A Common Fan’s Sports Diary

We can't just count on Vijender every time. We need more like him

First the good news.

Vijender Kumar became the first Indian to win a medal at the World Championships, further consolidating his position as one of the best in his weight category. This will ensure that continues to maintain an impressive world ranking which in turn assures him of a relatively easier draw in the major World events including the 2012 Olympics. This is important because we don’t want our best medal bet to be running into a world champion in the early rounds.

The other impressive performer was Jai Bhagwan Singh who made the quarters. He is coming along nicely and could be another medal contender in London.

Now the bad news

Five others, including Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumar disappointed hugely, losing comprehensively in the first round itself. The two were quarter-finalists in the last Olympics and won bronze medals at the World Cup. I just hope this is a temporary blip and not the beginning of their decline.

The energy of Akhil Kumar lifts the entire squad and we cannot afford to see him go downhill right now. He has decided to move back to his original weight category and hopefully that will be the panacea to this sudden malaise.

Future Outlook for Indian Boxing

At the Olympics three of the five Indians made the quarters or better. The same number made the last eight stage in Milan but the flurry of first round defeats was a setback.

Also, at the last World Championships, India had finished 21st with the eight boxers winning a total of nine bouts. This time round, the nine Indians won eight bouts and the team finished 24th. Considering, that Vijender himself won three of those, the overall effort was a little disappointing.

We must celebrate Vijender’s feat but at the same time we need to take stock of the overall effort and make plans for the future. Indian boxing has taken a huge leap forward but we shouldn’t get too carried away with that. We need to show more ambition and aim for more boxers winning more medals at top level world meets.

And by more, I don’t mean one more medal. The ambition should be to win three to four medals with atleast one being gold. Our boxers have great potential and we can surely make this happen.

Go Indian Boxing

Renu Gora has gone from winning a bronze at the World Championships to serving tea to govt lackeys

The Hindustan Times has done a ‘Tehelka’ on the officials of NIS Patiala.

They have brought to the country’s attention the shocking truth that women boxers, including former national champions and a bronze medallist at the World Championships, are being made to do the chores usually reserved for servants.

On second thoughts, it wasn’t really a ‘Tehelka after all; there was no sting operation and there isn’t anything covert about what is going in the National Institute of Sports. As reported by the national daily, it is blatant and its out in the open. And what is worse is that it’s hardly raised a furore and nobody’s even bothered to issue a statement to refute what has been reported or to condemn the actions of the officials at NIS Patiala.

Quite obviously, other than the Hindustan times and a few sports fans, nobody cares for the plight of these female boxers; atleast the people in authority are the least bit bothered.

Milkha Singh had set a benchmark for apathy towards women boxers when he refused to consider four times world champion MC Mary Kom for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award because he hadn’t heard about her or her exploits. The officials of the NIS Patiala just raised the bar.

This comes soon after Delhi was awarded a WSB franchise and the boxing community and boxing fans were looking forward to a bright future for the sport. I guess the future’s bright only for the men and that too as long as they keep winning medals.

It’s not that the women haven’t been winning medals. They topped the medals tally at the 2006 World Championships in Delhi and won 4 to finish in third place at the 2008 edition in Ningbo, China. And what’s more, women’s boxing is a strong contender to be included as a medal sport in the 2012 London Olympics. If that happens, our women boxers could win more Olympic medals than the rest of contingent combined.

What is most difficult to fathom is whether the officials at NIS Patiala are irrevocably dumb and uninformed and do not realize the damage they are doing to the potential Olympic medallists and in turn causing harm to their own good as well – after all if the women boxers script a glorious chapter at the London Olympics, there will be media attention , official recognition and inflow of corporate money in the sport, and even the officials will stand to gain from that, through right means and wrong ones as well.

Or are they one of the most heartless, corrupt bastards to have been born in this country; people who have gotten into the sport but have absolutely no love for it. They aren’t the least bit interested in helping produce the next batch of champions and don’t get any joy in seeing an Indian win an Olympic medal.

I don’t know if anything is going to come out of the HT report. I don’t expect much in a country where someone who sold an India cap for 2 lakhs (with video evidence to boot), K Jothikumaran, has managed to win the corruption case against him in the Madras high court and could soon get back to running hockey affairs in India again.

But if given a chance to decide the punishment for these guys, I know just the thing for them. No committees and court cases for these rascals. They should be put in a ring with these women boxers in a bout with no rules and protective gear. I am fully confident that after these bouts no sports official will dare repeat what’s going on in Patiala!

