Federations can learn from AITA
By M S Unnikrishnan
THE All-India Tennis Association (AITA), in a bid to bring truce in the Davis Cup team, effected two crucial appointments recently when it made former Davis Cupper Nandan Bal the coach of the men’s team, and Enrico Piperno the coach of the women’s team. And to play another balancing act, Mr Krishna Bhupathi was nominated as a selector of the Senior Selection Committee.

Ten victories on the trot
By Sushil Kapoor
WHILE the power brokers in the Board of Control for Cricket in India were wrestling with every conceivable opportunity to stonewall the efforts of the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) to project itself as one of the most well organised and self-supporting cricket association by denying them their rightful due share of TV rights and also ensuring that PCA is not allotted any international fixture which would in turn make the association cash strapped and then make the association tow the line of the majority group. 

Solution to a perennial problem!
By Ramu Sharma
THAT age-old problem of players crossing into territories reserved from those younger than themselves has reared its ugly head again. This time it has enveloped the high profile game of cricket and hence the enormous publicity. Not that the problem had not existed in the world of cricket in India but it had somehow managed to escape the notice of the Board. Now that the Board itself has come into the picture this practice may finally be eliminated. At least till the time new methods are found to circumvent the process.

A century of Test catches
by S. Pervez Qaiser
BRIAN Lara became the third West Indian after Vivian Richards and Garry Sobers and the 15th fielder in the world to take 100 or more catches in Test cricket when he took Matthew Hayden’s catch off Courtney Walsh in Australia’s first innings in the fifth and final Test match at Sydney cricket ground on January 3.

Federations can learn from AITA
By M S Unnikrishnan

THE All-India Tennis Association (AITA), in a bid to bring truce in the Davis Cup team, effected two crucial appointments recently when it made former Davis Cupper Nandan Bal the coach of the men’s team, and Enrico Piperno the coach of the women’s team. And to play another balancing act, Mr Krishna Bhupathi was nominated as a selector of the Senior Selection Committee.

On the face of it, the exercise looks routine, but the truth is that the AITA has managed to bring peace (hopefully!) in the men’s team with these deft man-management moves.

The presence of Enrico Piperno with Mahesh Bhupathi has long since been a contentious issue, which had resulted in the temporary parting of ways between Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, when they were virtually ruling the roost as the best men’s doubles pair in the world.

The Leander-Mahesh split had a cascading effect on Indian tennis, with the star players, on one pretext or the other, not playing together in the Davis Cup event for the past few months. The split hurt Indian tennis the most, particularly the Davis Cup fortunes, and the AITA realised, a bit late though, that it would do no good to the game if the due stayed apart.

The damage that has been causing to the game in the country was all too evident, and it just could not afford to let things drift, just because Piperno was a “no-no” with the Paes.

For the sake of tennis, the AITA had to mend fences and find an answer, and they came up with one, which seemed to have satisfied the dramatis persona concerned. Piperno’s posting as the women’s team coach is not exactly an elevation for the Davis Cupper, but it has somewhat assuaged the ruffled feelings of the Paes, while the appointment of the senior Krishna Bhupathi as a selector, has mollified the grouse of the Bhupathis too, for sacrificing Piperno at the altar of the Paes’ ago.

This action of the AITA has also sent out a very positive message, loud and clear, to other federations, who clamour to bring home foreign coaches at enormous cost, but without getting any tangible results in return.

The AITA, being one of the richest sports associations, has the wherewithal to bring a foreign coach, for sure, if it so desires. Both Leander and Mahesh, in their individual capacity, too can afford to engage the services of foreign coaches, but they too have preferred to keep people with whom they are familiar and comfortable with.

The AITA’s step to stick with indigenous coaches is a commendable one, which should be emulated by other federations as well. The coaches can produce results, only if the wards are good. There is no point in squandering away crores of rupees on foreign coaches, if the talent base is shallow, and the end results are uncertain.

India spent a fortune on foreign coaches in preparation for the Olympic Games at Sydney. But the return was a mere bronze. This is not to undermine Karnam Malleswari’s glorious feat in weightlifting. She surmounted heavy odds to lift the only medal for the 200-strong Indian contingent at Sydney. But the Sports Authority of India (SAI) had spent lakhs of rupees on foreign coach Jeff Taranenko and the foreign doctor attached with the Indian weightlifting team. And a bronze medal was the only reward.

But the point is, would she have won the bronze medal without the expert guidance of the Uzbek coach? Some critics say she would and could have won a medal under any coach, as she is talented and well-tuned. But couldn’t Indian coaches have played an equally vital role in fine-tuning her talent? Was it necessary to import coaches at enormous cost?

The SAI thinks the Indian coaches are not uptodate with their training methods, and hence it’s imperative to bring in foreign experts for qualitative training. Unfortunately, even foreign experts have failed to deliver. Rather, things have only gone from bad to worse.

