cropped-short_post_logo.png
For Authentic Gossip
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
madrasi camp
3 cm
vaibhav S
Mamata_036
dino rain
sitare housefull
Sidda_Hari
MBRajesh
thug life
ajit_020
pt usha
PT Usha And Others In Bitter Feud Over The Appointment Of CEO Raghu Iyer
The feud in the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) between President PT Usha and some of her colleagues in the Executive Council over the appointment of Raghu Iyer as CEO — in particular on the matter of his salary — has made a big splash in the last few months. Those who were gunning for the ouster of the CEO did not escalate their position during the Paris Olympics, but the issue has snowballed now with Usha going bellicose directing her angst against the Executive Council for not ratifying Iyer’s appointment. The former sprinter and hurdler who achieved high accolades in Asia, finished fourth in the 400m hurdles at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics and has been training athletes in her home town in Kerala, has now called for a special general meeting of the IOA on October 25 to place all matters under dispute — including corruption and alleged National Sports Code violations — in front of close to 80 national federations. Usha became the first Olympian to head the IOA in December 2022 and that too getting elected unopposed. She may have had the blessings from the most powerful in the government. But so is senior Vice-President Ajay Patel who is said to have an excellent relationship with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Obviously the SGM will vote for an outcome that will either strengthen or weaken Usha’s primacy as the head of IOA. The champion athlete has gone to the extent of saying that the row between her and the Executive Council has disrupted India’s push for the 2036 Olympics dream. IOA watchers are wondering whether the SGM will actually bring warmth at all between Usha and others.
raja ranadhir
Raja Randhir Singh Rakes Up National Sports Code Restrictions!
Raja Randhir Singh may have triggered a fresh debate on whether administrators’ maximum tenure of 12 years is good for developing sport in India. India’s National Sports Development Code (NSDC) 2011 specifies terms, tenures, age, and cooling-off rules for sports federations.  A five-time Olympian, several-time Asian Games participant in the Trap and Skeet shooting event, a gold and bronze medal winner has been an administrator for around four decades at the national and international sports bodies and is all set to become the 44th President of the Olympic Council of Asia wef September 8. In recent interactions, the 77-year-old former member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said that Yoga will become a medal sport from the 2030 Asian Games, but more significantly, he touched upon an essential aspect of the governance structure and strict rules.  He believes more than 12 years is needed for administrators at the sports bodies. While the NSC stipulates a 12-year time restriction for national sports federations, the Justice Lodha Committee report that the Supreme Court has endorsed stipulates a maximum period of nine years together at the State and BCCI and with a cooling off period after six years that was initially three years. Being an experienced hand, Raja Randhir may have a point that will only get full support from the BCCI, but the Apex Council of the country believes that sports federations cannot be a fiefdom for an individual or group of people. The BCCI has been lucky to get relief from the Supreme Court on the cooling-off period restriction, but they may hope for further ease in restrictions. Given a chance, both the BCCI and the sports federations would like the cooling-off period and tenure restrictions, junked!
lakshya sen_002
Shuttler Lakshya Sen Goes Down Fighting
India’s promising shuttler Lakshya Sen lost out to Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in the bronze play-off at the Paris Games on Monday. Earlier,  Sen chucked away a big chance to earn the tag of a giant killer! Sports offers opportunities of a lifetime to dethrone champions and the 22 year old could not have given a better gift to his mentors, Prakash Padukone and Vimal Kumar, by bringing down the defending Olympic men’s singles champion — Viktor Axelsen had won the men’s singles badminton title at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics — in the Paris 2024 semi-finals. Up 17-11 in the first game and 7-0 in the second, the young aspirant squandered openings to thrash the great Dane and bid for the gold. Nothing had prepared Axelson for an inspiring and incisive display by Sen; perhaps even Padukone and Kumar would have been surprised by their charge’s extraordinary stroke play bringing out the best from his repertoire. Sen had put it across two seeded players — Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie and Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen — to get into the semi-finals. When the other Indians could not rise above the mediocrity, Sen appeared like a shining star, all ready to conquer the World.  The La Chapelle Arena was packed with the roaring India supporters and Sen had just done his part to encourage them to be full throated. Eventually he appeared to have lacked the killer instinct. Every minute after he offset the 0-3 deficit, he looked the part as a conqueror. But as they say in sport: He petered out, losing the grip on the semi-finals. 
neeraj chopra_002
For India Olympics Means A Gold From Neeraj Chopra!
