Moving on to specifics, despite a good number of shooters having achieved success at the international stage over the last few years India continues to rue the absence of a pistol coach, with the shooting federation and the IOA sidestepping such issues and focussing their attention on trying to protect their autonomy. That the Commonwealth Games opportunity was partly lost was largely due to a dysfunctional IOA and an ineffective sports ministry. The Games, which could have been the gamechanger for India’s Olympic sport, is remembered more for the associated scams and cases of malpractice.
Indian sport, to take advantage of the opportunities before it, needs to reform itself. Change is needed, both at the top and also at the grassroots, especially with London just days away. London 2012 can be a major turning point in India’s quest to become a sporting nation, an opportunity that might be lost at the altar of ego battles over the national sports bill. Winning medals at London, it must be acknowledged, will provide a huge boost for the athletes and will also result in opening up the possibility of corporate investment in Olympic sport. But the politics over the sports bill has badly impacted preparations for the Games with administrators engaged in guarding their turf rather than concentrating on athletes training for London.
A FIRM ‘NO’ TO AN OLYMPIC BID
A survey of international media reports in the aftermath of CWG 2010 helped draw attention to one singular strand of argument—that India was finally ready to mount a strong Olympic bid. These arguments were based on assumptions that hosting the CWG was a stepping stone towards bidding for the 2020 Olympic Games.
Put bluntly, India is not ready to prepare a serious Olympic bid. The Commonwealth Games had come to India prematurely in 2003,12 a decision that explains the problems in the lead-up to the Games and the clean-up act currently underway. Most top brass of the Games Organizing Committee are now in jail on charges of misappropriation of funds. An Olympic bid, which comes at a serious cost to a nation, will divert attention from the athletic achievement at CWG and Asian Games 2010, which for the first time ever in our sporting history has given us hope of achieving the objective of sport for all.
If the CWG experience is taken as evidence, an Indian bid will only be a waste of time, energy and money and will only result in huge money spent on non-sporting activities at the cost of our athletes with little returns on investment.
As Jacques Rogge had emphasized during his visit to Delhi in October 2010 when asked about an Indian Olympic bid, ‘You have great athletes and you have one overriding sport, which is cricket. But we need more gold medals from the second-most populous country in the world before you make a pitch for hosting the Olympics.’13
The point the IOC president made is already a well-established paradigm in the West. Only after a country seriously invests in sport and improves its record by winning a handful of medals at the Games can it join the race for hosting the most prestigious global sports spectacle. A strong Olympic bid is premised on winning medals at the Olympic stage and unless India achieves the latter, the former is a non-starter. In the current context, an Olympic bid is a luxury in India, which its sportspersons can ill afford.
LESSONS FROM BHIWANI: DEMYSTIFYING THE REVOLUTION
The Bhiwani Boxing Club’s iconic coach Jagdish Singh is fond of saying ‘Geedar ka shikar karna ho to sher se ladna seekho.’ (If you want to hunt jackals, learn how to fight a lion.)14 Surprisingly enough, till 2008, Bhiwani was a rather insignificant presence on the Indian sporting map. Despite giving the country multiple Asian Games gold medallists and a slew of medals in other international boxing competitions, the nation hadn’t trained its eyes on Bhiwani before Beijing 2008. A few startling days at the Olympics changed all of this. As Akhil Kumar punched his way past Sergei Vodopyanov after four gruelling rounds in the 54 kg pre-quarterfinal and Vijender Singh matched up to Emilio Correa in the semifinals of the 75 kilogram category, media persons swarmed to make every inch of Bhiwani their own. Apathy soon gave way to unending television glare and Bhiwani, from being a shantytown, suddenly turned into the cynosure of all attention.