Indian athletes are not very comfortable training under foreign coaches for a variety of reasons, particularly the women, and there are any number of instances, when foreign coaches' presence has not helped a wee bit in improving the performance of the sportspersons, track and field athletes being such among them.

When P.T. Usha was at the peak of her fame, there was a move to send her abroad, all alone, for training in alien conditions. Her critics claimed Usha would have climbed many more milestones had she been exposed to foreign coaches in her formative years. But what the so-called “experts” had failed to understand was that Usha was basically a simple village, and she could not have adjusted to the climatic, food and language in an alien setting, under an alien coach.

Perhaps, Usha would have done better, had the people in power listened to her plea to allow her personal coach O.M. Nambiar to accompany her on her planned training programmes abroad. Nambiar was like a father-figure to Usha, who understood the hopes and aspirations of the simple girl quite well.

A foreign coach would not have been able to strike up such a close rapport with Usha, and consequently, she would have suffered a very big emotional vacuum. This would have had a chain reaction on her performance, as instead of elevating her talent, she might have suffered a dip in form.

Karnam Malleswari may feel at home in the company of a foreign coach, but not many others of her ilk, because the language barrier is a very big deterrent. The All-India Football Federation had, time and again, utilised the services of foreign coaches, but barring the tenure of the late Cyric Milovan of Yugoslavia, it cannot be said with any certainty that the money spent on foreign coaches was well worth the effort.

So let other federations take a leaf out of the AITA’s book. Even the Indian Hockey Federation should be complimented for recalling Ceric D’Souza as the chief coach, and a world class custodian Ashish Balal as the goal-keeping coach. Indian hockey, nay sports, will surely be getting richer by their experience and talent. And above all, their commitment.

Ten victories on the trot
By Sushil Kapoor

WHILE the power brokers in the Board of Control for Cricket in India were wrestling with every conceivable opportunity to stonewall the efforts of the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) to project itself as one of the most well organised and self-supporting cricket association by denying them their rightful due share of TV rights and also ensuring that PCA is not allotted any international fixture which would in turn make the association cash strapped and then make the association tow the line of the majority group. How far this wishful thinking comes true is a matter of conjecture but given the psyche of its president Mr. I.S. Bindra it seems to be a far cry. This dirty board room politics, however, is taking its toll by putting a spanner in the uplift of the game in this region. The cricket stadium at Mohali, the headquarters of PCA has been acclaimed as the best in the country not any by the locals but by all the visiting teams who have shown their keenness to play here. By denying the international fixtures at Mohali, the board is working at cross purposes to its professed goal of popularising the game throughout the country. The cricket lovers of this region have a valid grouse against the board for this untenable act.

PCA has not been deterred by all these events and its Ranji team has shown its prowess by annexing the North Zone league championship with a clean sweep of five straight outright wins against Himachal by an innings and 225 runs, J&K by innings and 193 runs, Haryana by innings 123 runs, Services by innings 166 runs and Delhi by 199 runs. This is for first time any team had recorded four innings victories and the fifth was also an outright win. It was made possible by a young talented lot which played like a well-knit team under leadership of Vikram Rathore who led from the front, getting a double hundred against Himachal. The Punjab team had a fair mix of players between 19 to 22 age group like Gagandeep Singh (medium fast bowler), Yuvraj Singh (allrounder) Reetinder Sodhi (allrounder), Sharandeep Singh (off spinner), Harbhajan Singh (off spinner), Ravneet Rickey (opening batsman), Manish Sharma (opening batsman), Sandeep Sawal (leg spinner). All these youngster had a role to play in Punjab’s outstanding success. Gagandeep Singh was instrumental in demolishing Haryana and Delhi. Ravneet Rickey got a hundred against Himachal. Reetinder Sodhi chipped in with an unbeaten hundred against Himachal and match-winning knock of 70 against Delhi. Manish Sharma scored century against Haryana. Harbhajan Singh overlooked by the national selectors got 28 wickets and made useful contribution with the bat, including 83 runs his highest score against Haryana. Sandeep Sawal got 15 wickets in the four matches. Apart from Yuvraj, Sharandeep played in Tests against Zimbabwe, while Ravneet Rickey and Reetinder Sodhi for the Presidents XI & NCA XI, respectively. Gagandeep is now in the Indian under 19 team to play against English.

Pankaj Dharmani and Dinesh Mongia shown with the bat with Pankaj notching up two hundred with the highest score of 176 runs against J&K while left handed middle order batsmen Dinesh Mongia hammered an unbeaten 308 runs against J&K, eclipsing the previous record of highest individual score in Ranji Trophy held by Pankaj Dharmani. The awesome performance of the Punjab team in the Ranji Trophy format continued to the Wills Trophy encounters also.

