No conversation about Cricket in India can start without mentioning the fact that India is a nation that worships cricket and certainly idolizes the cricketers. If we start taking surveys of which is the most loved game in India, the statistical compass would easily point towards, cricket. India is a nation that records the highest number of cricket viewers. In 2017, the India Vs Australia test series became the most watches test series in history of India television with 1.1 billion gross expressions throughout the series and the 3rd test having 383 million expressions and whole test series having averaging 282 expressions per match. Even in case of fantasy sports, fantasy cricket tops the list with maximum users compared to other sports. As recorded in various statistical records the number of users who play fantasy cricket are approximately 20 million in 2018 in contrast to 2 million in 2017. Needless to speak, the number is still growing with experts speculating a user number of 100 million by 2019.
So, when so much is at stake, when millions of fans are rooting for you and your team, it becomes mandatory for you to perform well and like most of us, the cricketers too have their own little beliefs in jinxes. Remember how we used to take our lucky pen or wear our lucky shirt to school during the exams. In a similar fashion the cricketers too need their good luck charms in the field where they represent their nation in a global sporting arena. Numbers are more than the name of any cricketer and behind each jersey number is a story that is worth telling. MS Dhoni MS Dhoni or Mahi, as lovingly called by his fans, should start the list. He Probably is the most successful captain as he led his team into winning the world title, not once but twice. As for his jersey number, Dhoni chose 7 as the number as it is basically his birth date, since he was born on 7th of July. Also, the number was inspired from the jersey numbers of the greatest players of Manchester United George Best and Christiano Ronaldo. Needless to say, MU is his favourite football team and Dhoni himself played football for his school football team. Virat Kohli Kohli aka the ‘run machine’ also has a story behind his jersey number. Unfortunately, his story is more emotional than others as it associates with his father’s death. On 18 December 2006, Kohli’s father passed away when he was only 18 and since then his jersey number is 18. Yuvraj Singh Yuvraj was born on the 12th day of the 12th month of the year and his residence was in Sector 12 of Chandigarh. Needless to mention, this is the reason enough to make 12 his jersey number. Sachin Tendulkar The God of Cricket started his career with a different number and changed it soon when suggested by his astrologer. Sachin Tendulkar at the onset of his career used to wear a jersey number of 99. Things were not quite looking up of the master blaster whose astrologer then suggested him to change his number to 10. There was no looking back after that. Rahul Dravid Rahul Dravid is decent man who loves his wife. However, unlike others he proved it through his jersey. His jersey number of 19 is the day his wife Vijeta Pendharkar was born. Shikhar Dhawan The ‘Gabbar’ of the Indian Cricket Team adopted 25 as his jersey number after his daughter’s birthday. Rohit Sharma Rohit Sharma’s mother suggested the number 45 as his jersey number. Moms are never wrong!
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“I feel the way J. Robert Oppenheimer felt after having invented the atomic bomb: If I'd only known this plague that I've visited upon the world...."
