Game Delayed On Account Of Rain

Posted by Abhimanyu on June 20, 2009 · 3 Comments 

What on earth is going on?

Rafa has pulled out of Wimbledon Championships due to a tendon injury which is likely to keep him out of action for quite some time. He will not be available to defend his title this year after having given us the fortune of being witness to the best tennis game ever played on this planet.

This was rather expected since his struggling efforts at Roland Garros and his recent loss to Warwinka. But this takes the sheen off the Wimbledon where everyone was hoping for an encore of last year. One person who would be extremely happy in the back of his head is Roger Federer. Chasing unmatched tennis glory, this is the chance of a lifetime for Fedex to become the greatest player in history.

A channel’s distance away at Paris, FIA faces the biggest challenge in its existence. The dictatorial workstyle of Bernie Ecclestone and his Nazi-sex loving chuddie buddy Max Mosley has come to a fore as the GBP40m cap set on team spending and the proposed 2-tier team structure blew the lid off Formula 1 championship. Save Williams and Force India (both of who gave an unconditional entry to F1 2010 championship earlier) all 8 teams of F1 including crowd-pullers Ferrari, McLaren and Brawn have decided to create a break-away league next year.

Max calls it a ‘fantasy’. Well, its not like he is only one who is allowed to have fantasies, right? At this moment, though, he is right. More than anything else, this is a game of poker between strong teams and FIA. There is much to lose on both sides. Formula 1 is a huge brand name and the revenues that the teams are able to generate is partly due to that brandname. On the other hand, Formula 1 without Ferrari, McLaren, Brawn, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button is probably only half the mammoth that it is now.

Actually, a new series formed by a set of teams is a little bit on fantasy land. Sharing economic benefits and getting in new teams will be sore points. Larger, better off teams like Ferrari and McLaren will try to squeeze smaller, less funded teams like Brawn and Red Bull. The Concorde Part I was a pain in the butt of just about everyone invovled and get this in perspective, this split is timed pretty well just before the new Concorde Agreement is to come into force. Its a question now of who blinks first.

Meanwhile, as the Indian cricket team realizes the cost of losing, the two year old kid Indian Premier League has joined the elite ranks of 10 largest sports brands in the world, just behind Manchester United and the FIFA World Cup. Not bad for an Indian league started by someone who (according to unconfirmed rumours) about to murder one of his friends but got stopped by the cops just in time. (Link)

London is cutting spending on non-core sports in preparation of the 2012 Olympics. Is this the final push needed for complete Chinese domination in sports?

MotoGP is poised for one of the most exciting seasons ever with Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner tied at 106 points after 6 races.

And well well well. The Italians lost to Egypt in the Confederations Cup.

As I said, what on earth is going on?

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