Burmese Ginger Salad ( Thoke)… A Recipe

Burmese Ginger Salad (Thoke)
 
We first ate this salad at Mandalay, a Burmese restaurant in Washington D.C where our nephew Aditya took us to celebrate his graduation. It was an instant favorite with us and we’ve since tried it at home with great success.

2 cups very finely chopped cabbage
2 carrots , peeled , shredded
2 scallions , trimmed , chopped
2 green chillies , finely chopped
1 firm plum tomato, chopped
2/3  cup peeled chopped  young ginger
4 Tbsp. roasted peanuts, divided
2 Tbsp. dried shrimp, crumbled
3. Tbsp fried garlic slices
3. Tbsp. sesame seeds, toasted
3  tsps. yellow split pea flour ( besan ) , toasted ( See notes)
Burmese dressing ( see notes)
Cilantro, chopped , for garnish
Assemble these ingredients in mounds in a large plate as you prepare them ; cabbage, carrots, scallions, green chillies, tomato and ginger . Coarsely chop 1/2 the peanuts , leave the others whole. Sprinkle with the whole peanuts , the chopped peanuts , fried garlic , dried shrimp and sesame seeds. Place a small bowl of the Burmese Dressing in the center of the composed salad. Just before serving , mix all the ingredients and the dressing together, top with the toasted gram flour and serve, garnished with just a little cilantro.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Serves 4.
  Thoke is the Burmese term for salad. There are two other salads at Mandalay which we also love . One is the Fermented Tea Leaf Salad and the other a Gram Fritter Salad. They are all very similar and contain the same ingredients and dressing except that in the other two, the amount of ginger is reduced and substituted for with the main ingredient ( Tea Leaves or Gram Fritter as the case may be ). I am not quite sure which tea leaves to use ; all I know is that they are green tea leaves. As for the the Gram flour fritters they are very crisp fritters , somewhat like falafel , which are crumbled into the salad just before serving. 
 
 
Notes:
 
1. The Burmese dressing consists of peanut oil, fish sauce and lemon juice. I make it differently with a mixture of peanut oil, fish sauce, rice vinegar, sugar and a dash of chopped fresh red chillies ( available bottled in Asian stores). Make a little extra and store in the refrigerator. The proportion I use is roughly this : 4 Tbsp . peanut oil, 3 Tbsp. fish sauce, 1 Tbsp. sugar, 3/4 tsp red chillies.
 
2. The cabbage should be very finely chopped , the rest of the ingredients to match.
 
3. Instead of the gram flour, I use fine sev. This has two advantages. It cuts down on the preparation and it remains crisp.

SuperBowl XLIV : Much Different than Expected

First of all, Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints on a well deserved victory. They proved all the pundits wrong , myself included, and there was no doubt about their superiority . It was a strange game , much different than expected , and I’m not talking just about the result. I , and most others, had thought it would be a high scoring affair decided in the final seconds , or even in OT. It wasn’t. The final score 31-17 might not reflect it but it was a  tight defensive battle most of the way. The ‘texture’ of the game was also a big surprise. Consider this :

1. It was thought that usually slow starting Colts would come from behind to nip the Saints . Instead , it was the Colts who jumped out to a 10-0 lead before the Saints clawed back to win it.

2.Peyton Manning was expected to be the difference in the game. He was , but not in the way it was thought , giving up the final TD on an interception return. It was Brees who won the battle of the QB’s, statistically and in every other way as Manning was kept in check by the Saints defense.

3. Who would have thought that the Saint defense could do what the Jets and the Ravens had been unable to do ?

4. Who would have thought that Garret Hartley would win the battle of the kickers as Matt Stover missed a key FG attempt and Hartley converted on  his three chances ,all from long range ?

Many people will point to the onside kick that the Saints executed perfectly as the turning point in the game . It enabled the Saints to keep Manning off the field and  score the go-ahead TD. It may very well have been but , even earlier , I had the feeling that the tide was turning. The Colts were leading 10-3 at one point but the manner in which Brees was moving the Saints up and down the field gave me a bad feeling for the Colts chances.

When the Saints were losing games towards the end of the season and struggling to beat teams like the Redskins, I wondered if they had hit a wall. Today they were perfect in all departments as they played up to the high standards they set in the early part of the season. Brees was sensational, the WRs caught almost everything thrown their way, the defense was persevering and the coach deserves high marks for his daring playcalling , particularly the onside kick. Way to go , Saints . Congratulations once again.

Cricket : Should the Captain be Allowed to take a Break ?

Andrew Strauss, the captain of the English cricket team seems to have started a controversy by making himself unavailable for the Bangladesh tour. Just back from a tough tour of South Africa , Strauss decided that he needed a break to re-charge his batteries . The Bangladesh tour is immediately followed by the World Twenty20 tournament which ends in mid-May. Since Strauss is not a member of the Twenty20 team, in effect he will be having more than  three months off before returning to face  Bangladesh at home. No doubt he plans to  spend the time at home in London with his wife and two young children ,both below 5 years of age.He has not had much time with them  since he assumed the captaincy last January. Over that period , he has played 16 Tests with tours of the Caribbean,(once),  and South Africa ,(twice  because of the Champions trophy).  Altogether, that amounts to 122 days playing cricket for England and Middlessex besides travelling over 40,000 miles by plane and additional time spent on fulfilling media and sponsorship obligations.

