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.

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.

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.

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.

ALSO CHECK OUT THE SPORTS QUOTIENT

Poll- Which Indian Sportsperson are you most excited about? (Choose upto 5)

Results - Saina Nehwal – Badminton (48.0%, 43 Votes)
Yuki Bhambri – Tennis (22.0%, 20 Votes)
Somdev Dev Varman – Tennis (21.0%, 19 Votes)
Jeev Milkha Singh – Golf (20.0%, 18 Votes)
Sunil Chhteri – Football (20.0%, 18 Votes)
Abhinav Bindra – Shooting (19.0%, 17 Votes)
Sania Mirza – Tennis (19.0%, 17 Votes)
Koneru Humpy – Chess (19.0%, 17 Votes)
Akhil Kumar – Boxing (19.0%, 17 Votes)

Disclaimer – This poll was limited to non-cricket sports only.

As I write this, Saina Nehwal has broken new ground yet again, winning the Super Series title in Indonesia. With this win she has finally managed to break through the ‘Great Wall of China’ at Super Series Events. The wall of top Chinese players had stopped her from progressing beyond the semi-finals till date, leaving behind a trail of closely contested three setters. Now that Saina has broken through the Chinese hoodoo at the Super Series, we can expect more wins and glory for her and more joy for us – the fans who have voted her as the future of Indian Sport by a landslide.

The best part is that Saina is just 19 years old and has already given us a lifetime of great moments. She continues to get better and move up the world rankings. She is unrelenting in her desire to be the best player in the world and unfazed by the challenges that lie in her path. The world is her oyster and if the poll results are anything to go by, a lot of Indian sports fans including yours truly, are already licking their chops at the prospect of all the sporting joy that Saina Nehwal is going to bring to their lives over the next 10 years.

The race to be the second most exciting sportsperson in India is a dead heat between 3 tennis players, a golfer, a boxer, a shooter, a chess player and a footballer, although technically speaking, Yuki Bhambhri is alone in second place. It augurs well for Indian sports that so many sportspersons from different sports are doing well and each of them has a decent number of followers who are looking forward to their every move.

Now there is more good news for these sports fans. They can watch the videos of their favourite Indian sportspersons on www.SportPass.tv. This is a new sports video website which aggregates the most locally relevant sports videos from all over the world.

Now you don’t need to bother about media apathy towards the achievements of these sportspersons. If they are not showing you the action, you can catch it on SportPass.tv

More glory to Indian Sports

It’s been two years since I started blogging and it’s time for a special post. No, I am not going to bore you to death by reminiscing, how blogging on ACommonFan has been a life changing experience or thank everyone – right from the person who invented the first blogging platform to the every family member or friend who I have discussed sports with.

Instead I will pay a little homage to The Sportstar – the sports magazine which made millions of sports fans in this country, including me.

I say sports fans because The Sportstar stood for more than just cricket. At a time when there was no cable and no internet and other than the Doordarshan’s telecast of the Olympics, the tennis grand slams and the football and hockey World Cups, there was absolutely no other way of knowing what else was going on in the international sports world, I looked forward to the weekly dose of The Sportstar like a drug-addict waiting for his next shot of cocaine. People who grew up in the nineties can never appreciate what this magazine meant in the 80’s. They covered a wide of sports in detail and brought to us some of the finest reporting and writing from the world of sports.

It was because of them that we came to know the players that we had glimpsed on television and understood the nuances of various sport and developed an appreciation for their history.

If not for them, we would have not known for the longest time about the NBA and about the various football leagues in Europe.

And they weren’t just covering different sports. They brought to us the finest works of the likes of Brian Glanville and Paul Fein – a breed of sportswriters that I didn’t even know existed – any die-hard football or tennis fan will tell you that these two are to the world of sports writing what Sachin Tendulkar is to the world of batting. Any article by these guys used to be read slowly and thoughtfully as if I was savouring the finest dessert in the world.

