A Common Fan’s Sports Diary

India Today has come up with a list of the 10 biggest controversies in Indian sports. I agree with most of them but there are a few that we don’t find worthy of this list. I think somewhere there was a predisposition towards the controversies that had been well covered by the magazine. Never mind. We decided to come up with a list of 10 other important controversies from Indian sports, some of which were worthy of being in the first list itself.

Here goes in no particular order.

What gender did it bring more shame to?

The girl who was a guy

This was completely bizarre – so much so that it found a mention on ESPN’s US website. Santhi Sounderajan won a silver medal at the 2006 Doha Asian Games and then failed a gender test. She was found to be missing the sexual characteristics of a woman. The medal had to be returned and this incident brought us shame and disrepute. Things like this were common in the 1930’s and 40’s but there is excuse for something like this happening in today’s times. The government in the athlete’s home state of Tamil Nadu added to the controversy by refusing to recognize the verdict and felicitating the athlete in the same manner as the other medal-winners.

Kerry Packer revisited -The ICL controversy

This one has a strong case to be in the India Today list. Subhash Chandra emulated Kerry Packer by setting up his own cricket league after losing out on the broadcast rights, in spite of having the highest bid. The broadcast bidding is quite a controversy in itself. The BCCI wasn’t ready to play along –they banned the League and all its stakeholders and then upped the ante by starting a far bigger league of their own. Since then the BCCI and the Zee group have been at war and have sucked the entire cricket world into their dispute. The controversy looks like dragging on forever with both parties engaged in a war of attrition and there being no resolution to the matter in sight.

The monkey and the ugly Australians

This one surely had to be in the India Today list. It almost caused India to withdraw from the series and led to a public outcry against the Australian cricket team. The events leading up to it were truly inflammable – first the Aussies took gamesmanship to a new level and then rubbed salt into India’s wounds by accusing Harbhajan Singh of racism. It almost became a case of the white man’s word against the brown man’s. Insults were traded between the two sides and matters had almost come to a point of no return. Thankfully India was captained by an honourable man in Anil Kumble who got together with Ponting to iron out the issues between the two sides.

There is blood on their hands

The sportsman’s widow and her lover

Almost 20 years ago, one of India’s best badminton players, Syed Modi was shot dead by unknown assassins. His badminton playing wife, Amita, was rumoured to be having an extra-marital affair with noted politician and much married father of two children Sanjay Singh. A case was lodged against Sanjay for arranging  the killing but as it happens in our country, the well-connected politician, also a royal and a close friend of the Gandhi family, got away scot-free. A little later Sanjay divorced his first wife and married Amita. There are no witnesses and no legal proof - Just a simple matter of putting two and two together.

The cricketing god and his free chariot

Another one which India Today totally missed. India’s biggest cricket icon was gifted a Ferrari car by his sponsors FIAT on equalling Don Bradman’s record of 29 centuries. It was a 75 lakhs rupee gift but there was also the small matter of paying the customs duty of 1.15 crores. The controversy started after it was reported that the batting maestro had requested a custom duty waiver on the car despite getting it as a gift and not winning it as a prize in any tournament. That he was well capable of paying for it added to the steam and matters came to a boil when the Union government decide to oblige. There was a hue and a cry and Tendulkar’s demigod status took a hit. Finally FIAT decided to end the controversy by picking up the tab.

Indian hockey – of what happened after the Olympic failure

The qualification failure is already in the first list. But what happened after makes for a far bigger storm. The union sports minister, Mani Shankar Aiyer shed crocodile tears but failed to take any action citing the Olympic charter (which calls for autonomy of sports bodies). Thankfully, he was replaced by M.S Gill who showed more gumption by sacking the IHF chief. Then the IHF secretary was caught accepting a bribe on camera and he was also duly removed from his post. An ad hoc body was put in place but soon the power battle begun with the likes of Sahara’s JB Roy mobilizing the support of the state bodies. Ex- chief KPS Gill also refuses to let go and keeps sabotaging the activities of the ad-hoc body. And the former secretary is now flexing his muscles in his home state’s association by setting up a parallel body with the support of the district chiefs. This one also continues to rage on

All the good work undoes the Mary Kom episode

When the champion of rights was the perpetrator himself

Milkha Singh has always trodden on a moral high ground and never shies away from speaking his mind – mostly it has to do with the government’s apathy and disrespect towards non-cricketing sports and sportspersons. He caused a furore by refusing the Arjuna Award and makes the India today list based on that controversy. And then the same gentleman, in his capacity as the chairman of the Arjuna Awards selection committee, strikes of the name of female boxer MC Mary Kom from the Khel Ratna award list. His excuse – he didn’t know which sport she competed in. Where does that rate on the scale of hypocrisy? The World Champion boxer was hurt and aggrieved at the ‘Flying Sikh’s’ lack of respect and complete ignorance. For the record, she has 4 World Championship crowns, which is 4 more than what Milkha Singh has.

