I love sports. Anybody, and I mean anybody who knows me, knows it. I dish out statistics on cue, narrate sporting events with appropriate accuracy and intensity and draw parallels between game situations and real-life issues generously in everyday conversations.

But alas, ladies and gents, I am cursed by the sporting gods for I cannot make a winning prediction or get the teams I chose to win. Not even to save my own life!

I've suspected of this curse for years now, but frankly its getting worse every year.

Here is evidence from this past year -

1) NBA Finals (2006) :- Phoenix suns and Dallas Mavericks are two of the few teams I root for in the NBA. And they met in the Western Conference finals. I picked and hoped Suns to win, but they lost and Dallas proceeded to the Championship finals where they played against the Miami Heat (whom I detest despite the presence of D.Wade). I'd hoped either Suns or Mavericks to win the championship and yes you guessed it - Miami beat Dallas in the finals.

2) FIFA Soccer World Cup (2006) - The teams I root for (the reasons why will be explained in a separate post) - England & Argentina ( and in that order). Both teams, especially England, fielding probably their best teams on paper. Both teams qualify to the Quarterfinals where they lose to Portugal and Germany respectively. Gaah. And with that Q.final defeat, ended the world cup dreams of David Beckham and a host of other England superstars. The finals was played between Italy and France. I picked France, primarily b'cos I'm a huge fan of Zinedine Zidane. Long story short - France lost and Zidane was sent off after being given the red card for the headbutting incident.

3) MLB (Baseball 2006) - I'm a big New York Yankees fan. They struggled the first part of the season, but thanks to A-rod and Giambi and some great ball play all around in the second part of the regular season, Yankees went on to over-take the Boston Redsox to win the AL East Division and seemed poised to make it to the ALCS and who knows, maybe even the World Series. But in order to get there, they had to get past Detroit Tigers in the Divisional Series. Easy eh? Not quite. Yankees lost 3-1 in the 5 game series. And another year went by without winning the championship. Other teams I followed namely - NY Mets, San Deigo Padres and Cleveland Indians all LOST.

4) NFL (Football -2006) - Again, since being from the Jersey/NY area, I'm a big follower of the New York Giants (who incidentally play in the Giants Stadium located in jersey). I had this gut feeling that this would be their year. They had all the right ammunition to go all the way. They went all the way allright - all the way back home where they got front row seats to watch Indianapolis Colts play Chicago Bears at the Superbowl. Disappointing since at one point during the season they had a 5-2 record. And then they just fizzled out. Amazing. Other teams I followed, including San Deigo Chargers also lost.

5) ICC Cricket World Cup (2007) - India, England, New Zealand & Sri Lanka in that order. And India looked like a team which could potentially beat Australia and take it to the next level after their superb 2003 WC campaign. They had the depth in batting and their bowling should be ideally suited to West Indian pitches.All those hopes (& hype) blown away when India lost to Bangladesh and Srilanka in the group stages to crash out of the world Cup. They were joined by their equally illustrious northern neighbors, Pakistan, which precluded the possibility of the much awaited world cup clash between the rivals and almost at once the tournament lost much of its charm and was reduced itself to mediocrity. If the ICC had any common sense, they would have called off the world cup & promptly handed over the trophy to Australia. It has ofcourse been long established that they do not have the above mentioned common sense.
New Zealand and England crashed out in subsequent stages. Watching England wheeze & crawl through the group stages was a severe test to the endurance levels of the fans and viewers alike, akin to stabbing oneself with a fork. A blunt fork. Repeatedly.

6) NBA (baskeball-2007) - Ah, a complete cycle. And with every winter comes spring! A time for flowers to bloom again and life rejuvenated. A quick look to see how some of the teams I picked performed -

Phoenix Suns - Lost in the second round of the playoffs
Dallas Mavericks - Lost in the first round of the Playoffs
Detroit Pistons - Lost in the Eastern Division Conference finals.
NBA Finals - San Antonio Vs Cleveland Cavaliers. I picked Cavaliers. They lost 4-0.

So much for Spring and winter and all that nonsense.

Could there be some sort of explanation to what's been happening? I believe there is. The underdogs dont seem to be winning anymore. Stay tuned.

To be Continued.