In a country where sports isn’t really part of popular culture or our daily lives, and reading is largely limited to the morning newspaper, it was testimony to their quality of content that they stood the test of time while many others fell by the wayside.

The internet made life really difficult for magazines like The Sportstar. Circulation fell and it was difficult to pack enough into a magazine to compete with the wealth of free content available on the World Wide Web.
They responded by reducing the cost of the magazine and coming out with a paid online format. However, the cost cuts haven’t led to any drop in the quality of the content. The works of Glanville and Fein still figure prominently and die-hards like me continue to do their bit for the circulation.

ACommonFan would have been reduced to just ACricketFan if not for the sustenance that the Sportstar provided for many years.

Thank you Sportstar for making me a sports fan and for making this blog a sports blog.

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

Almost at the end of 2008, the Indian sports ministry came up with a shocker – they decided that only players holding Indian passports could represent the country at sporting events. This decision was not the consequence of any event; the govt just pulled a rabbit out of the hat. Not even the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), which is headed by a Member of Parliament, had any clue that this was in the offing. I cannot understand why for the first time in living memory the govt took an active step and not a reactive one –Something which has been unanimously criticized by the sporting fraternity as an unnecessary impediment. They have earned the distinction of becoming probably the only nation to do so – even the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and International Olympic Committee (IOC) do not bar such sportspersons. For once the sports federations – the IOA and the AITA, the sportspersons and the fans were all on one page. Thankfully, the govt has consented to the request of the IOA to re-consider this ruling.

But this begs the question – Is this politically motivated? The sporting fraternity was completely against it but wouldn’t something like this appeal to the jingoistic kinds – people who don’t know a thing about sports but take every opportunity to stir up a rabid nationalist frenzy?

There has never been any protest against the inclusion of a PIO (Player of Indian Origin). It’s not that these overseas players have limited the opportunities for home-bred players. We haven’t had a flood of PIOs flocking home to represent the country. And not even that other countries have been complaining that India has benefitted from the inclusion of such players. Even mighty sporting powers like the US, Australia and the UK don’t have a rule like this – and they have benefitted far more. Also, if the sports ministry was so convinced about it then why have agreed to re-consider it so quickly.

If the sports ministry really wanted to do something for Indian sports, then why not first tackle the more obvious and more pertinent issues – and there is a long list of those – the problem of infrastructure, selection of over-age players, proliferation of drug usage, inefficiency and corruption of sporting federations and so on and so forth. Or why not just make the passport issuing process faster for those who are Indian citizens – they would have surely noticed the trouble Saina Nehwal had to go though recently. They would have spent long hours thinking hard before they came up with the passport ‘idea’. They probably though they had another winner like the ‘OBC reservation rule’. But sadly for them their rule has found few takers. If only there were a few true sports fans amongst them.

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

3

The number of medals that India won at the Beijing Olympics – the best ever haul and equal to the combined tally of the last 6 Olympics. The happiest, most memorable Olympics ever. Bindra, Sushil and Vijender won the medals and Akhil and Saina won hearts.

2-0

The score line in the final of the triangular series in Australia and in the home test series against the same opponents. Both were landmark moments for Indian cricket.

6.5 -4.5

The victory margin for Vishwanathan Anand against Vladimir Kramnik in the World Championship Match –up in the classic format. The media might call this another world title for the Chess maestro but the real aficionado will tell you that this one mattered more than anything. Anand thus became only the second non-Russian to become world champion in the classic format.

18

The number of Olympics that India’s streak of playing in the hockey event of the quadrennial event lasted, before we suffered the ignominy of missing out in Beijing. And based on what’s happened after, there is a good chance that we could start a new streak – one of missing out

4-1

The score line in the final of the AFC Challenge Cup as India humbled Tajikistan. For once, India’s football side had the entire nation glued to attention as they went on a rare winning run which culminated in the title triumph and qualification for the Asian Cup after 24 long years. Start making plans for 2011.

