A Common Fan’s Sports Diary

Playing at home is a huge advantage in sport. Having the crowd behind you and possessing a far superior knowledge of the playing conditions as compared to your opponent, gives the home player a competitive edge.

But is it really an edge when Indian sportspersons play in home conditions?

At the ongoing World Badminton Championships, Indian players failed to cause a single upset. Most of them including Chetan Anand and Aditi Mutatkar lost to players they have beaten recently. Saina Nehwal matched up well against her second seeded Chinese opponent and had home advantage but fell tamely.

Playing in her hometown didn't help Dipika Pallikal

Before this, there was the World Junior Squash Championships. Dipika Pallikal had the top billing but was knocked out of the semi-finals and the second -seeded girls team was beaten by lower ranked Hong Kong. Most of the boys failed to justify their seeding losing to lower ranked opponents.

But are these just isolated examples or do they happen to be the latest chapter of a grim tale – one where we have either failed to create the right home conditions or our players have failed to capitalise on them.

First let’s look at more examples from various sports to see if there is enough proof to validate our hypothesis – that we don’t really make the home conditions count.

We will compare the results achieved at home and overseas and see if there is a significant difference in the two.

Let’s start with tennis. The biggest Davis cup wins have both come abroad – over Australia in 1987 and against France in 1994. We have beaten Switzerland and Yugoslavia at home but there is no reason to believe that our players have thrived in home conditions.

In singles, we don’t have enough data, because we didn’t have any tournaments in India during our glory years. Somdev Dev Varman reached the final at the Chennai Open and Sania Mirza won at Hyderabad but both players have achieved similar success abroad as well.

A partisan crowd saw the home team getting thumped 1-7 in the 1982 Asian Games Final

In Hockey, we have never won a major tournament at home. We have hosted the Asian Games and the World Cup but both times we failed to meet pre-tournament expectations. The last major tournament in India was the Champions Trophy and once again the home advantage hadn’t counted for much. Neighbours Pakistan on the other hand have always raised their game when playing at home winning both the World Cup and the Champions Trophy on home soil.

Cricket is one sport where our home record is significantly better than our overseas record, especially in the five day version. But that has everything to do with the nature of the pitch. We perform better when we get a favourable pitch abroad and struggle on pacy and bouncy wickets at home. We fare better in places like Adelaide, Sydney and Guyana as compared to Mohali and Ahmedabad.

We have won the World Cup in England, the T-20 World Cup in South Africa, the Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka and the Champion of Champions tournament in Australia. In the same period, the Hero Cup and the Titan Cup have been our biggest triumphs at home. India has hosted two World Cups and both times the national side was quite strong but we always came up short.

Crowd support and home conditions count for a lot in football especially at the club level. Even the weakest sides prove quite a handful when playing in front of their fans. The Indian national side have largely failed to raise their game while playing at home but they did make an exception in the AFC Challenge Cup. The club sides have fared better but foreign clubs have not been daunted by the challenge of playing an Indian club in India. All in all we have largely failed to drive home the home advantage.

The only other sport in which we regularly host international tournaments is golf. This is a sport where familiarity with the course is a massive advantage and Indian players have made it count. Foreign players held a stranglehold over the Indian Open for a long time. Then Ali Sher broke their monopoly and local players have dominated the tournament ever since. SSP Chowrasia continued the home domination by winning the inaugural Indian Masters.

Having looked at these various sports, we can say with some measure of confidence that the home conditions or home advantage haven’t been enough of factor in Indian sport.

So the next questions is why

Have we failed to create the right home advantage or is it because our players don’t know how to make it count?

I think it’s a little bit of both.

We are a country steeped in the tradition of ‘Attithi Devo Bhava’, meaning the guest is like god. We have never tried to intimidate the visiting players or indulged in planned psychological warfare like most other countries do. We have often seen how the foreign media gets behind a player’s back. Our media on the other hand pays visiting players to write columns where they criticize the home team and their tactics. Players are often advised not to read the local papers; but visiting don’t need to take such precautions in India.

