Man who scripted first Indian win
By Vikramdeep Johal
GOD takes with one hand and gives with the other. Nothing exemplifies it better than the case of two outstanding all-rounders Indian Cricket has been blessed with — Vinoo Mankad and Kapil Dev. Mankad, the cricketing genius, breathed his last at the age of 61 on August 21, 1978.

Tackling doping menace in sport
By Jaspal Shetra
THE recent revelation that in the erstwhile East German about ten thousand athletes were under doping comes as a bombshell in the sports arena. Though for a long such incidents have been haunting the field but surely this is first time that the involvement of a state machinery as such has come to light. It, obviously, demonstrates how intense the problem is.

Role coaches play in making of champs
by Gursharan Singh
Lee Jae Bok has played badminton for more than 25 years and is still associated with it. At present he is working in international relations with the Korean Badminton Association. He is of the opinion that a good relationship between a coach and a player is very important in taking the player to great heights.

Teeing off
How names for award are selected?
K. R. Wadhwaney
Chandigarh’s Harmeet Kahlon indeed deserved an “Arjuna award” for his stupendous performance in golf competitions in this country and abroad for the year 1997-98.

Man who scripted first Indian win
By Vikramdeep Johal

GOD takes with one hand and gives with the other. Nothing exemplifies it better than the case of two outstanding all-rounders Indian Cricket has been blessed with — Vinoo Mankad and Kapil Dev. Mankad, the cricketing genius, breathed his last at the age of 61 on August 21, 1978. Barely a couple of months later, a nineteen-year old boy named Kapil Dev made his Test debut against Pakistan at Faislabad. This immensely-talented boy went on to achieve great success and was able to emulate the achievements of his legendary predecessor. Kapil’s exploits are too well-known to be told here, especially to the current generation of cricket fans. However, the same cannot be said of Mankad, the player who reached dizzy heights in the game way back in the fifties. The occasion of his 20th death anniversary provides the opportunity to remember the man and his contribution to the Indian cricket.

An aggressive batsman who could bat at any slot, a left-arm spin bowler of great skill and stamina, an agile fielder capable of producing spectacular catches and saves, Mankad came as a boon to the Indian side which was struggling to establish itself at the international level. He was largely instrumental in both India’s first Test match and Test series victory. Along with Keith Miller and Trevor Bailey, he was one of the leading all-rounders of his day who completed the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in just 23 Test (second only to Ian Botham’s 21 matches); his 44-Test record reads 2109 runs, 162 wickets and 33 catches. Some cricketer!

Born on 12th April 1917, Mankad hailed from the cricket loving princely state of Nawanagar which boasted of majestic batsmen like Prince Ranjisinhji and Duleepsinhji (both of whom had played Test cricket for England with distinction). Possionately interested in the game from an early age, he was lucky enough to receive guidance from Shri Duleepsinhji himself who honed his batting skills. Also, under the tutelage of coach Albert Wensley-who came to Nawanagar in 1936 he became an effective slow bowler, though he had started off as a medium pacer.

Mankad displayed sparks of brilliance in an unofficial Test series against Lord Lionel Tennyson’s team in 1937-38 by virtue of which he became a strong candidate for selection in the official side. Unfortunately for him, the World War II dashed his hopes. The agonizing wait finally ended in 1946, when he was picked for the tour to England.

The tour marked the arrival of a promising all-rounder on the world stage. Braving the tough English conditions, Mankad became the first Indian player to achieve the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in Old Blighty. His consistent success led to his selection by the Wisden Cricketer’s Almanac among the five best cricketers of the year. He impressed in the Test series as well, dismissing batting giants like Len Hutton and Walter Hammond with his clever spin bowling.

Next year, the Indian team embarked on a trip Down Under. Much was expected from Mankad and despite a poor start, he went on to score two brave hundreds in the series. India were crushed 0-4 but his performances did not go unnoticed. Don Bradman praised him generously. “He fought and fought magnificently to score two centuries against Lindwall and Miller, the finest fast bowlers since World War II,” he remarked. These words aptly underscored Mankad’s bellicose spirit.

