Dolby

I have a theory about Iran-Iraq war. It is just my theory, so most probably it is horribly wrong but still, here it is. Shah was American ally and Saddam was Russian ally initially. Russia was able to install Khomeini and was even able to have a communist coup in Afghanistan. In India, as well in 1980, Indira Gandhi, Soviet ally, was back in power. So, the only American ally in the region was Pakistan. USA asked Saddam to attack Iran and promised him Kuwait as reward for doing so. Iran was distracted on its eastern front and couldn’t help Russia with logistics in Soviet–Afghan war severely crippling Soviets. USA was able to flood and supply Afghanistan with Mujahideens through Pakistan. And was hence able to win the war. USA then dithered on Kuwait to Iraq leading to US-Iraq war. Maybe Iran’s top leadership at that time really believed that they could annex a substantial portion of Iraq and hence kept on going.

Regarding Chloroquine: In absence of a universal medicine, doctors all over the world are using different combinations to treat the patients. Chloroquine is a known drug for Malaria. Some doctors claimed that it was effective in Covid-19 as well. Trump was irresponsible in declaring it as a sure cure without enough clinical trials. We need to give people hope that a vaccine or atleast an effective treatment is around the corner but Trump should not have named the drug.

Did you know he is also an Olympic champion

In my limited interactions since then, general feel is “it will cause lot of issues, we all will go mad with boredom, businesses will be hit hard but it was necessary”

Follow the same routine. Try to keep yourself occupied, with non-pandemic related things. Talk with your friends/relatives, revisit old albums, spend quality time with your dad. If possible, try and meditate. A healthy mind with strong will power is a must in these times.

India has gone to massive lockdown today. And it is getting massive support from public. Why? Because seeing Italian numbers scare us. If we consider that Italy has reached the peak of its bell curve, we are looking at 10,000+ deaths in a country of 6 crores. We have a population of 133 crores. If Covid-19 follows similar trajectory we are looking at 200,000+ deaths. Even half fatality rate would mean 100,000+ deaths. We have younger demographics compared to Italy but significant population has diabetes, heart conditions, malnourishment, asthma and other ailments.

Technically, Mirabai is not qualified yet as she has only 5 participations instead of requied 6

And we are officially in full isolation mode. No scheduled international commercial passenger aircraft shall be allowed to land in India from March 22, 2020 for one week.

It is not so simple. If there is no change in Olympic dates, IOC/IFs need to check if there is enough time to hold all the qualification tournaments. For example in Boxing, they need to host continental qualifiers first and then the World qualifiers. Also, need to have sufficient gaps between those tournaments as well (specially considering that Asia/Africa already have had their qualifiers, so small gap will be beneficial to boxers from these confederations). In case of rankings based qualification, they need to make a decision if there is need to postpone the deadline or not. For example, Tennis will be using rankings published on 8 June 2020. We have lost atleast 2-3 months of the tour. 3 months is 25% of the season. So, should ranking date be extended by say a month (unfair to those who got points in the corresponding period last year) or should they stay with the same ranking date (unfair to those who were chasing the qualification and were banking to get points in the last couple of months). And in case of postponement to say 2022, obviously ranking issues remain. Also, how bad would it look on part of IOC and organising committee if 2021 World Champion in a sport can't take part but 2019 World Champion has qualified. All in all, not easy decisions. Honestly, I don't think there is any decision which can be remotely acceptable/fair to all.

I made a small mistake in my post. I meant community transmission instead of local transmission. I think with huge restrictions on travel all over the world, what we are seeing now in Brazil or India or majority of nations not already in stage 3 is mainly local transmission only. Brazil's numbers are not steep enough to think that they are in community transmission stage. But, as we have seen in the past, one can never be sure. My point was about Brazil/India or for that matter any other nation's numbers reliability. There can be discrepancy in actual numbers but I think it is very hard for a country to cover up if it is already in community transmission stage. The numbers increase in that case would be too steep.

Once a country reaches community transmission stage, it is hard to hide that. Numbers can still be fudged but I think we can make a fairly correct assessment of the stage a country is in. If you are a totalitarian regime like China/North Korea, it is still possible but in countries like Brazil/India with decent internet penetration we can be fairly sure that we have not reached community transmission stage. But in present situation, one simply never knows what could be the next hotspot.

I am sensing Greta Outbreak on the forum.

OCA have been trying to have Asian Games in the year before Olympics for some time but it never materialised. If Olympics are held in 2022, I think there is good chance Asian Games will be postponed to 2023.

Sadly, I didn’t find enough time to listen to the songs. I would still follow the contest because I am sure it will be an amazing contest.

Just checked London results, Tom Stalker defeated Indian boxer in Round of 16. Are you suggesting that British win was a shocker?

PSL = Pakistan Super League, a T20 Cricket tournament in Pakistan.

South Africa - India ODI series has been cancelled. IPL has been postponed as well.

That announcement was before Govt virtually closed the nation for foreigners. No way tournament goes ahead now.

Yesterday BWF declared India Open is not being postponed/cancelled. Later, Indian Govt cancelled all visas hence BWF has no option but to cancel India Open.

Nobody dares to shake hands with Klopp https://twitter.com/tsf_podcast/status/1237835188144611330?s=21

Favourite Book: Animal Farm Favourite Poem: Madhurashtakam

They are showing their abilities here because Govt. has decided not to send them to Olympics. Minimum requirement was 5 TKOs and 13 Gold medals. Since it was not met, we won’t be sending any Boxer to Tokyo.

Welcome to Boxing. Ideally, it makes no sense but sadly it happens more often then you would think.

Delhi WC has been postponed. Now, there will be two separate WCs in Delhi. Shotgun WC same time as Munich WC and Rifle/Pistol WC same time as European Shotgun Championships. There is still no clarity on how these changes will affect rankings. ISSF is considering extending ranking period to include Delhi WCs along with Baku and Munich WC in final Olympic qualification ranking. But not finalised yet.