Hot weather blues
Ramu Sharma
For all the criticism levelled at it, the Board of Control for Cricket in India is arguably the best administered sports body in the country. Because of the tremendous amount of interest in the game and the large amount money it generates and spends the functioning of the BCCI is also always under scrutiny and public gaze.

India helps set new attendance record
Fakir Hassen
The Indian cricket team has helped set a new attendance record for the game in South Africa. As World Cup authorities disclosed here that a record crowd of 32,827 attended the final between India and Australia at the Wanderers Stadium, commentators said it was India that helped pull the large crowd.

A panacea to end drug menace
M.S. Unnikrishnan

Praveen ‘Bhim’ Kumar Sobti ruled the Indian athletics arena like a Colossus when the sport was free of the doping menace, in the sixties and the seventies. His six feet seven inches frame made him a "born champ" even before he stepped on an athletics track. This gentle giant from Sarhali in Amritsar district was the unchallenged king of hammer and discus throws for several years, as when he was around, nobody could ever think of challenging him, forget about besting him.

He was the discus throw gold medallist in the 1966 and 1970 Asian Games and also held the Games record of 56.76 metres. He picked up a silver medal in the 1974 Asian Games at Teheran, and was a silver medallist in the Commonwealth Games at Kingston in 1966. And he achieved all these feats without imbibing performance-enhancing substances.

"At best, we used to have a shot of Vitamin B injection to get rid of tiredness", he informs. This may sound strange in these days of doping scandals, as athletes taking performance-boosting drugs have become a commonplace occurrence.

But Praveen Kumar, who has only sympathy for those caught in the doping net, reveals that doping was introduced among Indian athletes as far back as 1971. He informed that some boys, who went for a training camp in Germany, returned home to introduce the menace, perhaps, for the first time in India. And with the government introducing monetary and other awards for medal winners, the doping menace gained currency with every passing year.

"So much money has now come into sports that sportspersons feel that the risk of doping is worth the while if one is able to strike it rich in international competitions", observes Praveen. But he asserts that "if you stop doling out cash awards to medal winners, the menace of doping will automatically cease".

"Cash awards are a major attraction as well as distraction for sportspersons", observes Praveen, who earned acclaim the world over when he essayed the role of "Bhim" in B R Chopra’s popular mythological tele serial Mahabharata. "Bhim" made Praveen Kumar a household name. "What I am today is because of Mahabharata", he says modestly. After the Mahabharata serial, Praveen Kumar got acting offers from Hindi as well as regional films, though he has cut down on his acting career, busy as he is testing the political waters in Delhi and Haryana.

Praveen Kumar was born to become a super human athlete, and he survived on natural diets to pluck those countless number of medals during his peak sporting days.

"Had I taken performance-boosting drugs, perhaps I would have been a world champion", he observes.

Praveen says his parents fed him on a diet of mutton, chicken and fish. "No rotis for me, no water either. Only milk with badam and almonds", Praveen, the strongman of India of yore, reveals the secret of his health. "My mother used to prepare a desi chicken for me practically every day of the year", he says, without even a trace of exaggeration.

Praveen Kumar had no interest in sport, per se, as his only ambition was to tone up his body, for which, he practised body building and weightlifting. "I had a good body, and I thought why not make something out of it. Therefore I took to bodybuilding", he recollects. And then competitive sport —the throw events to be precise —just happened, when Mr Harbans Singh Gill, the headmaster of the GGS Khalsa Higher Secondary School at Sarhali, convinced him that he had the stuff in him to become a top-notch sportsman. There was no looking back, thereafter.

He collected medals by the bagfuls, but cash incentives were an unheard of phenomenon in those days. "Medals and certificates were all that I got as rewards for my labour", he reminisces. But these days, a shot of nandrolone (an anabolic steroid) may make an athlete rich beyond expectations overnight, if he or she wins a medal at the Olympics, Asian or Commonwealth Games.

"Well, with the kind of food being served in the national coaching camps, the athletes have no other choice, but to rely on performance-boosting substances to improve their stamina", Praveen says. He said he could never digest the food dished out at the coaching camps in Patiala. "I had to depend on outside food to take care of my normal dietary needs", he explains. And for all his toil and achievements on the sporting arena, Praveen Kumar got back very little as reward, barring the Arjuna Award, when Arjuna Award was considered as a prestigious honour, bereft of cash incentives.

Those were the days when bringing laurels to the country was thought of as sublime and above everything else. The mercenary attitude among athletes had not yet developed and sportsmanspirit was still very much prevalent.

Praveen Kumar was happy drawing a salary of Rs 1000 per month for his job as a deputy commandant with the Border Security Force, with Rs 500 as diet allowance. "My parents used to support me during my sporting days", he recalls. And winning medals was a way of life with him, without, of course, taking recourse to shortcuts. Wish we had many more Praveen Kumars in our midst in these dope-tainted days. If only....