He was a guileful spinner who could bowl with a lot of variety and for hours without showing any trace of fatigue. The 1951-52 series against England brought him huge success as he picked up 34 wickets in 5 Tests. Thanks to his 12-wickets haul in the Madras match, Indian notched up its first Test victory after a futile period of nearly two decades. As a proof of his indefatigability, he bowled over 2200 deliveries in the series, averaging a staggering number of 70 overs per match. Statistics apart, Mankad’s bowling was a joy to behold, going by this beautiful description given by the noted cricket writer-broadcaster John Arlott. He wrote: “His rebellious, straight black hair gleaming, laughter richly present in his deep-set eyes, he bustles powerfully through his short run and bowls with a thick left arm — the orthodox left-hander’s spinner leaving the bat, or, when least expected and with no change in action, the ball that goes with the arm”.

As a batsman, he did not mind being shifted up and down the order, though he relished most the role of an opening batsman. In fact, it was as an opener that he scored all his five Test hundreds. In the 1955-56 series against New Zealand, he hit two double hundreds, including a recordsetting 231 at Madras which remained the highest Test score by an Indian until Gavaskar surpassed it with his 236 against the West Indies in the 1983-84 season. Also, in the course of his monumental knock, Mankad was involved in a first-wicket partnership with Pankaj Roy of 413 runs, a world record that still stands in their name.

No less remarkable than his batting or bowling was his fielding. An agile fielder off his own bowling, he once ran out Australian batsman W. Brown who was backing up too far at the non-striker’s end. This unusual mode of dismissal in which the bowler ran out the batsman before bowling the delivery was fittingly named after him — ‘ Mankaded’. (Kapil Dev ran out Peter Kristen in this fashion back in 1992). One of his catches, by which he got rid of Cyril Washbrook while fielding at short fine leg at Lords in 1946, figures prominently in the list of all-time great catches.

The crowning glory of his illustrious career was undoubtedly the Lords Test of 1952. He lionheartedly and singlehandedly defied bowlers of the class of Fred Trueman, Alec Bedser and Jim Laker to score a masterly 184. As a bowler he sent down 97 overs to pick up five wickets for 231 runs. (In fact, he was off the cricket field for barely three hours of the match). His astonishing display even overshadowed India’s humiliating defeat in the match which was christened ‘Mankad’s Test’.

Statistics tell only half the story of this great cricketer who played the game not for records but for the sheer pleasure of it. Full of modesty, sincerity and determination, he was an exemplary human being as well. In response to the adulation he received after the Lords Test of 1952, his modest remarks was : “Well, as an all-rounder, I should be able to score runs and take wickets”. He followed this simple, straight-forward principle throughout his career and cemented his place among the immortals of the game. Indian cricket cannot but feel proud of him.

Tackling doping menace in sport
By Jaspal Shetra

THE recent revelation that in the erstwhile East German about ten thousand athletes were under doping comes as a bombshell in the sports arena. Though for a long such incidents have been haunting the field but surely this is first time that the involvement of a state machinery as such has come to light. It, obviously, demonstrates how intense the problem is.

Nowadays, it is almost impossible to find any sport event of repute not marred by any drug controversy. The frequency of the drug scandal exposures has even deprived mega sport events much of the aura they had. Every sports jamboree has its own Maradonas and Ben Johnsons. Deigo Maradona, a gifted player otherwise, has become a drug phenomenon in himself. The problem is becoming acute day after day. With every passing sport event more athletes are returning positive tests. The steps being taken by the sports authorities to check the menace are proving dud. Budding sports stars, however, seem least bothered about the consequences and Maradonas and Johnsons remain their idols.

India, too, is not an exception in that way. Last year the Indian Amateur Athletic Federation had been in quandary as 17 out of a total of 25 athletes were tested positive in the preparatory camp for the Seventh Junior Asian Athletic Meet held at Bangkok from November 4 to 7.