This is the kind of crowd we need to be

Then there is the role of the fans. Our crowds cheer for our players for sure as we saw during the recent badminton championships and the squash tournament. But there is a long way to go before they can start getting into the heads of the foreign players. We mostly fail to create a charged atmosphere which makes the visiting player feel almost threatened; as if he is surrounded by a vicious enemy from all sides. The same energy drives the adrenalin level of the home player and he or she just takes their game to another level. We need more incessant flag waving, drum beating, wild cheering, singing and booing.

And what about the players themselves – are they able to thrive in the home conditions or do they crumble in the face of heightened expectation?

Most of the evidence points to the latter.

We have a long history of losing close encounters; of failing to give our best in pressure cooker situations. And playing at home definitely creates additional pressure. This additional pressure can get cancelled out if the impact of the other home factors is strong enough. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be the case in India.

While the negative impact of home conditions gets enhanced in the case of an Indian player because they aren’t good at handling pressure, the favourable conditions are not exploited sufficiently enough.

Together they have ensured that Indian sport in general has failed to make the most of the home advantage.

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India’s new hockey coach, Jose Brasa, keeps shouting ‘Upar Dekho’ or ‘look up’ at the top of his lungs as he watches the Indian players go about their dribbling practise.

The Spaniard’s logic is simple and yet it could go a long way in curing a chronic ailment, not just for Indian Hockey but for Indian sport as general – that of players in team sports being selfish and more inclined to show boat rather than being satisfied as a simple cog in the wheel.

Brasa rightly believes that a player who is not looking up will never know where his team mates are and therefore can never make a good pass – as a result he will either over-dribble or make a bad pass. We have seen Indian player do both on a regular basis and concede possession. Now Jose Brasa has identified the root of the problem and has a simple and effective cure.

If the Indian players end up embracing ‘Upar Dekho’ whole-heartedly, it could well change the fortunes of Indian hockey . It will set a new precedent in Indian sport and ‘Upar Dekho’ could gain cult status as a rallying cry whenever an Indian player or team starts to act selfish.

Here’s a toast to the Spaniard who coaches in Hindi

Upar Dekho, Upar Dekho, Upar Dekho,

It took a long time coming but we are now ready with the third post of the ‘Most memorable moments of Indian sports’ series. This time we look at India’s national game – Hockey. It will be quite a challenge as our national side has won eight Olympic golds, one World Cup and registered countless wins over the toughest of opponents. To pick out our list, we have decided to look at the context and the historical significance of each moment and not just its relevance in purely hockey terms – so the worthiness of the ones which miss out is not undermined.

Here we go

The gold at the 1928 Olympics – a walk in the park for the hockey team but a giant step for the whole of Asia

The team which announced India's arrival as a hockey power

At a time when India as well as most of Asia was still under imperialist rule, the hockey team, with a fair mix of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Anglo –Indians put the continent on the sporting map of the world – this was the first medal by an Asian country at the Olympics, although technically we weren’t a nation yet.

This was just our first appearance and considering that we romped home in the most one-sided manner, it was pity that we didn’t participate in any of the previous Olympics. We won all five our matches convincingly scoring 29 goals and conceding none.

Perhaps the British didn’t let us – after all they were so scared of losing to their ‘subjects’ at Amsterdam that they dropped out of the event. And continued to do so till India gained independence.

The 1928 Games also introduced the ‘Hockey Wizard’ Dhyan Chand to the world but this time round the spectators were too over-awed by the brilliance of the entire team to give extra attention to the ‘greatest player to ever play the game of hockey’

An awe-struck Dutch journalist wrote “The Indian ball seems ignorant of the laws of gravity. One of those tanned diabolical jugglers stares at the ball intently; it gets upright and remains suspended in the air. This is no longer the game of hockey. It is a juggling turn. It is splendid.”

The Indian team’s performance revived interest in hockey, and overnight it became a world sport.

The gold at the 1936 Olympics – Spoiling a Nazi dictator’s well planned party

The likes of Adolf Hitler didn't bother this bunch

These Games were intended to be a massive propaganda affair for Hitler’s racist idea of Aryan supremacy. The Indian hockey team joined the likes of Jesse Owens in spoiling the Nazi dictator’s well-laid plans. Sadly, they don’t get as much credit for that.

The Indians did not receive a pleasant welcome in Germany and lost a practise game to a German side, 4-1. But they roared into form and entered the finals after thrashing the French 10-0.

