Some disconcerting food for thought

A recent incident from the NBA playoffs: In game 4 of the series between the San Antonio Spurs and the Phoenix Suns, Robert Horry, a minor role player with the Spurs committed a horrible foul on Steve Nash (the best player on the Suns and the league’s best player for the last two seasons), knocking him down in a heap. Angered by the cynical foul, two Suns on the bench; the league’s best centre - Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw took a few steps towards the fracas. The league banned both of them for trying to get involved (the NBA rule stipulates an automatic one match ban for bench players moving towards an altercation on the floor).

The Suns badly missed the presence of their two stars in the crucial fifth game of the seven game series (series tied at 2-2), losing at home to surrender the advantage to the Spurs, who hardly seemed to miss Horry ( who got a two game suspension for the foul), and clinched the series by winning game 6 in San Antonio. Even the Spurs’ coach acknowledged that the Suns were undone by the suspensions. Robert Horry’s foul was the smartest play of the series.

The incident raises the disturbing prospect of lesser player like Horry, increasingly trying to take out the best players in the opposition with their malicious acts. A hard foul can result in

• The player who is fouled, retaliating and getting suspended.
• The fouled player getting hurt and missing more than one game.
• Other opposition players reacting to the foul, as in this case and getting tossed.

In each case, the fouling player’s team gets an undeserved advantage, while the player gets a multi game suspension at worst – an absence which affects his team marginally. Reminds me of the LTTE and their human bombs. The game stands to suffer a great deal if such devious antics continue unabated.

Ironically, the problem stems from the ‘correctness’ of the rules, which don’t differentiate between the ‘star power’ of the players when handling out suspensions. In chess parlance, it’s an exchange where your pawn gets you the opposition Queen itself.

With due respect to Mahatma Gandhi, the victimized players cannot be encouraged not to retaliate and stand up to be fouled again. ‘Normal’ human beings react on being provoked.

This ‘tactic’ can be successfully put to use in all team sports, more so in the ones which allow for physical contact. Do we remember why David Beckham missed part of the 2002 World Cup? Well, thanks to a horror tackle from one Mr. Aldo Duscher, in the dying moments of a game, that was long decided. Funny thing, that Mr. Duscher happened to be from Argentina.

Most of us believe that our ‘Fair-play abiding’ coaches and players (in the Rest of the World minus the USA) will forever refrain from causing such contrived accidents, but just for the sake of every star player in team sports, I hope they aren’t watching the NBA play-offs.

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Michael Carrick - The second coming of David Beckham

I am a Man Utd lifer, and Tuesday night's annihilation of AS Roma (7-1) was footballing nirvana for people of my ilk. I am given to Bacchanalian celebration (I generally jump around, cheering loudly and pumping my fists and it takes a good 5 mins for me to sit down), every time I see them score, and the frequency of their scoring ensured that , I was on my feet all night.

Cristiano Ronaldo was the Man of the Match, but the man whose performance gladdened my heart the most was Michael Carrick. He scored two exquisite goals and orchestrated the offense brilliantly all night; his phenomenal passing finding the United runners in wide open spaces with unerring regularity.

Carrick has had a difficult first season with United. He was United's big money summer signing and expected to shore up their midfield, which was stripped bare after the exits of Beckham, Butt and Keane, and the injury troubles of Paul Scholes. While his cultured passing has impressed the critics, the apparent lack of goal scoring and tackling ability hasn't gone down well with the supporters, who, have been brought up on heady dose of Scholes, Keane and Beckham. The resurgence of Scholes and Giggs this season had further undermined his contribution and he was deemed to be an expensive surplus.

Carrick will never be a Keane or a Scholes, but his passing is reminiscent of David Beckham at his best. United's treble winning squad was built around the striking trio of Andy Cole, Teddy Sheringham and Dwight Yorke, who benefited hugely from the pin -point crossing of Beckham. As for Roy Keane, possible replacements are Owen Hargreaves of Bayern Munich or Marcos Senna of Villareal.

David Beckham had a penchant for coming up with crucial goals (mostly struck from distance, just like Carrick’s) and saving his best for the big games. Carrick's effort; two goals, with the first calming United’s jangling nerves, and the mid field leadership in the absence of the suspended Scholes, have finally established his goal scoring credentials and proclivity for the big stage. Carrick is a Geordie from the North-east and has chosen the Reds over his hometown team, just like Beckham ignored the London clubs to play for United.

Man Utd have recaptured past glories with a return to their speedy offensive game. They have been justified in selling a proven goal scorer like Ruud Van Nistelrooy, whose lack of pace forced them to slow down their offense. Carrick’s passing will push the pace further. Whether, he can match Beckham’s treble effort of 1999 remains to be seen.

The England manager, Steve Mclaren was in the crowd at Old Trafford. He is the man, who booted Beckham out of the national team. The merits of this move are debatable as the England football team continues to falter. One possible remedy; Field the ‘New Beckham’ more often.

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