– Dan Okrent (Founding Father of Rotisserie Baseball) Fantasy gaming is indeed a plague in the world now capturing the popular imaginations. Since this game includes an expansive demography ranging from the youths in their early 20s to people over 40s, both male and female- so fantasy sporting industry is now a booming business all over the world. Not to mention, India as a developing nation, is not lagging much behind the global trend and being a nation solely devoted to cricket, fantasy cricket is a household affair in this nation. Statistics show that the number of users who register and play fantasy cricket on various sites has been recorded to be no less than 20 million on March 2018. The number has been growing ever since. However, in contrast to the popularity of the game, not many might know the face behind this revolutionary gaming idea. Dan Okrent is the father of the modern day fantasy gaming. He is the founding father of ‘Rotisserie Baseball’ which is the prototype of current fantasy sporting. Before we get further into how he came up with this path breaking idea, let us first understand how Rotisserie Baseball works. In rotisserie scoring, the real-life statistics accumulated by the players on a team are aggregated and ranked against the same statistics for the other teams in the league. Fantasy points are earned based on these rankings. For example, in a twelve-team league, the team with the most rebounds over the course of the season to date would be awarded twelve fantasy points. The team with the next-highest number of rebounds would be awarded eleven fantasy points, and so on, with the team with the fewest rebounds being awarded a single fantasy point. For negative categories like fouls or turnovers, the team with the fewest statistics is awarded the most fantasy points. This is done for all categories counted by the particular league. The team with the highest number of fantasy points at the end of the season is the winner. Modern fantasy sports also works in the same way. Consider Fantasy cricket, all the users need to do is to form their own team of 11 and watch the team members play the match in real life. Scores would given according to the real life performance of the players. The user would get plus credits if his selected player plays well in the match and no points if his player doesn’t play or perform lower than expected. The match rules being such, the roots of the modern day fantasy gaming can be dated to a time 25 years back. It is famed that Daniel Okrent- a now well-renowned sportswriter- invented the rules to Rotisserie baseball on the back of a cocktail napkin on a long cross-country flight. The innaugural season of Rotisserie baseball began on the first Sunday after the Opening Day of the 1980 National League. The game's namesake was La Rotisserie Francaise, a locals' hangout in New York frequented by Okrent. The first group of team owners were entirely composed of writers and publishers, thereby word of the league spread quickly via the use of literary pulpits. Rotisserie baseball was low on the public radar until the mid-1990’s, when leagues began to branch out into football, basketball, and other sports. The Internet boom of the late 1990's created a revolution in the game. Enabling gamers to easily compute stats and monitor their teams brought Rotisserie baseball into the fantasy sports industry that we know today. So next time, you log into a fantasy site remember, it started from a cocktail napkin. Ideas can come from anywhere. Just keep your spirit up! Cricket has always been a batsmen’s game where every bit of the rule in the game has been designed to favor the batsman and not the bowler. From the very beginning the game had been biased towards the batting side. It is actually because at the core of the cricket it works on the ‘reactive science’ and the thrill of the game comes from the reply that a batsman can give to the ball hurled at him. Moreover, just look at the cricket viewership, have you ever seen anyone, not hungry for runs from their favourite team . Scoring the biggest amount of runs is what anyone ever wants to see from their team. It’s simple, taking more wickets didn’t make anyone win any match if their batting side didn’t do their job properly. Moreover in the current scenario when online games like fantasy cricket are growing in popularity, much of the game depends on the skill of the batsman. As it happens, in order to play fantasy cricket a player must create his own 11 and points would be earned based on the performance of the real players on field. So the more the runs of a batsman the more would be the points given to the user. However, this doesn’t mean bowlers are not all unimportant and performance of the bowlers can also make or break a match. Nevertheless, not all bowlers are famed for their flawless moves rather there came some phenomenal bowlers whose unique bowling tactics earned them recognition as the most unusual bowlers. Their styles are appreciated and enjoyed by all . Here is a list of 10 incredible bowlers whose bizarre bowling left the audience in awe.