Thanks to the Hindustan Times for breaking the news and to my friend Nimish for sending the link

Indian Boxing has been on a dream run at international events off late. And now there is an exciting development that will ensure that this dream run doesn’t come to a grinding halt. India has been awarded a franchisee for the World Series of Boxing (WSB) scheduled to start in September next year. This league for amateurs which is based on professional lines will do a world of good for the sport in India. While the boxing aficionados can look forward to a feast of world class boxing, simple fans like me can get ready to cheer ourselves hoarse.

Sports in India are at an all time high

Indian sports took a mighty leap in 2008 and a number of champion sport persons made impressive progress in a wide variety of sports. Quite clearly, Indian sports have never had it any better. It’s a time for Indian sports fans to be really excited about the future. So we thought it was a good time to conduct a poll to ascertain, which sportsperson makes our heart beat the fastest or in other words, the future of which Indian sportsperson are we most excited about.

As you will notice, we haven’t included any cricketers. Not that we have anything against them. Just that there are enough people who are always super excited about them. So let’s give the others a shot for a change. Considering the large choice, we have decided to have a multiple voting option. We have left out a few like Paes and Bhupathi, who we think, have already achieved everything they could have possibly had. On the other hand, Jeev Milkha Singh, who is hardly a youngster, still makes the list as he continues to get better every year.

Here is the list of names for the Poll. Please go ahead and vote for the sportsperson(s) who gives you the biggest reason to feel good about the future of Indian sport.

Sunil Chhteri – Football

Yuki Bhambri – Tennis

Saina Nehwal – Badminton

Akhil Kumar – Boxing

Abhinav Bindra – Shooting

Sushil Kumar – Wrestling

Vijender Kumar -Boxing

Somdev Dev Varman – Tennis

Gagan Narang – Shooting

Joshna Chinappa – Squash

Koneru Humpy – Chess

Karun Chandhok – Motor Racing

Diwakar Ram – Hockey

Virdhawal Khade – Swimming

Dipika Pallikal – Squash

Pankaj Advani –Snooker and Billiards

Sania Mirza – Tennis

Jeev Milkha Singh – Golf

Someone else

I think there is no future for Indian sports

Indian Boxing could be in for much better days

Earlier this month, AIBA – the governing body of amateur boxing, announced that it had signed a treaty with marketing firm IMG to introduce ‘World Series Boxing’. This move was made to jazz up the world of amateur boxing by creating a more spectator friendly format, in which boxers will be fighting without any defensive gear, thereby catering to the ever growing demand to see more knock-outs. The financial benefits for amateur boxers will help in countering the lure of the professional world. This event is slated to start in March 2010 and will be contested on weekends to increase its viewership potential

In the series, which will be somewhat on the lines of professional leagues like the EPL or the IPL, three continents – Asia, Europe and America – will each have four city teams (read countries) participating in the event which will see boxers exchanging blows without headgears and vests, fighting five rounds of three minutes each with five bouts in five categories.

The ‘cities’ will fight among themselves on a home-and-away basis before one qualifies for the grand finale to be held at Macau. Only one country from each continent will be able to go through to the semi-final to be held at Macau. The fourth slot in the semis will go to the ‘best loser’. The two best boxers from each category will compete in a separate event, which will also offer prize money.

The boxers can look forward to a financial windfall from this event. Apart from getting a yet-to-be-disclosed prize money for each bout won, they will also have the cushion of a fixed package from their respective franchises.

Every franchisee would be worth $10 million and will have 10 boxers each, three of whom can be foreigners. A team from one continent will be allowed to buy boxers from other countries.
A franchisee will have to pay at least $30,000 to a boxer in its team. The maximum can go up to $300,000. Or else they can pay all 10 of them equally. There will be two boxers for each of the five categories. The selection of boxers for the event would be done at the World Championships in Milan this August,

The boxers will stand to make a reasonable amount of money, which was so far unheard of in amateur boxing, and will still be allowed to take part in the Olympics, unlike the professional boxers. It will also make the future of boxers participating in the Series more secure as they will get a pension after retiring.

The federations can also expect some benefits as 10 per cent of the $10 million of a franchisee would be set for them. This decision was taken since the federations support a boxer when he goes through his bends. But when the boxer comes through and earns cash benefits, he does not share it with the federation. The World Series will help the federation to make money from the franchisee.

So what does this mean for India and Indian boxing?

For starters, we will first have to pray that India ends up getting a team. Earlier it had been reported that, ‘Delhi will be one of the 12 teams from across the world that will vie for the title’, but unfortunately that is not a given.

India faces tough competition from Thailand, China, Korea, Qatar and Kazakhstan, who are each contending to become a franchisee. The discussions are on and the whole thing will be finalised in the AIBA executive meeting in Milan next month. However, there are good reasons to believe that Delhi has more than a fair shot.

