The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Athletes held spotlight in 2002
Sirshendu Panth

THE rich haul at the Busan Asiad combined with the first ever medal at the Commonwealth Games and the acquittal of long distance runner Sunita Rani of doping charges made athletics the toast of the country’s sports fraternity in 2002.

Athletes like Anju B George, Saraswati Saha, K.M. Beenamol and Neelam Jaswant Singh performed consistently well throughout the year to win laurels for the country in various meets.

But the Sunita Rani episode seemed to have taken the sheen out of these spectacular performances till the dark clouds were dispelled towards the year end when the athlete was in effect cleared of the charges.

Anju provided the first-ever medal for India in the Commonwealth Games when she clinched the women’s long jump bronze in Manchester with a leap of 6.49 m.

Only a day later, Neelam added another chapter in India’s track and field history claiming the silver in women’s discuss throw by hurling the metal to a distance of 58.49 m.

But the Indian athletes reached their peak at Busan where they picked up the bulk of the medals to boost India’s tally as the nation finished eigth in overall rankings, climbing up one place from the 1998 Games at Bangkok.

The athletics contingent won 15 medals, including seven gold with Anju George setting the tempo by clinching the yellow metal in long jump.

Bahadur Singh (men’s shot put), K.M. Beenamol (women’s 800m), Sunita Rani (1500m), Neelam J Singh (discus), Saraswati Saha (women’s 200m) and the women’s 4x400m relay team were the star performers bringing home the gold.

Busan proved a happy hunting ground for Beenamol who was a part of the gold winning 4x400m relay team, besides picking up the silver in 400m, while Neelam created a new Games record by throwing the discuss to a distance of 64.55 m.

But the drug scandal, which had tarnished India’s superb showing at Manchester where two of the weightlifters tested positive for banned substances, returned to haunt the Indians at Busan.

The urine sample of 22-year old Sunita Rani, who won the gold in women’s 1500 m setting a new Games record, was found to contain the prohibited nandrolone in excess of permitted levels. She was stripped of the gold as well as the bronze in 5000m and the incident overshadowed the heroics of the other athletes.

But things took a different turn after the Sushil Salwan enquiry committee, set up by the Amateur Athletics Federation of India (AAFI) to probe the charges, found discrepancies and procedural lapses in the tests done at Seoul.

AAFI declared the athlete as innocent and took up the case with the International Association of Athletics Federations which referred the matter to the medical commission of the International Olympic Committee.

The nation erupted with joy after the commission upheld the contention of the AAFI and Sunita that the testing procedure at Seoul was ‘not fool-proof’.

It is now only a matter of days before Sunita’s medals are returned to her.

Indian youngsters won two gold, four silvers and eight bronze medals to finish third in the overall medals tally at the Asian junior athletics championships at Bangkok.

But the 14th Asian Athletics Championships in Colombo proved a damp squib as the Indians finished 10th with one gold, five silvers and four bronzes.

The women’s relay runners (Sagardeep Kaur, Soma Biswas, Sunita Dahiya and J.J. Shobha) finished ahead of Japan and Sri Lanka clocking 3:37.51 seconds tog give the country its sole gold at the meet.

Tripura girl Saraswati Saha, who switched to West Bengal for better training facilities, had a memorable year. In May, Saha scripted a surpise victory in the 100 m dash defeating Sri Lanka’s Damayanti Darsha in the second leg of the Asian Athletic Grand Prix at Bangkok.

Three months later, she became the first Indian woman to go below the 23-second mark in the 200m setting a new national recrd of 22.82 seconds in the national athletic circuit meet.

In the domestic arena, Anju won the long jump event for the third consecutive time in the national athletic meet at Chennai before setting a meet record in the event in the eigthth Federation Cup.

Anju, who suffered a right ankle injury last year, capped her golden run by setting a new national record wih an effort of 13.67 m in triple jump besides winning her pet long jump without much fuss in the National Games in December.

The five-day showpiece track and field event witnessed nine new Games records, including five in women.

Hosts Andhra Pradesh poached on star athletes from other states and reaped rich dividends.

The state, which had finished 12th in athletics with eight gold, 10 silver and seven bronze at Punjab Games last year, topped the tally this time with 16 gold, 11 silver and six bronze pushing champions Punjab (12-5-7) to second spot. Kerala finished third with four gold, silver and bronze each.

Distance runner Gulab Chand of Uttar Pradesh, who donned Andhra Pradesh colours remained the lone athlete to boast of a triple gold haul. His gold medal winning performances came in 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m.

‘Citizens’ of Andhra Pradesh
Ramu Sharma

FOR about two weeks during the National Games in Hyderabad, the State of Andhra Pradesh had increased its sports population beyond recognised boundaries. It imported talent from all over India to boost its hidden image in sport. The result of this policy fielding athletes from outside of the state in Andhra Pradesh colours proved to be a two-way success, the state topping the medals tally and the gladiators making some money, some of them quite a lot. Everyone was happy.