1. Paul Adams Adams came in the limelight during the 1996 World Cup in the Indian subcontinent. He revived the dying art of Chinaman bowling. Described as the “frog in a blender” by Mike Gatting, Adams’ action bordered on being ugly. His bowling process involved taking a small run up and then a high jump, before giving his neck a jerk. In the process, he had no view of the batsman when he released the ball, thus making people wonder how he actually did that. Sadly, he could not play for his country for long. In recent times Shivil Kaushik and Kuldeep Yadav of the Indian Cricket team are carrying on with this bowling style. 2. Shivil Kaushik Shivil Kaushik became a household name after playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) where he represented Gujarat Lions (GL). A Chinaman bowler in Paul Adams’ mould, Kaushik has no view of the batsman at the point of releasing the delivery. 3. Lasith Malinga Malinga’s is probably one of the most extreme form of unorthodox bowling. The bowler has a slinging round-arm action which is almost impossible to imitate. His action has earned him the nickname ‘slinga’. 4. Jasprit Bumrah This latest Team India find also finds a mention on this list for his weird bowling action. Bumrah has a wide-arm action, which many find strange and unorthodox. When he takes the jump after running in hard to bowl, his hands create an awkward pose of a clock. 5. Mike Proctor He is known to be a man who had a wrong-footed action, as he jumped off his wrong foot while delivering a ball. Such an action is defined as one where the bowler delivers the ball while landing on his right foot (for right-handed), and on the left foot (for a southpaw). He was once described as man who bowled “at 100mph from mid-off off the wrong foot”. 6. Sohail Tanvir Tanvir is another wrong-footed bowler on this list, just like Proctor. He would also land on his left foot while delivering the ball, thus making his action look bizarre. 7. Muttiah Muralitharan Arguably the greatest off-spinner and the leading wicket-taker in Tests and ODIs, Muralitharan had a debatable bowling action. While many swear by the square turn he would get on pitches across the globe, some others argued he had an illegal action. And even as his action was cleared by the ICC time and again, it was his facial expression while releasing the ball that made many laugh. 8. Colin Croft One of the most fearsome bowlers ever to come out of the Caribbean, Croft had a freakish bowling action, which would keep the batsmen guessing. On most of the occasions, he ran in so close to the stumps that he almost came in the way of the umpire’s vision of the batsman, thus making it virtually impossible for him to read the bowler. On top of it, when the batsman finally got to see him, he would drift away towards his left at an awkward angle. He also gave an impression of being a left-arm pacer when he charged in, while in reality, he was a right-arm bowler. 9. Jeff Thomson Former Australian fast bowler and an all-time great Jeff Thomson is arguably the fastest bowler ever to play the game. Viv Richards himself has given a testimony to this fact, saying Thomson was the fastest he ever faced. However, the legendary bowler had a bit of an unusual bowling action. The first and the original ‘slinga’ of world cricket, Thomson bowled with a slinging action, from which he derived his pace. 10. Inzamam-ul-haq Very few people know that Inzamam also bowled for a brief period in his career and even has three international wickets to his name. His bowling action though was nothing short of weird, as the slow left-arm orthodox bowler would take a small run up and keep his bowling arm hidden behind the back almost up to the point of release. It made for a funny view. Everything’s fair in love and cricket be it in case of the live game or in fantasy cricket. As a sport that hails from early as the 18th century the sport certainly has quite a number of rules and norms that each player should follow in order to maintain the fairness of the sport. From the length of the pitch to how a bowler should ball or a batsman should bat are all fixed. However, one area of batting where the batsman is at his liberty is his batting stance. And while fans pitch their support for the batsmen like Virat Kohli or Sir Don Bradman whose flawless batting made them world class heroes, there also is a significant number of batsmen who are famous for their unconventional and weird style of batting.
2. Kevin Pietersen Another modern-day batting great, Pietersen too had an unusual batting stance and technique. Whenever he came out to bat, Pietersen would stand at the crease with his feet wide apart from each other and played with a high backlit. The distance between his legs would be so much that a small-sized vehicle may easily pass through the gap. Further, he would keep shuffling and walking across the pitch, making it all the more difficult for the bowlers to bowl at him. 3. Lance Klusener Lance Klusener or Lance ‘Zulu’ Klusener was known for his unusual baseball-like batting stance. He would stand with his bat going as high as his shoulders and then clobber the ball with his club-like bat. The high back-lift had allowed him to hit freely. 4. Steve Smith Former Australian captain Steve Smith also had an unorthodox style for batting. He used to stand with a considerable gap separating his feet and used to keep swerving his bat. Moreover, he used to shuffle and walk across the line before playing a shot and used to get them executed, thanks to his high back-lift. His too much shuffling however used to irritate bowlers and viewers sometimes. But this is also the only batting style has made him the top batsman in the world across formats.
What is the most loved sport in the world?