The English Cricket Board has acquiesed with his plans because they want him to be fresh and fit for the gruelling year ahead :  six Tests and ten one-day internationals in the summer, followed by an Ashes tour that starts in November and then a World Cup in India in February 2011.  Geoff Miller, the national selector, is quoted as saying : “It is important that he takes a break ahead of an extremely busy programme. Captaincy is a mental battle and we want Strauss to come back refreshed for the summer.”

Alastair Cook will captain the English team in Bangladesh.

The decision has not gone over well with former players and most members of the British public. Strauss has been criticised by  every English ex- captain , except Michael Vaughan. The consensus is that it is an honor to lead your country and that you cannot pick and choose when you want to play. They feel that it is a job, a very important one that carries it’s own obligations. They also feel that allowing Strauss to opt out sets a very bad precedent and that , in future, players might try to avoid going on tours to the less desirable places, like the Indian sub-continent. Also , what happens if the substitute captain does a great job ? Is it fair to take  the captaincyaway  from him and hand it back to his predecessor ?

Mike Atherton, in a column in the Times of London, harks back to  2001 when Alec Stewart and Darren Gough, two of the more senior members of the English team asked to be allowed to sit out the tour to India but wanted to be selected for the tour of New Zealand which was to follow immediately after. It seemed a reasonable request particularly in the case of Stewart who had not missed a tour since he joined the team in 1989. However, everyone knew that the two players’ objective was to give the ‘hard’ tour a miss while participating in the more enjoyable one.

Faced with a difficult situation and not wanting to set a dangerous precedent, Duncan Fletcher , the England coach, came up with an innovative solution. He told them that they could sit out either the Tests or the ODI’s on both tours but that they would not be allowed to sit out either tour in its entirety. As a result, Darren Gough played only in the ODIs in both countries while Alec Stewart lost his place in the team. To quote Atherton , “An important principle had been laid down: no matter how big the name, picking and choosing tours was not acceptable. And England competed well in the Tests in India without Gough and Stewart, showing that no one is indispensable.”

 Andrew Strauss is not the first captain to want a respite. Ricky Ponting , who leads the  Australian team , has been in the habit of taking a summer break  for the past several years . He was roundly criticised by Steve Waugh, his immediate predecessor, but has continued this practice undeterred.India’s captain, M.S. Dhoni, sat out a Test series in Sri Lanka a couple of years ago and was excoriated by the Indian press and public , some of whom labeled his action   ” unpatriotic”.

I think this is a lot of baloney.

I have great respect for Atherton, Nasser Hussain, Steve Waugh and the other former skippers but I wonder about their motives. Do they feel as they do because ” I did it without any breaks and you should too.” ?

The game of cricket has changed a lot even during the past decade because of the emergence of Twenty20 cricket and the IPL. The cricket calendar was already full but now it has become brutal. Twenty20 cricket imposes great burdens on the players , particularly on the captain. The games may be short but they are long on tension.When every ball is crucial, when victory and defeat are in the balance from minute to minute, when rapid fire decisions have to be made constantly it is nerve wracking for the captain. Dhoni once said that a three hour Twenty20 game was more exhausting than an ODI and almost as exhausting as a five day Test match. If bowlers , particularly fast bowlers , should be rested so that they don’t break down physically, shouldn’t captains be rested occasionally so as to keep them fresh ? Isn’t that even more true for wicketkeeper-captains who have the arduous task of keeping wickets in addition to the cares of captaincy?

The homily about ” the honor of playing for your country” is less true than it used to be . Certainly it is an honor but big time cricket today is a moneymaking proposition in which the cricket boards rake in the moolah, a lot of it . Consequently, there are few breaks during the year as the cricket boards try to schedule more and more matches. Board members , particularly in the sub-continent, are politicaians or other shady moneygrubbing types who have never played cricket and whose only interest is the bottom line. They have no idea nor do they care about the toll that non-stop cricket takes on a cricketeer’s body.Cricketeers today are , first  and foremost salaried employees who are playing , often away from home , for most of the year. Don’t they have a right to some time off for their personal lives ?

The ideal solution would be to rotate players and that includes the captain. Against the lesser cricketing nations ,and /or in dead rubbers, full use could be made of the bench players and the team could be led by the vice -captain. This would be beneficial for players who are in limbo because an icon such as Tendulkar or Dravid has been  occupying a spot on the team for 12, 15 or even 20 years. By giving the vice-captain a chance to lead the team , the selectors would be able to judge whether he has any leadership abilities while , at the same time giving the Vice -captain a chance to pick up valuable experience. Australia are the one team that employ such a policy and we can see the  benefits . They have been able to ‘blood ‘a number of promising newcomers while still remaining at or close to the top of the standings. I would love to see the BCCI rest Dhoni as often as possible because I think the demands on him – as captain, wicketkeeper and batsman- are too much.

