OnlyAnAmateur.com

Archive for November, 2009

The man is a living legend. Recently, he completed 20 years in international cricket – an achievement that saw all time greats heap lavish praises on the man we call “The Little Master”. After making his debut as a 16-year old against Pakistan, Sachin has grown from strength to strength. He now holds innumerable records. Most number of Test Centuries, most number of ODI centuries, most number of runs in international cricket, most number of MOM awards in ODI’s. The list is endless and mind-boggling. Recently, the maestro completed 17000 runs in Test Cricket and 30000 runs in international cricket. With such a flawless record, there should not be any doubt over his iconic status in the game. But critics always seem to have their arguments.

The highest career batting average belongs to Sir Don Bradman. At 54.79, Tendulkar comes eighteenth in the list. Modern day cricketers such as Kumar Sangakkara and Ricky Ponting are ahead of him in the average charts. One more allegation labelled against him is his inability to win games for India.  People argue that there is nothing more to Tendulkar than his records. There have been instances where Sachin has single handedly won games for India – like the two back to back centuries in Sharjah, recent VB series triumph in Australia. But critics argue that these instances have been few and far between.

Whatever be the case, there is no denying Sachin’s cult status on cricket grounds in India and over the world. Millions of Indians switch off their television sets when Sachin gets out. In a sense, people come to the grounds to watch Sachin and not the team. There will be always a debate whether he is the greatest cricketer of his era, but one thing is for sure he is the finest entertainer of his generation.

Is David Robert Joseph Beckham overrated? His critics have been shouting it aloud from the rooftops ever since he burst into world football, but his staunchest supporters counter it with the argument that Beckham has done enough to merit a place in the list of football’s greatest ever players. 

Beckham isn’t blessed with the pace of an Aaron Lennon, Shaun Wright Phillips and Thierry Henry, but he is certainly one of the best passers and crossers in the business. The latter in particular, has seen him win many a game for Manchester United and England. He can deliver pin point crosses into the box, and as Ruud Van Nistelrooy will tell you, those are godsends for strikers who are poachers in the box. 

You will however not see Beckham blitz and skip his way past several defenders on his way into the box. That is not really his style- he doesn’t quite possess the necessary combination of raw speed, agility and dribbling to do that. Beckham is one of those more technically gifted footballers around, and is one of the best free kick takers the game has ever seen. 

Beckham is the most capped outfield player for England. Only goalkeeper Peter Shilton has won more English caps than him. He was also the first British footballer to play in 100 Champions League games, and is also a two time FIFA World Player of the Year runner up. 

There is always the argument that footballer Beckham gets overruled in favour of brand Beckham when it comes to football bosses taking decisions. Beckham is married to Victoria Adams, and the duo are one of the most high profile celebrity couples in the world today. Beckham’s good looks, along with his more than average abilities, means that the masses, especially females, take to him very easily. 

So, is David Beckham over rated as a footballer? He is certainly not the greatest English footballer ever, but he is certainly up there with the best.

Amir Khan was born in Bolton in early December 1986. He showed early promise as a boxer and in 2003 he won a gold medal at the AAU Junior Olympic Games, closely followed by another gold medal at the European Student Championship in 2004. This early interest was encouraged by his father, who considered his son a born fighter and was confident that his son could be very successful at his chosen sport. This early promise came to fruition when, in July 2009, Khan won the WBA World Light-Welterweight World Championship title, defeating Andreas Kotelnik in a unanimous decision over 12 rounds. This title was added to the WBA International Lightweight championship he won just 8 months earlier, in early December 2008.

Background

Khan spent his early years supporting his local soccer team, Bolton Wanderers whilst attending Smithills school. This early support has since been repaid by the club who have allowed Khan to use their training facilities. Amir’s parents hail from the Punjab province of Pakistan and as a result he can speak Urdu and Panjabi in addition to his native English. Khan has declared a serious intent to base a future fight in Pakistan, although all his professional fights to date have been within the United Kingdom and four of those have been in his home town of Bolton.

Amateur

The early amateur career of Khan was distinguished and his early gold medals were soon joined by an Olympic Silver Medal from the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens at the age of 17, which was two years earlier than even the great Muhammad Ali who won his Gold Medal at the age of 19 at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. Khan was beaten to the gold by Cuban Mario Kindelan. They had met before when Kindelan had beaten Khan a few months earlier in Greece. By 2005, Khan was good enough to avenge these earlier defeats and he beat the Cuban by 19 points to 13 at the Reebok Stadium. This became Khan’s last amateur fight before turning professional later in 2005.

Professional

Khan’s professional career began as his amateur career had ended, with a resounding victory over David Bailey in Bolton on July 16th 2005. A further three successful fights brought 2005 to an end and 2006 proved that the young Khan was as talented as his early promise seemed to indicate. In that year he fought a further six times, winning four of these fights inside the distance. This huge promise continued in 2007 with Khan fighting a further 5 times, all but one inside the distance. By mid 2008 it appeared that Khan was invincible and a fight against Columbian Breidis Prescott was expected to bring no surprises and another easy victory for Khan. In the event Khan was the one receiving the surprise as the big hitting Prescott hammered Khan to the canvas in less than a minute of the first round. Khan was unable to meet the count and tasted his first professional defeat. Khan has recovered by easily winning his three subsequent fights, beating the highly ranked Marco Barrera in March 2009 before his World Light-Welterweight Championship victory in July of the same year.

Outside boxing

Khan has long shown an interest in other matters outside boxing including the safety of children around the railways and has also been involved in charity work. This interest has extended to his beloved Pakistan after the earthquakes there in 2005, when he visited the country and provided food parcels to those in need. Khan has also worked for charity in his home town of Bolton where he has spent some of his boxing earnings promoting boxing in an attempt to provide youngsters with a route away from the streets. This interest in providing escape routes to young people has also seen Khan taking part in TV programmes to exhibit the discipline of boxing and how it can be used to focus lives and avoid trouble.