London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony -Top 5 Dislikes

Having grown up as a son of an avid & committed sportsperson  catching live action sports had become part of my TV viewing. Events like Olympics, WC Football were quadrennial events and hence even more special.

Back from work at the usual time, I planned to finish the regular tasks and settle down to catch the event assuming the same will start at 11 pm only to realise a little later that its going to start only by 1am!!! Closer to time when the channels started beaming live images I was a bit upset that it was all dark and gloomy, raining and there were chances of the start getting delayed. But luckily it started in a few minutes. 

Have always associated opening ceremonies with great perfectly co-ordinated stellar performances, never seen before stunts, fireworks & of course the contingents walking in to join the fervor.

So I settled down wondering like almost the whole world what my first impression of London 2012 is going to be, especially after a mega-successful Beijing 2008.

A few minutes into the start I realised that while celebrity Hollywood director 

Danny Boyle had gone about recreating British history with some really breathtaking sets there were a few things which upset me a lot. Let me list them in the descending order:

5. The Danny Boyle Show

    The event was all over the place on TV thanks to some really poor sequencing, 

    editing and packaging work. Add to that the camera work & audio! While they 

    were creating some interesting imagery out there most of  them were lost thanks to 

    some poor camera work. Also the usual 'performance in sync' was completely missing.

 4. Engaging the TV audience 

    Coupled with the above, the engagement quotient was completely missing. With 

    the audio being bad, I was surprised that the visual medium was never used , 

    again the way they use in cricket. We all very well know how when a new match 

    commences, right from team composition to win loss record, to player stats, past 

    performances etc are well captured and showcased. Even in events like grand slam 

    tennis and F1 you see good use of this medium. But the same was completely 

    missing. I was so eager to know participating countries' geographic location, history, 

    past performance, team size, disciplines being participated in, flag bearer's claim to 

    fame etc and am sure am not alone!

3. Intrusive and irritating Advertising

    Well advertising being intrusive is not new, neither is irritating. But when both play in   
    tandem its bad scene. Given the event was a non stop 3 hour event and with the 
    channels having almost no clue of the sequence of events the breaks were random and  
    unannounced. Fine you need to make money but then you could have packaged it better 
    - and this is ESPN not Doordarshan!

    Add to that the fact that there were 4-5 advertisers so you end up watching the  same 
    ad every 5-7 minutes which was seriously irritating. I seriously believed advertising in 
    this case should have been best left to on screen banners etc. Again goes to show how 
    even media treats a non-cricketing event in India!

2. Representing India

    When every team was entering the stadium, they were cheered on by scores of 

    supporters from their country and also their premiers - PMs / Presidents / Royal 

    Families. I was eagerly waiting for India's turn. On one side I was dreading the great 

    Suresh Kalmadi showing up and on the other side I was hopeful of seeing our Rasta-

    potty Pranab da. Would have been a perfect stage for him to 'arrive' in the world 

    stage. And when the Indian team did walk in and the camera's panned towards a turban 

    clad sardar, no it was not Manmohan Singh, it was this guy who is from Indian Olympic 

    Association (who I checked on Google to get his name - Raja Randhir Singh) who gets to 

    take his wife along as well. Are you kidding me? For minnows like Bangladesh which 

    had what about 10 members, their premier Sheikh Hasina was there to cheer them on!

1. Indian Contingent Costume

    This has to take the cake by a mile! I have almost always wondered who decides     

    these things? While we boast of endless list of breakthrough, celebrity and legendary 

    designers who have an amazing body of work, when it comes to draping the Indian 

    sports teams for events like this, we miss the bus completely. Yesterday was outright 

    shoddy, the worst I have ever seen! Looked as if people completely forgot about it and 

    ended picking stuff on rent or something? The way the 'pagdis' (traditional north Indian 

    headgear) were made and the way they were worn...oh come on...And then the colour 

    Yellow!!! Are we Jamaica? Or else Brazil? Sweden???Can someone tell me where does it

   feature on either the Indian flag? Well yellow and India is not new...but a country where

    the cricket team's costume is so well taken care of, can't a wee bit of attention be 

    given to costume for the contingent representing world's second most populated nation 

    in arguably world's biggest sporting spectacle? And ya, who was that lady in red??? The 

    whole thing was nothing but a big joke!

Well all was not lost...

Coming up... My Top 5 Likes!

8 in the year of 8!

As we know the Beijing Olympics started at 08.08.08 pm on 08.08.08, in a year of 8 supposed to be very lucky for the Chinese. Now after 10 days the years of hard work is showing. They are everywhere....increasingly in events not heard of before...As I switched off my TV to leave for work today, their tally ready 35 a whopping 16 ahead of USA. And a major contributor to the gold haul for US is from Michael Phelps....

Don't worry wont add another adjective to his achievements...let media do that for him. An amazing 8 golds with if not mistaken 7 world records!!!!! The other one was an Olympic record. In 2 Olympics (technically 3, he debuted as a 15 year old in Sydney in 2000) he has become a legend, winning 14 golds, creating new world records and probably sweetest of all winning 8 golds in a single Olympics. That's some record to achieve forget surpassing!!!