A crowd of around 40,000 people, the biggest crowd till then to witness an Olympic hockey match, gathered for the final. Adolf Hitler was also in attendance and he was hoping for a resounding German victory over the two-time defending champions. His hopes were probably raised by the defeat the Indians suffered in the practise game.

What followed though was the sporting equivalent of the Battle of Stalingrad (where the mighty Nazi army was routed)

India was up by 6 goals when the Germans started playing rough, breaking Dhyan Chand’s tooth in the process. The Indians then changed tactics – they repeatedly took the ball up to the German circle and then back passed to mystify their opponents. Finally after toying with their opponents as if they were little children, the Indians won 8-1. This match was played on 15th August – later to be celebrated as our Independence Day for entirely different reasons.

All this was too much for Hitler handle and he left the match midway, disgusted at his team`s plight.

The supreme tribute to Dhyan Chand was by a sports club in Vienna, which built a statue of Dhyan Chand with four hands and four sticks. To the Viennese, no man with two hands and one stick could have played the way Dhyan Chand did.

There also goes a story that Adolf Hitler was so mesmerized by Dhyan Chand, that he offered the Indian captain a chance to become a German citizen and high ranking military officer.

The gold at the 1948 Olympics – Icing on the cake for a newly independent nation

Sporting ambassadors of a newly-independent nation

This was truly the stuff fairytales are made of. India gained independence after an epic struggle which was based on the ethos of non-violence. The very next year, their former rulers hosted the biggest sporting extravaganza in the world. For the winners of World War II, the first Olympics after the war were a perfect occasion to put on a grand show of their sporting prowess.

The Indian hockey team was weakened significantly by the partition – the parting gift the British left us – losing many Muslim and Anglo Indian players in the process

Great Britain had avoided the hockey event in the Olympics fearing an embarrassment at the hands of their ‘subjects’. Now they were the hosts and India had ceased to be their colony – so the hockey event couldn’t be avoided anymore. But the Brits gained comfort from the fact that they were at home and India was fielding a weakened side.

It seemed as if the event was scripted by the sporting gods, as the two teams made it to the finals. And then the Indian hockey team brutalized the British in the most non-violent manner, winning comfortably 4-0. This was the first time the Indian tri-colour flew high at the Olympics.

Why has this story not inspired a single film maker till date? This is “Chak De’ rolled into ‘Lagaan’ rolled into ‘Gandhi’

A disclaimer before we head to the other moments – For me the 1980 Olympic Gold in a tournament boycotted by all the major hockey powers means absolutely nothing.

Gold in the 1964 Olympics – a farewell and a well-settled score with an arch-enemy

The view from Mount Olympus - one last time

This triumph is special for two reasons. First, it remains our last truly glorious Olympic campaign – it kind of marks the end of the greatest chapter in the game of hockey and not just Indian hockey.

And secondly, this win came over bitter –rivals Pakistan – the third and most probably the last of India-Pakistan finals in Olympic hockey. By winning this game, we got sweet revenge for our defeat in 1960 and also ensured bragging rights for eternity – India having won two of the three finals. A defeat on the other hand would have meant two consecutive finals losses and that would have left a bitter taste in the mouth forever – the people of that generation would have spent their entire lives just pining for a chance for revenge

To add to all this, the match was also a nail-biter. Pakistan came close to equalizing on numerous occasions in the closing stages of the game as the Indians just held on for dear life. The Indian goalkeeper Shankar Lakshman gave a heroic performance and was rightly adjudged Man of the Match.

This victory wasn’t half as pretty as the earlier wins but the Indian team was gallant as they have ever been

The Gold in the 1975 World Cup – the best team in the world for one last time

The last of the World beaters

Another electrifying India-Pakistan encounter which galvanized fans on both sides of the border and created a whole new generation of hockey fans. India trailed 0-1 at half-time but came roaring back to seal a memorable 2-1 win. In another perfectly scripted tale, the winning goal was scored by Ashok Kumar – son of the great Dhyan Chand. This was India’s only World Cup title – it would have been a pity if the greatest hockey nation ever, hadn’t won the World Cup even once.