If we ask this question to 10 random strangers, 8 out of 10 will say Football or soccer (as it’s known in USA) to be the sport that is endorsed largely all over the world. With approximately 5 billion recorded television viewers of the FIFA tournament, around 2-3 billion TV audience for the Euro event and with 5-6 million registered users who play fantasy football or fantasy soccer the sport is undoubtedly at the peak of the sporting pyramid. The game is 90 minutes of pure beauty with raw adrenaline pumping through the veins of those play as well as those who watch the play. But I am not here to blindly praise the sport without giving valid justifications. I am rather here to mull over a completely different aspect of the game. What attests football to be more than just a sport is it’s philanthropic abilities and its political implications. In the contemporary world, Europe has been going through an unification triggered by Football. This is rendered possible primarily due to lenient immigration laws of the countries under the ambit of the European Union. European football is now standing at the threshold of a new era where sport an politics share the same page in shaping the Society. Thanks to the increasingly liberal mindset of the people and their government all over the EU countries that now enables people to travel and settle anywhere in Europe without much hassle. Since the 1990s there also has been a significant amendment in the European Refugee Laws led to greater acceptance of Refugees to take settlement in Europe from across the world. Compared to other sectors, the football training academies and clubs are ahead of the race to recruit refugees and non-nationals into the club. Clubs that once recruited fans and players from their immediate neighbourhood now scour the continent for talent and are watched in every country. Consequently, any individual with talent can get enrolled into any of the clubs regardless of their nationality. This is rendered possible due to Europe’s political and economic integration. In the 1990s, football integration in Europe leapt forward, driven directly by the expansion of European law. The free movement of labour around Europe meant it was no longer legal for football leagues in the EU to limit the number of foreigners in their teams. All EU citizens (though not all foreigners) had to be treated equally. Around the same time, the European Court asserted that footballers, like other workers, were free to move anywhere at the end of their contracts, without their old employers demanding a transfer fee. Things are now at a much smoother pace and every small as well as Premier European clubs are actively taking part in enrolling refugees into football training clubs all across Europe which is not only bringing out more talent and variety in football but is also giving relief and bettering the lives of the ailing refugees. In autumn 2016, Bayern 04 Leverkusen and FC Basel launched the first project of the Football Club Social Alliance for refugees. In a six-day project, 39 Syrian women and men from the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan became football coaches with special competences. The men and women received training from two trainers from Bayern 04 Leverkusen. Club Brugge is also actively engaged in integrating refugees. The club has opened its solidarity team to refugees. This means for participants that they receive training materials, meals and assistance in the job and housing search. Werder Bremen provides children and young adults with the opportunity to attend football practices in four different city districts. The club regards the training as a valuable opportunity to socially integrate the refugees. Next to football practices, Werder Bremen aims at integrating the refugees through offering excursions and moviemaking courses. These changes have culminated into making the European football teams more racially and ethnically diverse thus presenting us with a truly World Class style football. Imagine walking into a party with a room full of unknown faces. Can you think of any better way to break the ice and bond with the people around, other than indulging yourself with any game they are playing? The Answer would be No. In general, sports and games are the greatest motivators that help in the creation of a team spirit, an overall friendly atmosphere and eventually a positive mentality in the people involved. This brings me to the concept of the growing practice among the employers in India to involve their employees in Fantasy sports in the work place, especially Fantasy Cricket.
India being a cricket worshiping nation has a gigantic number of viewers. According to the official report of ICC, cricket has over one billion fans globally, with the Indian sub-continent alone constituting more than 90% of them. Thus, with the amount of passion involved it would be more feasible and meaningful to play fantasy cricket at the workplace than any other games. Here are some reasons as to why more and more organizations are allowing their employees to play online cricket games like those in various fantasy cricket leagues. It increases productivity of the Employees Dale Carnegie stated the importance being happy at your work on various occasions. Happy workers renders the best results. Employers nowadays understand the importance of the balance between work and play. Games and Leisure have a positive impact on the mind of the workers as it can relieve the stress and rule out boredom , consequently boosting positive energy to continue their work. Induce Team spirit It is a great way for the co-workers to bond with each other through their participation in the fantasy leagues. Even if the company does not have its own office league, employees can discuss