Welcome change in pattern
By Ramu Sharma
THE National Awards announced by the Sports Minister, Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, recently, have much to commend themselves for a change. The general reception of the declaration may not make everyone happy and there will certainly be some criticism but by and large this year’s awards have managed to meet the requirements in more than one sense. And some of the special awards could not have gone to more worthy personalities.

Charge of the “White Buffalo”
By Gavin Evans
South Africa’s “White Buffalo” exudes a cocky confidence over his July world heavyweight title fight, but few share his optimism. “I’m using this fight (against Britain’s Lennox Lewis) as a stepping stone to get back at the real man, and that man is Tyson,” Francois Botha contends.

Hooligans run amok in Argentina
From Nicole Veash In Buenos Aires

Violent hooligans, who beat up soccer players and threaten to kill coaches, are running amok in Argentina, the country that produced controversial football star Diego Maradona. It is claimed that the ‘barras bravas’ - or tough crowds - are given free tickets to matches and transport to away games by corrupt club directors.

All professional teams in the Argentine league have their own barras bravas, with the mob varying from between 50 to 200 people in size. These hooligan football fans, who even have a specially reserved place in the stadium, regularly invade the pitch to attack their own players if they feel the home side is under-performing.

Adrian-Maladesky, an Argentine football commentator for the sports newspaper Ole, said: “You cannot underestimate the power that these people exert over the game. They are very violent and often shoot flare guns onto the pitch if they don’t like what their team is doing. Players have to pay the barras protection money or face being attacked on and off the field.”

Mostly made up of petty criminals from Argentina’s sprawling underclass, the power of the barras bravas has slowly been accumulating since the late 1950s. But it is only in the past few years that their violent influence has brought the country’s game to its knees.

Run in a strictly hierarchical manner — with leaders who orchestrate the mob’s movements - the hooligan fans comprise all ages, from teenagers to men in their sixties.

Some of the larger teams even have several rival barras bravas operating within the same club. Eric Weil, sports editor of the English-language newspaper the Buenos Aires Herald, said: “These people copied the violence of European hooligans but then took it to a whole new extreme. One reason why they are so powerful is because they have the backing of certain club officials.”

According to Weil, some club directors enter into a deal with the barras bravas when they are aspiring board members. They use the crowd to threaten potential rivals into standing down. Once in office, these directors continue to pay the leaders of the gangs to act on their requests.

They use the barras bravas to exert influence, for example by asking the mobs to threaten an unpopular coach, thus forcing him to resign. “These rent-a-mobs even go to training sessions, “Weil said. “They wear their team’s football shirts and they chant anthems just like normal fans. But this is just a mask of respectability that they can hide behind.”

The influence of the barras bravas is understood to extend into Argentina’s political circles. Local politicians use them as heavies and pay the barras to display campaign banners at top division games during election time.

Adrian Maledesky, from Ole, is among those who claim that barras influence even spreads into the Argentina Football Federation. “We have been gathering evidence which shows that the football association illegally paid some barras bravas to go to the World Cup, he claims.

But the Argentine Football Association’s press spokesman, Washington Riveria, frantically denied that the AFA had any connection with the activities of the barras bravas. “This is nothing to do with us. How did you get my name and number? I don’t even know what you are talking about,” he said.

Last month, the country’s professional soccer stars held a weekend-long strike, demanding police protection from the violent mobs. Sergio Marchi, a spokesman for the Argentine Footballers Union, said: “Players are obviously scared of these groups. I myself have had menacing phone calls with people threatening to kill me. Footballers want to be safe on the pitch and not put themselves at risk of attack.”

Marchi says the union is now campaigning for harsh legal measures against the barras bravas. He added that in the future players would immediately leave the field if crowds threw homemade bombs or other dangerous implements onto the pitch.

“These are dangerous people. We want more police protection for our members both on and off the pitch, and we want to see these people arrested and taken to prison,” he said.

In an attempt to curtail the spiral of violence, Boca Juniors — Maradona’s old team - recently announced that they would not be giving any more free tickets to their own barras bravas. In protest against the ruling, Boca’s barras bravas threw flares and homemade bombs onto the pitch during a league game.