But more than anything else, it remains the last time that the whole hockey world was at our feet and we were the champions of the world – our final hurrah on the global stage. I want to keep writing about this win as if it will somehow let me hold on to this last moment. Like the last morsel of the last awesome meal before you went on a fast to death. You want to just keep chewing forever.

Soon there were astro-turfs and a bunch of seemingly unfair rule changes and the world started getting better and better and we were left far behind.

Other Notable Moments

All the other Olympic gold medal triumphs. As already clarified, these were no less in hockey terms.

The hockey gold in the Bangkok Asiad of 1998. The triumph which raised some slender hopes once again.

The hockey gold won by the women’s side in the 1982 Asiad. As hosts, we were embarrassed as the men’s team suffered a shocking 1-7 defeat at the hands of Pakistan. The women came to the party, though winning the gold medal.

The victory in the Junior World Cup in 2001. A team of brilliant youngsters which convincingly won the tournament. Sadly few made a mark at the senior level.

Related Articles

Most memorable moments of Indian sports – Tennis

Most memorable moments of Indian sports – Badminton

Finally a man to end the despair?

Recently, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Secretary-General Randhir Singh resigned from the ad-hoc committee set up to run Indian hockey after the IHF was disbanded in April. He had been complaining for some time that decisions were not being taken jointly but arbitrarily by one or two influential persons in the committee. This complaint has also been expressed by other members and the national selectors. In fact things have been so bad that the convener, Aslam Sher Khan, had also tendered his resignation a couple of months back.

Although, Indian Hockey has been run in an ad-hoc manner for as long as I can remember, it is quite shocking that the ad-hoc committee continues to govern over hockey matters in this country, almost 8 months after it was set up as a stop gap arrangement!!! Things are falling apart and members are pulling in different directions. Suddenly, the euphoria over the sacking of K.P.S Gill seems a distant memory. I wouldn’t be surprised if the ex-cop is chuckling to himself thinking of the mess that has followed his dictatorial reign. At least there used to be consensus decision making during his time.

In the middle of all this, another politician has thrown his hat in the ring for the IHF president elections, whenever they are going to happen. Ex Member of Parliament Gufram Afzal sounds rather confident of his chances and has confirmed that he would relinquish the president ship of the Bhopal Hockey Association after getting elected to the IHF post. The funny thing is that Mr.Afzal is not even a member of the Bhopal body and is taking his first baby steps towards getting involved with hockey administration. Isn’t that music to every hockey fan’s ears?

On the playing field, our senior side started the Argentina tour on a bright note, winning the first two games, and almost brought some cheer to the few diligent followers of Indian hockey. But soon they were tormenting us, losing the next two games rather tamely.

Anyways, enough of the bad news – Now to the serendipity part.

The ad-hoc committee have just met and interviewed Spaniard Jose Brasa for the vacant post of the Indian men’s hockey coach. They were impressed with the homework the Spaniard had done, backing his observations of Indian hockey with technical data with medical inputs. He showed a fine understanding of India and its culture and had a comprehensively detailed plan to put Indian hockey back on the rails. Brasa comes with an impressive resume and has coached the Spanish women’s side to gold in the 1992 Olympics. Even Randhir Singh, who wasn’t involved in interviewing the Spaniard, conceded that Brasa was world class coach and perfect for the job.

And this isn’t the best part.

The best part is that Brasa has refused to take up the post, irrespective of whatever obscene amount of money the IHF can offer, unless he is assured of full technological support. Very clearly he isn’t a mercenary who is only interested in the lure of the lucre. So, unless, the IHF bosses plan to look at someone else, they will have to do something which has never been done in the history of the game in India – and the lack of which has ensured that we have continued to fall behind the rest of the world. Time and time again, Indian as well as foreign coaches have rued the lack of technology being used to prepare the Indian national side. That the IHF has been completely enamoured with Brasa and no other alternative coaching names are available, leaves the ad-hoc committee with almost no choice. They will have to relent and god willing (I am very superstitious about this), in spite of all the chaos that has followed India’s failure to qualify for Beijing; we will soon have a world class hockey coach with full technological support. If that isn’t discovering happiness in the most unlikely of places (read Indian Hockey), then I don’t know what is.

