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Indian Express
4 days ago
- Sport
- Indian Express
‘To see Leander do India proud gave Vece Paes a lot of happiness, and Chandigarh had a special place in his heart'
Before watching his son Leander Paes play in his maiden Davis Cup title against Japan at the age of 16 years and nine months at the grass courts at CLTA Stadium in Sector 10 in 1990, Munich Olympics bronze medal-winning Indian hockey team member Dr Vece Paes had watched Paes Junior win the ITF Juniors Tournament in 1989 at the same stadium. Then, 44-year-old Dr Vece Paes came to CLTA for the first time, and it would start a more than three-decade association of Paes Sr with the city. An honorary consultant with CLTA for long and a supporter of the CLTA's Chandigarh Academy of Rural Tennis, Dr Paes breathed his last at a hospital in Kolkata on Thursday morning. He was 80. CLTA founding member and former president Rajan Kashyap remembers one thing which remained with him since his first meeting with Paes Sr. 'I met him for the first time when Leander Paes won his first Junior ITF Title at CLTA before he came again to watch Leander make history for India with his debut in the Davis Cup tie against Japan in 1990. He would come for the next Davis Cup ties against New Zealand in 2012 and the World Group semi-final against Australia in 1993 at CLTA Stadium, apart from the Davis Cup tie against Korea at Chandigarh Club in 2016. While Leander won the Atlanta Olympics bronze medal, apart from making records in Davis Cup and Grand Slams for India, every time Dr Paes would make sure to downplay his feat of winning the Olympic bronze and wanted to remain in the background. To see Leander do India proud gave him a lot of happiness, and Chandigarh had a special place in his heart,' Kashyap told The Indian Express. Born in 1945 in Goa, Paes Sr would play for the Mohun Bagan and Bengal teams before he made his debut for the Indian team in the Hamburg International Cup in 1966. Later, he was selected for the Indian hockey team for the 1972 Munich Olympics as a centre-half, with Ajitpal Singh donning the role of the main centre-half of the Indian team. After Paes Jr played his maiden Davis Cup in Chandigarh, Dr Paes would visit Chandigarh often and come on board CLTA as an honorary consultant. 'Before the Davis Cup tie against Japan, I met Indian captain Naresh Kumar at Kolkata Race Course, and Kumar was very excited about Leander. He told me that he wants Leander in the team, and I told him that it's his choice as the captain of the team. Initially, Leander went to Chandigarh as the hitting partner for Rohit Rajpal, but on the day of the draw, Kumar decided to hand Leander his Davis Cup debut. Leander and Zeeshan Ali won the doubles match, and Leander would tell me later that it was nothing short of a festival in Chandigarh at that time. Later, Leander and I were associated with CLTA for more than 14 years, conducting coaching clinics and being on the advisory committee,' Dr Paes had told this correspondent in 2022. With CLTA starting its own rural programme in 1992, Dr Paes would keep a keen interest in that with charting the fitness programme for the trainees as well as supporting some of the trainees, including national champion Sunil Kumar. The Olympic bronze medallist would also be a pioneer in sports and worked as a medical consultant with the BCCI as well Indian Davis Cup teams. 'Dr Vece Paes joined CLTA as an honorary consultant, and his focus was on the nutrition as well as injury recovery of the young trainees. He would also support national champion Sunil Kumar, who would stay at his home in Kolkata for two years. During the 2013 World Group semi-final against Australia, where he was a consultant with the Indian Davis Cup team, he would play tennis along with me and the Spanish consultant and would enjoy the tennis sessions. He would never show that he is an Olympic bronze medallist. Whenever he would get free, he would make sure to ask about CLTA trainees, and it continued till recent years when he was fully fit,' shared Kashyap. Dr Paes would also prepare a blueprint regarding fitness and nutrition programmes for the school children in Chandigarh and had been in consultation with the UT Administration before the project failed to take off. 'Dr Vece Paes wanted to give as much of his knowledge to the players as he could. He had prepared the blueprint for the school children in Chandigarh and was in talks with the UT Administration for no fees for his services. Such was his passion for sports,' remembers Megh Raj IAS, COO, CLTA. CLTA head coach Romen Singh, too, had met Dr Paes and remembers his inputs. ' We were beginners in coaching and whenever he would visit Chandigarh, he would spend time with the coaches and trainees, emphasising the aspect of sports science as well as fitness,' says Singh.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Sport
- Time of India
Olympic hockey bronze medallist and sports icon Dr Vece Paes passes away
Dr. Vece Paes, a member of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games bronze-winning Indian men's hockey team and father of legendary tennis player Leander Paes , died here on Thursday morning. He was 80 years old. Paes, who was suffering from advanced stage of Parkinson's disease, was admitted to the Woodlands Hospital here on Tuesday morning. Paes was married to Jennifer, a former Indian basketball player who also served as the national team captain. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Buy the Dip: Top 5 Dividend Stocks with Growth Potential Seeking Alpha Read More Undo Paes' last rites will be performed either on Monday or Tuesday, as the family will wait for the arrival of his daughters, who are both settled abroad. Paes, who donned multiple hats in his long association with Indian sports, was a midfielder in the Indian hockey team . He also played several sports such as football, cricket and rugby and served as the president of the Indian Rugby Football Union from 1996 to 2002. Live Events A sports medicine doctor, he worked as a medical consultant with several sports bodies including the Asian Cricket Council, the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Indian Davis Cup team. His son, Leander, took Indian sports to great heights, becoming the most successful tennis player in the country's history by winning 18 Grand Slam titles, including eight men's doubles and 10 mixed doubles crowns. Leander also won the men's singles bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, thus keeping the family tradition alive of winning a medal at the quadrennial showpiece.
