NBA.IPL.EPL.REPEAT

Apples do not appease my taste buds so I would rather say, “A sport a day, keeps the doctor away.” It had been a ritual now, spending two hours playing cricket or football because it invigorated me and heightened my productivity for any task at hand. The recent lockdown had initially curbed all physical activities and it took a while to digest the ‘apples’.

When the practical was not possible, I switched to theory and read about some misconceptions that we have about a particular sport and sportsmen. The list was long, but I would love to share some myths that I found peculiar and bizarre.

TIP: Do not be disappointed if you had believed all to be true, you have company.😉

#Myth 1 : A fielder cannot be placed right behind the bowler on the boundary in Cricket

‘Hit the ball dead straight with a decent amount of power and add four runs to your tally’- coaches say this to the batsmen always because a fielder is never seen standing exactly between long-off and long-on. This has deluded most of the people to think that a player is forbidden from standing behind the bowler. The truth is that such a position exists and is called ‘Straight-Hit’. The position becomes redundant since a combination of long-off and long-on would cover the entire V-area in front of the batsmen.

#Myth 2: Three Net serves lead to a point to the opposition in Table-Tennis

During a serve, if the ball bounces once on the server’s side of the table, touches the net and bounces on the other side, it is called a net-serve and is considered a fault. ‘Home rules’ are often considered to be the legal playing rules, and this is one such example. I assume someone agitated by his opponent hitting net-serves regularly would have manufactured this rule. The truth is that unlimited net-serves are allowed and would not award any points to the opposition.

#Myth 3: Hockey is India’s National Sport

A myth that had debunked an earlier myth of Cricket being our national sport. The widespread popularity of cricket across the country was a strong reason to back it as the national sport. The ‘pundits’ rebutted this and hailed Hockey as the national sport since India had won 6 consecutive gold medals from 1928 to 1960 and had been a supreme force at the International stage. Surprisingly, the truth is that India does not have any sport as its national game. This has been ratified by the Sports Ministry of India.

#Myth 4: Kho-Kho is not a sport

A childhood of any person would be incomplete without playing this game. It was either introduced by the P.T teacher at school or by an enthusiastic parent. The game is believed to be invented in Maharashtra, India and is a modified version of Tag( English word for Pakda-Pakdi). One would not assume ‘Tag’ to be considered as a sport and so extrapolate it to Kho-Kho . It is actually one of the oldest traditional sports of India along with Kabbadi and is quite popular in the South Asian sub-continent.

#Myth 5: Moeen Ali was born in Afghanistan/Pakistan and Pepe in Portugal

For those who do not know them –

Moeen Ali is a current England cricket player and also plays for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. He is giving competition to Hashim Amla for the longest beard.

Pepe is a footballer who has played for Portugal and Real Madrid. You can also search ‘2014 World Cup Headbutt’.

Ali’s grandfather used to live in Mirpur but then moved to England. He was born in Birmingham, England and has spent his entire cricketing career over there. Pepe, on the other hand, was born in Brazil and went on to represent Portugal.

#Myth 6: India did not play the 1950 FIFA world cup because they were not allowed to play barefoot

India, till date, has never played in a world cup but that does not imply that they never qualified. Back in 1948, India had impressed everyone with their performance in the Olympics. Most of the players did not wear any footwear. While determining the teams to be selected for the 1950 World cup, one spot was given to an Asian team. The contenders were Philippines, Indonesia, Burma, and India. The rest three had backed out so India was automatically selected. It was mandatory to wear shoes at the world cup but that did not deter India’s participation. The actual reason is still unknown but an educated guess could be that AIFF(All India Football Federation) did not consider the World Cup as important as the Olympics.

#Myth 7: AB De Villiers is MR. 360 not just in cricket

South Africa’s U19 Badminton champion, shortlisted for junior hockey team and football team, captain of junior rugby team, held 6 national swimming records, fastest hundred meter sprint timing in juniors circuit and received a medal from Nelson Mandela for a science project and I think revealing him to be an undercover agent would not be an overstatement. Most people believed this until AB De Villiers debunked his fake biography in his autobiography. He clarified that none of this had even an ounce of truth in it.

Myths are similar to colored sunglasses that we allow others to put on our faces. All we need to do is see everything only through our own eyes.

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