36 and 9

Like in 2008, Jeev Milkha Singh had won 4 tournaments in 2006 also. But 2008 saw Jeev become the first Indian to have a top ten finish in a major, when he finished 9th in the PGA Championship. The other highlight for Milkha Singh’s son was achieving a career-best world ranking of 36. Like the golfer, we have also started dreaming of winning a major.

10

This was the year-end world ranking of Saina Nehwal – India’s shining new hope in badminton. Saina
Has taken major strides this year – narrowly missed an Olympic medal, won the world juniors and made a semi-final appearance at the BWF World Masters. Prakash Padukone sees a future world number one in her and we don’t disagree with the great man

0 and 0

The number of Indian drivers in the Force India Formula One side and the number of points won by ‘India’s’ team in formula one. Not seeing an Indian in the driving seat was disappointing and therefore the zero points didn’t hurt so much.

83

The most brilliant cricket innings played by an Indian player in 2008. There have been far bigger ones but nothing comes close to Virender Sehwag’s effort in terms of sheer audacity and eventual impact on the outcome of the game. Indian cricket’s most memorable non-century innings ever.

204

The year- end rank of the new hope of Indian men’s tennis – Somdev Dev Varman. This young man has been a professional tennis player for only six months and is already our highest ranked singles player. He has all the game, the physique and the mind to make it big. And he also has the support of all Indian tennis fans.

2

The number of gold medals won by India at the World Junior Chess Championships. India thus became the first country to win both the boys and girls titles. Dronavalli Harika and Abhijeet Gupta reflect the growing power of Indian chess –Vishy is the king and there are pretenders galore

2500000

The total prize money in dollars at the Emaar MGF Indian Masters – the first European Tour sanctioned event to be played in India. Having this tournament in India was clearly a sign of India’s growing stature in golf

4

The number of Indian players in the top-50 of men’s badminton. Led by world no 15 Chetan Anand and nurtured by Padukone and Pullela Gopichand, India has a decent program in place and a steady stream of good players coming through. I always wonder, why, in spite of all this, badminton has not become a darling of the sponsors, the fans and the media.

4 and 4

The number of World titles won by women’s boxer MC Mary Kom and the number of medals won by the men at the first AIBA World Cup. After years of promise, the medals have finally started to come. The recruitment of a South African physio and a Cuban coach has played no small part. It’s imperative that we make the most of this momentum

3

The number of sports federations headed by Suresh Kalmadi – Athletics, Olympics and now Hockey. He is also in charge of the Delhi Commonwealth Games which are in serious danger of being moved to a new location owing to the glaring delays in meeting project timelines. I will say nothing about his performance though.

2
The rank of India’s richest sports fan on the Forbes billionaire list. Lakshmi Mittal and his son-in-law Amit Bhatia have proven to be true sports fans – they were moved by India’s sporting plight and decided to make a meaningful contribution. The Mittal’s Champions Trust was born – it intends to support and fund talented sportspersons and potential Olympic medal winners to enable them to access the best specialists in the world, so that they can compete with the best in the world on a level playing field. With a list of beneficiaries that includes Saina Nehwal, Abhinav Bindra, Akhil Kumar and Joshna Chinnappa, they are already making a difference.

115000000

The number of dollars paid by Mukesh Ambani to own the Mumbai franchise of the IPL – clearly a measure of the hype and possible potential of the league. The IPL lived up to all the hype and unleashed a creature which could change most of the paradigms of the game of cricket.

6-1

The score by which Pankaj Advani beat eight time World Champion Geet Sethi in the final of the IBSF World Billiards Championships. This was in true sense a passing of the baton, from a legend of the green baize to one capable of being a true successor.

147+47

Ronjon Sodhi’s world-record equalling score which also made him the first Indian shooter to win a gold medal in the double trap event at the World Cup. It was unfortunate that this brilliant shooter could not find an Olympic berth. Sodhi along with Bindra and Gagan Narang are the stars of Indian shooting in 2008.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.