With the Summer Olympics in Paris a few days away, the focus, from the Indian point of view, is on a handful of individuals and the men’s hockey team upon which interest never diminishes. After lacklustre performances in the quadrennial Olympics for 41 years, the men’s team won the bronze medal in field hockey at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, but put off to 2021 because of the pandemic. Apart from the men’s hockey team’s fortunes which has oscillated like a pendulum, much to the chagrin of the game’s die-hard fans, attention has riveted on the likes of the undisputed queen of badminton, PV Sindhu and the track and field super star, javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra.  Sindhu’s form has slipped significantly in the last year, but she has countless supporters who believe that a big stage like the Olympics could see her rise to the occasion. Chopra seems to be on another planet though, startling the athletics world with consistent displays in the last eight years. The armyman from Sonepat has won everything that has been before him and hence the expectations are high — for him to win the gold medal in Paris; he had won the gold medal for the first time in Tokyo. There is also much hope on the men’s doubles pair in Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and from the rifle shooters. In all 117 Indian athletes will be in action in the French capital. For a long time winning the men’s hockey gold was deemed as the ultimate victory, but these days the name that’s in everybody’s lips is Chopra, Neeraj Chopra!  He will get a chance to defend the gold he clinched in Japan, three summers ago.
CWG winners
CWG 2022: India No More Also-Rans In Any Sports
Impressive as the medal tally and a fourth place among countries, India’s performance at the Commonwealth Games is not to be judged only on the strength of the medal haul of 61. The intensity to push oneself to perform better and win medals on the strength of best personal effort marked India’s presence in Birmingham. Eight medals from Track & Field, traditionally India’s weakest area, included one from steeplechase with Avinash Sable, the first non-Kenyan to win a medal (silver) since 1994. A number of medals from India’s base strengths like in wrestling and boxing, besides badminton, helped boost the tally to a healthy level. The sweep in badminton in the men’s and women’s singles and men’s doubles was a triple delight but nothing may have warmed the cockles more than Sharath Kamal’s feat in winning four medals in table tennis at the ripe age of 40. Not only has he slayed the hackneyed phrase – age is just a number – but also proved that such a winner were he to be a country, he would have finished 16th in the medals tally. The women cricketers fluffed a great chance to down the Australians, failing to finish a chase they were handling so well so long as the skipper Kaur was in. India’s sporting enterprise is all set to conquer more frontiers in the forthcoming Asian Games and the Olympics.
navin_olympics
Spotlight On Naveen Patnaik’s Hockey Nurturing As 41-Year Olympic Drought Ends
Every stakeholder in India’s burgeoning hockey community — from the fans, players, the Indian men and women teams, and Hockey India — must doff its hat to the State of Odisha, and its five-time elected Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik. One of the very few tallest politicians in the country, an outlier if it can be said, Patnaik and his government have committed to spend Rs 150 crore on Indian Hockey from 2018 to 2023, which includes the two national teams. All the more, Patnaik is celebrating the men’s team’s bronze medal win at Tokyo, breaking the 41-year jinx, and the women’s team reaching the semi-finals. Odisha had four players in Tokyo, thanks to a plethora of academies in the State. Odisha staged the World Cup Hockey 2018, and it will do so in 2023 at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar and the Birsa Munda International Stadium in Rourkela. With the Covid-19 affecting normal life, Patnaik may not have been able to stir out of his Naveen Niwas residence often, but over the past fortnight he would have seen India in action in Tokyo. Others like the Sahara Group and a handful of Public Sector Units have supported Indian Hockey, but for demonstrating focused commitment for the development of Indian Hockey, Patnaik stands head and shoulders above the rest.
PVSindhu
Sindhu Wins Laurels In Tokyo Amid High Octane Coach Gossips
Not long ago the badminton grapevine was replete with talk of the impending break up between PV Sindhu and her coach Pullela Gopichand, and when it happened a few months before Tokyo 2020, none was surprised. On their part, the celebrated All-England champion and coach, Gopichand, and his illustrious protege-turned-champion, Sindhu, have not thrown the slightest hints of having quarrelled over some sensitive issues or the other. The two have maintained dignity and have not allowed their differences, as professionals, to become grist to the rumour mill. A jewel in India’s badminton scene, Sindhu has become a true champion, winning the Silver Medal at Rio 2016 with Gopichand as coach; the World Championship title at Basel, Switzerland in 2019 with South Korean coach Kim Ji Hyun; and most recently the Bronze Medal at Tokyo with another South Korean court-side coach in Park Tae Sang. Sindhu, at the peak of her career at 26, and daughter of former India volleyball internationals, Ramana and Vijaya, and younger sibling to Divya, who is a practicing doctor, was the 13th highest female athlete in the Forbes World list 2019 with prize money and endorsements earnings of $5.5 million. Already a darling of the badminton world and India’s sports loving public, Sindhu could easily double her big-event medal collection in the next few years, and also see more endorsements chasing her.