Bhiwani had its first tryst with international sporting success in the 1960s when Hawa Singh won gold at the 1966 Asian Games. He followed it up with another gold medal at the Bangkok Asian Games in 1970, giving rise to a boxing culture that has since flourished in this village on the Haryana–Rajasthan border. This is a well-established paradigm and one on which the Olympics are premised. Performance at the highest level has always served as the best inspiration for new participants wanting to embrace the sport. Despite such success at the international stage, no funding was directed towards developing a boxing culture. But that didn’t dampen the gung-ho sporting spirit of the Bhiwani boxers, who continued to pursue their sporting dream. Things hardly looked up in the 1970s and ’80s. Consequently, a section of the youth left Bhiwani for neighbouring states in search of work and livelihood. This was their way of showing discontentment over the Central government’s prolonged apathy. Things reached a climax during the 1980s and early 1990s amidst a growing sense of frustration and uncertainty as unemployment prevailed. Thousands of Bhiwani youths were left with two options – either to take up sport or fall prey to unemployment.15
In a desperate act to protect young children from future unemployment, most parents encouraged their wards to embrace sports. To encourage this effort, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) started a training school, giving Bhiwani its first organized sports facility. They were encouraged to do so by the achievements of Raj Kumar Sangwan who won golds at two Asian-level meets—at Bangkok in 1991 and at Tehran in 1994. However, this solitary SAI facility did little to solve the problems of infrastructure. It was the Bhiwani Boxing Club, hardly a modern facility itself, which ultimately made a perceptible difference. The club, which is in a much better state today, was once described in the Indian Express thus:
Tucked in a corner, almost hidden by fields, the yellow brick building is more a farm outhouse than a possible breeding centre of international sportspersons. If quaintness equalled success, the place would get top marks. And well, now it does … The Bhiwani Boxing Club is just that, two rooms and a shed. A peepul tree and a Shiva idol stand to the left outside the gate, a sagging volleyball netting graces the right flank. Five punching bags hang next to the room, a huge mirror frames one wall, there is a basic weight-training machine on one side, and a new ring on the other.16
Problems of infrastructure were, however, more than counterbalanced by individual passion for boxing, as the turn of the century marked the arrival of a golden era of Bhiwani boxers in the national arena. Despite making a mark in almost every recognized competition, it was at Beijing 2008 that Bhiwani finally scripted an unparalleled success story. The nodal boxing body of Bhiwani – the Bhiwani Boxing Club – was established in 2002 by current coach Jagdish Singh. Indian Express reported it thus:
Six years ago (in 2002), Singh, one of the many boxing coaches with the Sports Authority of India, decided the daily effort he was putting at the SAI centre in Bhiwani needed to be topped with something more. So, in a move that some would describe as whimsical, he got together his life’s savings, took a bank loan, and set about realizing his dream of having his own boxing club. Singh has always had an eye for spotting talent and following an approach that focuses on dealing with the worst-case scenario, he trained a band of boxers who slowly began dominating the national scene.17
After almost seven years since its inception, the boxing club has finally spread its wings to the far-flung corners of the state through its policy of decentralization. In fact, Bhiwani’s glittering track record (of producing as many as fifty sportspersons who have represented India in internationals competitions) can largely be attributed to the modus operandi of the nodal organization, which tried its best to promote a healthy sporting environment. Lack of exposure and absence of recruiters acted against Bhiwani’s boxers, while mainstream Indian sport remained unaware of their maturing skills. At the turn of the millennium, a few s
elf-made individuals training under the watchful eyes of Jagdish Singh finally broke all shackles to catapult Bhiwani to the national and subsequently international level. Akhil Kumar, for example, beat all odds to come out stronger from a career-threatening injury and made it to the Olympics quarterfinals.18 Following his example, Olympic medallist Vijender Singh emerged as the biggest name in Indian boxing and is currently one of the most sought after sports celebrities in the country. Inspired by the simple logic that a good showing at the national level is the best bet to securing a government job, a vast array of talented youngsters have now taken to boxing in Bhiwani. In Jagdish Singh’s words: ‘Parents are keen to bring them here, knowing this is a future they can dream of. Now that they’ve seen the success stories, it’s a reality they want to believe in.’19
THE PROBLEM: WE ARE LIKE THIS ONLY
While Bhiwani was/is at the centre of national attention, it is important to remember that only a sustained effort at building infrastructure could ensure that CWG 2010 and Gwangzhou aren’t exceptions. Bhiwani continues to be a town which goes for days without electricity, where the rains have made it impossible to drive a car faster than 5 km/hour on most roads and where most people have to rely on inverters to watch the home boys win. In such a setting, sport has emerged as a way out for many.20 The real success of Bhiwani lies in the rock-solid confidence of the new generation of athletes and a nascent public–private partnership which allowed them to transcend a system used to mediocrity. They have not been content to merely repeat the past; and this is the new Indian spirit that needs to be celebrated.
The picture is similar if we turn our gaze to shooting, India’s favourite medal event since Bindra’s gold at Beijing. While Gagan Narang, Bindra’s compatriot in the 10-metre air rifle, has been in sizzling form since the Olympics and has even broken multiple world marks, his performances are once again the result of individual flair and brilliance. The fact that Narang could win four gold medals and two silvers at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games respectively is testament to his skill and mental strength. While Narang’s exploits give us ample hope before the London Games, in a shocking exposé it was brought to the nation’s attention in April 2009 that the fifteen top coaches engaged in training India’s shooters for the Commonwealth Games weren’t paid between January and March 2009 when each of them was entitled to payments of up to Rs 30,000 per month as per the terms of their contract. Also, at the time of appointment, these coaches were promised advanced-level training abroad; but till April 2009, none had been sent. In an interview to Ajai Masand and Saurabh Duggal of the Hindustan Times, one of these coaches, engaged in training at the national camp in Pune, spilled the beans:
All of us, barring national coach Sunny Thomas, have not received a paisa (penny) from the government for the work we have been putting in to prepare the 150-odd core group shooters …21
At the time of writing with just months left for London, India still doesn’t have a pistol coach and the nation’s leading shooters are trying to circumnavigate the problem by making use of the facilities at compatriot Gagan Narang’s academy in Pune.22
These discrepancies, born out of insurmountable administrative apathy at the highest levels of Indian sport, only add to the despondence of India’s sportsmen and women. Blaming the media is the short cut sports administrators often resort to. However, that such a situation has been created in the first place speaks volumes of their efficiency. Unfortunately, in India, virtually every sporting body is controlled by a politician or a bureaucrat and, once entrenched, most manage to stay on for years, if not for decades, a point discussed at length in the Epilogue.