To get back to Andrew Strauss however, I think he is asking for too much. Even if he were to go on the the three week Bangladesh tour , he’d be able to enjoy five weeks off before and seven weeks off afterthe tour since he is not part of  England’s  Twenty20 team. Surely that should be enough.

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How Much Snow is Too Much ?

The blizzard which pummeled the Eastern seaboard was kind to us . We only got about three inches of snow and it was the light powdery kind which is easier to shovel. Washington D.C , 200  miles south of us, was blanketed with 2 feet of snow  and Philadelphia, only 90 miles south of us , got about a foot.  Yessir,three inches of snow means that we escaped very lightly.

Edison  N.J. has had it’s share of snow in the past. Three ( or was it four ? ) years ago, we had a series of snow storms , each following closely on the heels of the last. They were all in the 8″ to 14″ category , midsize rather than huge, but they occurred in rapid succession . We had barely cleared off the snow from one storm when the next would hit  . After the fourth such occurrence, the general reaction was ” Oh, no !! Not again !!”  We got a taste of what it must be like to live in Boston or Buffalo except that the people there, unlike us , are inured to it. I wonder what it must be like to actually  live in one of those places or in Maine or Minnesota where 120 inches of snow in the course of a winter is common.

The worst snowstorm in my experience was the one that hit us on  New Year’s Day, 2001. We had been on vacation in the Dominican Republic and had come to know of the storm from the TV news reports. Lying on the beach at Punta Cana , our thoughts were of what awaited us when we got back.  When one is  in a tropical paradise , the prospect of returning to 16 inches of snow is very off-putting.  Consequently, the last couple of days in Punta Cana we were not able to enjoy ourselves completely; the TV was always tuned to the news channels and their “Winter Storm Warning”.  We got home late on a Sunday  night to find about 14 inches of snow on the ground . Since my brother-in-law and his wife were leaving for L.A early the next morning we couldn’t rest up but had to immediately get to work cleaning up the driveway. By the time we were done at 1 o’clock in the morning , we were ready for another vacation.

I used to dread snow much more when I was still working. If the snow fell on the weekend , no problem. There was no pressure about removing it and one could do it at leisure. The problem when it snowed  during the week. There was no time to remove it in the morning before setting off to work and in the evening I was too tired.What was even worse that if  I put off removing the snow it hardened into ice and became both slippery and harder to remove. Now that I’ve retired, snow removal is less of a problem. I don’t have to do it immediately but stretch it out over the course of the day.

So, how much snow is too much ?

I guess it  depends on a number of factors: the length of the  driveway, whether the  house is on a corner lot and the nature of the snow.( Is it the wet heavy snow or the light powdery type ? ). In my case, our drive way is the normal size ,  double width and about two car lengths long. However our house is on a corner lot which means Ialso  have to shovel the side-walk that wraps around our plot. If the snow is a light powder, 4 inches is the maximum I can handle without complaint. If it is the wet heavy type, three inches is the outside of enough. Any more and I call the snow removal service even if it means having to shell out sixty to eighty bucks.

P.S . As I was shoveling the snow this morning, I thought for a moment about what it would be like to live in a place where it was warm all the year round  and the only snow I saw was on the TV screen. Then I looked up at the snow laden branches of the trees , the icicles hanging off the eaves and took a deep breath of the cold wintry air. No, I thought to myself I’m fine where I am ; I wouldn’t want to be any place else.

Ten years from now it may be a different story.

Not-so-Special Special Effects

There is an old fable about the time the the movies first came to the remote village of Macondo. The villagers had never seen a movie and they were enthralled by the happenings onscreen. They were totally absorbed in the story and identified completely with the characters they saw on the screen. However, when another movie was screened the following weekend , it met with a quite different reaction. One of the actors whose death they had wept over the previous week was now seen to be alive and well though in  a different role . They realized they had been hoodwinked into believing that what they were seeing had really happened   and they vented their anger with boos and hisses.

Special effects evoke in me some of that same reaction though for different reasons. Once special effects were things to marvel at; now they threaten  to take over the whole story and often do. In earlier times, they would evoke an awed reaction ” Wow !!  How did they do that ? ” . Today the special effects in ” Star Wars ” may seem cheesy but I remember how I was blown away by them when the movie first came out more than 30 years ago. ” Avatar” proked a similar reaction because the special effects were far and beyond anything we’d seen before. In both cases, the films were fantasies set in the future and the special effects were not out of place even though they were overwhelming. In too many cases, however, the special effects become the filmto the exclusion of all else.

The same week we saw ” Avatar” we also saw the latest ” Sherlock Holmes ” with Robert Downey Jr. as the Great Detective. What a waste of a fine actor. Conan Doyle created Holmes as a cerebral detective , a pipe smoking sleuth who reasoned out  mysteries while puffing on his meerschaum pipe. In Downey’s version, Holmes is a meddling busybody, an accomplished swordsman and brawler . This transformation enables the director to bring in several fights and chases , all the better to showcase the  special effects. The grand finale is a fight to the death on the scaffolding of  London’s Tower Bridge , still under construction at the time .The special effects were awesome but, even as I appreciated them , I found myself irritated at the manner in which they had taken over the story. The fast pace of the movie had me absorbed as I was  watching it unfold but , at the end, there was a sense of dissatisfaction .