their performance in other leagues with their colleagues. This in turn will increase the interaction among the co-workers and will strengthen the team spirit in the office. Sharpen the employees’ decision making skills Fantasy sport be it Fantasy cricket or football is a game of decisions. Successful fantasy sports players constantly evaluate their teams to determine strengths and weaknesses, and how they can make their team better. Decisions are made on a daily basis and similar to business. Poor decisions made in the past are in many cases regretted and not forgotten. What you learned from bad decisions can help you not make the same mistake again. Nevertheless, despite all its benefits, fantasy games also have a considerable amount of risk of turning quickly into gambling from just being an innocent game of skill. Especially in the leagues that requires entry fee environment can soon turn one of wagering. If such happens, this can either result in a lingering lawsuit against the firm or a violent competition among the employees. In order to curb this situation, organizations must lay down thorough rules to explain the kind of fantasy sports allowed at the work place and also proper code of conduct for the employees during the fantasy leagues. Remember, responsible gaming is everything 13 July, 1930 is the day, it all began. This date marks the beginning of what would become world’s most extravagant event with millions of screaming fans and fan-chants. “Goal!!” would become an emotion. But somehow the name of the man who started all these got buried under the dust, forgotten. Lucien Laurent was the man who scored the first goal ever in the history of the FIFA tournament. But back in the day FIFA was not a big deal at all, with only 13 teams playing as against 32 in the current scenario. Not many people knew about this tournament; they were not even interested. Football was in its infancy when Laurent had achieved this feat without being aware of how big the succeeding years would be for FIFA. He even stated in an interview: "Of course, back then I couldn't have imagined the significance the goal would have. We didn't even know the World Cup would last. I remember when I got home, there was just a tiny mention in one of the papers. Soccer was in its infancy.." The tournament was a small affair and Lucien recalls how they traveled to Uruguay by a ship along with their opponents Belgium and Romania. He further shared, it took them two weeks to reach their destination and every morning they used to have a training session on the deck and then used to run on the spot in the afternoon. Back in the day, the struggle was real and Laurent had to take leave from his company “Peugeot” (a car manufacturing company), which was an unpaid leave, in order to go and play in the tournament. Even the French Football Federation paid only a minimal expense to the team players who played as amateur players. Lauren’s goal against Mexico came in the 19th minute after right winger Ernest Liberati had pulled it back from the goal-line following centre-back Chantrel's long ball. However, the veteran footballer shared that the goal was not much of an affair in the pre-world war era and in France only one paper had a tiny mention of their achievements. Football, being still in its nascent stage was not celebrated much. Unfortunately, Laurent could not play in the final game of the French campaign after getting injured against Argentina in their third game of the campaign. The French journey ended after losing in their successive group league matches against Argentina and Chile. Clubs for which Laurent Played: Lucien started his career under a semi-professional team Cercle Athlétique de Paris (CA Paris) between 1921-1930, followed by FC Sochaux-Montbéliard . He also played for teams Club Français , FC Mulhouse, Rennes, Strasbourg, Toulouse FC, Besançon RC Laurent passed away on 22 April, 2005 at the age of 97 It doesn’t matter if you watch a live football or play fantasy football, which is basically a side-kick of the real game, here are some football jargons that you might or might not know.
The Roulette or the Marseille Turn is a type of dribbling skill which basically involves a spin move around the ball. It can be done when the player is stationary or moving with the ball. It involves dragging the ball back to his main foot, doing a body spin (360 degrees) and getting the ball back to the weaker foot. Michael Laudrup is often credited for being the first player to use this technique, and since then many notable footballers like Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi and Kaka have successfully executed the Marseille Turn.
India is a cricket worshiping nation. Nothing can be truer than this. So what is expected is that most of the innovations that have happened in cricket should have started from this nation. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The greatest of all changes that have happened in the game after centuries since its inception, the pink match ball has been embraced by many nations except for India who are still reluctant to let go of the iconic cherry red test ball. However, this is not the only thing that BCCI is known to be reluctant about. Many new aspects of international cricket , from Twenty20s Decision Review System, to embracing Test cricket under lights are still waiting for a whole-hearted welcome from the Indian Cricket Control board. This is quite unlikely for a country where Cricket is such a big deal that users of Fantasy cricket gaming apps range nowadays from a whopping number of 7-8 million and growing. More than many country’s gross population. So why this Pink Match Ball is still waiting for a clear green light, from the board to be able to enter the Indian cricket arena?