The tests were conducted by the Sports Authority of India which is not even an approved regional drug testing centre of the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF). This was not the first time that Indian athletes were in news for the reason. Earlier, in the Junior Asian Athletic Meet held at Jakarta three Indian athletes — Subhdip Singh, Jagbir Singh and Ranjeet Singh Randhawa — were banned for four years. Initially the ban for testing positive had been for four years but now it had been reduced to two years. Both Subhdip and Jagbir were tested positive and Ranjeet was banned as he refused to undergo the test.

In the sport arena the drugs used are generally termed as dope. The word dope has been derived from African kaffirs. It is said that these African kaffirs had been using a local liquor, called dope, as a stimulant. Doping in sport is not a recent phenomenon. The sports fraternity has always faced the peril in one form or the other. The history of sports reveals that the Greeks, the founding fathers of the modern sports philosophy, in 3 BC used to consume mushrooms and other substances to enhance their performance in the play fields. It was towards the end of 19th century that the misuse of drugs in sports became prevalent in an organised way. By then there had been drastic development in the field of medicine. The new inventions in the field of medicine paved way for the thinking that medicines could be used to enhance performance. Players, coaches, sports medical practitioners began to see drugs as short-cut for success.

Historical records bear testimony that in 1904 an American marathon runner Summer Thomas Flique took drugs to increase his stamina. It is reported that Flique took a mixture of alcohol and a narcotic substance before entering the fray. Till 1960 there had been no awakening that drugs could pose a big challenge to sports ethics so there had been no concerted effort to check their misuse. It was in the 1960 Olympics that sportspersons were caught unaware. The gravity of situation came to the fore with death of cyclist Kurt Enmar Jersen. His cause of death was attributed to drugs. The incident had been enough to made the sports establishment shrug off their complacency towards the menace. The incident rocked the event and the International Olympics Association (IOC) realised that there was great need to wipe out doping that till then had made deep inroads into the world of sport. In the Olympics, in Tokyo (1964), resolved to fight the menace tooth and nail and came out with some concrete proposals to check the menace. The IOC did this with the conviction that use of drugs in sport was against the basic ethics of sports since it violated the concept of fair competition.

Later, the IOC came out with a list that contained the names of those drugs on whose use a ban was slapped. A Medical Commission was appointed by the IOC in 1966 to look into the problem. The Mexico Olympics in 1968 saw unleashing of more organised efforts in the direction of checking doping. Soon other sports bodies also followed the entourage.

Today there is ample mechanism that works to check the misuse of drugs in sports. Some relentless efforts are afoot to make the athlete aware about the side effects of the banned drugs. The list of banned drugs is revised and updated continuously. At every international competition of repute doping tests have been made compulsory and the defaulters are being taken to task.

The sport doping has been categorised as: stimulants, narcotic, anabolic steroids and beta-blockers. There are different drugs available in these categories. The stimulants are being taken by the sport fraternity to increase alertness, reduce fatigue and treat mental depression. Today there is cut-throat competition in sport and it is success that matters.

Everyone wants to win at any cost. It leads to hypertension. Apart from the mind there is a lot of pressure on the bodies of athletes too. They have to undergo very heavy work loads stretching their bodies to the extreme fatigue. To relieve the fatigue players often take stimulants. These are taken for alertness too.

Injuries, these days, are a very common feature in sport. The injuries cause severe pain and to escape it an athlete often takes narcotic analgesics. These are drugs that are represented by morphine and its chemical and pharmacological analogues. The stimulants and narcotic analgesics carry a high risk of physical and psychological dependence.

In 1975 the IOC banned another category-anabolic steroids. Even now the anabolic steroids are the most commonly used drugs by sportspersons. Sprinters, throwers, jumpers, weightlifters, wrestlers, and cyclists, etc are on the top of list of those suspected for the use of steroids. The anabolic steroids contribute to greater muscle mass strength and power. Though the IOC has evolved a mechanism to check the use of steroids complete success remains elusive even though there is a provision for tests in every sport event. To test whether someone has taken steroids, a urine test is carried out. If the test is positive then more tests are taken. In case the player again test positive appropriate action is taken.