More alarming than politicians controlling sports is that these men have managed to stay on in power despite a high court ruling which decreed that guidelines on tenure of office bearers of the National Sports Federations are maintainable and enforceable. Suggesting that this is in no way a violation of the principles enshrined in the Olympic charter, Justice Geeta Mittal, sitting judge of the Delhi High Court, observed that even the International Olympic Committee had restrictions on the terms of its office bearers.23 She went on to state:
Firstly, I see no interference by the stipulation of the tenure condition as a condition for grant of recognition and assistance by the government. Secondly, the same does not enable the government to have any say of any kind in the affairs of running of the sports body …A limited office tenure will have the impact of minimizing, if not eliminating, allegations, criticism and elements of nepotism, favouritism and bias of any kind.24
The court judgment, the Hindu noted, had serious ramifications on the tenure of office bearers and stipulated that an office bearer of a federation can have two terms of four years each at a stretch, the second one on a two-thirds majority. However, the same report went on to suggest that ‘the IOA took the lead sometime in the mid-1980s to flout the guidelines by amending its constitution and almost all National Sports Federations followed suit’.25
Commenting on the impact of the ruling, the Times of India reported: ‘Most of them do not believe in handing over the baton. Perched securely as heads of various sporting federations, sports bosses have been virtually unmovable. But maybe not for long. The ruling could lead to changes in the Indian Olympic Association as well as other sports bodies.’26 What the court ruling highlights is that the International Olympic Committee needs to take into account local peculiarities while trying to push through its agenda of political independence of the NOCs. The ruling demonstrates that in cases like India you need the power of local legislation to force the IOA to get its act together. Unless global policies are mediated by local ground truths it might result in empowering the unworthy and it is important for the IOC to take note of these ground realities.
A MORE PROACTIVE SPORTS MINISTRY?
Drawing strength from the high court ruling the sports ministry under the newly appointed minister Ajay Maken has now suggested in the National Sports Bill that no administrator can continue to head sports bodies past 70 years of age. Following the lead of the International Olympic Committee, which asks IOC members to retire at 70, the ministry is determined to ensure that Indian administrators give up their posts past this age. Again, this draws attention to the differing ground realities in particular local contexts. While the ministries’ agenda may be perceived as interference by the IOC, the ministry is actually trying to implement a policy laid down by the IOC itself against opposition by the IOA, which, in turn, is drawing strength from the autonomy clause in the IOC charter.
Further continuing with its agenda of sports reform, the sports ministry, for the first time in years, sent out a circular to all sports federations, whose disciplines were in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, to send details of the past and recent performances of all ‘core group’ athletes. This directive came on the back of growing discord among sportspersons who felt that despite performing at their best they weren’t being rewarded in the absence of proper laws and guidelines. Reacting against the groundswell of discontent, a ministry official emphasized that the directive was meant to weed out the non-performers and encourage sportsmen and women to excel in international competitions.
Carrying on with its objective of identifying talented sportspersons on the eve of the Delhi Games, the government, the Telegraph reported, endowed Rs 5 lakh for the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy, handed out to the best sporting university in India, to encourage talent at the collegiate level. It also identified Ladakh as a fertile ground for archery, ice hockey and figure skating.27
As Anirban Das Mahapatra reported:
The government has upped financial incentives for successful sportspeople. Former medal winners at international events now have their pensions doubled. Financial assistance for medical treatment is now up a whopping 500 per cent to Rs 2 lakh (2800 GBP). The government has also released a grant of over Rs 6.5 crore (900000 GBP) for upgrading all four training centres of the Sports Authority of India, to provide state-of-the-art training facilities.28<
br />
It was in 2009 for the first time ever in India’s sporting history that the government came forward with a grant of Rs 678 crore to enable our athletes to train abroad with the world’s leading professionals. This was to ensure that they were exposed to the best of facilities before the 2010 Commonwealth Games and in the lead-up to London 2012.
While more money for sport is always welcome, the problem lies in the details and in how it is spent. One statistic is telling. Against an allocation of Rs 678 crore for the Commonwealth Games, the government had spent just over 35 per cent, only Rs 232.19 crores, by November 2009. If the idea of pumping in this money was to create champions for the Commonwealth Games, to use them as a springboard for greater sporting glory at London, clearly something went terribly wrong. Unless there is a serious organizational learning and a realization that London 2012 is India’s last opportunity to become a sporting nation, it is impossible to expect radical change in the existing scenario. London 2012 is a potential gamechanger and this realization is crucial to heralding a fundamental transformation in the country’s sporting scene.
THE LONDON TEST
Talking about the possibility of a sporting resurgence, IOA Secretary General Randhir Singh suggested that individual prodigies aside, the connection between modern sport and commerce is undeniable. This is precisely why nascent private sector initiatives like the Mittal Champions Trust and Olympic Gold Quest, non-governmental organizations formed to stimulate sporting excellence, are much needed.
Olympics-The India Story Page 37