The problem lies, as a whole, with the reluctance of India to adopt the Day/Night test cricket. But if BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary is to be believed, it could only a matter of time before India plays with the pink ball. Mr. Chaudhury had stated that he brought the issue up to the officials and decision would be taken. However, there are reports that also suggest that India won’t a play a day-night Test because it is not part of the World Test Championship. Either way, India playing a Test match under lights at home seems like a matter that would take time. India and Bangladesh are the only two teams that are yet to play a Test match under lights. Australia has played a day-night Test as part of their home season for the last three years at Adelaide – against New Zealand, South Africa and England – and would definitely want to play one against India. Understandably, India wouldn’t want their first pink-ball experience to be in the tricky conditions at Adelaide and will want to play one at home before. Especially when the players shoulders the responsibilities of the dreams and hopes of their fans. Having a good Stat and winning is important especially in an age like this when fans also engage directly in the game when they play fantasy cricket online through their own device. With Day/Night Test matches out of the question, the question that is concerning ardent cricket fans more that why is the nation so reluctant to adopt the Pink Ball. The pitch factor definitely plays in here. People are concerned about how the pink ball will behave in Indian conditions, with factors such as flatter pitches, dew factor and reliance on spinners. The Duleep Trophy in 2016-’17 and then in 2017-’18 were played under lights on an experimental basis and the pink ball didn’t get a vote of confidence from most players. Many Indian cricketers expressed that the pink ball offers very little assistance to the seamers and particularly becomes difficult to play with during under dew factor. The other problems with the ball, manufactured by Kookaburra at their factory in Melbourne, are the slower wear-and-tear which reduces swing, the visibility of the black seam, and how conducive it for spinners. The spin factor is something that can be worked upon on a turning track, but might not be effective on flatter ones, according to a batsman who played Duleep Trophy. Shannon Gill, the Head of Communications of Kookburra replied to this concern that the structural changes between the pink and red ball are made to ensure visibility under lights. Unfortunately, the structural changes are what keeping the ball from getting adopted by the Indian Cricketers. The Pink ball is also susceptible to wear and tear which affects its visibility once the ball gets covered with dirt and dust. Nevertheless, Gill is sanguine about the progress the pink ball is making and stated that players are just sceptical to adopt this new ball because they are usually used to playing with ball of a particular color and seam. It is just a adjustment phase he stated and before much time, we can the pink balls hitting our pitch. What is the basic difference between the FIFA football tournament and tournaments of all the other sports? Glam and prestige of the game is certainly not the sole factor that make FIFA a premier tournament as there are other sports events that are as prestigious as FIFA itself, say for example Olympics is as great as FIFA . Nevertheless the thing that distinguishes the designated football tournament than all other tournaments is the Football itself. The match ball of the tournament is the star and unlike other sports where equipments to be used are not given much attention, FIFA idolizes its match ball. What makes the ball special is its purpose and the vision it encapsulates. The FIFA match ball is more than just a ball, it is the flavour and purpose of the whole game. This is why each year new match balls are introduced to represent the essence of that particular year’s tournament. Since the tournament has been there since as early as 1930 and is still going strong every 4 years saw the advent of a new style match ball; each one better than the last one. Here is a list of all the match balls involved in the game from 1930 till the present.