Axios
16-07-2025
- Business
- Axios
WNBA expansion teams are entering a league transformed
When Cleveland's WNBA team takes the court in 2028, it will enter a league vastly different from the one the Rockers unceremoniously exited in 2003. Why it matters: This time around, the yet-to-be-named team — along with forthcoming expansion teams in Toronto, Portland, Detroit and Philadelphia — can expect a larger fan base, bigger paychecks and brighter spotlights. The big picture: Ownership groups in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia each ponied up $250 million to secure expansion teams announced earlier this month, record-breaking sums that speak to the explosive growth of a league that was once a backwater and a laughingstock. It's now the hottest brand in pro sports. Owners who in the early aughts struggled to find investors for their distressed assets are now clambering for a piece of a rapidly expanding pie. Driving the news: This weekend's WNBA All-Star Game will feature Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark — one of the biggest reasons for the league's surging popularity — captaining a team on her home court, though she is questionable to play after an injury Tuesday. The 18,000-seat Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis sold out within hours. Flashback: In 2003, the Cleveland Rockers' average attendance was 7,400 per game, a stat juiced by discounted and complimentary tickets. The Rockers were one of the WNBA's eight charter franchises, but failed to turn a profit in each of their seven seasons. Team owner Gordon Gund, who also owned the NBA's Cavaliers, cut ties shortly after that season, and the team folded when Gund and the WNBA were unable to find local investors to assume ownership. Between the lines: Gund was not alone. The WNBA had surfed a cresting wave of enthusiasm for women's sports after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, but for years was unable to capture sports fans' sustained attention and spending power. Even the dynastic Houston Comets, who won the WNBA's first four championships, couldn't attract investors at an asking price of $12 million after the league took over the team in 2007. It folded a year later, to the dismay of its former stars. Fast forward: The landscape couldn't be more different today, as the WNBA monetizes the success of magnetic college superstars like Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers. It's now the fifth-most popular league nationwide, behind only the men's big four leagues: the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. Last year, the WNBA signed a lucrative media rights deal that will reportedly net it $200 million per year. Zoom in: Cavaliers CEO Nic Barlage told reporters in a press conference last week that the record-setting 2024 Women's Final Four in Cleveland was a good sign that the city was ready for a WNBA franchise. "Every key performance indicator we've looked at over the last three years has this trajectory that you haven't seen in and around a sports asset in quite some time," he said. "What was even more important to us was the way that communities engage with these assets. They really wrap their arms around these teams." What's next: Cities are doubling down on their investments with ancillary developments like practice facilities for their WNBA teams.
Sydney Morning Herald
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Vale The Back Page, a rare and beautiful exception to Hunter S Thompson's TV dictum
'The TV business is uglier than most things,' Hunter S Thomson famously wrote. 'It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason. Which is more or less true. For the most part, they are dirty little animals with huge brains and no pulse.' Harsh, I know! But there are many exceptions. One of them was The Back Page, the sports panel show which has finished up this week after a 29-year run. As one who was on it for its first decade and a bitty, I have been inundated with emails, texts and calls this week, from those lamenting its demise. Inevitably, many of the obits have focused on its latter years – which is fair enough because, to my amazement, it has been bloody successful for the last two decades, too, and really was a great show. With its latter-day incarnation hosted by Tony Squires and boasting panellists such as Crash Craddock, Adam Spencer and Candice Warner, the thing was still working and doing great box office. I have no clue why Fox Sports has cut it off at the knees, save the possibility its new owners, the British-based DAZN, intend to channel more foreign content to this small outpost on the other side of the planet at the expense of local content. But I digress. For my obit, let me focus a little on the first decade, when The Back Page proved the antithesis of Thompson's dictum. It was a terrific show because we all really liked each other, and were close friends well beyond whatever we put to air. The show was the idea of the veteran sports producer Saul Shtein. Knowing that Mike Gibson, the iconic sports broadcaster from Wide World of Sports, would be at the Atlanta Olympics at the same time as me, Saul asked me to duchess him on the idea of the show, after Mike had politely rejected his first approach. Mike and I got together one day at the beach volleyball, when Australia had just got the gold medal, and I pitched again.
The Age
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Vale The Back Page, a rare and beautiful exception to Hunter S Thompson's TV dictum
'The TV business is uglier than most things,' Hunter S Thomson famously wrote. 'It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason. Which is more or less true. For the most part, they are dirty little animals with huge brains and no pulse.' Harsh, I know! But there are many exceptions. One of them was The Back Page, the sports panel show which has finished up this week after a 29-year run. As one who was on it for its first decade and a bitty, I have been inundated with emails, texts and calls this week, from those lamenting its demise. Inevitably, many of the obits have focused on its latter years – which is fair enough because, to my amazement, it has been bloody successful for the last two decades, too, and really was a great show. With its latter-day incarnation hosted by Tony Squires and boasting panellists such as Crash Craddock, Adam Spencer and Candice Warner, the thing was still working and doing great box office. I have no clue why Fox Sports has cut it off at the knees, save the possibility its new owners, the British-based DAZN, intend to channel more foreign content to this small outpost on the other side of the planet at the expense of local content. But I digress. For my obit, let me focus a little on the first decade, when The Back Page proved the antithesis of Thompson's dictum. It was a terrific show because we all really liked each other, and were close friends well beyond whatever we put to air. The show was the idea of the veteran sports producer Saul Shtein. Knowing that Mike Gibson, the iconic sports broadcaster from Wide World of Sports, would be at the Atlanta Olympics at the same time as me, Saul asked me to duchess him on the idea of the show, after Mike had politely rejected his first approach. Mike and I got together one day at the beach volleyball, when Australia had just got the gold medal, and I pitched again.