In some genres, special effects are welcome  as , for instance , in science fiction  and other fantasies or in comic book  adaptations such as “Iron Man”, ” SpiderMan”, “Batman” or “Superman”. Even there, they are sometimes piled on so much that the storyline all but disappears ; ” GI Joe” is a good example. The “Pirates of the Carribbean ” films( espescially the third one )  are another. What is missing is the human element, the interplay of emotions between the various actors in the drama. Movies like ” Grand Torino”  or ” A Beautiful Mind “ are memorable because of the  depth of  their characters and the emotions they arouse in us. We identify with them , we are them. They take us  beyond ourselves and isn’t that the ultimate purpose of a film ?

This is not to say that special effects are all bad ; only that there is a time and a place for them. They are successful when they are used judiciously, to enhance the story, not take it over completely. To paraphrase George Orwell, in the case of special effects , less is more.

Super Bowl XLIV : Should be a High Scoring Thriller

The two weeks between the Conference Championships and the SuperBowl are a time for football overload. There are so many newspaper articles, so many opinions and interviews on TV and on-line that most of us want to shout ” Enough already ! Let the Game begin !!” This year , for once, I’ll be fresh for the game , not jaded. I stopped subscribing to newspapers almost 8 months ago and I’ve made it a point not to watch the sports news on TV. Even on Super Bowl Sunday, I plan to begin watching just half an hour before the game starts ; that way I won’t be suffering from pigskin boredom even  before the teams trot onto the field.

It should be an exciting game . Both teams are offensive powerhouses and there should be plenty of points put on the scoreboard. I’m not one of those purists who loves a low scoring defensive struggle . Certainly I want the game to be close but I prefer a 30 -27 barnburner to a 6-3 slugfest. By all indications we are in for  the former. Peyton Manning and Drew Brees are the two most potent QB’s in all of pro football and both of them have a corps of fleet WR’s who can catch the ball. We know that they are both going to put a lot of points on the board; the question is who is going to put up more. 

On offense, neither running attack is likely to be very effective . Joseph Addai & Donald Brown ( Colts ) and Lynell Hamilton ( Saints) are decent RB’s. The one gamebreaker of the lot is Reggie Bush but I don’t think he will be able to replicate his performance against the Cardinals. The Colt run defense was impressive against the Jets and the Ravens and I expect they will be able to contain Reggie Bush also. Of the passing attacks, the one question mark I have  is the Indy pass rush which depends so much on the relentless Dwight Freeney. I don’t think Freeney will miss the game but if he is hampered by his ankle injury, Brees could have a field day. The Conference Championship game was the only time I’ve seen Brees pressured. At other times ,  he has been  cool and clinical in picking apart the opposing pass defense. He was extremely impressive against Arizona in the Division Championship game when the Cards scored on the first play of the game only to have the Saints score the next 21 points en route to a 45-14 shellacking. The Colt defense will have to contain him early so that Manning doesn’t begin in too deep a hole. I think they can, providing a healthy Freeney is able to help the undersized Colt defensive line mount a credible pass rush. The Colt CB’s are not household names but they are pretty good. They will have to be in order to negate Marcus Colston , Robert Meacham and Co.

I didn’t care for Defensive Co-ordinator Greg Williams remarks about targeting Peyton Manning . I thought that the Saints defense played dirty in the Minnesota game , subjecting Brett Favre to several cheap shots. However, Manning is a different proposition from the 40 year old Favre. He gets rid of the ball so quicklyand he has such great vision  that he will be a difficult target . Greg Williams is a good coach but Manning is the best QB now playing, maybe the best of all time, and he will make the N. O defense pay if they are over aggressive. The Saints defense is pretty good but it is not in the same class as that of the Ravens or the Jets… and we know what happened in those two games. 

Overall the two teams are well matched. The Colts have the slightly the better passing attack, the Saints have the edge in rushing . Defensively, the two teams are about even. The Saints are better on special teams because of Reggie Bush but he is prone to fumbleitis. Coaching, call it a dead heat. I always liked Sean Payton beginning with the time he was offensive co-ordinator for the Giants and Williams has been successful as a defensive co-ordinator wherever he has been.Caldwell , on the other side of the field, is a worthy successor to Tony Dungy. The big advantage the Colts have is the kicking game , where the veteran Matt Stover can be relied on to deliver under pressure. In a close game , that will be the difference.

Picking a winner is difficult because I like both teams. The Colts have always been my favorite AFC team because of Manning and because of their low key coach ( first Tony Dungy, now Jim Caldwell). I like all the Saints coaches and players , except for that loudmouth Jeremy Shockey. And of course, there is the Cinderella element to the Saints success this year.I won’t be unhappy no matter who wins , but If I have to pick a winner……

Providing the Saints don’t jump out to a quick two TD lead, I pick the Colts to win in a thriller, say 30 -24.