The over-age controversy

This controversy raises its ugly head every time we participate in a junior event, especially in cricket, football, hockey and athletics. The most famous or rather most infamous instances are the times when we won the junior hockey world cup and finished runners-up. Numerous complaints have been registered against us but we are so driven in our efforts to capture glory at the junior events that we continue to court controversy and infamy. If only we had the same drive to win things the right way

The other cricket controversies

There are three other cricket controversies which deserve an equal mention. First the ban on Sehwag for excessiveappealing in South Africa which led to a protest by the Indian side and the final test had to be played as an unofficial one. Second is the Harbhajan slapping Sreesanth episode which remains the gold standard on how things should be brushed under the carpet. And finally the Vengsarkar – Ganguly fracas, where Ganguly claimed to have been unjustifiably dropped after a good season and the former chairman of selectors promised to explain his act and give Dada more than what he had bargained for. This event caused, as many Dada fans would claim, Sourav Ganguly to make an early exit from the game. As for Mr. Vengsarkar, we are still waiting for his reply. But as it happens in Indian cricket, a few wins and everything is forgotten.

Wardrobe malfunction?

Sania Mirza and the Beijing Olympics

Another case of a victim in the ‘India Today’ list switching roles. Sania Mirza’s mom caused a major storm when she was accommodated in the Indian contingent for the Beijing Olympics as one of the officials of the tennis squad. She was not accommodated as a one member cheering squad but as one of the coaches and her inclusion was at the cost of dropping a ‘real’ coach in Rick Leach and a couple of physios, including South African Heath Mathews, whose eventual inclusion in the squad played a crucial role in the outstanding performance of the Indian boxers. And that was not all. Sania Mirza then turned up wearing trainers and not the official uniform for the opening ceremony. Some claimed she didn’t know how to wrap a saree and the official word was that she didn’t get time as she was trying to get in some additional practise. Whatever it was, it didn’t make for a pretty picture as the Indian contingent marched in and obviously the country was incensed.

Poll – Which sports administrator do you hate most?

Results - KPS Gill - 36%
Can we toss a coin -all of them are equally bad -31%
Suresh Kalmadi -16%

Others who featured in the poll

Priya Ranjan Das Munshi
Sharad Pawar
Jagmohan Dalmiya
Rajeev Shukla
I thought there were no administrators -and things were running on their own
Hey I know someone worse

Others who narrowly missed making the list

Almost everyone who is in charge of running sports in this country.

The State of affairs

I will not bother to get into the details of how sport has been ‘run’ into the ground in this country. A proper analysis will take a book, probably more. We will just mention that ability is not a pre-requisite to become a sports administrator in this country. You need to be an influential politician, businessmen, bureaucrat or a crony of someone influential. In the words of IOA and IAAF president, head of the ad-hoc body of the IHF, Member of Parliament and businessman, Suresh Kalmadi, “it’s imperative that Politicians or industrialists run sports in this country, for only they know how to get more money out of the government”. Golden words indeed. No mention that they are also more capable of diverting this money into their own coffers.

Poll outcome

In light of these facts, it was quite a challenge to pick out a winner from amongst our sports administrators. It was a battle among equals. Things have been bad across the board. And that was well proven by the 31% votes received by ‘Can we toss a coin -all of them are equally bad’.

We had expected that people who run the more popular sports would be at an advantage, their notoriety and ineffectiveness getting more media attention – like the men who have been involved with the cricket board. Also people who have had extremely long tenures – we have a system of getting appointed for a life time in Indian sports – the likes of Priya Ranjan Das Munshi and R.K.Khanna. But surprisingly, this advantage counted for nothing and none of these guys got a significant portion of the votes.

It takes much more than that to separate oneself from the rest of the administrative mediocrity

It takes an extraordinary effort – like ensuring that the sport you rule (that’s the right word) touches its nadir – like hockey did when our men’s team failed to qualify for the Olympics. This led to a national outcry and also the hitherto unseen step of the head of the sports body getting sacked by the sports minister.

I am a proud winner

And that is why KPS Gill – the man who oversaw this great decline – runs away with the poll, getting 36% of the votes. That he is unrepentant and is still making an effort to mobilize the support of the state units to re-capture power makes his case even more convincing.

He is the first among the equals

On a side note, it should be noted that the sports minister at the time of our hockey failure, failed to take any action, referring to the Olympic charter for his impotency. He would have done well in this poll, had he been eligible as the head of a sports body.

