Engrish on the 2010 Asian Games web site

Sports as presented on the Asian Games Guangzhou 2010 portal:

Hockey
'The modern game of hockey started from England in 1800s. Players on the field must hold their stick and not use it in a dangerous way.'



Cricket

'It is commonly accepted that cricket originated from a very old leisure activity indulged by shepherds in British. The shepherds used crook and other farm equipments to hit a ball which used to be made up of wool or stone.'

<== Don't miss the umpire either - this was the best picture of a cricket game they could find.


Baseball
'Baseball derived from England cricket. |The catcher need to wear not only helmet and shin guards, but also the knee pads and equipped for throat protection. | If draws, then the match continue until one team wins.'

Tennis
'Tennis acted as a medal sport in 1958 the 3rd Tokyo Asian Games. Except in some men's singles, all the other matches are played three sets (the one wins two sets wins the match), while some men's singles played five sets (the one wins three sets win the match); A player/team needs to win two consecutive points immediately after "Deuce" to win the "Game". During a tie-break game, points are scored "Zero","1", "2", "3", etc'

And ...'Billiard Sports have a family of games that is played on a table, with a cue stick.'
_____
GZ 2010 games chief web content editor in charge of putting China's best foot forward: 'Yep, that sounds about right. Go live.'

Who cares, I guess, when China's going to be a hundred medals ahead of every one else, like every time...

IPL III's Happy Ending

In the end MI fizzled, and badly. For the rest of India it probably felt great, likely felt very satisfying. Many were fed up of the hoopla around just one team.

The past six weeks:
For the entire duration of IPL-III it seemed like everything was about MI and SRT. The fawning coverage of MI, the applause for their 'feats', the SRT (‘captain that led from the front’) inspiration was excessive and inordinate. Commentators like SMG, RS, and HB went overboard in their praise for MI and as usual for SRT. They talked like it was a foregone conclusion that MI would win the IPL this year.

MI always was behind other teams on # of games played in the league stage, so they had one to catch up on points with if needed. Not only that, MI got a couple extra games at home in addition to the semifinal (shifted in a trice from BLR) and the final. So we had that much more of that irritating siren sound when they played at home. (How was this allowed in the final and semifinal?)

LM seemed to schmooze more with the Ambanis than with anyone else. MI fans were interviewed on the street all the time. Clueless Bombay celebrities, and housewives branded themselves MI fans, and were asked about the club's strategy, and tough game outcome questions ('who do you think will win today?')

The past week: 
With so much hype on the MI story, other teams were made into fringe outfits. In the run-up to the final, the weekend talk shows were all about MI's exploits and SRT's greatness. (It almost felt like the final and assured win was timed with his birthday celebration week).The opponent in the final was hardly mentioned in these discussions. Funny how it was SMG, HB, and Manjrekar on IBN's (repeatedly shown) 'Who will win the IPL' show. Very neutral, folks.

Yesterday:
And so we had a final where MI were routed, thrashed, hammered like it was payback for all of this.

To summarize, it was a game where:
• MI were hit around the park for 100 runs in the last 8 overs.
• they just could not handle it - literally - by dropping major catches.
• they were 1-1 after a maiden over start, and where the MI captain did not walk when he was clearly caught behind. Different rules? The opposition actually smiled as if they knew.(SMG, RS, and co kept verrry silent, just like they did when RD was 'caught' in the semis by the same captain)
• an (overrated and arrogant) offspinner was sent in to bat ahead of MI's proven big hitter. For what?
• an MI batsman who was actually scoring runs was made to sacrifice his wicket by the (newly arrogant)big hitter mentioned above (who got out right after)
• the stadium went silent and near empty by the last over. So much for a sporting attitude - you'd think MI was playing Pak. For a local audience that could not imagine or handle any other result than an MI win - this was just too much.
• the rest of us rejoiced; it was good to see this team eat pie.

--Note: consistent with the coverage,  no other team's name is mentioned here--