The last two years the Super Bowl has provided us with thrilling close contests. Hope this makes it three in a row.

The Greatest Laker Of All Time

These have been halcyon days for the Los Angeles Lakers: making the NBA finals in 2008, winning it all in 2009 and being among the top contenders  this coming season. There have been various polls to choose the Greatest Laker Of  All  Time and Kobe Bryant’s overtaking Jerry West  for most points( career) has only heightened interest in the subject.  Here are the results of two such polls:

     ESPN ( 9500 + responses )                         L A Times ( 1151 responses)

      1.  Magic Johnson                                                  1.  Magic Johnson

      2. Jerry West                                                         2.  Jerry West

      3. Kobe Bryant                                                       3. Kareem Abdul- Jabbar

      4. Elgin Baylor                                                        4. Kobe Bryant

      5. Kareem Abdul- Jabbar                                        5. Elgin Baylor

      6. Wilt Chamberlain                                                6. Wilt Chamberlain

      7. Shaquille O’Neal                                                 7. James Worthy

      8. James Worthy                                                     8. Shaquille O’ Neal

      9. Pau Gasol                                                            9. Gail Goodrich

    10. Gail Goodrich                                                      10. Michael Cooper

 An interesting sidelight is that over one hundred of those responding to the L.A. Times poll did not include Kobe Bryant in their Top Ten choices at all .This is indicative of the strong feelings that Kobe arouses in fans– they either love him or they hate him.

 The Lakers have a storied history and the  roll-call of Laker starss is  very long. Here is a partial list of Laker greats who did not make the Top Ten in either poll : Bob McAdoo, Happy Hairston, Robert Horry, Spencer Haywood, Kurt Rambis, Norm Nixon, Byron Scott, Pat Riley, Jamaal Wilkes, Walt Hazzard, A.C. Green, Kermit Washington, George Mikan, Adrian Dantley, Derek Fisher and Rudy Larussa.

Given the plethora of outstanding players who have donned Laker colors over the years , there is surprising agreement between  the two lists . Nine of the players figure on both the lists.  One of the polls specified that no player could be considered who had not played at least three years for the Lakers. This explains why Pau Gasol figures on only one of the lists.Had it not been for this stipulation, there might have been the same ten players on both  lists .

Such close agreement is surprising considering that the criteria for evaluating a player’s greatness are extremely subjective and considering that these players were on court in  markedly different eras. For instance , when West and Baylor were starring for the Lakers, there was no three point shot. Since West was such a deadly shooter from long range , it is likely that had the 3 pt FG been part of the game then,  he would have accumulated an additional 5,000 points during his career . Had that been the case Kobe might still be chasing his records. There are a number of other factors which diffrentiate today’s game from that of earlier eras : zone defenses, the ban on handchecking , the liberal definition of assists today, the expansion of the NBA and the consequent dilution of talent etc. There is simply no way to compare players from different eras.

One criteria that most fans and sportswriters use to judge greatness is the number of championship rings  that a player has. This would be laughable if it were not so blatantly unfair. Winning a championship is a team effort ; it cannot and should not be used as a yardstick for individual excellence.  Many great players never had an adequate supporting cast and thus never won even a single ring. Others  had the misfortune to play at the same time as some truly dominant teams. Jerry West and Elgin Baylor took the Lakers to the NBA Finals year in and year out only to lose to Bill Russell’s Celtics. That should  not detract from their greatness.

This is MY list of the Top Ten Lakers of All Time :

1. Magic Johnson

2. Jerry West

3. Kobe Bryant

4. Elgin Baylor

5. Kareem Abdul Jabbar

6. Wilt Chamberlain

7. Shaquille O’Neal

8. James Worthy

9. Gail Goodrich

10 Michael Cooper

It closely resembles the L.A Times list. Pau Gasol may eventually crack the Top Ten , but not yet when he has only two and a half seasons as a Laker. The reason I chose Magic as the Greatest Laker of all time is not just because of his numbers ( great as they are) but because 1) he was a team player who made the others around him great  and 2) because of his effervescent nature and his love of the game which made it a truly magical experience for us spectators. I can never forget the sixth game of the 1980 NBA finals when Magic gave what I think is the greatest ever single game performance by any one ( and that includes Michael Jordan).The Lakers were leading 3-2 when they headed to Philly to face Julius Erving and the 76ers . However, they were without their center , Kareem Abdul Jabbar, who was back in L.A nursing  an ankle  injury. In his absence , Magic Johnson normally the point guard jumped center against Darryl Dawkins and led the Lakers to an improbable  series clinching victory. His stat line that night read 42 points , 15 rebounds , 7 assists, 3 steals and 1 block .  And he was only a rookie ! The thing about Magic was that he sacrificed his individual aspirations for the good of the team, something which Kobe does only occasionally.

