Team India extend world record to 17 consecutive test series wins on home soil

[Kron]

20 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Why so dismissive towards women's sports?

 

Women won both our medals in 2016 and saved us from ultimate humiliation, then Lovlina, Sindhu, Mirabai in 2020. Are you not proud of them?

 

Boxing, athletics are also sports, no?

People aren't being fair in India. Cmon do you really think our parents would encourage us to participate in diving, swimming etc. Average person in India cant afford such sports. Plus you know how corrupt we are. 

 

It will take a long time for us to reach that elite level across sports. China has achieved it but they are a communist country and have serious financial backing for sports etc.

[Gollum]

Just now, Kron said:

People aren't being fair in India. Cmon do you really think our parents would encourage us to participate in diving, swimming etc. Average person in India cant afford such sports. Plus you know how corrupt we are. 

 

It will take a long time for us to reach that elite level across sports. China has achieved it but they are a communist country and have serious financial backing for sports etc.

Our flaws, we must accept our shortcomings and work on them. 

[Gollum]

6 minutes ago, Lone Wolf said:

The day Indian HDI reaches at even Central Asian level we would start competing with West & likes of SoKo Japs in many sports. 

Isolated regions like Haryana, Punjab, Manipur, Andhra (badminton) can't do it all alone. Other states must pull their weight. 

 

I say the same for even chess, we literally have zero GMs from 70% of our states.....best players from Punjab, Haryana, JK, Rajasthan etc. are weaker than thousands of schoolchildren from Chennai. I read recently about a 1900 becoming Rajasthan's state champ, trust me there are ICFers stronger than that player, and 7 year olds from traditional centres. 

 

Unless we expand beyond traditional zones, we can't match Russia in chess or even Iran/Kaz in Olympics. 

Edited March 9 by Gollum

[Kron]

29 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Isolated regions like Haryana, Punjab, Manipur, Andhra (badminton) can't do it all alone. Other states must pull their weight. 

 

I say the same for even chess, we literally have zero GMs from 70% of our states.....best players from Punjab, Haryana, JK, Rajasthan etc. are weaker than thousands of schoolchildren from Chennai. I read recently about a 1900 becoming Rajasthan's state champ, trust me there are ICFers stronger than that player, and 7 year olds from traditional centres. 

 

Unless we expand beyond traditional zones, we can't match Russia in chess or even Iran/Kaz in Olympics. 

That's depressing to hear. I agree 70% don't produce talent for chess. Mostly come from south. Needs to change.

[rollingstoned]

29 minutes ago, Lone Wolf said:

The day Indian HDI reaches at even Central Asian level we would start competing with West & likes of SoKo Japs in many sports. 

 

I think pre or contemporary Rigvedic Indians/South Asians would be at similar Athletic and genetic level of our DNA brothers Iranians and Central Asians... 

Post that thousands of years of Poverty and climatic & cultural reasons made genetics kinda lose that edge...  Otherwise no reason wth happened.  South Asia still is worst sporting region on the planet along with SEA. 

 

Greek Travelers like Megasthenes did mention Indians were as Taller as Greeks/Persians...  That's the earliest account of a foreigner depicting Ancient Indians via their lens. 

Dilli dur ast. We will get there imo, but should try to enjoy the journey. Might be a cliche but still. 

[Vijy]

2 hours ago, Gollum said:

Sorry for digressing but our Paris Olympics chances look very bleak. I am not sure we can surpass our Tokyo haul, shooters have to do something for a change. Lots of bad news there including form issues, injuries.

 

And in hockey we have been placed in the tough group alongside Aus, Belgium, NZ, Argentina. Even if we do well, a QF clash against Germans or Dutch is inevitable, don't want to meet them so early. 

we may well get 2-3 medals and regress to pre-2010s level

[Vijy]

1 hour ago, Gollum said:

Our flaws, we must accept our shortcomings and work on them. 

lot of shortcomings, lot of promise - both are true

[deathmonger]

India's issue is poverty, not race.

 

A rising tide lifts all boats.

 

As India gets richer, there will be excellence in all fields.

 

 

[deathmonger]

2 hours ago, Gollum said:

Isolated regions like Haryana, Punjab, Manipur, Andhra (badminton) can't do it all alone. Other states must pull their weight. 

