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Thursday, June 7, 2012

Proboscis of Chitta trumpets to a Poland win


It certainly is a much bigger stage than our IPL – the Euro 2012 -  2012 UEFA European Football Championship, the 14th European Championship for national football teams organised by UEFA is to commence tomorrow – 8th June 2012.  It is being hosted by Poland and Ukraine.  The final tournament features 16 nations, the last European Championship to do so (from Euro 2016 onward, there will be 24 finalists).

After a grand opening Ceremony the tourney will start with the Poland defeating  Greece in the first match.  Incongruous ! – woner, how the result of a match even before it is played – that is psychic prediction………

Poland  has got  the honour of opening Euro 2012 tomorrow against surprise 2004 winners Greece but it would take a major upset to see either team or co-hosts Ukraine progress as far as the July 1 final in Kiev.  UEFA president Michel Platini  has predicted a repeat of the 2008 Spain-Germany final, as holders  and world champions Spain arrive aiming for an unprecedented three titles in a row for a European country, while Germany are intent on avenging their defeat in 2008 and two years later in the World Cup semi-final.

Poland is a competitive team coached by Franciszek Smuda.  Smuda played as a defender for most of his career and played for clubs in Poland, US and Germany.  He would be banking on his goal keepers Wojciech Szczesny (Arsenal) ;  Defenders - Lukasz Piszczek,  Marcin Wasilewski, Jakub Wawrzyniak  and others even as there has been a clairvoyant support coming with the prediction of a Poland win.  

Recently I had posted  about a psychig pig hogging limelight in the style of  Paul the Octopus,  to predict Euro 2012 – there were reports of the  pig  predicting the results of matches from Kiev, the other Nation hosting the tourney. Kiev’s city government said  it would wheel out the porky tipster to give daily forecasts once the tournament kicks off.  For centuries, mankind has attempted various methods in knowing the future though some would question the rationality of  reading the future or fortune telling, as they call it; such things received a greater boost with  Paul the Octopus correctly predicting Germany’s win over England and made four more correct predictions after that.  Paul the Octopus was not alone; a rare two-headed tortoise called Magdalena embarked on a new career as a tipster at last year’s ice hockey world championships in Slovakia and there was the German cross-eyed opossum called Heidi, - and perhaps it was the turn of the  hog, which will be anxious to sniff out the correct result himself to avoid the chop as pork is a staple of the local cuisine.  


If one of the hosts does thus, can the other one – Poland be far behind – they have an elephantine answer !!  -  Krakow is a big and old city of Poland, situated on the Vistula river.  An Indian elephant named Chitta at Krakow zoo is also turning out to be a predictor.  Chitta claims to have a great track record - 12 correct predictions from 14 attempts, including a 100 per cent record in South Africa. According to zookeeper Jerzy Pirog, Citta correctly predicted the outcome of the Champions League final last month and has now been put to the test to predict the results of Poland’s group matches.

Poland can go into the match with greater degree of confidence as Citta has predicted a win for them.  Presented with a choice of three melons, each set out in front of either the Polish flag, the Greek one or a banner proclaiming a draw, 33-year-old Citta scooped up the one in front of the Polish flag.  The opportunity to predict did not come to it easily as reportedly it outsmarted an African Grey Parrot and a donkey by correctly deciding the winner as Bayern Munich.  Whether the pachyderm would end up to be as successful as Paul the Octopus remains to be seen.  It’s been a long road for the Indian elephant to reach this illustrious stage in her career, having previously worked for a German circus and then entertained visitors at nature parks in Austria and Spain as well as the zoo in Hamburg.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

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