Great as Magic was, Jerry West was almost his equal in my estimation . If one were to add in his contributions as the Laker GM ( trading for Shaq, trading Norm Nixon to San Diego even up for Byron Scott, drafting Kobe Bryant and James Worthy and … I could go on and on ) I might have to put him in first place. But that wouldn’t be fair , which is why I have him in second place.  I am a fan of Kobe but no matter how many rings he wins before he calls it a day, he can never leapfrog over those two. Not in my book.

Roger Federer : The Winner and Still Number One

Last Sunday, Roger Federer turned in a masterly display of tennis in trouncing Andy Murray in the final of the Australian Open. By all accounts , it was one of his best performances in recent years rivalling his victory over Roddick at Wimbledon last year . Andy Murray , perhaps overawed by the occasion, was inexplicably defensive at the beginning of the match andquickly  found himself two sets down to Federer before he woke up and decided to go for broke. By then it was too late and when Murray  squandered several break points in the third set, Federer slammed the door shut to clinch  his 16th Grand Slam triumph. Murray seems to have all the strokes, all the physical tools  but , at this stage of his career, he doesn’t seem to have the mental fortitude to challenge Federer for supremacy. Perhaps , as Boris Becker suggested, he should have as a full time coach somebody like Tony Roche, who can instill in him the necessary mental toughness to gut out the close matches. 

Murray has had a reputation for being brash and a little surly  but in defeat, he won over the spectators when he shed some tears and said ” I can cry like Roger. I just can’t play like him.” He is too good a player to be shut out of the Grand Slams and, as Federer noted, his time will come. I don’t think it will be at Wimbledon, where the expectations of the home crowd constitute an added burden ; more likely, his first Grand Slam will be at the U.S Open or at the Australian Open. Not , however, until Roger slows down or retires and that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon.

In the aftermath of his Australian Open victory, Federer has come in for criticism from some quarters of the press. The main criticisms are :1) He played with Andy Murray’s mind with some of his pre-match comments about  the pressure on him to win.  2) He took a toilet break ( even though he didn’t need it) in his quarterfinal match against Nikolay Davydenko because he wanted the sun to go down a little so that the court was not half in shadow. 3) He was arrogant in  his post match comments.

Initially, I was in sympathy with some of  these criticisms but, as I read more about them, I ‘ve made almost a complete about-face. Let’s consider the issues one by one.

1. Federer’s gamesmanship. In a well written piece titled ” I don’t love Roger”. Gerard Whately of ABC News had this to say :

His treatment of Andy Murray in the lead up to the final was rampant psychological warfare. Federer doesn’t like Murray. Didn’t invite him to the charity bash. There was nothing good natured in his jibes about the pressure of expectation. “Look he’s in his second Grand Slam final now. I think the first one’s always a bit tougher than the second one. But now that he didn’t win the first one, I think it doesn’t help for the second time around……Plus he’s playing, you know, me, who’s won many Grand Slams prior to that, been able to win here three times so I know what it takes and how to do it.” Even when excusing himself of the charge of “trying to screw with his head”, Federer added for emphasis: “The next one is not gonna get any easier.”

Rather than gamesmanship, I think this was a case of Federer giving an honest answer at a press conference. on such occasions, he has a habit of speaking his mind , offering the unvarnished truth when it would be politic to be more tactful. Not one of his comments was untrue.I remember something similar happening a couple of years ago when he had lost to Murray, I think at Dubai,  but appeared to be less than gracious in talking about the defeat. Then , as now, he was merely telling us what he felt. I agree that it would have been better public relations to have been more diplomatic and given a bland, innocuous reply. I also remember what happened when a former champion, Pete Sampras, did just that. The press , and later the public, labeled him as b-o-r-i-n-g.

2) The toilet break. About which Whately writes ”What about his blatant gamesmanship against Nikolay Davydenko – taking a sauntering toilet break after barely half an hour having lost the opening set to allow the shadow of the roof to move further across the court.He giggled about it afterwards. And everyone laughed along with jolly old Roger.” Elsewhere Federer is said to have gloated about his tactic.

In the first place, Federer was entitled to take a toilet break . He didn’t break any rules in doing so no more than Phil Mickelson used a technicality in the USGA rules to use a putter that gave him an advantage.In both cases I wish they hadn’t done it but it most definitely was not cheating . Athletes are constantly trying to get whatever little edge they can. In baseball, if a pitcher has settled into a groove , the batters try to throw him off his rhythm by stepping out of the batter’s box just as he is winding up to pitch. In tennis ,one sees the  the same thing happen as the service returner calls time just as the server is about to toss the ball up . Or when the returner slows down the pace of the match by taking  a few extra seconds to wipe off the sweat in between points. What Federer did was less reprehensible than that and I should point out that Davydenko won a couple of games after the enforced break; it was only afterwards that  he faltered.

3. His arrogance . Whately quotes him as saying   “There’s no secret behind it. You know, I mean, (I’m) definitely a very talented player (laughter). I always knew I had something special, but I didn’t know it was like that crazy.” and then goes on to snipe that  Not since Greg Norman declared he was in awe of himself has there been a sporting proclamation of such self-aggrandisement. And remember the cultural cringe that caused.With history now his personal plaything, His Rogerness is doing stand-up. It hardly amounts to despicable behaviour but a portion of balance on his sainthood wouldn’t go astray.