For Eric Weil, the Argentine game is suffering irreparable damage from the violence engulfing it.

— Observer News Service 

Welcome change in pattern
By Ramu Sharma

THE National Awards announced by the Sports Minister, Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, recently, have much to commend themselves for a change. The general reception of the declaration may not make everyone happy and there will certainly be some criticism but by and large this year’s awards have managed to meet the requirements in more than one sense. And some of the special awards could not have gone to more worthy personalities.

One of them of course relates to the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for Dhanraj Pillay. For long hockey players have been given the go by because the national team is very short on victories. One wonders why the powers that be insist on the hockey players winning medals to be deserving of such honours without making the same demands from sportsmen and sportswomen in other disciplines.

This year Dhanraj Pillay has been named for the award and the reason is not far to seek. He was captain of the team which won the gold medal in the Asian Games. Not only that. He has contributed tremendously to Indian performances (win or lose) in many internationals and has been hailed for his brilliant, aggressive, approach work. For all his personal achievement, the award does come as a surprise.

Dhanraj Pillay has not always been an advertisement for good temperament. He has been at loggerheads with the establishment and, after the victory in the Asian Games, was even kept out of major competitions. He has been very critical of the working of the Indian Hockey Federation. What however has turned in his favour is his basic commitment to the game and his skill, something that has been appreciated not only in India but outside as well.

It speaks favourably of both the IHF and the ministry, one for recommending and the other for accepting a person who has been involved in repeated controversy. Dhanraj Pillay is not getting younger and he should show his appreciation by reining in his temper. The award for Dhanraj Pillay is also an award for hockey. At last the game has been recognised again.

Two other awards, one for lifetime achievement and the second one, the Dronacharya Award for coaching, deserve special mention. Not many people remember Parduman Singh, the athlete who has won more medals on the Asian Games theatre than any other athlete, barring P.T. Usha. Parduman is now lying ill, in his village in Punjab.

In his heydays he was one of the strongmen of Indian athletics, excelling in both discus and shot put. Indian athletes had a special place in Asia during his days, the 1950s and the early 60s. Parduman was the national champion in both the discus and shot put during his days, days when the competition was very tough and India had some depth in these two events.

The great athlete took part in three Asian Games and won three gold medals, one bronze and one silver. He won the shot put gold in the Asian Games in Manila (1954) and again in the games in Tokyo (1958) while in discus he won a gold in the 1954 Games, was pushed to the third spot by Ayub Mohammad of Pakistan in the Tokyo Asiad where the gold medal was won by teammate from India, Balkar Singh. He returned for another attempt in the discus in the Jakarta games of 1962 and won a silver, placing next to Shoizo Yanagawa of Japan.

It must be mentioned here that in winning the shot put gold in 1954 and 1958, Parduman was continuing a tradition set in the first Asian Games in Delhi by Madan Lal who won the event with a modest effort, measuring 13.78 metres. The shot put has generally been a favourite with throwers from India over the years with Balkar in 1958, the late Joginder Singh in 1966 and 1970, following later by Bahadur Singh in the 70s and early 80s. And these days the challenge is led by Shakti Singh , the first man to cross 20 metres mark in India.

And now to the Dronacharya Award. The authorities have finally spotted Ken O Bosen and have presented him with this honour. It is an overdue honour but better late than never. K.O. Bosen has been a sort of a father figure in Indian athletics who has given scholarly touch to this basic discipline. Not only is he one of the most well read man on the subject but he has also written a number of books which have been very well received in other countries also. He has also been the national coach, a post he should have occupied for a longer period.

Bosen has been around for nearly four decades and his contribution to Indian athletics can never be over-emphasised. For many years he was the most sought after man by senior Indian athletes. Not only that he is also India’s best known athletics coach outside because of his writings. An endearing personality, the Dronacharya Award is a just reward for his long service to athletics in India.

