Apocryphal Stories !!!

In the open era(till 2004) 5 Spaniards have won the French Open 6 times. Sergei Bruguera was the only man  who repeated the feat twice. From 2004 on, Rafael Nadal won the French Open 6 times in  7 attempts. No wonder he considers his game to be tailor made for the clay courts. Though he loved clay- which also explains his love for Monte Carlo- it was his dream to win Wimbledon For a person whose game is entirely based on the power that he generates from his strokes, it is natural to go for every match as though it’s his last. When he lost the 2007 Wimbledon final to Federer, he wept under the shower for close to half an hour. What does the man do? He goes back and trains even harder. His belief in training has been steadfast from childhood It was Toni Nadal, who made him revere him training with unconventional motivation. That Nadal had a no-nonsense approach towards winning helped Toni. When he saw the effort dipping, he would fire him up with more practice. Nadal remember...

Just when does a person call any match as the ‘greatest match of all time’? It has got to have what one would call an occasion, setting and a storied rivalry. Wimbledon final 2008 had all of this. It was the longest final at 4 hours and 48 minutes When one chooses to write on the final, you would half expect them to write a lot about the match, for the match was one such. But Weirtham treads off the beaten track here as he concentrates on the growth of Federer and Nadal in his description of each set and talks about the Wimbledon grass, general health of tennis and also how the games are broadcast from Wimbledon The game was one such where Federer found it tough to break Nadal’s serve and ended up conceding 6 games in every set to Nadal. Weirtham also concentrates on how Nadal’s game poses problems for Federer. He reveals in detail the way Nadal tormented the (weak) backhand of Federer A lot many people will brush away lot of facts from the book as unnecessary trivia, ...

If Lawrence Booth did not grow up loving cricket and writing about it, he would in all certainty been an expert tight-rope walker or a sharp-shooter. The deduction has been drawn from the sense of balance that he lends to the book ‘Cricket, Lovely cricket” He shifts seamlessly from being a romantic in the introduction to straight talking in the chapters that follow. He cleverly demarcates the things that run in an average fans mind into chapters Being as far away from the fan as he is from players, he is at a perfect position to explain the intricacies to both the parties. It’s as much a players handbook as it is of help to the fans Perhaps the best part of the book comes when he describes the discussion with Jeremy Snape and concludes that “ Instincts can be honed with regularised practice” Another chapter that holds your attention is the part where he is talking about the teams and how the reputation precedes them. For example, England is always pessimistic and self-deprecatory....

The basic difference between biography and autobiography is clear to many. The writing styles in the respective kinds will become more apparent when you read Mark Waugh’s biography and Steve Waugh’s autobiography The book begins as a chronological narration of events and ends with his retirement in the Sydney Test against India in 2004. Since the book is voluminous, Steve Waugh has taken care to intersperse it with some anecdotes, which ofcourse add to the book. A sampler of them would be Shane Warne sledging Robert Croft. When Croft hits Warne for a six and stands looking at the replay appreciating his own efforts, Warne is quick to take a jibe at him saying “ Hey Croftie! You can have a look at the replays again in a couple of minutes” and he bowls him The Childhood chapters aren’t given much pages except for talking about the ‘fibro’ background and talking about the competitive edge with Mark Waugh What takes a chunk of the book though is his Test debut, 1987 World Cup win, Strugg...

In the late 1980's, when Sportsworld and Sportstar ruled the roost, it was not uncommon to see a person's starposter appear at least once in two months and that person answered to the name- Imran Khan. One of the fabulous four all rounders that took part in the eighties, he was a superb bowler, measured batsman and an amazing captain. In 2009, a biography authored by Christopher Sandford made news as some excerpts had described his relationship with Benazir Bhutto I had my hands on this book a month ago and it was not surprising that I scanned for Benazir Bhutto in the index page and immediately belted to the pages containing her reference. Well considering the furore it created when the book released, there was nothing to satisfy temporal pleasures The book starts off on a propitious note and keeps the tempo for some time into the book. What makes the book interesting are the little anectodes that convey a lot about the person. First chapter dedicates itself to ...

Well as with any celebrity we are very intent on knowing what they undergo, how they have to come to be the Superstars that they are. Perhaps the stars also know it, as the narrative never drifts to describing in entirety any given situation. The same is the case with Serena Williams: My Life Queen of the court co-authored/authored by Daniel Paisner. What strikes you from the chapters about her childhood is the fact that, she will certainly come out with another book after her career ends Well coming to the book itself, Serena has a habit of maintaining a match/tournament journal. She starts every chapter with one of the match entries and the common thread through all of it is the SMS language. There are a lot of things that go against the prototype we have of her. The way she describes the struggles is almost pleasure-like and it certainly would have been tougher than that (maybe as said earlier, she has stored that away for another book). The chapters are almost arranged chronologic...