1930 World Cup (Uruguay) : T-Model The very first tournament used balls that were manufactured in England itself or the country that spread this game throughout the world. The ball which is popularly called the “T-Model” was used. It got its name from the distinctive t-shaped panel on its sides. The 1934 World Cup (Italy): Federale 102 By 1934, soccer was booming all over the world, and plenty of manufacturers in other countries were making balls, too. According to Pesti, the fevered nationalism of Mussolini-era Italy "required" that the balls used in their World Cup be made in Italy. Hence the Federale 102: a 13-panel lace-up ball made in Italy. 1938 World Cup (France) : Allen French World Cup, French soccer ball: The Paris-manufactured Allen, a 13-panel ball with laces—which were how these early balls were inflated, before the era of valves. It seems that other models were used in the matches, too, though there's no way to say how many. 1950 World Cup (Brazil) : Super Duplo T In the 1930s, Tossolini an Argentinean company had created a ball with a hidden valve that could be pumped into shape, rather than manually blowing up through laces. But it took two decades for FIFA to accept the new design, and it wasn't until the 1950 World Cup that it saw play. This was Super Duplo T model. 1954 World Cup (Switzerland): Swiss World Champion This Swiss-made ball was unique for its zig-zag edges, which were sewn together by hand, of course. The ball, like all official balls in those days, was completely free of printing and branding. 1958 World Cup (Sweden) : Top Star This was the first year that FIFA selected its ball based on a competition. The winner in the randomized trial of more than 100 balls was a Swedish company called Sydsvenska Laderoch Remfabriken, who supplied a ball called Top Star notable for its waterproof waxed surface. 1962 World Cup (Chile): Crack This ball was known as "the Crack." It was unique in the sense that its surface was composed of 18 irregular polygonal shapes, which gave it a complicated look. 1966 World Cup (England) : Challenge 4-star This ball ‘Challenge 4-star’, made by a British company , represents the end of an era: After 1966, Adidas took over the job of designing and manufacturing World Cup Balls. This baby was made of 25 rectangular panels and, notably, still adhered to the rule that there should be no markings or branding on the ball. Oh, how things have changed. 1970 World Cup (Mexico) & 1974 World Cup (Germany) : Telstar & Telstar Durlast The ball used for the 1970 and 1974 World Cup was the Telstar, design by Adidas. It was the first white football ever to be painted with black pentagons which became synonymous with football throughout the world. The distinct 32 white and black leather panels that comprised the Telstar made it the roundest ball of its time. 1978 World Cup (Argentina) & 1982 World Cup (Spain) : Tango & Tango Espana The famous Adidas Tango design was introduced for the 1978 World Cup, and used again in 1982. The Tango design formed the blueprint for the next five FIFA World Cup footballs. 1986 World Cup (Mexico) : Azteca The ball for the 1986 World Cup, the Adidas Azteca, was the world's first fully synthetic football. 1990 World Cup (Italy) : Etrusco Unico The Adidas Etrusco Unico, the official ball in 1990, in addition to being fully produced with synthetic materials, was also completely water resistant. 1994 World Cup (United States) : Questra Adidas introduced the first official match ball featuring a high tech ultra high energy-return layer of white polyethylene foam, giving a greater performance ball. 1998 World Cup (France) : Tricolore The ball used in 1998, the Adidas Tricolore, was the first ever multi-colored official match ball. 2002 World Cup (South Korea) : Fevernova The official ball of the World Cup in 2002 was the Fevernova. It featured a refined syntactic foam layer to give the ball superior performance characteristics. 2006 World Cup (Germany): Teamgeist The official ball in Germany 2006 is the Teamgeist again designed by Adidas. This ball incorporates a figure-8 design for each ball segment, which results in less joins and therefore more flat area so that a foot strike is more likely to hit a soft point on the ball. 2010 World Cup (South Africa) : Jabulani The official match ball for the South Africa World Cup is named the "Jabulani", which means "bringing joy to everyone" in the language isiZulu (isiZulu is the language of the Zulu people, with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority of whom live in South Africa). This is the eleventh World Cup match ball made by Adidas, and it features eleven colors, one for each player on the pitch. For the World Cup Final, a golden colored version of the ball, the "Jo'bulani", was used. All the balls were constructed of eight thermally-bonded polyurethane panels, making them very nearly waterproof. With internal stitching, the nearly perfect sphere did not behave as expected for the players, causing many complaints during the 2010 World Cup. 2014 World Cup ( Brazil) : Brazuca The official soccer match ball of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil is the Brazuca, again made by Adidas. The ball boasts several critical design innovations, most noticeably six identical "boomerang" shaped panels, just a couple fewer than the ball from the last World Cup, the Jabulani's eight, and many less than the thirty-two seen on common soccerballs. The Brazuca's swirling seam structure and a raised nub texture, similar to a basketball's, are supposed to improve its touch and aerodynamics. 2018 World Cup (Russia) : Telstar (Telstar 18 & Telstar Mechta) The Adidas Telstar 18 is the official match ball of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The black and white patterned ball was named for its resemblance to the original Telstar communications satellite, which was coined by the combination of the word "television" and "star. The ball has an embedded near-field communication (NFC) chip to provide interactivity for consumers who purchase the ball. Article By: http://www.11wickets.com |
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