One of the major surprises this year is the absence of any cricketer’s name among the Arjuna awardees. One is tempted to attribute this to the match-fixing controversy raging currently. But as Mr Dhindsa said neither the Board nor any State recommended names of any cricketers. It is just a coincidence that the game has drawn a blank this year. In the past too, there have been occasions when cricketers have been missing from the list.

While lauding the awards in the general, one does get a feeling that some of the awards are being given, to ensure continuity and the fact that an award has to be made since there is provision for it. There is no need to give for instance, Khel Ratna award or Dronacharya Award if the federation, state or the Ministry is unable to find a suitable candidate. Award for the sake of observing a formality is not a very good exercise. The candidates chosen must be worthy of the award.

And it would not be out of place here to re-emphasise the need for a more rational approach to the whole process of national awards. There has to be some credible yardstick for granting of Arjuna Awards.

Charge of the “White Buffalo”
By Gavin Evans

South Africa’s “White Buffalo” exudes a cocky confidence over his July world heavyweight title fight, but few share his optimism. “I’m using this fight (against Britain’s Lennox Lewis) as a stepping stone to get back at the real man, and that man is Tyson,” Francois Botha contends.

Tyson, a convicted rapist who was once banned for biting off part of an opponent’s ear, is lower ranked than Lewis but more marketable in the over-hyped world of boxing — which means Botha would earn three times more fighting the controversial American than the quiet Briton.

Lewis somewhat generously allows that 31-year-old Botha — 1.85 metres, 105 kg — is “a quick fighter with some good moves and a lot of heart”. But it is hard to avoid the judgement that Botha’s main asset is a dogged determination that will not be enough to dislodge the crown from a rampant Lewis.

Botha’s professional career began in 1990, but he was held back by a right arm injury, sustained in his previous job as a fire-fighter, and by a dislike of training. “He makes up his own mind on everything — even whether he’s going to train,” his former promoter, Gerrie Coetzee, once complained.

After winning dubious verdicts over local heavies Gideon Hlongwa and Siza Makhathini, he took on Ginger Tshabalala, a novice light heavyweight who boxed rings around him. But he won, with the two white judges outvoting the one black judge.

Tshabalala, subsequently murdered in a carjacking, claimed: “I won every round by a mile, so afterwards Frans came up to me and said, ‘Sorry, you won.”

After a spell in the backwaters of boxing, Botha’s fortunes began to pick up when he signed up with legendary promoter Don King. It was during this period that he adopted the “White Buffalo” nickname and learned to sing his own praises, with particular emphasis on his white skin — while at the same time draping himself in the flag of the “new” South Africa and claiming he would win the world title “for Nelson Mandela”.

“It’s time to declare war on the heavyweight division,” Botha announced. “I’m white but I can fight. Anyone who wants the title will have to come through the White Buffalo. I’m the real white contender here, the others are just pretenders,” he boasted, playing on heavyweight boxing’s traditional technique of playing on colour to drum up interest in fights. “The white buffalo may be extinct in today’s day and age, but there is one left. People all over are crying for a white heavyweight champion, including blacks as well. Even in South Africa, black people are my biggest supporters.”

It was the kind of nonsense King loved to generate and he began to plot Botha’s world title ascent. Asked what Botha had achieved to deserve the star billing he was being given, King beamed and he replied, “You gotta give the white man a chance.”

Controversy surrounded a title fight against Germany’s Axel Schulz. Botha was pelted with bottles after the decision was narrowly given to him. Later he tested positive for steroids and was stripped of his title.

Botha claimed he was robbed. “The traces came from a steroid medication prescribed by a doctor for my right arm injury. Look at my body. Do I look like a man who has been working out on steroids?”

No, he didn’t — but the steroid count raised doubts, as did allegations about the conduct of his former trainer. In the eyes of many, he was damned by science and by association.

But in 1996 he got another shot at the title. He was knocked to the floor three times and easily beaten. Despite the verdict, he continued to insist on his superiority, in the best tradition of boxing braggadocio: “Technically speaking it was a win for me. Moorer went to hospital after the fight and I was ready for a big steak, and my stock as a fighter went up.”

