IOA’s generous offer to federations
By Ramu Sharma
THE Indian Olympic Association appears to have ‘declared its independence’ from the controls of the government. That is the initial assessment of the statement made by Mr Randhir Singh, Secretary General, IOA, at a press conference recently.

Marathon runner’s crowning triumph
By Gavin Evans
JOSIAH Thugwane’s greatest achievement is not his Olympic gold medal or the string of other running records, but his new-found ability to read, write and speak English.

IOA’s generous offer to federations
By Ramu Sharma

THE Indian Olympic Association appears to have ‘declared its independence’ from the controls of the government. That is the initial assessment of the statement made by Mr Randhir Singh, Secretary General, IOA, at a press conference recently. According to reports, Randhir has given the affiliated federations the right to decide on the team to be selected for the Asian Games with the yardstick being medal prospects rather than qualifying marks.

It is a rather ambiguous concession but it does give the federations much wider scope to manoeuvre. No one is going to be bothered if the teams sent for the competition has won a medal or not after the Games are over. There may by questions asked but the embarrassment over failure is not a lasting phenomenon in India.

It is not very clear as to the provocation for Randhir making such concessions. Obviously the Sports Ministry has not been consulted or maybe it is an effort to demarcate the rights of the IOA. In other words the message is that the team selection is the business of the IOA and the financial aspect is the responsibility of the government.

Whatever the interpretation Randhir’s statement makes nonsense of the government guidelines for the Asian Games. The Secretary-General has perhaps disremembered that he himself was a party to a decision by a committee set up by the government in 1995. The committee clearly laid down second place of the last Asian Games at Hiroshima in 1994 or in the latest Asian Championships, whichever is the higher, for measureable events and third place for team events.

At one stage Randhir did give the impression of having thought aloud. Inadvertently perhaps but the damage is done. The path announced by Randhir is not free from controversy. He has, for the present, pleased the federations by giving them a free rein and without conditions. The federations are overjoyed. And a majority of them have decided to go about making preparations for sending teams for the Games without seriously worrying about medal prospects.

Given the confident posture generally struck by the federations India should be drowning in medals at the Asian Games. But no one has really complained to the IOA about the timing of the announcement. Preparing for such an important event like the Asian Games is a serious proposition and it does take years. The IOA’s generous gift has come just two months before the Games. And at the moment everyone is only thinking of going to Bangkok. One can hardly blame them for that.

Randhir’s pronouncement was certainly ill-timed. If it was a policy decision than it should have come some three to four years ago or at the meeting of the special committee for guidelines in 1995. If it is only question of loud thinking then the whole matter will die down without much noise.

There is also the bigger issue of the ministry’s response to Randhir Singh indiscretion, if it was that. Either the government has decided to ignore the IOA Secretary’s statement or does not think it worthwhile to reiterate the original guidelines that participation in the Olympics, Commonwealth and Asian Games requires government approval. It means that only those coming within the prescribed qualifying mark would be cleared by the government. The IOA may take subterfuge in the fact that the revised guidelines make no mention of government approval. That could well be an oversight. Absence of reference to this clause cannot at the same time be construed as a waver.

There also appears to be a mistaken impression that the Indian Olympic Association is a rich body and is capable of funding contingents on its own. It may have resources of its own but not for financing such a vast number of participants that will be making it to Bangkok.

The IOA Secretary General’s faux pas is being taken for a declaration of financial independents which automatically extends to the composition of the contingent. That is not quite true. The IOA and the federations are entirely dependent on the government for money. The ministry spends crores on coaching camps, trips and air fares without making a noise about it. Occasionally it does grudge a trip or two and most often on genuine grounds. Only then is a clearance given at “own cost”. Then only is the IOA and affected federations asked to raise money. But such incidence are rare.

And even a team cleared at “no cost to government” needs to have the ministry’s approval. There is no way an Indian team can leave the shores without the permission of the government. Thus, no matter how much money a federation boasts off, the seal of the government is a must for any team to participate in competition outside. And this includes cricket.

And all this brings us to the news that India will be taking part in the football competition of the Asian Games. Not only that. The AIFF has called some 30-odd players for a camp to be held in Bangalore from October 16. Simultaneously a camp for women aspirants will be held in Patiala. The fact that the news of the camp was made public as late as October 11 means that the AIFF has been given the go-ahead by the Indian Olympic Association. It could also mean that Randhir Singh’s statement contained much more than intended. No other federation has reacted so quickly, so swiftly. The AIFF’s prompt reaction could also be attributed to the fact that it has been trying to draw the government’s attention to its claims for participation in every Asian Games.