Punjab in one-day games made shortwork of J&K, Himachal Services and Haryana and showed a big match temperament and resilience by upsetting the applecart of fancied Delhi. Chasing a target of 246 runs in 50 overs and with top batsmen out for 80 runs, young all- rounder Sanjay Mahajan and promising Ravneet Rickey pulled of a three wicket victory. Mahajan’s heroic innings had the class written all over it. Thus, Punjab’s domination in both forms of cricket during the year was complete with 10 victories on a trot.

Year 2001 would be beckoning the young players of Punjab to have a fling at the Ranji Trophy title and given the commitment and motivation of this young lot, annexing the title is in the realm of reality. 

Solution to a perennial problem!
By Ramu Sharma

THAT age-old problem of players crossing into territories reserved from those younger than themselves has reared its ugly head again. This time it has enveloped the high profile game of cricket and hence the enormous publicity. Not that the problem had not existed in the world of cricket in India but it had somehow managed to escape the notice of the Board. Now that the Board itself has come into the picture this practice may finally be eliminated. At least till the time new methods are found to circumvent the process.

The Board has been forced to act after complaints were received from the organisers of the under-19 tournament hosted by the Maharashtra Cricket Association. Reportedly there were complaints against some 20 players, including six from Haryana, the eventual champions, and all of them were found to be overaged. This is a very unpleasant finding. The result of the discussions held by the Board’s Joint Secretary with the Junior Cricket Committee this week will no doubt be made known but the ramifications of the findings will definitely leave a scar.

The reflection will not only be on the Board’s authority but also on the respective state associations which did not scrutinise the ages of their players properly and even more importantly the principals who blindly signed the certificates of age presented to them by the office clerks. The state cricket associations will of course be fined for not complying with the Board’s ruling that every player must be medically examined before being allowed to be a part of the state team in age-group tournaments. The ruling which reportedly came into effect last September has, it appears, not been fully accepted by some of the states. Otherwise there would have been no problems about overage boys being smuggled into tournaments meant for young players.

The Board has acted late in demanding that every player be medically examined for age before entering the field. Better late than never. Perhaps the apex body could have taken some action some years ago when the whole world ridiculed, rather praise, Indian juniors’ performance when they won the World Cup for under-15 in London. Reports about India and Pakistan fielding players well over the age limit was certainly not flattering to the Board or the country.

And last year too there were some doubts that the Indian team which won the World Cup for under-19 held in Sri Lanka comprised at least two players who were above the age limit. It was so discovered only later when the two concerned stars, who had done well, were found overage for their own State team. According to reports these boys belonged to Assam.

Another incident related to a couple of players who wore India colours in the ACC Championship for under-15 in Kuala Lumpur with Roger Binny as coach. One of the boys who had done exceedingly well was later found by the doctors to be not only over 15 but over 16 in fact and was found ineligible for the Vijay Merchant Trophy for under- 16.

Some interesting details filtered through while an investigative reporter was covering this story on overage boys sneaking into lower age group tournaments. One particular boy had two certificates, one from the Municipal Committee and the other from the school and both differed. In another case the father’s name did not tally.

India has the largest number of agegroup tournaments and naturally the number of cases where cheating is done is also proportionately very high. But for all the care taken by the organisers and the federations older boys and girls continue taking part in tournaments meant for younger boys and girls. It appears that cheating at this level and of this nature is a national aberration.

The Nehru Hockey Tournament every year detects any number of such cases during its tournaments for juniors. The certificates appear to be in order but not the ages of the players concerned. Somehow the principals of the schools appear to sign age certificates without verifying. The same is the case with the Subroto Cup football, the only tournament of it type in the world. Every year the organisers have to sideline players for producing false certificates. Athletics is another major field of play for these age group jumpers. One remembers years ago in an inter-state meet in Ahmedabad the then president of the federation caught an under-13 who was nearer 18. Not only that, the athlete admitted to being over the age but continued to run in the under-13 age group.

The Board’s decision in demanding medical certificates for age group tournaments is a good thing. There is no point in relying in certificates signed by school principals or Municipal Committees. There is far too much scope for manipulation as has been found. A medical certificate is a clear cut evidence and cannot be fudged. It does mean that the respective states associations and also the organisers at the apex level will have to spend more money. Doctors and medical check-up cost money but then that is the only way to ensure fair play. Once this is ensured at the state level at one time then it will be easy to keep records.

The younger generation too must realise that fudging of ages for the sake of participation and excellence will go against them in the final analyses. There were some athletes who remained juniors for so long that when they eventually had to cross into seniority, their performances just did not make any impression. They had set their goals according to specific age groups and thus had not made the much needed progress. 