He applied for United States citizenship, announcing he was “disillusioned” with South Africa because Mandela’s Government had never been on his side: “I’m thinking of not using the South African flag anymore. I’ll use my own flag with a white buffalo emblem.”

He also lost faith in King and joined another promoter while adopting a new image and investing in a restaurant, a wine-importing concern and a champagne glass business.

His debut under the new regime came in January, 1999, against Mike Tyson, who was fighting after an enforced 19-month lay off. Botha was good — for four rounds. He was not intimidated, even when Tyson attempted to break his arm in a clinch, and his jab-move-clinch tactics enabled him to build up the points until he got too close and was blasted out with a solitary right hook.

“I just lost concentration for a second,” he said. “I want another shot at Mike because I know I can beat him.”

He has since drawn with the popular New Yorker, Shannon Briggs, despite an eighth round knock-down.

He seems to have reached his peak under the guidance of his new trainer, Abel Sanchez. His footwork, defence, stamina and strength have improved, and his self-belief is hard to fault.

“I think of him (Lewis) trying to prevent my family from eating or of him hitting my children,” he has said. “That gives me the aggression I need. What gives me the confidence is the shape I’m in and the fact that I know I can fight against any kind of style since I spar against a variety of styles.”

He probably will last no longer against Lewis than he managed against Tyson. But it’s been a great ride for the “White Buffalo”. Never before has a heavyweight gone so far on so little.

— Gemini News

France deserving winners in Euro-2000

FULL marks to world champions France for winning the Euro-2000 football title via the golden goal beating Italy 2-1 at Rotterdam. Interestingly, this final was witnessed by 49,000 spectators, which indicates the interest of the people in soccer. It is a pity that India, with a population of one billion is ranked 130th among soccer-playing countries and has not been able to promote this game like other top soccer playing nations. For all practical purposes, cricket has eclipsed other games, which is a dangerous trend. Even the survival of games like hockey is at stake. The Ministry of Sports, SAI and the IOA should give maximum exposure to soccer at the grassroots.

SUNDER SINGH
Dialpura

Pak victory

Moin Khan, captain of the Pakistan cricket team, and his team-mates deserve high praise for winning the first cricket match against Sri Lanka by five wickets at Colombo. It was also a memorable Test for Wasim Akram, former captain of Pakistan, who crossed the 400-wicket mark and made a fine 78 in the first innings. In fact he laid a solid foundation for the victory. Otherwise the match was going in favour of Sri Lanka when they were 66 for four in the first innings.

SUBHASH C. TANEJA
Rohtak

Third Umpire

Since the year 1996 the number of one-day internationals played every year has crossed the 100 mark due to which the standard of umpiring has dipped considerably. Although the International Cricket Council (ICC) has made a number of changes to minimise umpiring errors but still the most contentious lbw decision is given by the two ground umpires and all know that the maximum number of wrong decisions fall in this category. I am not blaming the umpires as it is not easy to take the correct decision always but this can be resolved by giving the third umpire powers to decide on lbw as well. After all just one wrong decision can have adverse affect on the careers of players. Therefore the ICC should look into the matter and should try to implement this rule.

UMESH DEWAN
Ludhiana

Thrilling win

England earned plaudits by beating West Indies by two wickets in the second Test to tie the five-match series at 1-1. The hero of their unexpected victory was Dominic Cork who hit an unbeaten 32 off 49 balls to steer England home safely. Despite his pyrotechnics with the bat, it was through sheer luck and pluck that England reached the victory target as Courtney Walsh bowled splendidly to grab six wickets and kept them on tenterhooks until the match was over. He had a double-wicket maiden which included the prized wicket of Michael Atherton who scored 45 playing the role of an anchor-man. Equally impressive was Ambrose who bowled 22 overs, 11 of them maiden, and gave away only 22 runs claiming only one wicket. The duo got little support from the other two bowlers, namely King and Rose. However, all ended well for England who fought back doggedly to clinch one of the closest finishes at Lord’s.

TARSEM S. BUMRAH
Batala