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

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.

The sorry state of Indian Hockey continues to upset me. Just when I think things couldn’t get any worse, I get another rude shock. Every time there is news about Indian Hockey I dread to hear it – what bad thing could have happened now?

But this last week, for a change, there was something to feel good about – something to give me a little hope.

In fact this has reinforced my belief that god cares about sports. And he’s taking an active interest in the affairs of Indian hockey

So here’s my story of hitting rock bottom and then finding my sports faith again

The memory of this day still haunts

It all started after India failed to qualify for the Olympics. The IHF and its president weren’t too bothered about it but the International Hockey Federation (FIH) was. So they got Ric Charlesworth to help Indian hockey and even footed the Australian’s bill. The IHF however, treated Ric like dirt, never defining his role clearly. Ric tried hard to get a more active role – even volunteered to coach the Indians.

Gill and Kalmadi - the Devil and the Deep Sea

In the meantime, the IHF president was sacked and an ad-hoc body comprising of former players was formed under the leadership of Suresh Kalmadi.

The new committee continued its hostile approach towards Charlesworth who finally gave up and left. The IHF spared no effort in criticizing the Australian.

Then the legitimacy of this ad-hoc body became questionable as two other groups claimed to have the majority support of the state federations – and hence staked a claim to run the IHF. One of these groups happens to be led by the disgraced former president Mr KPS Gill.

The ad-hoc body meanwhile appointed MK Kaushik, in-charge of the women’s side, as the coach of the national side. Now consider this – Kaushik had been a flop in his previous stint with the national side and Indian hockey is in dire need of a fresh modern approach. This was like treating cancer with a home grown medication.

Kaushik averted this calamitous arrangement by refusing the job, saving himself some future heart burn as well.

But the IHF was not to be outdone – they were determined to find a way to sink Indian hockey further. So they went and appointed former assistant Harendra Singh. He was given a new glorified designation also – coach-in-charge. As if the former coaches were not supposed to be in charge. His selection was justified as one based on credentials and seniority – as if they were appointing a govt bureaucrat.

Then in a sudden change of policy Mr Suresh Kalmadi announced that they had decided to hire a foreign coach and Harendra Singh would be a stop gap arrangement who would give way to the foreign recruit. He said that they had discussed the matter with the FIH, who had decided to help the IHF with their search

What in the world was going on?

Hadn’t the same set of guys already driven away Ric Charlesworth – couldn’t he have been their foreign coach? He happens to be one of the finest coaches ever, was already on their rolls, was asking for the job and was working for free – his salary being paid by the FIH.

And I couldn’t believe that the FIH was actually helping them in finding a foreign coach. Hadn’t they done enough already by appointing Ric Charlesworth and giving India the right to host the 2010 Hockey World Cup .Hadn’t they learnt anything from the manner in which Ric Charlesworth was mishandled by the same set of guys? Wasn’t there enough reason to believe that helping the Indians was a futile effort? Was Mr Kalmadi bluffing that the FIH was helping them.

A few days later Ric Charlesworth was appointed as the coach of the Australian national side. Obviously the Aussies knew what Ric was capable of. Coming on the heels of the IHF’s announcement, the timing was ironical. I wish somebody could have asked one of the IHF bosses if the Aussies made the right choice

And then a couple of weeks later, on Oct 14th, the FIH actually handed over a list of 7 possible candidates. This meeting was attended by the FIH president also and the world body reiterated their desire to help India restore their lost pride. Mr Kalmadi was right. The FIH was still interested in restoring the fortunes of the game in India.

God sent this lady to help Indian Hockey

This is an amazing combination of good and bad fortune for Indian Hockey. On one hand there is the IHF – clueless about what to do and shameless about what they have done. And then there is the FIH and its Dutch president Els van Breda Vriesman who are determined to do everything to save Indian Hockey – over and over again.