Suresh Kalmadi also comes out with flying colours taking a comfortable second behind Gill with 16% of the votes. He takes pride in the fact that he won the Commonwealth Games bid but this event could well become his Waterloo. With the games getting shifted out of Delhi becoming a realistic possibility owing to slack preparation work, Mr Kalmadi could well end up matching KPS Gill in the ‘touching a nadir’ dept. But for now, KPS Gill can bask in the glory all by himself.

Dear Mr Modi

This is the second time I am writing to you. The first time, I wanted to know what happened to all the money made from the IPL. You haven’t answered that one as yet. I guess you are too busy, what with the multiple positions that you hold. Well, we will come back to the IPL money and your numerous designations later. I have more important questions to ask first.

Freud would have loved to analyze his brain

Have you had a long history of suffering from temporary memory losses or from multiple personality disorder?

Or has the affliction been a recent one – starting from the time you saw your dream of starting the IPL?

Because nothing else can explain the recent remarks made by you regarding the ICL not satisfying the norms of authorized cricket

First you wear one hat of the IPL commissioner – someone who shamelessly copied the concept of the ICL and then called it his own. Someone who has seen the ICL make major inroads this year and feels threatened by its growing popularity.

And then you sit on the five-member ICC panel which decides what constitutes ‘official cricket’ and what does not. Is there a more clear case of conflict of interest? The only way you could be doing justice to both roles, is if you were suffering from one of the above mentioned ailments. You could then seamlessly shift into the ICC role without any influence or knowledge of your IPL role.

Then you have made the rather ignorant statement saying that there is no window in the international calendar to accommodate the ICL. Tell me seriously; which League has caused more problems to the International calendar, the ICL or the IPL. If there is any doubt then I suggest you check with the Srilankan and English cricket boards. Moreover, the ICL is largely made of aspiring or semi-retired cricketers who don’t have much to do with the international calendar anyways.

You have given two arguments as to why the ICL does not satisfy the norms of official or authorized cricket. Both these norms are news for me and surely a creation of your imagination. And that you have a really confused imagination owing to your multiple personalities makes matters worse

First you have said that the ICL is not built on a pyramid structure, whereas the BCCI-created IPL is built on one. What you forgot to add was that the BCCI pyramid has faults at every level - faults which are a result of a nepotistic architecture which forces a lot of deserving cricketers off the pyramid. Also that this pyramid has a defective foundation where little is spent on the lower levels and millions splurged on the topmost level. The BCCI pyramid is no good and therefore by Mr Modi’s argument, a league (the IPL) backed by a defective pyramid should also be unfit to be deemed official

And then there is your piece de resistance – calling the ICL a profit making exercise. What in god’s name is the IPL doing. And as already complained earlier, we are not even getting a whiff of where all that money is ending up. What were you trying to imply when you called the ICL a corporate effort – that its wrong to be transparent and promote meritocracy like they do in the corporate world. The EPL and the NBA, which you claim, the IPL has borrowed heavily from, are also corporate profit making efforts.

And what do you have to say about the Sanford 20-20. Is it official or not. Is it a corporate profit making exercise or not. Does it have a pyramid like structure or not.

You also mentioned something about the other, new, corporate tournaments that are coming up. What are these tournaments that you are talking about? Are they for real or just taking place in your imagination?

I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw corporate backed tournaments in your dreams, all the time

After all one corporate league has already been causing nightmares for you

Shame on you, you poster child of nepotism

Arjun Yadav is a part of the India Blues side for the ongoing NKP Salve Challenger trophy. I would assume that he has been given a chance by the selectors on the basis of his strong domestic performances. They haven’t shared with us what they saw, so let’s go and find for ourselves.

I last remember him playing in the IPL for the Deccan Chargers. The Chargers stunk as a whole - surely Arjun must have stood out as a shining star. But the stats show something quite on the contrary. Arjun was 12th best in the worst side in the IPL with a total of 49 runs at an average of 9.80 in 8 games. Even Nuwan Zoysa was better

Surely, Arjun wasn’t selected on the basis of his IPL performance. Then I guess the selectors would have been buoyed by his Ranji performance. After all 20-20 is tamasha cricket and the four day game is a true test of batsman’s ability

Let’s check Arjun’s performance in the last Ranji season

Arjun scored 370 runs in 6 games at an average of 33.46. His state mate DB Ravi Teja on the other hand scored 653 runs at an average of 59.36. And Ravi Teja isn’t playing in the challengers

And how good was Arjun’s performance on an all India level.

This is the list of top 50 batsmen (in terms of average) in the Ranji Trophy in 2007-08. And surprise surprise, Arjun is not on this list. So he wasn’t even one of the fifty best batsmen in the Ranji trophy. In fact he was way behind the last guy on this list – SS Das with an average of 39.40

So Arjun sucked in the Ranji also. Then he must have surely been on fire in the Vijay Hazare trophy. After all it is the domestic one-day competition and is the perfect tournament for selecting players for the Challenger Trophy.

