Teams/players you absolutely dislike (any sport)?

[raja]

*** THIS THREAD is ONLY IN JEST, NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY ***

Am not using the word "hate" here (it's a bit too strong) but I think "dislike" will do just fine.

Which players/teams do you dislike? (And for what reason)

I'll go first, with a few (will add later)

1) England (cricket) - scars from the 1974 India tour of England when India were humiliated 0-3 (check the scorecards, esp of 2nd and 3rd Tests to see how badly they were humiliated). This was the first Test series I followed - was scarred for life.

2) England (any sport) - Spilling over from 1), I dislike England in every sport. My biggest thrill in every football World Cup is the day England gets knocked out. I know football matters more to England than any other sport, so the thrill is even more. :-) Thankfully I was too young in 1966 - and hopefully England won't win another World Cup in my lifetime (though I live in dread of this every 4 years). And no, their winning the U-17 World Cup recently doesn't count.

3) English individual sportspersons - again, spilling from 1).
(You can see how scarred I am).

P.S: I have NOTHING against England or English people otherwise. Have met many, worked with many. Have English friends too. Good guys, great sense of humour. It's only a sports thing. :-) Even with the sports individuals, I know they're nice guys - just that they happen to be English, so I can't bring myself to accept them warmly (Call me a sports bigot if you like :-)).

4) ManU - football. Partly stemming from 1) above, but taken to a different level by the tall poppy syndrome. I should be disliking all English clubs equally, going by above logic, but I have a certain "special" relationship with ManU. Arsenal and Chelsea I can stand, Liverpool I actually like - but ManU? Am allergic to them. :-)

5) Mumbai - cricket. Again, tall poppy syndrome. They are the giants (or, rather bullies) of Indian domestic cricket. Have been, since cricket began evolving in the 1930s. Won the Ranji trophy SO many times that it's got to be boring for a neutral to see them in the final everytime. Many of the big names of Indian cricket - from Merchant to Gavaskar/Vengsarkar/Shastri to Tendulkar - played for Mumbai (earlier Bombay). Mainly batsmen. Their style of batting is known to be largely attritional.

6) Mumbai Indians - cricket. Same reason as 5 above. The happiest day of an IPL season for me has always been the day Mumbai Indians has been knocked out. :-)

Ok, that's it for now.

Please share your lists. Note, this is all in jest only. No offence intended to anyone. With malice towards none...and all that.

[Katto]

too many to mention

[Boycs]

I still don’t fully get your aversion of England teams. You seem to be hyping them up in the ashes thread and you refer to England as “we” in any matches against India. And then you post threads like this?

[raja]

too many to mention

Maybe you can start with your "favourite" Sheffield Shield team, assuming you have one.

[raja]

I still don’t fully get your aversion of England teams. You seem to be hyping them up in the ashes thread and you refer to England as “we” in any matches against India. And then you post threads like this?

I genuinely believe England are the No.1 team in Test cricket at the moment. Not in other formats, but certainly in Tests.
Winning the Ashes is a done deal, only question is the margin.

As for "we" when England play BCCI, that's because it's BCCI.
It's only in England-BCCI contests that I warm to England.
(That 1974 series was when I was a young boy and wanted India to win. All that evaporated when India became BCCI. :-))

[Katto]

too many to mention

Maybe you can start with your "favourite" Sheffield Shield team, assuming you have one.

I dont hate any sheffield shield team

nobody watches shield cricket, they all need all the support they can get

[raja]

For a while in India too the Ranji Trophy had lost its sheen, but of late it's come back onto the radar.
Partly because there's so much money now in the Indian cricket ecosystem that even first-class cricket gets good coverage in the papers.
Matches (at a later stage, like QFs, SFs, final) also get live telecast, I think - I remember seeing some such matches a couple of years ago.

Finally it's about money.

