Sunday, July 02, 2006

A tale of two baldies!

One baldie bowed out on grass yesterday, arguably the best player of his generation and the only player in four decades to win all four premier tournaments. A player whose children (with the best player the woman's game has ever seen) if they get the right genes can potentially whack the living daylights out of anybody once they grow up (and out of the Zappa inspired names). I remember watching the 1992 Wimbledon Final as a impressionable young kid, and I was amazed at how this long-haired impressario played.
Yesterday when Agassi lost to someone I believe is the future of tennis, and possibly the only player out there who can challenge 'FedEx' I flet Wimbledon was letting go of some history and felt a little twang in the heart. Or maybe that was the chicken curry I had for lunch. Who knows!
But yesterday wasn't about tennis was it. It also wasn't about India's best test bowling performance in a test after a long time, not that our batsmen backed it up with anything special. Yesterday was about another baldie , OK, so the Anglo-Saxon media empire would want us to believe that yesterday was all about a red card and attrociously taken penalties.
Kolkata, a city where people claim to know football, yet somehow elect Priya Ranjan Das Munshi back to the Lok Sabha time after time, which makes me suspect this claim of 'knowledge' - PRDM is possibly single-handedly responsible for driving the Indian game into the gutter. Explain why a billion people can't put together a decent team? If it wasn't for Anand Mahindra and Vijay Mallya putting a bit of money into the game, god knows how much worse the game would be. But as long as FIFA gives PRDM free tickets to the final, where he can take his murder accused friends and Congress colleagues, who cares?
Oh yeah, did I mention that PRDM wants to shackle the TV media in a vice like grip so that they can't say anything against the exalted leader? (Thanks to the ToI's brillinat internet team, the article can't be found - but please do read the ToI)
However, back to the point, yesterday was all about another baldie - a man who managed to push his aging legs to the limit. A man who after 54 games finally found the games greatest striker. Did I mention I'm an Arsenal fan, so I do love TH. But yesterday was all about Zizou - the man and the player and elevated France to the top of the pile, again! This after their woeful performance against Switzerland and South Korea (even though the Koreans did get lucky with refereeing decisions, as usual). This maybe his swansong tournament, but Zidane is going to play (almost) the full complement of games (he missed the Togo game when TH and Viera came to the fore). Who would have thunk it? The French, the sputtering, misfiring French and not the Anglais or the plasticated Brazilians. If France win this World Cup, Zidane should quit and stand for President of France, I'm pretty much confident that he will win.
So 32 began and now four are left, who is your money on now folks?
On another note, tonight is the serpentine wedding, unfortunately Snakeman will not give us daaru tonight, so I'm pretty bummed out but that isn't an excuse not to attend. But to Snakeman and Choti - here is to a great life!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was thinking of doing an Agassi-Zizou post as well. Interesting day for bald oldies - another one scored 152 off 99 balls in an ODI.

Anonymous said...

well, after brazil's gone, it pretty seems an open turf. methinks, it'll b a germany v/s france final, but u neva kno

Anonymous said...

Go Zizou!! I watched the whole match yesterday and Zizou's performance was incredible. He's like a monk when he plays, so calm and reflective and yet such elegance with the ball.

France totally deserved their win, just as England totally deserved their loss. Rooney is a thug and I do hope they haul his ass up for the despicable way in which he behaved on the field.

As for favourite team, I'd root for Zizou, but seriously the way Italy has advanced in the tournament is nothing short of a miracle. Who knows what they might pull off.

Anonymous said...

i had thunk it!!have been rooting for les blues and zizou since day one - which meant i was jumping for joy a good 40 minutes after the match..=P

i think the media wrote zizou off way too early...he proved again what a class player he is...and compared to Ronaldinho's non performance he looked like a young spring chicken - it was the Zizou of old..
fingers crossed they reach the finals!!
Allez Zizou!!!

Anonymous said...

I have won a bottle of Vat69 plus a grand in cash for going with Germany ( Argentina ) and France ( Brazil ). The way I see it it will be a Germany versus France final with Germany taking it.

Anonymous said...

Go Bikash Dhusoo, who is apparently a Frenchman of Bengali descent via Guyana. Way to go.

Anonymous said...

If France win this World Cup, Zidane should quit and stand for President of France

Now that would be a fitting reply to Le Pen's crap about the French not identifying with the team as the team has "too many players of color". I briefly regretted the semi-final lineup looking like a Euro 2006. But then I realized that the French team - with some of their top players being born in Cameroon, Senegal, Congo and French Guiana and others being of Indian, Martiniquois, Guadeloupian and Beninese descents - is a mini-UN.

Anonymous said...

Les bleus are in the final =) !!!
and Le Pen is the biggest shit head possible...hes perpetually spewing venom and has passed nonsensical comments about Zidane often before...
France should win - allez Zizou!!

Anonymous said...

Do you think there's something stinky about Lay's death, considering he was about to be sentenced to a term of as many as 45 years imprisonment? He might have been on the verge of opening his mouth. Yeah, okay so I'm a conspiracy theorist, but you gotta admit there could be something in it.