Good, Bad & Ugly ft. Appie Nouri, 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Keyboard warriors
SportsCafe
Well, we are all on a break now, certainly sports is on a break, but don’t worry, we got you covered with some of the good ones, bad ones and definitely the more ugly ones. One, two, three, four, five, six. Using six - the perfect number - we tell you what there is in the world of sports this week.
The Good
Abdelhak ‘Happie’ Nouri
A long-long wait for the football fans to listen to this good news - the prodigal son ‘Appie’ Nouri was finally up from his bed after three-long years. During those years, while the footballing world has turned upside down, it has not forgotten that the young man was still in the bed trying to get out from the state of coma when he was just 20. His brother, Abderrahim Nouri confirmed that his brother woke up for the first time in three years. Oh, for the uninitiated, he suffered a heart attack in the middle of the pitch during a pre-season friendly.
However, he was quick in saying that he is still restricted to his bed, being able to communicate only with his eyebrow and smile. Nevertheless, this is one of the best news that football fans could have this week, probably even this year, going by how much of football action that we have had from the start of the year. "You notice that he likes that very much. He often shows emotions. Sometimes he is emotional, but often there is also a smile. That does us good. That makes you really appreciate a smile," his brother said, which not only gave a smile on his family’s face but also the people who saw him rise to the top.
Olympics pushed aside as humanity struggles
While there was too much news that covered people and organisations donating this week, it was this decision from the Japanese government which took over. And, for a simple reason, that having Olympics at this point in time could very well put an ‘R’ in risk in terms of spreading Coronavirus. Imagine, this is coming from a country that was thinking of every possible way to keep Olympics going.
But even they decided to back off, because the magnitude of the virus is enormous and is not even worth the risk. A very wise decision in a week, where others are seeking a way to bring the games back in action. If there was ever note to all sporting authorities - it is this, the biggest games are pushed aside, and for the first time in the history. So buckle up and do the necessary, 'cause lives are at stake, which is not the least bit playful. It will be the first instance of the Olympics happening after a five-year gap.
The Bad
Premier ‘closed-doors’ League
Premier League going the ‘closed-doors’ route to finishing the 2019-20 season is a news that I woke up to today. And, believe me, it was sad, even for a person who does not watch the PL action as regularly as some of the other’s claim to. Yet it came as a shock to me, because why would you take the PL action away from people, for it is made popular because of the support. As a fan, here we are sitting and thinking, would it not be fun if they waited for some more time till everything calmed down before playing football? On the flip side, I also sat and thought that what effect it would have on the players.
Then I came down on the same points that I jotted down earlier - the PL being resumed would mean that players still have to travel and with clubs still recovering from the virus-hit camps, it would be hard to think of resuming football before August. But if it does go through, you may say many sad faces of the fans, not even the seasonal ones, but the normal ones who are content with the cheapest tickets at the stands of some of the crazy stadiums in the UK.
Paulo Dybala’s ‘breathless’ state
‘Breathless,’ is a term that we have loosely used in the last several years, defining some magic moments from Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. However, when it comes to its original meaning, it rather has a sad tone attached to it, like in this case. When Paulo Dybala admitted that Coronavirus left him ‘breathless,’ it was more than the playful term that we use to describe an incident. It was serious, coming in from an athlete of the top-level, from a virus that we all seemed to be looking at from a ‘safe-phase.’
The news came in as a shock, with Dybala one of the three Juve players tested positive for COVID-19, with Blaise Matuidi and Daniele Rugani being the other two. “Now, I can move and walk and try to work out. A few days ago, when I tried to do those things, I was struggling for breath. My muscles ached,” said Dybala. With Serie A coming to a halt, it gives time for the athletes to recover from the deadly virus, which has rattled the nation of Italy and the whole world.
The Ugly
Keyboard warriors at it again
You would reckon that at least this time, the entire nation would be united to fight the virus out. Well, that is where all of us are wrong. Given what we saw on Twitter throughout the course of last week, it is nearly impossible to unite this country for a cause. First, it was MS Dhoni, then it was BCCI who were facing the wrath of the Twitteratis. Reports and only reports confirmed that Dhoni had contributed Rs. 1 lakh towards the battle against COVID-19.
Yet, it was enough, for people to create ruckus. And by ruckus, I mean a ‘real-one.’ It was all over the place - name-shaming the former skipper, creating memes around the issue and moreso, vandalising his social media handles. And it was all because of media reports, without even knowing how much he had actually donated. Some went overboard saying, “If I earned as much as Dhoni, I would donate my entire salary,” yet they sat down on their keyboard haunches. The BCCI faced the same situation too, but they were quick to leave their critics red-faced by announcing that they were going to donate Rs 51 crore to fight the deadly virus.
Tajikistan Basketball ‘still playing’ League
When my friend casually put it out this morning that in Tajikistan, basketball is still in action, I was shocked. The reason being that the entire world is in shutdown, and for a reason. So why would a country, that too Tajikistan, still be playing basketball? Well, even I wondered and to no prevail, I could not find the reason that they still considered playing basketball. If it's for the Olympics preparation, don’t worry, the Olympics is not here until next year.
But if you are a sports fanatic and so dead for right want to watch some live action, then I guess there are two events that at the back of my mind, you can hover to - one being the Belarus Premier League and second being Tajikistan Basketball League. Guess what? In the Belarus Premier League, there are still fans in the stadium and handshakes are not a thing of the past. So buckle up, before these events go crashing down next week!