The beta-blocker is another drug which is very commonly used by athletes. This has a calming effect. It is also used to reduce hyper-tension. The compounds of the beta-blocker reduce muscle tremor that causes a great deal to the players at the time of major tournaments. In sports events where competition are held according to weight like weightlifting, wrestling, judo, etc sportspersons are very keen to participate in the lower weight categories since it increases their chance of success manifold. To reduce weight at the time of competition, a drug called diuretics is used.

Apart form drug-based doping there are some non-drug based doping of which blood doping and soda doping are most common. For blood doping procedure is very simple. About seven to eight weeks before the competition a small quantity of the blood is taken out the body of the athlete concerned. Then the athletes do practice with the reduced blood. The body of the athlete rises on the occasion and his stamina increases. After that, two or three days before the competition, the blood which was taken out is again infused in the athlete’s body. The practice is believed to increase the number of active blood cells and ratio of haemoglobin consequently enhancing the capacity of the body to take more oxygen and thus increasing the stamina.

Blood doping is very common among long and middle distance runners and in the other events where in endurance is important than the explosive power. In soda doping alkaline salts are infused in the body of the player.

The upswing in drug uses in sports can be directly attributed to the crash commercialisation of the sports. Till the sixties the sports field had not been so commercialised. By that time the games were considered as a pastime not a profession. The monetary benefits linked with sports were very limited and the media had not paid much attention to the field. When media began focusing on sports money followed too. The business world suddenly realised that sports could be used as a vehicle to promote their business interest. This realisation paved the way for commercialisation of the big events and with that came the ultra lust to win in athletics because so much began to be at stake for the winners. Sportspersons then began to see victory in sports as a ticket to get rich. With this came the numerous rags to the riches stories in a sport. The victory, by any mean — by hook or crook — became the watchword. In the extreme lust for a win drugs began to seen as a mean for short-cut victory.

The sports establishment has failed to seize the problem. With more and more doping cases coming to light it can be easily inferred that it is almost impossible to slap a complete ban on doping. It is impractical and illogical too, to think so, because as the IOC from time to time revises the list of banned drugs other new drugs are continuously being discovered to increase the strength and stamina. As long as the quest for victory remains this problem will remain in one form or another.

Role coaches play in making of champs
by Gursharan Singh

Lee Jae Bok has played badminton for more than 25 years and is still associated with it. At present he is working in international relations with the Korean Badminton Association. During his active days Lee Jae Bok won Korean singles, doubles and mixed doubles before becoming a coach. He was elevated to the post of Korean national coach in 1987. He also coached the British Olympic team during 1990-92. A Ph.D in sports management, he is working as lecturer in a university.

LEE JAE BOK is of the opinion that a good relationship between a coach and a player is very important in taking the player to great heights. A coach must know, as a part of relationship, whether a player comes to the court just for enjoyment or has the objective of going up in the badminton world. A coach must also get fair idea about the attitude, capability and mentality of the player before starting the guidance programme. Also a coach cannot offer everything to a player. His main objective must be to raise the player’s standard by motivating him. As long as the player is improving under the guidance of his coach, he will listen to the coach.

Lee Jae Bok feels that love, trust and care between a player and a coach are a must for developing a good relationship. Rules must be the same for all players under a coach and there must not be any favouritism for any player. But this is easily said than done. A player who gives everything during a coaching, session gets more from a coach. A player with bad behaviour should be shown the door to maintain a level of discipline among others.

The question arises then whether a coach is also responsible for the behaviour of a player. Bok feels that a coach is responsible for both i.e. game and behaviour. However, a coach should try his best to improve the behaviour of his errant ward and throw him out only as a last resort. A coach is not only a coach as she has to teach not only the principles and techniques of the game but also use his influence to improve the personality of a player. After the training a coach is a friend.

However, every player can be improved to a certain limit which is different for each player.

Lee Jae Bok feels coaching ideas differ in the East and the West. A coach in a western country would put more emphasis on tactics and skill but a coach in the East concentrates to improve the attitude, speed and fitness of his trainees. In the East coaching is more prevalent while in the West more emphasis is on individual training. Another important difference is that in the East strong efforts are made by coaches and administrators of the game to produce top players but in the West there is a wait for top players to come through by themselves. That may be the reason that the game is developing mainly in Asia.