A century of Test catches
by S. Pervez Qaiser

BRIAN Lara became the third West Indian after Vivian Richards and Garry Sobers and the 15th fielder in the world to take 100 or more catches in Test cricket when he took Matthew Hayden’s catch off Courtney Walsh in Australia’s first innings in the fifth and final Test match at Sydney cricket ground on January 3.

Lara who reached this milestone in his 75th Test match is the third fastest in terms of matches. Bobby Simpson who took his 100th catch in his 54th Test match holds the record of the fastest 100 catches, followed by the Chappell brothers, Ian and Greg, in their 69th Test match. Sunil Gavaskar took the most matches to achieve the same. He has completed this 100 catches in his 115 Test match.

The first player, excluding wicketkeepers, to take 100 catches was Englishman Wally Hammond. Hammond achieved this feat in his 76th Test match against the West Indies at Old Trafford, Manchester in the 1939 series.

The record of most catches by a fielder is held by Mark Taylor of Australia with 157 catches in 104 Test matches. He is followed by Allan Border, 156 catches in 156 Tests, and Mark Waugh, 144 catches in 108 Tests.

As regards the most catches per Test, the record is held by Australian Bobby Simpson who took 110 catches in 62 Tests at 1.77 catches per Test.

Brian Charles Lara who made his Test debut against Pakistan at Lahore in 1990-91, took his first catch off Carl Hooper in his first Test match. Debutant Masood Anwar was his first victim.

He took his 25th catch in his 15th Test match against England at Bridgetown in 1993-94. England’s opener was Lara’s 25th victim.

In his 35th Test match against Australia at Sydney in 1996-97, Lara completed his half century by catches by holding Mark Taylor.

Lara’s best performance as a fielder was recorded in the Kingston Test against Australia in 1994-95 when he took four catches in the first innings. He took five catches in a Test match twice against South Africa at Bridgetown in 1991-92 and against England at Port of Spain in 1993-94. His best performance in a Test series came against England in 1997-98 when he took 13 catches, a record by a West Indian in a series.

Lara’s break-up of catches: 29 catches in 23 Test matches vs Australia, 36 in 22 vs England, 7 in 8 vs India, 6 in 6 vs New Zealand, 7 in 7 vs Pakistan, 10 in 6 vs South Africa and 5 in 3 vs Sri Lanka.

Anand now a sporting icon

THE ‘chess round-up 2000’ by Vishwanathan Anand made wholesome reading. It was interesting to read a first-hand account of the champion’s round-the-year activities. By becoming the world champion, Anand established himself as a sporting icon in the country. In spite of his high profile and top-class standing in the chess world, Anand has very humbly praised Harikrishna, Sasi, Kunte and Viji, players who are much junior to him. This is certainly a positive sign for Indian chess. Anand’s success has given a great fillip to Indian chess, and has already created a popularity niche for chess in India. If chess has to prosper in India, this is the right time for the authorities to take some sound steps.

APURVA BAKSHI
Patiala

Aussie win

Hats off the Australian cricket team who overpowered West Indies to complete a 5-0 sweep in the series. I extend my heartiest congratulations to the Australian side. The scintillating 15 Test wins in a row are a rare feat. The world record set by the Australian team since Test cricket began in 1877 is praiseworthy. I hope the Indian cricket team derives inspiration from the Australians.

KARAJ S. DHILLON
Abohar

II

Kudos to Australia for making a 5-0 sweep over West Indies. Australia did so by registering an emphatic six-wicket victory in the final Test. The comprehensive victory gave the Aussies their first ever 5-0 sweep against their rivals. Consequently it extended their world record winning spree to 15 Tests, a stupendous and marvellous feat indeed ever achieved in the history of Test cricket. Their superiority and supremacy throughout the entire series was beyond doubt. They vanquished their opponents by an innings and 126 runs in the first Test, by an innings and 27 runs in the second, by five wickets in the third, by 352 runs in the fourth and by six wickets in the fifth and final Test. It clearly shows their consummate domination over West Indies who could cross a total of 200 only on three occasions in 10 innings.

TARSEM S. BUMRAH
Batala

III

Steve Waugh, the captain of the Australian cricket team, and his team deserve congratulations for beating West Indies. All the matches were won by huge margins. Two Tests were won by an innings. The Australians proved their supremacy in international cricket by winning 15 Tests in a row. It is a wonderful performance.

SUBHASH C. TANEJA
Rohtak

Jarnail Singh

In the edition dated October 28, 2000, the write-up on soccer legend Jarnail Singh by Hardyal Singh, contained an error. The writer stated that the coach of Jarnail Singh was the late Harbans Singh PTI. Actually Mr Harbans Singh is alive and is living in Sarhala Mundian village.

MANPREET SINGH
Sarhala Mundian