It must be remembered that the AIFF’s permission to send a team has been repeatedly rejected on grounds of poor performance in the earlier Games. The last time India participated in the football competition was in the Seoul edition of the Games in 1986.

The AIFF has had to really work for getting permission to send the men’s team. The president of the Federation, Mr Priyaranjan Das Munshi, exercises considerable political clout and his influence plus the fact that India won the title in the SAF tournament in Nepal last year could be the basis for the team being pushed through. The women’s team, however, has no problems. It finished among the top four in the last Asian Championships and deserves a chance to improve its showing.

What is, however, intriguing is that reports from Bangkok indicate that the draw for the Asian Games includes India as one of the participants. That could be possible only if the AIFF (with permission from the IOA) had already sent its entry. Another bit of news is that the clearance for the Games has been made at “no cost” basis. That means the AIFF will be footing the air-fare.

Club of triple century makers
By S. Pervez Qaiser

AUSTRALIAN skipper Mark Taylor became the 14th player to score a triple century in Test cricket by scoring an epic undefeated 334 in 720 minutes, off 564 balls with 32 fours and a six in Australia’s first innings in the second Test match against Pakistan at Peshawar.

The 33-year-old cricketer from New South Wales equalled the highest individual Test score by any Australian, 334 set by Sir Don Bradman at Leeds against England some 68 years ago. It was Taylor’s 98th Test match.

Taylor’s triple century came with a boundary through the covers off Mushtaq Ahmed after 681 minutes and 530 balls. He hit 30 fours and a six.

It was the first triple century on Pakistan soil and only the 15th in Test Cricket.

The first batsman to score a triple century in Test cricket was England’s Andrew Sandham. He made 325 against the West Indies at Kingston in the 1929-30 series. It was Sandham’s 14th and last Test match of his career.

Australian Sir Don Bradman was the second batsman to score a triple century in Test cricket. He achieved this feat when he scored 334 against England at Leeds in the 1930 series. Bradman scored 309 runs on the first day, still a record for all Test cricket. He made 105 before lunch, 115 between lunch and tea and 89 in the final session. At 21 years 318 days he was the youngest to score a triple century. It was Bradman’s seventh Test match.

Four years later, Bradman scored his second triple century at the same venue in his 27th Test match. He batted for 430 minutes, hit two sixes and 43 fours for his 304 runs. He is the only batsman to score two triple centuries in Test cricket.

The third batsman to join the triple century club was England’s Wally Hammond. Hammond achieved this feat against New Zealand at Auckland in the 1932-33 series. It was his 38th Test match.

Hammond’s unbeaten 336 came in only 318 minutes with 10 sixes and 34 fours. His 300 runs took 288 minutes and remains the fastest Test triple century.

Sir Len Hutton was the fourth batsman to score a triple century in Test cricket. He achieved this feat during his sixth Test match when he scored 364 against Australia at the Oval in the 1938 series. It was England’s 100th century against Australia.

Pakistan’s Hanif Mohammed was the fifth batsman to join the club of triple century makers. He batted 16 hours 10 minutes, the longest innings in first class cricket, for his 337 runs against the West Indies at Bridgetown in the 1957-58 series. Hanif Mohammed’s triple century came in his 19th Test.

In the same series, West Indies’ Sir Garfield Sobers recorded the then highest score in Test cricket, 365 not out. He batted 10 hours and 104 minutes and hit 38 fours for his first three-figure score in Test cricket. It was Sobers’ 17th Test match.

Australian Bobby Simpson was the seventh player to score a triple century. He achieved this feat by scoring 311 runs against England at Manchester in the 1964 series. Simpson scored his maiden Test hundred in his 52nd innings of his 30th Test match. His innings lasted 762 minutes, remains the longest against England and was then the third longest in all first class cricket.

John Edrich recorded the ninth triple century of Test cricket when he scored an unbeaten 310 against New Zealand at Leeds in the 1965 series. He batted for 532 minutes and his five sixes and 52 fours is the highest number of boundaries in any Test innings. He was on the field throughout the match and it was his ninth Test match.

In the 1965-66 series against England at Melbourne Robert Cowper scored Australia’s only triple century in a home Test match. He hit 20 fours and batted for 727 minutes for his 307 runs to record the longest first class innings in Australia. It was his 14th Test match.

England’s Graham Gooch became the 10th batsman in Test cricket to score a triple century. He achieved this feat when he scored 333 runs against India at Lord’s in the 1990 series. It was Gooch’s 93rd Test match.