The most important one is the lavish praise heaped on Indian boxing by AIBA President Ching-Kuo Wu for the progress it has made in the last one year. He strongly feels that India’s rise bodes well for International boxing and what better way to give the country’s boxing aspirations a further boost by supporting the its claim for a franchisee. Giving Delhi a franchisee will also fall in line with the AIBA’s main objective of popularizing the sport across the world. Without Delhi, the whole of South Asia – home to such a huge chunk of the world population will be left unrepresented. That India has made such rapid progress in so little time, on the back of just a few more exposure trips and the addition of a trained physio, also supports the claim that India has a mother lode of boxing talent just waiting to be unearthed. I am sure the AIBA members will be most glad to offer any support required to so. There is also enough corporate muscle to support a franchisee and an untapped market surely worth taking a risk on, given that you do have an exciting product to market

The World Series of Boxing could give a massive boost to the sport in India and it couldn’t have come at a better time. The success in the Olympics had generated enough interest in the sport but now it is beginning to wear off – as shown by the cold reception given to the team which won 4 bronze medals at the AIBA World Cup. The exciting format should be able attract enough viewership and that will initiate corporate and media interest as well.

And it will be a godsend for the boxers and all those coaches and trainers who have toiled manfully along with them, without much reward for all these years. Indian boxers usually have a day job with a PSU to support themselves. Now they can immerse themselves fully into becoming world –beaters without having any financial worries. A franchisee, intent on winning, will also bring in better support and training infrastructure. And there will be exposure against the best boxers in the world, weekend in and weekend out. Needless to say, these boxers will become bigger role models, encouraging a whole generation of brawny youth to tie on the gloves. The boxing federation will also get a much needed infusion of extra cash.

But before we get too excited, let’s first pray and hope that Delhi comes out with flying colours in the AIBA meeting next month.

As a supporter of Indian sport and a long time boxing fan, I am waiting with bated breath

The three shining stars of 2008

Considering that we had the Olympics in 2008, it is natural that the performance in the Olympics will largely determine how well a particular sport fared in the year gone by. But that will not be the entire story. A lot of non-Olympic events will also vouch for the current state of affairs and as well as how the future will be.

We will rate every sport on a scale from -3 to 3. A positive score will indicate a step forward and a negative one will point to a regression. The absolute value will be a measure of the quantum.

So here we go sport by sport in alphabetical order

Archery

Positives
Indian men won gold medal in the men’s recurve team event in the World Cup held in Antalya, Turkey.

Negatives
The disappointment of the Olympics. A Lot was expected of the women’s team and of Dola Banerjee – the winner of the World Cup in 2007. But nobody delivered on the promise. We didn’t even contend for a medal. Another story of under achievement

Verdict
Archery has tantalized us with its medal winning potential for too long now. Time and again it promises a lot and then leaves Indian fans heartbroken. The sport has a decent talent identification program and generally the archers are provided with world class coaching and infrastructure and given sufficient international exposure. If only we could do something about their mental strength and nerves at the big events

Score
0

Athletics

Positives
The Indians topped the medals tally in the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Doha in February ahead of China and did well in the three Asian Grand Prix events in June.
The federation and the govt improved its act – there was a training-cum-competition trip of England before the Olympics and a few athletes were sent to train abroad.

Negatives
A hugely disappointing Olympics where almost instead of going swifter, higher and stronger our athletes ended up being slower, lower and weaker. The selection criterion remains a joke with the authorities’ intent on inflating the size of the squad. The Olympics also signalled the end for our lone world class athlete – Anju Bobby George.
Doping and age violations became even more rampant at junior and sub-junior levels.

Verdict
We are totally stuck in a time warp – happy to win medals at inconsequential events and send the largest contingent amongst the various sports to the Olympics. The consistency of our underperformance at the Olympics is extremely depressing. There isn’t a single athlete coming through the ranks who we can get excited about. This sport needs a major over haul.

Score
-1

Badminton

Positives
The super success of Saina Nehwal who is still a teenager. She missed an Olympic medal by a whisker and has improved by leaps and bounds since then.
Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand form a two man support system for all aspiring badminton players
India has 4 players in the top 50 on the men’s side including Chetan Anand at 15.

Negatives
The cancellation of national level tournaments, the passport fiascos and the haphazard arrangement of training camps.

Verdict
We have the talent and we are making it count to some extent. But we could really do with more exposure and better support systems.

