Kazakhstan’s tennis lovers are in for a treat this week as their national team takes on Switzerland for a place in the elite World Group of the Davis Cup, the men's international team tournament. The team's rapid rise in international standings has come in an unusual way. Rather than waiting for homegrown talent to emerge, Kazakhstan has poached a number of middle-ranking Russian players, given them Kazakh passports and – presto – suddenly has a team that can take on the best in the world.
Russian-born Andrey Golubev, who was languishing in the twilight zone of Russian tennis before he got his big break and Kazakh passport in 2008, will lead Kazakhstan's charge. Since emigrating he has steadily climbed the world rankings to stand at 39. In July he won his first tournament, the German Open in Hamburg.
On the way to the threshold of the top sixteen teams in the world, Kazakhstan recently brushed aside China and South Korea. Hopes are high that home advantage will give the team an edge over the Swiss in the match, to be played in Astana's National Tennis Center from September 17-19.
Leading Switzerland's challenge is world number 20, Stanislas Wawrinka, fresh from a quarterfinal appearance in last week's US Open. Wawrinka is likely to be the biggest obstacle to Kazakhstan's chances of progressing to the World Group.
The Beatles: Immortalized in Almaty's Kok-Tobe Park
It may be 40 years since The Beatles decided to call it a day, but Beatlemania shows no signs of declining in Kazakhstan. The band's diehard fans in Almaty are keeping the faith alive by planning a concert on August 30 to celebrate the Fab Four's formation 50 years ago. A motley crew of local musicians and politicians will take to the stage to belt out covers of some 30 Beatles' favorites.
The Beatles enjoyed huge popularity in the Soviet Union and their songs remain a regular feature in the clubs and bars of Kazakhstan's commercial hub, Almaty. Local covers bands Zhetygen and Fridays will be joined on stage by eco-warrior Mels Yeleusizov, the leader of the environmental campaign group Tabigat, and Gani Kasymov, the burly leader of the Patriots' Party.
The concert will also commemorate John Lennon, who would have turned 70 this year. There are plans afoot to create an alley in Almaty named after the famous tunesmith, though a site has not been located.
The city already has one unusual monument to the Mop Tops from Liverpool – a Beatles bench, which is situated in the hilltop Kok-Tobe Park. The monument features John Lennon sitting on a bench strumming a guitar, with the other Beatles standing behind him. Long queues form to take photos with the Fab Four.
Kazakhstan's tennis-loving President Nursultan Nazarbayev has made improving the nation's health a key policy for the future. The country's commercial hub, Almaty, has responded to the challenge by opening of a host of new parks and sports facilities in the city center. But these are no ordinary recreation areas. They are built on the detritus of stalled construction projects.
“Only a healthy nation can be a competitive one. Therefore, one of the state's strategic policies is the expansion of a mass sport movement,” Nazarbayev announced in Almaty on August 14.
When I moved to Almaty in 2005, Kurmangazy Street in the center of the city was a leafy residential street lined with low-level houses dating from the 1950s. As property prices rocketed in the intervening years, these two-story houses became a target of rapacious speculators who demolished them to make way for apartment blocks.
But the 2008-2009 financial crisis hit hard and the redevelopment plans were shelved, leaving the heart of Almaty scarred with failed construction sites. Then some bright spark in the city mayor's office came up with the idea to turn the vacant lots into parks.
Now on a summer's evening the city's newest parks ring with the sound of children playing and frenetic five-a-side soccer matches. These getaways provide a much-needed green oasis in a polluted city and offer a respite from the summer heat.
Further down Kurmangazy, a new tennis complex has recently opened, and another little park features a pair of yurts where Almatinians can recover from all this exercise and get back to their roots as they guzzle healthy bowls of koumiss, the slightly alcoholic national tipple made from fermented mare's milk.
Following hot on the success of Astana's cyclists in the Tour de France and Barys Astana’s ice hockey victory in the President of Kazakhstan's Cup, Kazakhstan is now seeking success in another sporting arena – women's rugby. Central Asia's queens of the scrum will represent all of Asia in the Women's Rugby World Cup, which takes place in England from August 20 to September 5.
Kazakhstan dominates women's rugby in Asia and this is its fourth consecutive appearance at the World Championship. It qualified for the finals by trouncing Japan 43-5 and Hong Kong 58-14 in Singapore last year. A player to watch out for on the Kazakhstan roster is Lyudmila Sherer, who racked up seven tries in the Singapore victories.
The teams will compete near London at Surrey Sports Park and Twickenham Stoop, which is close to Rugby's spiritual home at Twickenham Stadium. The choice of venue highlights the fact that women's rugby does not enjoy the same status as the male version, but tournament organiser's are hopeful that this event will boost the game's profile.
Tashkent soccer club Bunyodkor’s troubles continue with the news that its Brazilian stars have packed their bags and left Uzbekistan. The quartet – Rivaldo, Denilson, Joao Victor and Edson Ramos – did not feature in Bunyodkor’s 2-0 victory on August 5 and are reported to have flown home to Brazil.
Rumor has it that Zeromax GmbH, the Swiss-registered conglomerate believed to have links to Uzbek President Islam Karimov’s eldest daughter Gulnara "GooGoosha" Karimova, bankrolled Bunyodkor.
Zeromax has been in financial difficulties of late and work on a 35,000-seat stadium in Tashkent has frozen, with giant cranes standing idle over the huge construction site.
2002 World Cup winner Rivaldo joined the then-cash-rich club on August 28, 2008 on a one-year contract worth a cool $14 million over two years: not bad for a player who was 36 at time and in the twilight of his career.
Bunyodkor’s manager Luiz Filipe Scolari, also from Brazil, parted company with the club on May 29, less than a year into his 18 month contract which was said to be worth around $18 million a year, citing mutual consent and family reasons.