West Indian Lawrence Rowe recorded the 13th triple century in Test cricket when he made 302 against England at Bridgetown in the 1973-74 series in his 10th Test match of his career.

Brian Lara was the 12th batsman to score a triple century. By scoring 375 against England at St John’s in 1993-94, Lara beat the record of highest individual innings created 36 years earlier by Sir Garfield Sobers. He batted 766 minutes, faced 538 balls and hit 45 fours. It was Lara’s 16th Test match.

Before Mark Taylor, Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya was the last batsman to score a triple century in Test cricket. Jayasuriya achieved this feat during his 26th Test match against India at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, by scoring 340 runs. He stayed at the crease for 799 minutes, faced 578 balls and hit 36 fours and two sixes.

Marathon runner’s crowning triumph
By Gavin Evans

JOSIAH Thugwane’s greatest achievement is not his Olympic gold medal or the string of other running records, but his new-found ability to read, write and speak English. “They can steal my gold medal but now they can never take away my education,” he says. “I’m happy now because Nelson Mandela has given me this chance. He inspired me to achieve in sport. And it is because of him that I started school for the first time in my life last year. Thanks to him it is all paying off.”

Born into poverty and raised in apartheid South Africa’s equivalent of the “Deep South,” Thugwane overcame immense hardship to become one of his country’s best marathon runners. At an early age he was sent to live with his grandmother in a rural shack, immediately put to work on a farm owned by a vicious racist near the town of Bethal in Mpumulanga province.

“My early life was very difficult,” he says with considerable understatement. “I suffered a lot. I had to look after the cattle and work from morning to night as child, so there was no chance of going to school. I was also too busy working to do anything else. If I didn’t work the farmer would beat me, and said he would kick me off the farm and I’d have no place to sleep.”

His only recreation was football with other farm boys, and harbouring dreams of one day playing professionally. When he was 17, a television programme featuring South African half marathon stars Matthews Temane and Xolile Yawa made him change his ambition.

“Soccer was my game and I was very fast, but I had no time to practice because I had to look after the cattle,” he says. So instead I entered this half marathon race in the town. I didn’t even have any running shoes, but I won the race, and took home R 50. That was it: I knew I was a runner and this was my way out.”

With the help of a friend, Thugwane made his first step by escaping the servitude and abuse of the farmer and hiding out in a local township.

“I was really scared, and could not even visit my uncle on the farm, because I knew the baas would beat me again.”

It is from the mines that most of South Africa’s leading long distance runners emerge, because the management often gives promising prospects the time to train, and in some cases, financial assistance in return for free advertising.

Thugwane took advantage of this by taking R 1,200 a month job as a cleaner at a mine in Middleburg, where he remained until the Atlanta Olympics.

By 1996, Thugwane’s combination of natural speed and stamina, as well as a fervent commitment to training, saw him emerge as one of his country’s leading distance men.

His idiosyncratic and highly economical style — arms close to the body, hands swishing back and forth — earned him a place on the Olympic team together with Lawrence Peu and Gert Thys. The three were trained by Jacques Malan, who used a formula of monastic seclusion, high altitude training, and rest, to get his men ready.

Malan confidently predicted one would take a medal in Atlanta. He was only mildly surprised when it was Thugwane who entered the stadium to win the closest ever Olympic marathon, by three seconds, in a time of 2 hrs 12 min 36s.

He returned home a hero. Mandela met him at the airport, sponsors besieged him with endorsements. Two film companies approached him about making a movie of his life. But Thugwane also caught the interest of local gangsters-including one who made R 120,000 extort bid.

He was the victim of a violent carjacking and two robberies. Death threats were common, as were the unwanted attentions of neighbours wanting a share of his wealth. “People wouldn’t leave me alone. They came all the time, banging on the door, climbing over the fence, asking for money. They wouldn’t let me sleep or run and they would scare my wife,” he says.

Then early last year, while preparing for the London marathon, a road-rage attack finally spurred him to move to one of Johannesburg’s more secluded suburbs. He found refuge in a mansion with a swimming pool, a six-foot perimetre wall topped with razor wire and electronic gates. “It feels good to be safe,” he says. He also took three months off from training improve his English-his fifth language, after Ndebele, Zulu, Sotho and Afrikaans.

Astonishing his friends, he emerged from this hiatus reading and writing proficiently and conducting fluent interviews in English.

However, it was not long before he was back into his intensive training routine. Before each major competition, Malan despatches Thugwane and Peu to a game farm near the Botswana border for a spartan 12 week eat-sleep-run routine broken only by swimming, television and weekly drive to the nearest shop, 45 km away.