Oh , come on. Federer had just won an important match and played very well in doing so. If he was feeling a little giddy about his performance, that hardly constitutes ” self -aggrandisement”.When Muhammed Ali christens himself ” The Greatest” , he garners nothing but applause. When Federer makes understated comments such as  ,” definitely a very talented player ” and ” I always knew I had something special  ” , he is being arrogant !! ?  Do I detect a double standard here ?

The truth is that there is always a segment of the press that wants to cut champions down to size. They are the ones who build up players and they delight in being the first to tear them down. The bigger the champion, the more they are out to get him. Is it to sell more newspapers, more magazines ? Definitely, because controversy always sells better than plain vanilla. Is it the jealousy of the scribe for the man of action ? Yes,  I think so. It is very easy to slant an article or a perception with a few insidious words ( such as Federer gloating over his toilet break tactic ) and most readers are not even aware how their feelings have been manipulated.

Some of you reading this post will no doubt attribute it to the ravings of a Federer loyalist who can brook no criticism of his idol. I hope that is not the prevailing opinion. I am a fan of Federer’s but I , first and foremost, I think of myself as a tennis fan and as one who is always objective. Regardless, in my opinion, Roger Federer is the winner and still champion … on and off the court.

P.S I can’t resist recalling how Federer was criticised after last year’s Australian Open when he broke down in tears . He was accused by many in the press and public of raining on Nadal’s parade , deflecting attention away from Nadal in the latter’s moment of triumph. Few people seemed to understand that it was the reaction of an elite athlete who had given it his all only to see his efforts fall just short.  Yet,this year, when Murray shed a few tears ( once again, I thought it was quite understandable), it was interpreted quite differently and Murray was portrayed as being more human and more likable because of them. Don’t  you think this constitutes a double standard ?

The NBA All-Star Game : Snubs and Flubs

The NBA announced it’s picks for the All-Star Game and these are the rosters :

Eastern Conference :  ( Starters) G Derrick Rose ( Chicago Bulls) :  G Allen Iverson ( Philadelphia 76ers) ;  C Dwight Howard ( Orlando Magic) ;F Lebron James ( Cleveland Cavaliers ; F Kevin Garnett ( Boston Celtics) .

Reserves : Paul Pierce ,Rajon Rondo ( Boston Celtics ), Joe Johnson, Al Horford ( Atlanta Hawks), Gerald Wallace ( Charlotte Bobcats), Chris Bosh ( Toronto Raptors) , Derrick Rose ( Chicago Bulls )

Western Conference : (Starters) G  Kobe Bryant ( Los Angeles Lakers) ; G Steve Nash ( Phoenix Suns) ; C Amare Stoudemire ( Phoenix Suns ) ; F Carmelo Anthony ( Denver Nuggets) ; F Tim Duncan ( San Antonio Spurs) 

Reserves : Chris Paul ( New Orleans Hornets) ; Deron Williams ( Utah Jazz) ; Brandon Roy ( Portland Trail Blazers ) ; Dirk Nowitzki ( Dallas Mavericks) ; Zach Randolph ( Memphis Grizzlies) ; Kevin Durant ( Oklahoma City Thunder) .

The starters were chosen by the fans , the reserves by the NBA coaches. In selecting the reserves, the coaches were required to select two guards, two forwards, one center and two others for any position. And of course, the coaches were not allowed to vote for players from their own teams.

With the NBA wanting to get fans involved in the voting , there were bound to be some peculiar choices and this is evident in the selections of the starters for the East All Stars. There is no way that Allen Iverson and Kevin Garnett belong on the team. Players should be selected because of their performance this season, not for what they have done in the past. It’s not like the Nobel Prize which is awarded for lifetime achievement. Great as Garnett has been in the past, this year he has missed almost the entire season due to injury. Iverson is lucky to be in the league at all , his glory days long gone. Another travesty was avoided in the West where a late surge of votes saw Steve Nash overtake Tracy McGrady. Had it not been for that,  McGrady, who has barely played this season,  would have been a starter for the West team .

The selection of the reserves is less controversial . In the East , I would have liked to see David Lee of the Knicks in place of Al Horford. Lee has the better numbers and the only reason I think he wasn’t chosen is that he is playing on a team with a losing record. This to me is inexplicable. These selections are meant to be based on the play of the individual ;  team standings should not figure in the equation . No quarrel with any of the other East selections , though I feel that Rajon Rondo and Chris Bosh should have been starting instead of Iverson and Garnett.

Chauncey Billups has long been one of my favorites but I have to admit that those who made the team ahead of him ( D.Williams, Chris Paul and Brandon Roy) are better than him. The West has a plethora of point guards but is weak at center. Amare Stoudemire and  Pau Gasol are more F-C types. Glad to see Kevin Durant get his due. The only change I might have made was to have Chris Paul start ahead of Steve Nash.