It may only be August, but there's a hint of winter in the air as Astana plays host to a curtain raiser for the upcoming ice hockey season. Barys Astana will compete against teams from Russia, Latvia and Belarus in the inaugural President of Kazakhstan's Cup tournament.
The action begins in the capital’s Kazakhstan Sports Palace on August 10 with Dinamo Riga (Latvia) playing Dinamo Minsk (Belarus) in the afternoon match and home favorites Barys taking on Atlant (Russia) that evening. After further games between the teams on August 11 and 13, the top two teams play off in the final on August 14. The event sponsor is Nur Otan, the political party led by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, which holds all the elected seats in Kazakhstan's parliament.
Barys was a founding member of the KHL (Kontinental Hockey League), set up in 2008 to bring together teams from Russia, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Belarus to provide a rival to North America's NHL (National Hockey League).
The Astana-based team's participation in the KHL is another pillar of Kazakhstan's attempts to promote its capital city through sports such as cycling and hockey. Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the state railroad company, sponsors Barys.
In the space of a week, Tour de France winner Alberto Contador has gone from being a hero to villain in Kazakhstan. The star cyclist has left Team Astana for the rival Saxo Bank cycling team only a week after bringing the Tour title to Kazakhstan for the second year running. His new team officially unveiled Contador on August 3.
The move is a blow for Astana, which is sponsored by Kazakhstan’s state asset holding company Samruk-Kazyna. The team believed it had met Contador's conditions to continue negotiations, only to receive a surprise rebuke from his press service on July 28.
The Kazakhstan Cycling Federation general secretary, Valentin Rekhert, said Astana was a “little angry” with Contador's handling of the affair, especially after the team had offered him a greatly improved contract over several seasons.
Astana may be down surprisingly soon after triumphing in cycling's biggest event. But the team is moving quickly to bolster its roster for the 2011 season and has opened talks with Denis Menchov, who finished third in this year's Tour de France.
It is also pursuing David Arroyo, who was runner-up in this year’s Giro d'Italia, and the team has already signed promising young rider Robert Kiserlovski, who placed 10th in the same race.
Almaty’s diehard disco fans will be frizzing up their hair and dusting down their bling on July 31 as a host of names from the golden age of disco perform in the parking lot of a city shopping mall.
The Gold Disco Festival will bring together luminaries from the 1980s and 1990s disco scenes in North America, Europe and the Soviet Union. Headlining is Dutch diva C.C. Catch, who was hugely popular in the dying days of the Soviet Union with songs such as I Can Lose My Heart Tonight and Heartbreak Hotel.
Other acts include Ottowan, best-known for their 1980s hits D.I.S.C.O. and Hands Up (Give Me Your Heart); and Londonbeat of I’ve Been Thinking About You fame. Yuriy Shatunov of Soviet boy band Laskoviy May, most famous for Beliye Rozy, will represent Russia.
While these acts are mostly forgotten in the West nowadays, they still find an eager audience in the EurasiaNet heartland. Disco never faded away in Almaty, Kazakhstan's financial capital, home to the Disco 80 nightclub.
Any self-respecting covers band performing in the city’s bars always includes the aforementioned Ottowan standards with the opening bars of D.I.S.C.O. acting like a magnet to pull the audience onto the dance floor.
Team Astana fans can put their spandex shorts away for another year. On July 25, their very own Alberto Contador successfully retained the Tour de France title in Paris. It was Contador's third victory in cycling's most prestigious race, scoring another positive PR boost for Kazakhstan's fledgling capital. He rode home 39 seconds ahead of his nearest rival, Saxo Bank's Andy Schleck.
But Contador’s victory was not without controversy. He snatched the lead from Schleck in stage 16 of 20 when his rival's chain slipped off. Schleck, who was leading Contador by 31 seconds, dismounted to refasten his chain. According to unwritten Tour de France etiquette, when the race leader suffers a mishap the other riders wait for him to recover before continuing. Contador flouted this convention and seized the opportunity to pedal eight seconds ahead of the stricken race leader.
"I wouldn't want to take the jersey like that," Schleck said after the race. "My stomach is full of anger and I want to take my revenge in the next days."
In his defense, Contador said, "I was attacking and I was past him before I knew what had happened."
Later Contador apologized for the manner in which he snatched the lead: "Today I managed to get on the podium, which makes me happy. The problem with that was the circumstances. Right when I attacked Andy had a mechanical on the last climb. The race was in full gear and, well, maybe I made a mistake. I'm sorry."
Central Asia is better known for its golden domes than the golden arches. Western fast food giants have failed to create much of a presence in the region, one of the few places left on the planet without a McDonald's or a Burger King. Yet, at least in Kazakhstan, fast food junkies can find some relief feasting on the calorie-rich delights at KFC or Pizza Hut.
Since 2008, Russia's Rostik Group has been selling Colonel Sanders' fried chicken at its KFC outlets in Almaty and Astana. The company’s rapid expansion has Sanders grinning down from billboards around Almaty. The same company is also behind the appearance of Pizza Hut in Kazakhstan.
Rostik Group is credited with bringing the franchise concept to the former Soviet Union. Founded in the 1990s by the extravagantly named Rostislav Ordovsky-Tanayevsky Blanco, who was born in Venezuela to Russian and Spanish parents, the group has extensive business interests in Russia and beyond.
In 2007, rumors spread that one of the big burger chains was about to open in Kazakhstan, but the global economic crisis appears to have squashed that plan. In the meantime, Big Mac and Whopper aficionados will have to content themselves with local versions supplied by companies such as MacBurger, King Burger and Burger King’s, as there are no signs the big boys are coming to the Silk Road any time soon.