Here are the lists of the top fifty batsmen by average and the top fifty batmen by run scored in the 2007-08 Vijay Hazare Trophy. Surely Arjun must be near the top of both lists. But no – he is actually missing from both lists. The cut off for the first list was 48.33 and for the second list it was 176 runs. So where is Arjun?

Arjun is way back with an average of 26.20 and a total haul of 131 runs. He is fifth on the Hyderabad list. In fact two of his state mates - SA Pai and A Shinde have better averages and more runs. And they are also not playing in the Challenger.

So what has Arjun Yadav done to deserve a chance in the Challengers? Why is a batsman who has fared poorly in the IPL, the Ranji Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy being given such a golden opportunity? Is it fair to all the guys who missed out? All the others present in the top fifty lists. Or has he been given a chance just because he is former selector Shivlal Yadav’s son. Is it just a coincidence that Arjun’s father is the Director of the National Cricket Academy. Is there a more blatant case of nepotism - at such a high level?

This comes after the nepotistic policies of the Hyderabad cricket board led by Shivlal Yadav forced most of their talented players to risk their careers and join the ICL.

Will Mr Pawar, Mr Shashank Manohar and Mr Srikkanth please tell us why Arjun Yadav is playing in the Challengers?

The cricket fans of this country deserve to get an answer

Mr Suresh Kalmadi has been elected as the president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for the fourth time in a row. This is great news for all Indian sports fans. Mr Kalmadi can now build on all the good work that he and his team have done in the past 12 years and take Indian sport to new highs.

That he was elected unopposed is clearly testimony to the high esteem he is held in – by friends and foes alike. In that sense he is the closest thing that we have had to Mahatma Gandhi – somebody who can cut across party lines and unify everyone under his leadership – and lead the country to glory.

We don’t have to look beyond the 2008 Beijing Olympics to see what Mr Kalmadi is capable of. This was India’s finest moment in the history of the games – all thanks to this great leader’s efforts. In spite of the Mittal Trust’s best efforts to take credit for the success of the Indian athletes, we all know it was Mr Kalmadi who was really responsible for the 3 medals. After all he selected the team for the Olympics and sent them to Beijing. Bad selection policy has been a bane for Indian sport and finally we have someone who has put an end to that.

Suresh Kalamdi deserves a halo over his head

Another reason why Mr Kalmadi faced no competition was because he takes great care of his people. He always makes sure that a large number of sports officials are sent to the international sports events. If he gets to go then his men should also go -Even if the official has no business being at the sports event - Even if sometimes the number of officials becomes more than the number of athletes and coaches – even if a physio has to be sacrificed to make way for an official. For Mr Kalmadi the hard working official always comes first- and hence it’s no surprise that Mr Kalmadi comes first for the officials also.

He has also received little credit for convincing many politicians to take up important positions in the IOA and various other national sports federations. It is thanks to his powers of persuasion that many of these politicians have agreed to take time out from their busy schedules and work for the betterment of Indian sport. Thanks to the wicked media, the common sports fan does not know that getting more politicians on board is a brilliant move on the IOA president’s part. After all it is the politicians who know how to get more money out of the central government. Even the current team is adorned with noted politician- sports administrators like Jagdish Tytler and Abhay Singh Chautala.

Mr Kalmadi is a visionary who always thinks ahead. Although the 2010 Commonwealth Games and 2012 London Olympics are far away, Mr Kalmadi has already started planning for them. The Indian govt has entrusted the IOA president with a large sum of money to bring great success at the Delhi Commonwealth Games. While lesser mortals would be struggling to find a quick fix solution to improve the performance of Indian sportspersons, Mr Kalmadi has again shown his genius. He has gone ahead and asked the Chinese to help India. He is not vain enough to think that this makes India an international laughing stock. He is aware that China has always helped India, as seen during the recent nuclear issue debate. It is a masterstroke on Mr Kalmadi’s part. It’s surprising that nobody thought of this before – we could have become a sports powerhouse long back.

Mr Kalmadi’s dream is to bring the 2020 Olympics to India. It’s a pity that this cannot be achieved in his current term which will end in 2012. Therefore, we should make him president of the IOA till 2020 so that he can make this dream a reality. And thanks to Mr Kalmadi and the help from the Chinese we might just end up on top of the medals tally

So what makes M.S.Gill better than the other sports ministers?

Dear Mr Modi

So, for the benefit of skeptics like me who will falsely tarnish your name, I request you to kindly announce to the world where all the IPL profits are being spent. I and many others who are interested in the development of the game would be forever grateful.

Thanks

Common fan