success is about turning those stones (thrown at you) into milestones”. Though not known for his ability to provide quotable quotes, I think Sachin Tendulkar might just have given the English language a quote that would last for centuries. I did some searches and don’t see this line attributed to anyone else.

So you might well have people in say the year 2200 use the line “Success is about turning stones into milestones” and know nothing about a certain Sachin Tendulkar who coined the line in 2008.

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Finally, heartiest congratulations to Sachin, the special son of India on reaching the zenith of the sport of cricket. There are many things apart from his cricket that are admirable about the little man. Except for his apparent following of some hocus pocus god men, can’t think of anything about him that’s not admirable. He’s certainly one of the very few people in public life that Indians respect and look up to. Wishing him the very best!

Royal Challengers Is Obvious Surrogate Advertising For Alcohol

April 30, 2008Harshad Oak

It’s good to know that the Health Minister has challenged the name of the Bangalore Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team, “Royal Challengers”. It’s however sad that it takes the Health Minister of the country to speak up before the authorities looked at such an obvious and blatant form of surrogate advertising for liquor brand “Royal Challenge“.

Indian Sport of Spitting On The Streets Needs To Get Its Due Recognition

January 27, 2008November 23, 2022Harshad Oak

“World Spitathon Champs”

Indians might have the strongest lungs on the planet. Not because of any genetic reasons but because of the exercise that they make their lungs undergo by firing spit missiles every couple of minutes. Across the country we have great exponents of this art, hard at work on every street. While walking, driving, through cars, buses and every other vehicle you will find spit missiles fired with great dexterity and regularity. Although the best performances come from tobacco consumers, even those who are not, often put in scintillating performances.

The ruin of sports institutions in India

October 21, 2006Harshad Oak

Some time back I wrote “PYC Sports Gymkhana Pune stops serving alcohol – Is the focus back on sports?”. The answer is no.

PYC Sports Gymkhana Pune stops serving alcohol – Is the focus back on sports?

September 5, 2006Harshad Oak

A few days back I heard that the PYC Gymkhana located in the Deccan Gymkhana area in Pune has stopped serving alcohol. This came as a pleasant surprise and compeltely against recent trends in Indian cities.

Pune Youth Club (PYC) Hindu Gymkhana was formed in 1934 and for over 70 years has been a sports organization. PYC was once about cricket, badminton, table tennis and tennis.

Cricket coverage on TV – Channels are milking the game dry

April 15, 2006Harshad Oak

Have you been watching the India – England cricket matches on DD or on Sahara One? It doesn’t really matter as both channels are doing a pathetic job. Almost every over you miss the first ball as you are still viewing an ad while poor Pathan or Harbhajan is bowling his heart out to try and entertain you.

The last ball is actually even funnier as the batsman hits the ball to a fielder and as soon as the fielder touches the ball and it seems like there’s no run, you get an ad. So if there’s a runout or an overthrow happening in the background, the channel doesn’t think it’s that important for you to watch it live.

It’s painful that the channels are getting away with this and holding the nation to ransom. Cricket being the only popular sport in India, millions of Indians have no choice but to bear the torture.

Isn’t it part of the BCCI’s job to ensure that the channels stick to certain telcast standards? The administrators of the richest cricket board in the world are so busy with petty politics, grabbing power and ad money that they have no time for the game or its fans.

Cricket fans just don’t matter in India. Pack them into a stadium like a can of sardines with no water, no food, no shade and they will still pay to get to the stadium. Provide pathetic coverage on TV and the fans will accept it.
I had written about this to every Doordarshan admin email id I could find on the net and cced it to IndianTelevision.com. Of course no one ever replied.

Recently Zee grabbed the rights to some future cricket series. That’s just more bad news. As apart from ESPN-Star with Harsha Bhogle, Sunil Gavaskar… the other channels are just plain incompetent when it comes to broadcasting cricket matches.

So what I hope this blog will do is that you the reader will also bombard the channels with mails / phone / fax whatever and let them know that you are displeased. Below is a list of email and phone numbers that you can use. I have already written to most of the emails stated below. Don’t expect a reply but in all probability your mail will at least be read. Or just call the channel office.

** Indian Television Dot Com Pvt.Ltd.
317/318/319, Kuber Complex, Opp. Laxmi Ind. Estate, New Link Road, Andheri(W), Mumbai-53, India.
Email : television@vsnl.com, webmaster@indiantelevision.com.
Telephone: 91-22-26730660, 26730659, 26740642, 26740643
Fax: 91-22-26740644

** Sahara ONE
http://www.sahara-one.com/contactus.html
feedback@sahara-one.com

** Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
http://mib.nic.in/informationb/contactus/contact.asp

** Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI)
Apparently they do not have an official website. Crazy but true. The politician infested body doesn’t have the time to create a useful website for the public.

** STAR TV INDIA
New Delhi
1st Floor, Central Wing, Thapar House
124 Janpath, New Delhi 110001, India
Tel: (91 11) 5249 4900
Fax: (91 11) 5104 9490
Website: www.star.co.in

** ESPN STAR
http://www.espnstar.com/corporate/contactus/corpo_contactus.html

** ZEE Sports

REGISTERED OFFICE
Zee Sports Limited
Continental Bldg, 135, Dr. Annie Besant Road,
Worli Mumbai 400 018 INDIA
Tel: (+91 22) 5697 1234

CORPORATE OFFICE

Zee Sports Limited
FC 18, Sector 16 A Film City
NOIDA UP 201 301 INDIA
Tel: (+91 120) 248 8101
FAX: (+91 120) 248 8110
info@zeesports.co.in

** Doordarshan

Download an Excel Sheet from http://www.ddindia.gov.in/Information/Contact+Us and you will get phone numbers and eail addresses to all DD centers across India. Note that their multiple sheets in the Excel file.

Just keep swimming!

April 25, 2005Harshad Oak

The title to this entry comes from the movie Finding Nemo. Remember Dory?

I learnt swimming many years ago however I never learnt it properly or was good at it. I could swim about 25 meters. I have been planning to take up swimming training for quite some time but it never quite worked out.

Finally, a few months back, me and my wife, managed to enroll for swimming training at the Tilak Tank in Pune.

It’s now been about 3 months of regular swimming and I can now swim breast stroke about (21 meters x 40) = 840 meters at one go. I am still struggling a little with freestyle as I get exhausted in about 5 rounds. Freestyle is very fast paced and unless you consciously slow down, it is very easy to burn out. There’s no gliding in freestyle and so I end up doing the short sprint equivalent in the water.

My backstroke is ordinary and I haven’t yet tried out the butterfly. Butterfly is considered very difficult and exhausting but it is surely the best stroke to watch.

Swimming is a super sport as it gives you an entire body workout and is great fun. I hope to keep swimming regularly. Let’s see if things do work out that way. Check these links to get started with swimming or if you wish to improve your technique.

The comments to the articles are also useful.