“After a major race he won’t even put on his running shoes for around six weeks and then we start from scratch,” says Malan.

“He and Lawrence will then be on the game farm until a week before the race, and they train 220 km a week-a couple of hours early in the morning and then speedwork in the afternoon, and they sleep 14 to 15 hours a day, broken into two or three sessions.”

Thugwane’s main problem is his desire to overdo it, says Malan: “He has immense self-drive and discipline, so I never have to check up whether he’s doing the work. Every weekend I go out there for a 36-km run and often I have to practically grab him and hold him down because he wants to do more. He just wants to achieve all the time-you can’t believe the determination. Although he’s got all that success, he just wants more and more and more.”

He leaves soon for Alberquerque, New Mexico, for high altitude training with speed coach Jean Verster. After that he will take a crack at winning the New York Marathon on November 1.

“There are still several more marathons I have to win and New York is certainly one of them” he says. “If I win there I want to go on to win in London, Boston and then the Olympics again — and to break the world record.”

But, he adds: “I must also to read and write English properly. If I can do all this, then I will feel fine.” — Gemini News

By K.R. Wadhwaney
Blending golf with tourism

HE knows the promotional and competitive aspects of golf. He also knows the importance of tourism. Being a golfer and also well versed with tourism, he has prevailed upon the Haryana Government that the best way to reap harvest of riches is to blend golf with tourism.

The man at the helm of affairs for both golf and tourism is S.K. Misra. He has seen to it that Haryana earns yet another ‘first’ in becoming the only state in the country to promote golf and organise prize money tournaments of high voltage in the state.

Not long ago, there existed a Country Club which, because of disuse, became dilapidated in Faridabad. When a cricket stadium (Nahar) came up on the nearly barren land, the Country Club’s tiny bar, superbly equipped with cut glass and cutlery, was utilised by visiting media-persons, officials and cricket stars, past and present. Shocking as it may seem, all these beautiful items of glass and cutlery have disappeared with the passage of the time.

The foresaken structure, which looked like an ugly pimple on a very fertile land, has now been translated into a classic nine-hole Aravalli Golf Course. It is a course with a difference. It is one of the most difficult courses with water-bodies, bunkers and hazards. It has been a waterloo for some renowned players while it has been a happy hunting venue for those, who play golf with a lot of application and determination.

Regardless who may have been associated with lay-out and design, the ‘brain’ behind the entire project has been Misra whose philosophy is that the tougher the course, the more sharp will be the skill of Indian golfers who have come of age during the last half-a-dozen years. Indian golf is looking up more brightly than even cricket which, because of unimaginative handling by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has been passing through a very difficult phase of life.

Aravalli will soon become an 18-hole course which will be fit enough to host international golf competitions. Already leading Indian stars have played on it. Soon renowned foreigners will be invited to display their process on the course.

The Aravalli Golf Club has already got accommodation for officials who conduct competitions. More rooms will be constructed so that renowned stars may stay there instead of travelling from Delhi to Faridabad.

While Faridabad is destined to become an international golfing centre, some other small cities may have tiny golf courses to help promote tourism there. Hisar is one of the centres where golf course is coming up.

Recently, in a Royal Challenge championship, local pro, Mohammad Yamin (32) displayed exemplary sporting spirit. What he did might not have been done by many renowned stars, placed as he was at that particular time.

What actually happened was that Yamin’s ball on the green was lying in the line of putt of Vijay Kumar, eventual winner. As laid down in rules, Yamin did replace the ball one clubhead length away from its original place on the penultimate day of the tournament. After Vijay made his putt, Yamin forgot to replace the ball on its original place. He made the putt.

“While taking his stance on the 17th green, I suddenly realised that I had not replaced the ball on the 16th”, said Yamin, adding: “I asked my two colleagues, Vijay and Vishal, who also did not remember”.

A teaching pro in Haryana Tourism, Yamin could have continued playing as none had observed his “irregularity”. He had a chance to finish among the top three. But he sportingly confessed about his ‘mistake’ and thereby brought upon himself ‘disqualification’.

A nephew of Ali Sher, Yamin did lose sizable prize money. But Misra thought that he deserved a befitting reward for his extra-ordinary sporting spirit. Before announcing an award Rs 25, 000 for Yamin, he made repeated inquiries to ascertain what actually happened.In sharp contrast to Yamin’s behaviour, there are many cricketer-turned-golfers, who do not adhere to etiquette of golf. They are often found guilty of several violations.