Kishen Narsi
Globe Trotter Kishen Narsi To Miss The Olympic Punch in Tokyo
A boxing globe trotter and a frequent traveler to the quadrennial Summer Olympics, Kishen Narsi has decided to give the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to be held in July-August, a miss. His daughter and son who live abroad have prevailed upon him to stay with his wife Ruby in Mumbai saying it’s best for him to do some homework!  A Mumbai kutchi who trained himself as paper-weight class boxer in the 1960s, Narsi went to Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992, Beijing 2008 and London 2012 as a referee-judge/ Jury member; and to Montreal 1976, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 as a spectator. The boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics by the Western countries prevented him from accepting the invitation to Russia. Narsi was also a referee-judge at the Asian Games at Bangkok 1978, New Delhi 1982, Seoul 1986, Beijing 1990, Hiroshima 1994 and Bangkok 1998 and Jury member at Guangzhou 2010. He has officiated at various world events in Armenia, Venezuela, Casablanca, Mongolia, Macau, Tashkent, Victoria, Mexico, Chicago, Doha, Canberra, Hamburg and Poland since 1970. There is still a lot of uncertainty about the Olympics in Japan which is considering extending the national emergency to tackle the Covid pandemic, but Narsi who is one of the experienced boxing officials in the world has taken a firm decision not to go. “Look, the Olympics will not be the same. On off days, I see other sports live. This time you will be stuck in the room. You cannot mingle because of restrictions,” said Narsi without a hint of disappointment. He has not responded to the accreditation form sent to him by the Tokyo Olympics Boxing Task Force.
cricket trophy
It’s T20 For Olympics 2028
There is a ‘Hundred’ revolution sweeping cricket. No more batsman or batswoman – they are all batters now. With a new format popping up, promoters wanted the game to be truly gender neutral and so it is bowler and batter now. But they had to stop their reform of cricket’s complex vocabulary there and had to retain ‘wickets’. They abandoned thoughts of making it ‘outs’ after a public backlash over the proposed changes. And so, mercifully, it will still be 70 for four wickets and so on although the fall of a wicket will be described as an ‘out’ on the glitzy screens broadcasting the new game from the UK. Cricket purists may have had a bit of a say in saving the soul of the game. Their wish may be fulfilled when the T20 format – now considered a somewhat more traditional form of cricket as it has been around at least for a couple of decades – will be recommended for the Olympics. The thought that the new-fangled ‘Hundred’ might be the format for the Los Angeles Olympics of 2028 was scotched. The ICC will propose to the IOC that T20 be the format for cricket’s Olympics debut and the traditionalists can heave a sigh of relief.
somaya_001
India Is A Medal Prospect At Tokyo Olympics: Somaya
Three-time Olympian (Moscow 1980, Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988), India captain and the gold medal winner at Moscow, MM Somaya is pleased as punch at the Indian team’s back-to-back wins against Rio Olympic gold medal winner, Argentina, in the FIH ProLeague in Buenos Aires. Somaya, who can articulate on hockey, retired as an Executive Director with oil major BPCL in 2017 after a 30-year service. He resides at Sportsfield, Worli in Mumbai and has spent the last year travelling to Coorg, Goa, Lucknow and Bhubaneswar to present the Sportstar Aces Award to Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. “India is certainly a medal prospect at the Tokyo Olympics in July–August. I saw both matches against Argentina. India played an all-round game. Earlier, one or two players would carry the burden or would be in focus. But this is a team wherein all 18 are good. There is strength across the field which the opposition finds difficult to contain. The team’s fitness levels are very high. And they are playing professional and correct hockey. Goalkeeping is critical in hockey and PR Sreejesh and Krishan Bahadur Pathak are giving us the confidence,” says Somaya who keeps himself fit by walking 6 km a day.  

TRENDS & VIEWS

Editor’s Note: Short Post Noticed By People Who Matter

Four years have zipped by and we are crossing another milestone on 31st January 2025 – it’s our 4th Anniversary. It feels good.
Looking back at the 1460 days, I must say Short Post has made its mark with people who matter via 4000 stories published in the areas of politics, business, entertainment and sports. All made possible by the unflinching commitment and dedication of our senior editors, most of whom have been part of this journey from Day One.
Small pack, big impact is in essence the story of Short Post which was launched at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. It shows our conviction. In all humility, I can say, we have created a new niche in the news segment space like Hindustan Unilever which created a new segment, when it launched CloseUp Gel.
Yes, we have created a brand (in a limited sense), created demand (readers) and created supply (senior journalists). But we are facing teething problems like all start-ups. What makes us happy and confident is the recognition of our efforts. For instance, we have an arrangement with the OPEN Magazine, part of the $4.5 billion Kolkata-based Sanjiv Goenka-RPG Group. This arrangement sees around 10 Short Post stories posted on OPEN Magazine website every week. This arrangement is testimony that our content has been well received! Also, I may add that the Maharashtra government has recognised Short Post and has allowed our senior editor to cover the Assembly sessions. Ditto: Odisha.
Our goal is to ensure that Short Post becomes a habit. I would like people to keep checking their smartphones to know the latest Authentic Gossip. As regards AI and the fear of it disrupting all businesses including media. On that, personally, I have no such fear as I am confident AI cannot smell news particularly Authentic Gossip. That’s the place we are well entrenched.