Sports Gully: The Birth

I have always wanted to write regularly on one of my passions - sports. However, for various reasons I would often get started, but run out of steam to finish. So, as I was lazing around this Saturday watching soccer, EUREKA happened. I decided to start...hold your breaths...MY OWN WEEKLY SPORTS COLUMN!!! Apologies for the anticlimax if I got carried away, sports usually does that to me.

Now that I knew what was on my plate, the next question was what do I write week in and week out? This I didn't have to think twice. I am a regular reader of Peter King Jr.'s Monday Morning Quarterback - MMQB (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/writers/peter_king/archive/index.html) on Sports Illustrated, which is a part of CNN. I really like this column for various reasons. I just like the various sub-sections, the flow and the content. Therefore, I am going be shameless and try to adopt the MMQB format. Mr. King Jr.'s column targets American Football while I am going to target sports in general (gives me more opportunity and space to ramble).

With the content and the potential murky format in place, now the million dollar question was what title should I give my column? My brains got kickstarted and it went through this kaleidoscope of possible names. Let me name a few of the weirder ones for your amusement - "Weekend Wicketkeeping", "Weekend Goaltending", "Street-smart Cricketer" and "Street Sports". Then was some some sanity and these names popped out of my head: "Powerplay", "Touchdown", "Slamdunk", "Touchdown Corner", "Sports Corner" and finally "Sports Gully". Since, I couldn't think of anymore and save myself from further embarrassment, I decided to stick to Sports Gully. A friend even gave me a professional nod of approval for it.

And just like that...SPORTS GULLY, my weekly sports column is born.

Lets get to some Sports now!

Here are my FIFA World Cup 2006 predictions:

Quarterfinals:

1) Germany vs. Argentina
Argentina wins in regular period

2) England vs. Holland
An upset special: Holland in overtime

3) Italy vs. France
France in a penalty shootout

4) Brazil vs. Spain
Upset of the World Cup: Spain in regular period

Semi-Finals:

1) Argentina vs. Holland
A repeat of Group C, Argentina wins in overtime

2) Spain vs. France
The neighborhood tussle! Spain in regular period

Finals:

Argentina vs. Spain
Argentina in regular time for their 3rd FIFA World Cup.

Surprise of the FIFA World Cup I round:

1) Ecuador - For their first ever 2nd round appearance

2) Ghana - Making it to the 2nd round on their maiden appearance to eventually lose to Brazil.

Things I Think!

1) Carolina Hurricanes lift the Stanley Cup by beating the Edmonton Oilers in game 7 of the best of 7 series. (Ice Hockey)

2) Miami Heat beat Dallas Mavericks in 7 games for their first ever NBA ring. (Basketball)

3) India is going to have a dismal run in the Azlan Shah tournament in Malaysia. (Hockey)

4) Well have I written anything about cricket yet? Don't think Harbhajan Singh will play in the 3rd test either. It has more to do with Greg Chappell's theory of having 3 fast bowlers.

5) I still can't get over the fact that Ajit Agarkar isn't there in the test squad after being the only Indian bowler to impress in the one-day series.

Quote of the week:

"Before the Paraguay game we'll all shake hands. At Madrid we all kiss each other before we go out. Against Jamaica, Aaron Lennon was waiting to replace me and as I approached I reached forward to kiss him, but then thought 'no, better not'."
David Beckham on the difference between English and Spanish customs.