If Abhinav Bindra was talk of the Indian media with his gold (this first individual gold ever) Phelps is the talk of world media. And not surprisingly he was front page news on almost all the papers I came across today. Even regional news channels were talking about the achievement. There were comments about how he has become the most gold medal winning sports person in Olympic history. Digest this...he has more gold medals in 2 Olympics than India in its 108 year history at the Olympics. Expectedly publications and channels were eagerly pulling out lesser known facts about Phelps like his diet, his training regiment etc etc and sharing with its reader and listeners.

The winning attitude

Michael Phelps ( and a lot of others from different countries in different sports) have simply shown the world what it takes to win and win big...Years of hard work, pain, sacrifice and coupled with it the never say die attitude. And people have shown if you have this you are part of the best in the world if not the best. Coming from sports family I have seen it in my dad. For over 35 years he has shown remarkable commitment to sports from athletics to football, from basketball to handball. Watching any of these sports still brings a twinkle in his eyes! Another example of this combination is the Chinese. Over the last 10-12 years they have entered, mastered and conquered the world in a series of sports & games...badminton, diving, table tennis, weight lifting, athletics, gymnastics, shooting.....the list is growing all the time.

Watching various sports and games at the Olympics I have noticed that over the years participants and off late winners have emerged from countries almost unheard of before. Eritrea, Tunisia, British Virgin Islands. Jamaica over the years has kind of banished US & other countries in the men & women sprint events!!! While all this is happening we Indians remain also rans...in at least most of the events. I wonder why....Probably the system lacks discipline...otherwise why should we be sending Sania Mirza who after all the hype retired hurt in her first match!!!! In the same squad was Anjali Bhagwat who gave up shooting but got back to qualify for the Olympics...only to be eliminated in the first round!!! What was encouraging is the performance of Saina Nehwal and the boxers. Incidentally boxers are still in the race... A nation of one billion, out of whom over 50% are below 25 years of age doesn't have the attitude to collectively put together a team which can challenge the results for eight medals!!!! What a pity...

In between all this lets not forget Michael Phelps and all the super achievers! Congratulations....

Times haven't changed much...or have they?

Its the year of Olympics....a year which of late has been associated with controversies and scandals galore. This time its China, the Asian and arguably world superpower laying the host. It all started with an impeccable opening ceremony. Even before it finished people & bureaucrats were wondering if the next host London will be able to match up. Like a lot of others who even after all these years are keen to watch sports beyond cricket...like others who are still eagerly waiting for 4 years to catch a glimpse of talent across a plethora of sports, games & competitions. And at the same time like others I was hoping that Doordarshan the only telecaster of the Olympics (others don't touch it because they don't get the numbers and hence the moolah) would do better than last time round. But then I was disappointed. While over the last 2-3 decades the technology has grown by leaps & bounds but when it comes to Doordarshan it seems to be the same as it was at least 15 years ago. The same old commentators...making more incorrect comments than the right ones...mistakes in the events, nationality, records etc etc. Watching them it looked like its unusual if they do commentary without making a single mistake. People with grey hairs and beards with inadequate information, always looking through reams of paper...for gods sake somebody give them a laptop...the same old antique looking sets, etc etc.

To start with shouldn't they look at roping in some fresh talent apart from trying to rope in famous people like Harsh Bhogle etc etc...Am sure money is not the problem its the will I think...

It was the same on the field as well

To start with the team makes a mockery especially the women...of the opening ceremony wearing (can you believe it???) track pants and pullovers when the guys were in great looking sherwanis. Especially Sunita Rao an NRI who claims that for her its India calling... truth of the matter being she wouldn't have stood a chance in her country USA and fortunately India doesn't have anybody better either marched on in sports outfits...She, Sania and the other lady could have as well stayed out!!!! We failed to qualify for men's hockey...something which was our domain in the 60s through to the 80s winning us golds till the Moscow Olympics. We had a bunch of 'promising' archers and shooters who failed on the first hurdle...Amongst them was Anjali Bhagwat who apparently gave up shooting as she was 'disillusioned' with her failure at Athens but got motivated and made a comeback. And qualified too!!! Quite an achievement...only to fail in the first round itself....Ha ha ha...sorry but all I can do is laugh. The there is the much hyped and talked about Sania Mirza retired hurt in the first round....How did she pass the fitness test then???

But all's not bad

While all this was happening Saina (no spello there) Nehwal a teenager representing India in Badminton was quietly putting her opposition by the wayside. While people know a lot about Sania Mirza thanks to the media hype and the sport she is into you would be surprised that Saina is ranked world number 15th and has reached the quarter final beating world number 4. Lets see how far she goes...Am supporting her big time.... Boxers have done so well so far and then came the news of Abhinav Bhindra striking gold...the first individual gold in Indian Olympic history...Wow everybody associated with the movement and for that matter every Indian should be proud...as somebody said its bigger...much bigger than India's T-20 victory. Indian government and a few corporates were quick to announce cash and other rewards. A channel has gone ahead and said that this will change the face of Indian sports...I just hope this at least motivates a few people to take up sports other than Cricket. Am hoping that Leander Paes & Mahesh Bhupathi will bury their animosity and do some wonders this time...

In between all this its high time Doordarshan shapes up and does something to revamp its offering starting from the commentators....I hope they do...let me wait for another 4 years....