Related Articles

Farewell, Ric Charlesworth

The day we killed Hockey

Who will be the next chief of Indian Hockey

Poll – Who will be the next chief of the Indian Hockey Federation?
Results – We will place Dhyan Chand’s shoes on the chair and let it rule like God Rama’s footwear ruled Ayodhya in Ramayana – 21%

K P S Gill – Even the sports minister could banish him completely and he has the support of 21 of the state affiliates -11%

It’s been reported that the sports ministry is looking for Kabir Khan to take over. His whereabouts were not known till the time of reporting – 11%

I don’t care -11%

First my apologies for confusing the voters by giving them 14 choices. It’s very misleading. You either think we are spoilt for choice or desperately trying every possible option, however implausible it might seem.

Sadly, we belong to the latter category

So while, realistically we only have three contenders for this post – Gill, Kalmadi and JB Roy, they are all so bad that I wouldn’t mind if one of the other 11 options actually became a reality

This is what the fans want...if only we could find the shoes

And it seems most of the voters agree with me – For our most popular option is a throwback to the great Hindu Epic – the Ramayana – where the Kingdom of Ayodhya was ruled by the footwear of God Ram in his absence. The closest thing to God in Indian hockey is Dhyan Chand and hence it is fitting that his footwear rule Indian hockey. I am not sure if we can find it though. Unlike, the west, where the memorabilia of famous sportspersons are carefully preserved in Hall of Fame museums, in India we have no such thing – not even for our national game. Looks like, we will have to drop the first option for lack of footwear, unless the great player’s family can come forward with something.

There is a three-way tie for the second position and one of the options – the ‘I don’t care’ is of no help. Absenteeism is a curse for a democratic system. We feel our vote doesn’t count for anything and hence don’t bother voting – leaving the field clear for the likes of KPS Gill and his cronies to rule. The ex-cop still has the support of a large number of equally corrupt and useless state federations and could well spring a surprise return to power. That would be a slap in the face of the sports minister and the worst advertisement for democracy.

The back-up option is also pretty good...and will make a great movie as well

The third option is Kabir Khan. I don’t know if by this the voters meant Mir Ranjan Negi – on whose life the movie character was based or whether they wanted Shah Rukh Khan – the actor who played Kabir Khan in the movie and is a self proclaimed ‘hockey champ in college’. I wouldn’t mind either. Both would do a better job than the current lot. And this could lead to a ‘Chak De’ sequel – Kabir Khan coming back to become the head of the IHF and saving Indian hockey. Considering that Kabir Khan is a fairly popular choice as a real life IHF president, the sequel based on the reel life one should also do quite well. We could just watch the movie and feel good whenever the current IHF brass plunged another dagger into the heart of Indian Hockey. In case that does happen, remember where you read it first.

Indian hockey continues to stumble from one catastrophe to another. The latest one is the ongoing struggle between various groups to seize control of the Indian Hockey Federation. Commonfan decided to make a list of the contenders. Considering that this is Indian (meaning we have scope for political manipulations and electoral drama) and this is Hockey (meaning there will be madness and bad luck) and this is a Federation (meaning there will be foreign junkets), no possibility could be ruled out. So after looking at all the possible options, the Commonfan finally presents a list of contenders.

• J B Roy – he has the support of the team’s sponsors Sahara and 31 of the state affiliates
• The existing ad hoc body lead by Suresh Kalmadi will continue
• K P S Gill – Even the sports minister could banish him completely and he has the support of 21 of the state affiliates
• It’s been reported that the sports ministry is looking for Kabir Khan to take over. His whereabouts were not known till the time of reporting.
• Now that George Bush is retiring, he wants to be the chief. It’s his secret mission to revenge his country’s embarrassing 24-1 defeat to India.
• We will have a game show – who wants to be the Chief of the IHF. Zee was hosting the show initially but their show has been banned and DD is doing an alternate show
• We will have a lottery to pick the winner. Dawood Ibrahim has successfully bid for the distribution rights of the tickets
• The anarchy in the body will lead to President’s rule and Pratibha Patil will become the next head
• With the high number of tribal players in the game, the govt will reserve this seat for a tribal and place Shibu Soren on the chair
• We will place Dhyan Chand’s shoes on the chair and let it rule like God Rama’s footwear ruled Ayodhya in Ramayana
• We will have a surprise new candidate – some politician will cobble together enough support and spring a surprise
• We will not have a chief – they are no good anyways
• Let’s get a euthanasia practitioner. He will at least ensure that Hockey dies a peaceful death

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.