Likely impact of Covid-19 on future sporting year

A month or more of staying inside our homes with many limitations around, No sporting actions to follow, no live scores to check , no adrenaline surge in anticipation of much awaited matches, No midnight Football games, no topic to fight with friends like sports experts.

Its been a world without any sports and with strict lockdowns in almost all the countries its hard time for a sportsperson .They are not used to being indoors, deprived from training and no competitions to focus on. Dealing with long term impact of Covid-19 is even a bigger challenge.

The Vaccination or cure of this virus has some time from now but many federations are discussing about resuming the sporting season in couple of months from now. So, let’s take a look at what challenges this sports will face.I believe different sports will face different consequences.

·       Individual sports such as golf , shooting and athletics will have the least impact while sports like Gymnastics need to follow precautions as the same apparatus are touched by the Gymnast and they should sanitize before and after that routine. Whether the Grip of gymnast will be affected during the routine is yet to be known.

• ·       Team sports such as cricket and football have more threat because a team cannot play without practicing together. A group of 15s and 20s is dangerous so practice needs to start with a group of 3.
  

Indian Pacer Bhuvanshwar Kumar said that fast bowlers will fear to use saliva to shine the bowl which is necessary to swing the bowl.

Regarding Basketball which is highly physical sports is unlikely to began anytime soon as USA is the worst hit country by this pandemic, while  many football federations such as Spanish league and English league are thinking of resuming the season in month of June behind close doors.

·       But what if you are a wrestler or a boxer where the physical contact is unavoidable. Wrestlers even need spare partners to train with and so these sports will be the last to resume.

Talking about international star sportsperson they are fearful and unsure about the near future. Star Spaniard Rafa nadal says he is pessimist about him returning to competitions since the players need to constantly travel, stay in different hotels. Even if the matches are played behind closed doors you need lots of people involved organizing such tournaments.

So right now all we can do is wait and watch regarding resumption of our favorite sports  and hope this dark clouds raised due to the Pandemic go away soon and we Sports lovers can once again experience the thrilling encounters and enjoy the game.

                                                                  RUGVED JOSHI

Conflict Between Japan and international Olympic committee over who pays for postponement

An Open  Conflict broke out between the Tokyo Olympics organizers and IOC over who will pay for the year long postponement. Media reports in japan have estimated that the postponement of Olympics will cost Japan 2 billion dollars to 6 billion dollars. Although neither side has given a official number the cost is going to be massive.

Context -

Tokyo Committee's spokesperson said that organizing committee has asked the IOC to remove a comment stating that Prime Minister of Japan will shoulder most of the postponement costs. He said it's not appropriate for Prime Minister's name to be quoted in this manner. Abe's Spokesperson said that there is no such agreement related to additional cost originated  from the postponement.


Conclusion -

 Despite the conflict there is not much to debate about who will pay , It has to be the Japanese side,Also they have stronger resources and a strong 5 trillion dollar GDP but its a sensitive matter particularly for the Abe Government during an economic downtown due to the ongoing Pandemic.
Japan is officially spending 12.6 billion dollars to organize the Olympics, but Government Audit report says it's at least twice that much.And the worst part is it's all Japanese public money except for 5.6 billion dollars which came from a privately funded organizing committee budget.


Lastly under the terms of host city Contract the Japanese committee and local organizers are obligated to pay most of the costs of the Tokyo Games. But we have to accept the fact that it is really harsh on the Japanese Government who on one hand have to fight against this ongoing Covid- 19 Pandemic and on the other hand cover for the losses due to postponement of Olympic Games.  

                                                                                    Rugved Joshi

Traditional Styles of Major Footballing Nations

 Watching football is my hobby and I love analyzing the style of play, formations, and strategies of teams. I noticed that each team has its own way to play football. Since, the first world cup in Uruguay, football has evolved but somehow the core idea of a particular team has been nearly similar.

So let’s take a look of footballing styles of some famous footballing nations.

1.    Germany, Spain , Netherlands , France , Belgium- This are the core European playing teams who have somewhat similar style of playing football. These teams rely on their strong creative midfield. Generally passing is short but defenders tend to supply long balls skipping the midfield to the strikers. Strikers are particularly great headers of the ball since the fullbacks are offensive minded and to provide crosses into the box. France is more of a defensive minded team and the defensive midfielder has a huge role to play. But, the rest of these teams love to keep possession of ball. They improvise but never brake the formation.

  

Suitable formation – 4:1:2:3

 2.    Italy, Uruguay – very different to the core European style, usually rock solid in defence and hard to break, physically strong but less creative midfielders and strong and agile strikers. These teams rely on counter attacks and set pieces for scoring.  No improvising but solid formation and keep there forms.

Suitable formation- 4:5:1 / 4:4:2

3.   Argentina, Colombia, Chile – 

Almost try to Copy the core European style but with a slight change. These Latin 
American teams play with an extra Attacking minded midfielder who is allowed to roam around the pitch without restriction. ( For Ex. Maradona for Argentina, James Rodriguez for Colombia). This player plays an important role in connecting the midfield with attackers. 

There style helps them against South American  teams /asian teams but they struggle against European teams due to lack of depth and quality.

Suitable formation – 4:2:1:3

4.     Brazil – They have a complete different view of playing football. It’s about individual brilliances and showcasing there flair enjoying the game. They see football not as a profession but an emotion. They struggle against counter attacking team and are prone against set pieces.  There style is attractive for fans but no major world title since 2002 tells us that they have to bring some kind of discipline to their game.

Suitable formation – 4:3:2:1

Conclusion –

 After brazil winning 2002 world cup,  European teams have won every edition since then this evidently suggest that the professionalism and discipline shown by those European team are clearly giving an advantage to them over South American teams. But teams like brazil, cannot lose their flair completely and need to find a perfect balance to dominate the world football again.

                                                 

                             Rugved Joshi