Lee Jae Bok is of the opinion that it is essential to have the right attitude to become a top player. A player should be capable of enjoying the sport and should be able to put his soul in training and in matches. A player who has already lost even before entering the court or a player who is nervous or excited or a player who blames everything but himself has a poor attitude. He should either leave the sport or take help of a coach to achieve the right attitude. Posture, grip, stroke and movement skills are important and must be improved but the right attitude is the root and a strong root is definitely more important.

Teeing off
How names for award are selected?
K. R. Wadhwaney

Chandigarh’s Harmeet Kahlon indeed deserved an “Arjuna award” for his stupendous performance in golf competitions in this country and abroad for the year 1997-98.

The dispassionate and in-depth study shows that deeds of Chiranjeev Milkha Singh, Gaurav Ghei and Simi Mehra have been far more impressive than many ‘lucky and fortunate’ ones, announced in the long list of ‘winners’.

Why have Jeev, Gaurav and Simi not considered worthy enough for this prestigious award? Is it because they have no godfather to project their achievements?

If the Human Resource Ministry, with ill-informed officials and politicians at the helm, has solely depended upon the Indian Gold Union (IGU), then the entire blame lies with the ministry.

The Professional Golfers Association of India (PGAI) is also not unblemished in this sordid drama. It is learnt the PGAI has been nominating the name of only Rohtas Singh. There is no denying that Rohtas has achieved a lot and has done a lot of service to the cause of pro golf during his illustrious career. But he is not great golfer he was some years ago. He is certainly not in the same class as Jeev, Ghei and Simi.

The PGAI has been proposing Rohtas’s name and the IGU has been deleting it. The result: outstanding-golfers have become victims of the politics between the IGU and the PGAI.

The scheme of ‘Arjuna award’ was initiated in 1961. The study shows that, during this long period, many deserving stalwarts have been left out while several ‘pigmies’ have been bestowed the award. The list of ‘neglected players’ is long for this column. But suffice it to say that it is a shame that a player of the calibre and skill of Anam-ur-Rehman should not have been considered for this honour. Speaking candidly even this honour was too small considering his skill, ability and performance for his country at home and abroad.

The time has come when the government should seek opinion of ‘experts’ before announcing the winners. The existing body, called Arjuna Awardees Association (AAA) is a defunct unit, to say the least. It is in the ‘clutches’ of renowned sportspersons. But sadly it has not held its meetings for almost two decades. The body exists only on paper. Why should not the government scrape this body which is a ‘dead’ unit?

There are several ills of the triple ‘A’. But Kapil Dev, himself an awardee and no office-bearer, had the last laugh as he collected a huge amount through cricket matches and passed it on to the ministry without making any reference to the AAA. All office-bearers of the AAA should have resigned en bloc following this insult. But the officials, unhonoured, unashamed and unsung, continue. When such is the role of the apex body, where is the hope of genuine ‘winners’ getting due from the Government?

A CALCULATED DECISION
Shivin Kwatra, one of the most promising golfers in the Asian region, will shortly be leaving for the University of Virginia to further improve his golf.

Shivin is indeed talented. He s a willing worker. He is dedicated to the game. He possesses an ideal temperament: he is moderate in winning and losing. He is a lad, who is bound to go places.

A serious-minded golfer, Shivin learns from each outing. It will be a new experience for the youngster, who will be playing and learning without his father, Percy, being around. Maybe, his father will undertake periodical visits. Maybe, he does not. This will help Shivin ‘mature’ and develop ‘big match temperament’ quick enough. The best player is one who is able to adopt to varying situations. Maybe, Percy, a very well meaning golf enthusiast, leaves Shivin alone to find his own bearings. Why not since he has a lot of potential.

Shivin is looking forward to his three-week training in the University of Virginia with a lot of optimism. Maybe he will be guided by his coach, Mike who considers him a ‘good prospect’.

Had Shivin not sustained a wrist injury, his progress would have been much more than has been the case. He loves golf. But he also loves his father. He has repeatedly gone on record saying that whatever he has been, it is because his father’s untiring efforts. This is saying a lot by a youngster, who is only 17.