 

I say the same for even chess, we literally have zero GMs from 70% of our states.....best players from Punjab, Haryana, JK, Rajasthan etc. are weaker than thousands of schoolchildren from Chennai. I read recently about a 1900 becoming Rajasthan's state champ, trust me there are ICFers stronger than that player, and 7 year olds from traditional centres. 

 

Unless we expand beyond traditional zones, we can't match Russia in chess or even Iran/Kaz in Olympics. 

Even these regions took time.

 

Andhra only became a thing post Pullela. It will happen slowly.

[Gollum]

46 minutes ago, Vijy said:

we may well get 2-3 medals and regress to pre-2010s level

Remember 2016 Rio was a complete disaster and Sindhu, Sakshi saved face in the ending days of the games. For most of the games I actually thought we'd return with no medal. Awful feeling. 

 

If we don't better our Tokyo performance, I'll be gutted. Sindhu, Mirabai, Lovlina have injury issues, wrestlers I have no hope because of the controversy and groupism, delay in training camps......tough draw in hockey, law of averages for Neeraj, not much hope in other athletic events, non-stop choking in shooting.  Badminton men's doubles gives me hope and we know how fickle that competition is. 

 

Really nervous this time. 

[rollingstoned]

3 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Remember 2016 Rio was a complete disaster and Sindhu, Sakshi saved face in the ending days of the games. For most of the games I actually thought we'd return with no medal. Awful feeling. 

 

If we don't better our Tokyo performance, I'll be gutted. Sindhu, Mirabai, Lovlina have injury issues, wrestlers I have no hope because of the controversy and groupism, delay in training camps......tough draw in hockey, law of averages for Neeraj, not much hope in other athletic events, non-stop choking in shooting.  Badminton men's doubles gives me hope and we know how fickle that competition is. 

 

Really nervous this time. 

I can't beleive the women's hockey team didn't qualify for the Olympics this time. Feared this would happen as soon as they lost to China in the Asian games where they were not good enough. 

[Vijy]

2 hours ago, Gollum said:

Remember 2016 Rio was a complete disaster and Sindhu, Sakshi saved face in the ending days of the games. For most of the games I actually thought we'd return with no medal. Awful feeling. 

 

If we don't better our Tokyo performance, I'll be gutted. Sindhu, Mirabai, Lovlina have injury issues, wrestlers I have no hope because of the controversy and groupism, delay in training camps......tough draw in hockey, law of averages for Neeraj, not much hope in other athletic events, non-stop choking in shooting.  Badminton men's doubles gives me hope and we know how fickle that competition is. 

 

Really nervous this time. 

you are right to be nervous @Gollum. I, too, expect a meagre haul, and will be surprised if the opposite happens

[BlueBlood]

The issue is clearly focus on cricket and even in that sport despite all kinds of nonsense posts by stat padding worshippers India can't win a single cup.

 

Even in a game like Chess, the fitness and focus levels are meek due to malnutrition and lack of proper coaching system that focuses on thriving in stressful tournaments.

 

It's ingrained in the culture of better not to try than fail and look like a loser. This is why subcontinent has such poor Olympic hauls. 

 

So much nonsense about rich/poor... In China and even places like Eastern Europe, Africa etc. The poorest generally do really well in Olympics due to hunger.

 

Of all the cricket players, I have only seen Kohli show the commitment to peak fitness which allows him to not just have longevity at highest level but also stamina to perform when others are tired. 

 

The reason we lose Olympics is exactly the reason we lose world cups in cricket. Teams plan 4 years in advance on team composition and are not afraid to fail in bilaterals and other tournaments to find the winning combination and develop a cohesive team.

 

Look at England in 2019... the team was built over 4 years preparing for the world cup while India brought in has-beens and over-exposed Kuldeep and Chahal in order to stat pad bilateral tours and IPL. Had they been protected, they would have been lethal.

 

Even now this test series win is lauded as great achievement at home but had KL, Kohli, Iyer, Axar been featured, the results could have been the same. But there would have been zero transition to youngsters.

 

It's this brain dead level thinking that will keep sinking the team. You need to prepare your team for major tournaments and build a well rounded team through giving chances in bilateral. Instead we see idiots here giving applause to bilateral bashing through playing your best team and senior players all the time.