Score
1.5

Boxing

Positives
An Olympic medal and two near misses
4 medals at the AIBA boxing World Cup
World Championship Gold medals for Mary Kom (women) and Thakchom Singh (junior men)
A much better support system and hopefully things are getting even better – thanks to Bhiwani and the Mittal Trust

Negatives
In spite of all the glory and the surge in popularity of the boxers’ post the Olympics, things are back to normal – there was no reception for the World cup squad which came home with 4 medals

Verdict
The talent was always there. Now we have started to believe in ourselves. The depth is also very good. The next Olympics could be even better

Score
2

Hockey

Positives
KPS Gill was finally sacked
The emergence of a talented drag flicker in Diwakar Ram
A movie called Chak De which made some much needed attention to the sport

Negatives
We missed the Olympics
We still have an ad-hoc committee and a caretaker coach

Verdict
We have reached a nadir. And we have stayed there. Full stop.

Score
-3

Shooting

Positives
Abhinav Bindra wins an Olympic gold
Gagan Narang breaks two world records
Ronjon Sodhi wins the World Cup and equals a world record

Negatives
Other then Bindra and Narang all the other shooters stunk at the Olympics
The acute shortage of equipment, practise pellets, infrastructure and support systems continues

Verdict
The talent has always been there but in spite of an Olympic gold life has not changed for the shooters. Is Bindra merely an exception or do we have capability to produce more champions – the jury is still out on this

Score
1

Tennis

Positives
The emergence of Somdev Dev Varman. Barely six months after turning professional he is already India’s highest ranked player at world number 204.
Leander Paes’ becoming a vice president of Bengal Tennis. We shouldn’t read too much into this but it at least creates hope.
The emergence of Yuki Bhambhri. Another one who gives us hope for the future

Negatives
The open infighting in the Davis Cup team
The dismal year for Sania Mirza. Also disappointing years for the other women’s players
Failure to win a medal at the Olympics. It’s not the failure which stinks – it’s the fact that Paes and Bhupathi made every effort to not be well prepared.
Failure to make the World group in the Davis Cup once again
The AITA at its worst. They announced the Indian Tennis League – which was modelled on the IPL but then totally forgot about it. They also picked up a fight with the guys running Apollo’s Mission Grand Slam 2018 program

Verdict
Tennis is extremely popular in the country – there are lots of enthusiastic kids playing it, parents are usually encouraging and there is no shortage of fans willing to cheer and corporates willing to fund the game. But hardly any good players are coming through. We have a big problem with our system and nobody seems to be doing anything about it.

Score
0

Weightlifting

Positives
Absolutely nothing.

Negatives
Once a medal generating sport, women’s weightlifting slipped a little more in 2008, with our weightlifters falling a little further off the international pace.
The doping controversies
The selection controversies

Verdict
We are going from bad to worse and to add to it are also doing it disgracefully and with shame

Score
-1.5

Wrestling

Positives
The bronze medal won by Sushil Kumar at the Olympics.
A decent performance at the Commonwealth Youth Games
The emergence of Indian stars in professional wrestling like the WWE – the likes of the Great Khali and Sanjoy Dutt. At least it motivates young kids to take up the sport.
As compared to the previous Olympics, Indian wrestlers were trianed by better foreign coaches and were given more international exposure.

Negatives
We are not making the Olympic success count. Absolutely nothing has been done to take advantage of the increased interest in the sport

Verdict
The sport is extremely popular in certain pockets of the country and there is no shortage of talent. In fact the sport continues to prosper, in spite of govt and corporate apathy, because of its huge popularity in these regions. And now Sushil Kumar has shown all the budding wrestlers that we can be true world beaters. This is a great time to harness this surging potential and make Olympic medals a regular feature. Sadly the govt hasn’t awakened to this possibility. And for some reason the corporates also stay away. Why isn’t Sushil Kumar endorsing energy drinks and breakfast cereal?

Score
1

This article was originally published on www.IndiaAtLondon.com

A rare champion

Cricketers are by far the richest sportspersons in India, with the exception of Vishwanathan Anand and a couple of golfers probably. But when was the last time a cricketer gave away his money for a good cause?

I don’t remember ever. And don’t count the charity games they play in.

On the other end of the spectrum, there is hardly any money in amateur boxing. The AIBA Boxing World Cup was a rare event that offered prize money. Our bronze-medal winning boxers won 2,500 USD each – peanuts compared to most other sports.

But, in spite of the meagre amount , boxers Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumar, decided to distribute a share of their prize money to the coaching staff comprising – Sandhu, Bisht, Ramanand and C Kuttappa. “We will give $500 to each of them as these people matter the most. They wipe our blood and sweat and put in the effort to prepare us for the toughest in the world. They are the unsung heroes,” said Akhil.

Now you decide, who is richer – cricketers or boxers

This one is all about celebration. So please leave your skepticism at home. Forget what we had been doing as a nation of 1.2 billion. Just enjoy what we have done in the last one week.