Sad to learn that nobody watches Shield cricket anymore. I remember in the 70s there'd be just the abridged scorecard in Indian newspapers of Sheffield Shield games. Tucked away in one corner. I'd read every bit of the sports pages - so I'd get to know if Redpath had scored a hundred for Victoria or Ian Chappell for SA or Greg for Queensland or Doug Walters for NSW. :-) There's a charm about first-class cricket, regardless of which country we're talking about.

[Boycs]

I agree totally with your comment about charm.

[Katto]

For a while in India too the Ranji Trophy had lost its sheen, but of late it's come back onto the radar.
Partly because there's so much money now in the Indian cricket ecosystem that even first-class cricket gets good coverage in the papers.
Matches (at a later stage, like QFs, SFs, final) also get live telecast, I think - I remember seeing some such matches a couple of years ago.

Finally it's about money.

Sad to learn that nobody watches Shield cricket anymore. I remember in the 70s there'd be just the abridged scorecard in Indian newspapers of Sheffield Shield games. Tucked away in one corner. I'd read every bit of the sports pages - so I'd get to know if Redpath had scored a hundred for Victoria or Ian Chappell for SA or Greg for Queensland or Doug Walters for NSW. :-) There's a charm about first-class cricket, regardless of which country we're talking about.

They used to broadcast sheffield shield during the 80's and early 90's on TV either during the breaks in test cricket or sometimes they'd show a full day's play. Often it was more entertaining than the test matches at that time. Its interesting to see up and coming players that go on to represent the national team. Now we have no visibility of that. Some guy gets selected to debut and chances are we've never seen him before.

[Boycs]

Now that sky have a dedicated cricket sports channel they show some county championship matches and when there’s no live cricket they have endless loops of all the sky analysis academy/coaching zone things with people bowling at Nasser and athers in the nets.

[Katto]

on the flip side we can watch all the shield matches live online now if you have an optus account
the commentary is pretty bad though and there's only 2 cameras, but its better than nothing

[Mick180461]

on the flip side we can watch all the shield matches live online now if you have an optus account
the commentary is pretty bad though and there's only 2 cameras, but its better than nothing

You do not need an Optus account to watch the Shield, go in through Cricket.com.au join ACF(totally free) its only when you want to watch the Internationals do you have to pay and you dont need an Optus account for that either.
The quality of the Shield coverage varies from State to State, Adelaides quite good on both coverage and commentary and for the 1st time this season we are getting cameras from both ends. The commentary from Sydney is pretty ordinary yes but better then Brisbane or Perth(none).

[Leo]

Football: Brazil
Cricket: "THEY will just Kill Me" as I will continue in CF

[raja]

Football: Brazil
Cricket: "THEY will just Kill Me" as I will continue in CF

Come on, Leo, you can take names.
Nobody will take any offense here.
This thread is anyway just for fun.

[Leo]

Top Hate: India & Pakistan
2nd Hate: England

[Katto]

Not a big fan of players who virtue signal or use their platform as a sporting star to talk about politics

[raja]

:bts:

Top Hate: India & Pakistan
2nd Hate: England

Pakistan has a lot of likeable cricketers though.

[bolero]

Top Hate:-

1. Sri Lankan Team of the late 90's and 2000's - The had a certain arrogance and smirk which I disliked. On top of that, there were a plethora of bowlers with suspect actions - Warnaweera, Murali, Ruchira Perera etc.
2. Bangladeshi fans in the online world - It can be humorous watching them but can get very irritating. Leo is a total exception to the kinds I have seen. Seeing the fans, you will feel Bangladesh is the no 1 team in any format.
3. Aaquib Javed. I loathed that guy.
4. Man U - was my pet hate at one point of time. I dont mind anyone beating them Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City.

[bolero]

Some more but these are are top of the mind recalls.

[Leo]

:bts:

Top Hate: India & Pakistan
2nd Hate: England

Pakistan has a lot of likeable cricketers though.

Well, those are the teams I hate. But individually I like many players from India, Pakistan & England.

Even in Football I like Neymar