 

What's the point of still keeping Jadeja in ODI and T20? Or even Rohit, Kohli, KL, Iyer etc. They are never going to win you a T20 WC. But they are tagged along even in useless bilaterals where youngsters only get chance when someone is injured and expected to perform from day 1.

 

Look at Patidar, his career is over just because he failed in a couple of games. Yet, seniors get 20 games even if they fail.

[Suhaan]

15 hours ago, MediumPacer said:

we need some loses,at this rate icf will be dead.

All formats?we need to win some ICC or big series overseas to bring back some of the erstwhile great posters

miss @maniac @velu Anna,  @SK_IH 's

 

Edited March 10 by Suhaan

[Gollum]

2 hours ago, BlueBlood said:

Even in a game like Chess, the fitness and focus levels are meek due to malnutrition and lack of proper coaching system that focuses on thriving in stressful tournaments.

Really didn't understand this part. Rest of your post is fine, agree with many of those points. 

[Trichromatic]

2 hours ago, BlueBlood said:

So much nonsense about rich/poor... In China and even places like Eastern Europe, Africa etc. The poorest generally do really well in Olympics due to hunger.

 

India easily has over 1 crore population having over 170k USD. 

 

There are countries with lower wealth for top 1 cr population and doing well in sports.

 

Poverty is not the reason for India doing badly.

[BlueBlood]

9 hours ago, Gollum said:

Really didn't understand this part. Rest of your post is fine, agree with many of those points. 

Magnus Carlsen has mentioned many times and even people who have analyzed his game carefully that his secret to success is that he does lots of cardio workouts and meditation to be physically fit.

 

The benefit he gets is that in long tournaments where players have already played for several hours and multiple days, in the finals, where it really matters a lot of players lose focus and get jittery due to tiredness. This forces them to make mistakes and they lose.

 

Magnus is a legend at this where he never makes mistakes even in game 5 of a final even when it's blitz chess even when has has played for 4+ hours that day.

 

Players like Pragyananda although supremely talented, generally never end up becoming ATG in Chess for extended periods of time like Magnus for exactly this reason.

 

Look at Vishy Anand, someone who is supremely talented but under-achieved to his potential because of his lack of fitness both mentally and physically in long tournaments.

[putrevus]

9 hours ago, Trichromatic said:

 

India easily has over 1 crore population having over 170k USD. 

 

There are countries with lower wealth for top 1 cr population and doing well in sports.

 

Poverty is not the reason for India doing badly.

What do you think is the reason why India is not doing well then.

[Vijy]

26 minutes ago, BlueBlood said:

Magnus Carlsen has mentioned many times and even people who have analyzed his game carefully that his secret to success is that he does lots of cardio workouts and meditation to be physically fit.

 

The benefit he gets is that in long tournaments where players have already played for several hours and multiple days, in the finals, where it really matters a lot of players lose focus and get jittery due to tiredness. This forces them to make mistakes and they lose.

 

Magnus is a legend at this where he never makes mistakes even in game 5 of a final even when it's blitz chess even when has has played for 4+ hours that day.

 

Players like Pragyananda although supremely talented, generally never end up becoming ATG in Chess for extended periods of time like Magnus for exactly this reason.

 

Look at Vishy Anand, someone who is supremely talented but under-achieved to his potential because of his lack of fitness both mentally and physically in long tournaments.

wouldn't you call kasparov an ATG for a long period? he didn't do all that workouts and meditation. reason carlsen and kasparov are among the GOATs is because they are simply a cut above their competition. has little to do with malnutrition or workouts or meditation.

 

In 1980s, likes of Eng, Aus, even NZ had the same facilities and higher standard of living -- if not more -- than WI, yet there is no doubt that the latter was the ATG side, and one of the 2-3 GOAT sides.

 

I don't buy this argument. Obviously fitness and mental toughness are important in sports, but so is skill. And in skill-based sports (like cricket), that can and does become the dominant factor.

[vvvslaxman]

Only 2 teams can potentiall make this happen. Australia and England. England is now going back to old England. So only Australia can do this. They are also going through transition. There is no replacement for Warner or Smith. I think we can hold on to this for a few more series.