One of the more interesting sidelights of the All Star weekend is the Rookies vs. Sophomores game. There has been a bumper crop of rookies this year and I wouldn’t be surprised if they won.

Favre , Hero and Goat; Manning Magic ; Jets Fall Short

What a wonderful afternoon and evening of football watching ! I thoroughly enjoyed it and not just because both the Colts and the Saints won. They were the the teams I was rooting for but even had they lost I’d still have enjoyed myself. Both games were absorbing for different reasons. In the first, the Jets gave the Colts all they could handle for 30 minutes before Peyton Manning put on a clinic . In the second game, the outcome was in doubt until the end. Minnesota had a great chance to win it in regulation but first a silly penalty and then a Favre brain-freeze saw the Saints book their tickets for Miami.

Jets @ Colts : The Jets have to be proud of their performance yesterday. For awhile it looked like they were going to win as they used trick plays to jump out to a 11 point lead and twice held the  Colts to  FG’s. Down 17-6 , the Colts seemed to be  in serious trouble  but Manning showed why he is considered one of the greatest QB’s of all time as he spread the ball around delivering pinpoint passes to his receiving corps and took the Jet defense apart. Who needs Marvin Harrison when you ‘ve got Pierre Garcon and Austin Collie in addition to Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark ? Even Indy’s  weak running attack was not a liability yesterday. I was very impressed with the demeanor of Indy coach Caldwell who never even seemed to break a sweat. His coolness under fire and his low key persona  were very reminscent of Tony Dungy, his mentor and predecessor.

Peyton Manning’s greatness is such that we expect him to perform as he did yesterday but the stellar play of the Colt defense was a bit of a surprise. The pass rush, with Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis, is always relentless but the secondary really came through yesterday. After the early TDs that it gave up, it stiffened and held the Jets at bay the rest of the way. Shonn Greene’s departure with injury  hurt the Jets but I don’t think that it had any effect on the final result. The Colts would still have won had Greene been in for the entire game. There are several things Jets fans can be optimistic about. For one,  Mark Sanchez ( 17/30. 2TD, 1 Int ) looks like a franchise QB . He played with poise and discipline and the late interception  was not his fault. The defense was inspired and Darrell Revis was all that he was cracked up  to be. Rex Ryan (I  hate his personality) is a very good coach and has the team playing together in a way they haven’t done for years. The future looks good for the Jets.

Vikings @ Saints : I expected a shootout and a narrow Saints win but not the way it happened. For one thing, the potent Saint offense was stymied most of the game by the Viking pass rush which gave Brees little time to react. For another, the Saints defense played unexpectedly well though some of their hits on Favre were questionable. All credit to Favre ( not one of my favorites) for standing tall and almost pulling of the game. If it hadn’t been for the turnovers , Minnesota should have won going away. The stats reflect their dominance as they marched up and down the field only to make critical mistakes. The  Saints were playing from behind most of the game and I thought for sure Minnesota was going to pull it off when they were threatening at the Saint 35 with just over a minute to go. The ensuing Vikings penalty for too many men on the field was inexcusable , espescially since it occured immediately after a time-out. The penalty put them just out of FG range. Even so, on third down ,  Favre missed a chance to win the game when he scrambled and threw the ball across the middle rather than run for 8-10 yards more . Those few yards would have allowed the Vikings  to go for a FG and , with Ryan Longwell waiting on the sidelines , it would have been a game-clincher. Instead Favre ’s pass was intercepted in an play eerily reminscent of the Packers- Giants playoff game two years ago. Then too, Favre had thrown an interception as the Giants proceeded to win the game in OT.  

This is the first game in which Drew Brees and the Saints offense looked ordinary. The Viking pass rush hurried him all day and Reggie Bush was of no help. A glaring failure was their repeated inability to convert on third and short.  Meanwhile, Favre and the Minnesota offense were gaining huge chunks of yardage only to cough the ball up in crucial situations. I’ve got to admire Favre for standing tall, absorbing the punishment from the Saints pass-rushers , and still delivering strikes again and again. Now that the Vikings are done for thhe season, there will be the inevitable questions about Favre and whether he will head off into retirement. After seeing the crunching blows his 40 year old body had to absorb yesterday, I hope he calls it quits . It’s not as if he hasn’t won a Super Bowl. Based on  his career thus far , he is a lock for the Hall of Fame , and there is nothing left to prove. Whatever he decides, whenever he decides, I hope that he sticks by his decision and spares us his soap opera of ” Will he ? Won’t he ?” That’s getting old.

Super Bowl: I see that the Colts have been installed as early 4 – point favorites for the Super Bowl. Based on yesterday’s game, the Vikings might have provided a sterner test for the Colts. For the Saints to win, their offense will have to click on all cylinders to offset Peyton Manning. No matter how well the Saints defense plays , I can’t see them shutting down Manning. Will the Saints offense be able to put a lot of points on the board against the Colt defense ? I don’t think so.( With or without the points) , I think the Colts will win the Super Bowl for the second time.