No one bothered about the principles violated or the rules being flouted by granting "citizenship" rights for the duration of the Games. According to one report the "importing of stars from other states on almost a wholesale basis by manipulating the domicile clause within the eligibility rules of the IOA" was one of the irritants in an otherwise very well organised Games. There were some who supported the move by the Andhra Pradesh sports officials. They saw it as a Promotional venture.

No one grudges athletes making money but surely there is something known as loyalty to a team or a state. Also the star value of the imported medal winners was something of a damper to the states from where the migration had taken place. In fact, as one report put it, the Andhra Pradesh team was virtually the who is who of Indian sport.

The Andhra Pradesh authorities virtually bought these sports persons with promises of big cash and almost all the imported stars went laughing all the way to the bank, one of them earning to the tune of nearly Rs 40 lakh. No wonder a number of states who felt cheated complained about the methods used by Andhra Pradesh to lure outside talent. But what really is surprising is the blatant violation in principle and the letter of the law by the organisers in boosting their own image with sports personnel belonging to other states. They may not have done anything illegal but what they did was certainly not principled.

There could be many loopholes in the IOA eligibility rules but one thing everyone appears to have forgotten . Irrespective of where and with whom a sportsperson is registered, he or she has to take permission from the respective state association before wearing the colours of another state. On this count alone, AP could lose a number of medals won by the outsiders for them. The Indian Olympic Association under whose patented authority the Games were held in Hyderabad cannot escape blame for the sneaky methods adopted by the host organisation in building up its medals tally.

No one appears to have questioned the authorities whether the medal prospects wearing A.P. colours had taken permission from their own home states. Obviously not! The question of taking permission does not rise at all since no State would have liked to lose its own stars. The other aspect is the huge amount of money offered by Andhra Pradesh to lure outside stars. The IOA should have put its foot down on such a step. Cash incentives within a prescribed limit is one thing but not the amount offered by Andhra Pradesh. Not all the affiliated states are rich like Andhra Pradesh. The tragedy is even A.P. is not all that rich. In fact it reportedly did not have money to fight the drought conditions in the state. For all that the state spent considerable amount in enticing star material from other states. Clearly a case of misplaced priorities.

The Indian Olympic Association has, it appears, set-up a five-member committee to restructure the format of the Games and its eligibility rules. It’s a step that should go a long way in solving some of the tricky problems that dodges the Games.

The IOA should now also take steps to ensure that all the federations start registering their sportspersons, starting from the state level. Not all the federations are serious about maintaining records. But above all the IOA should ensure that the Andhra Pradesh ‘experiment’ is not allowed to be replicated. It may pay dividends in politics but is certainly not a healthy policy in sport.

SPORTS MAIL

Make BCCI more accountable

THE ICC-BCCI contract issue has become messy. The bottom line is that the BCCI has erred in signing the participating nations agreement (PNA) in March 2002 while it was fully aware of the players’ pre-existing conflicting contracts. The entire problem stems from this irresponsible act of the BCCI. The BCCI sold the rights of the players without even taking them into confidence let alone informing them. The only possible reasoning that one can think of is that the BCCI probably expected the players to tow its line. However, the players aggressively and unitedly opposed this move and even formed a body to protect their rights. Today while on the one hand the BCCI conveniently talks of siding with players, on the other it does not recognise this body. It is time the BCCI is made more accountable.

Meghna Bhatt, New Delhi

With the World Cup just a month away the controversy surrounding the contract issue is doing no good to the spirit of the game. The players are bound to get affected by these non-cricketing matters. The crux of the matter is that the BCCI is responsible for creating such circumstances. The BCCI should not have signed such a contract without taking the players into confidence. Sunil Gavaskar recently said the time had come for the BCCI to be managed by professionals and not by individuals who claim to do an honorary job "for the love of the game". This would make administrators more accountable as the game has become a big business in India.

Baba Bhasin, New Delhi

Dismal showing

The dismal performance of the Indian cricket team against New Zealand has stunned every cricket fan in India. Our team seems to have gone there for holiday at government expense! The world ranking of the host team is not very high, yet they have outplayed our team in all departments of the game.

Karnail Singh, Ranjit Sagar Dam

Recently we saw India losing to New Zealand in the first Test at Wellington. It is shameful that a side known for its batting prowess failed to tackle the bowling attack of the New Zealanders. Frankly speaking such a shabby performance by Indians on New Zealand soil is inexcusable. In the Wellington Test Tendulkar was playing in the second innings as if he was scared of facing the Kiwi attack. In the company of Patel, Agarkar and Harbhajan, Sachin Tendulkar tried to shield himself by taking singles on the first or second ball of the over, thus allowing them to face four or five deliveries in every over.

Ashok K Shukla, Patiala