Hot weather blues
Ramu Sharma

For all the criticism levelled at it, the Board of Control for Cricket in India is arguably the best administered sports body in the country. Because of the tremendous amount of interest in the game and the large amount money it generates and spends the functioning of the BCCI is also always under scrutiny and public gaze. Unfortunately, however, the publicity it attracts is nearly always associated with India’s image in international cricket, the praise or criticism depending on the performance of the team. The much publicised and touted public interest in the game is sorely lacking or totally absent when it comes to domestic cricket. Thus there is no public reaction to the BCCI’s functioning at the home front.

The BCCI could always point to the reforms and changes brought about in the format in the domestic scene and the increase in the financial reimbursement to the players. No one will question these efforts but the BCCI should also share the responsibility when it comes to the conduct and scheduling of the Ranji Trophy Cricket Tournament in the main. Sad to say that this very important tournament does not appear to get as much attention as the international calendar and schedule of Test and one-day matches in and away from India. Not much importance appears to be paid in this direction by the apex body.

That is the inescapable impression one gets after the way the final stretch of the domestic season was dragged into April and May this year. That the teams did not complain is quite another thing. Indian cricketers, particularly those confined to stagnate at the domestic level never complain. But that does not mean that they have to be subjected to such unkind weather, the type of which, prevailed during the semifinal in Delhi and the final in Mumbai. Surely the boys deserve something better.

The BCCI should take the blame for allowing the tournament to stretch into the hot weather. The excuse that the board and the public in India was totally absorbed in the fortunes of the team in the World Cup in South Africa is untenable. Only a handful of cricketers were involved in that tournament. The schedule of domestic matches should never be allowed to be influenced by India’s commitment to international cricket irrespective of whether the country is playing host or its cricketers being tested on tours abroad.

In this context it is well worth following the example of English cricket. Year after year the season there is in full swing with a daily schedule of matches from April to September. No match is postponed because of the programme involving a visiting team. And no summer goes without England playing host to a visiting team. One remembers about the writings of some of the well known cricket writers of yore who used to commend the ability of the then Middlesex county to continue playing the league despite the fact that more than 50 per cent of the team was turning out in English colours for Test matches against the visiting teams. England never allows tours to upset its domestic schedule. Why should India do so?

Coming to this year’s semifinal and final, the whole scenario was very depressing. The saving grace of the semifinal match between Tamil Nadu and Delhi at the Ferozeshah Kotla was the small crowd of some 2,000 people who came specially to watch Virender Sehwag in action. And as for the final the less said the better. Cricket-wise it was one of the best finals on view but played to an empty stadium. Whether it was the scorching heat of May that kept the crowd away or perhaps a Ranji final had no meaning left after the month-long feast of World Cup cricket.

India helps set new attendance record
Fakir Hassen

The Indian cricket team has helped set a new attendance record for the game in South Africa.

As World Cup authorities disclosed here that a record crowd of 32,827 attended the final between India and Australia at the Wanderers Stadium, commentators said it was India that helped pull the large crowd.

More than half the stadium was packed with flag-waving Indian supporters from many countries, including 5,000 from India. South African Indians also turned out in large numbers to support the Indian side.

The previous record of about 31,500 was set for the preliminary round match between South Africa and New Zealand at the same stadium on February 16.

Final figures released for the World Cup showed that a grand total of 626,845 people out of an overall capacity of 825,000 attended the 52 matches and the opening ceremony.

"This represents 76 per cent of our total capacity, and we are delighted at this attendance," said cricket World Cup Executive Director Ali Bacher.

"We would like to thank the South African public and the thousands of visitors from abroad for their fantastic support of the tournament."

Final figures are still being tallied, but it is belied that there has been a profit beyond that which had been expected from the World Cup.

The Tournament has also left behind a legacy of improved facilities at the major stadiums in South Africa, as well as new playing pitches in many underprivileged areas. IANS

It is sad to learn that Pakistan's left arm pace bowler Wasim Akram has taken retirement. He was a player who could turn the tide in his team's favour with his extraordinary bowling. If one takes into account his performance and physical fitness even at the age of 36, a good 2-3 years cricket was still left in him. His contribution to cricket will be written in the letters of gold. His record of claiming more than 500 wickets in one-day matches will be difficult to break. No opener could play comfortably against him. With his retirement an era of pace bowling has come to an end.

ANJIV SINGH JASWAL
Chandigarh

When I was viewing the cricket World Cup matches, I saw limitless enthusiasm among cricket lovers. All players wore logos of different companies. If badges with messages like "Donate blood" or "Be a blood donor" were displayed by the players, it would have encouraged the general public to voluntarily donate blood. It is a well known fact that voluntary blood donation is a problem throughout the world. Our star cricketers like Bishan Singh Bedi and Kapil Dev are the blood donors. It will be a great pleasure if our cricketing heroes spread this message while entertaining the spectators on the field.

BAHADUR SINGH SUNET
Hoshiarpur

It was really a day of shattered hopes when the World Cup champions of 1983 went down to Australia. It was not the defeat but the wrong decision to bat first which was hard to digest. India's main bowlers, including Zaheer Khan and Srinath, gave away 154 runs. Had our star batsmen batted first, the result could have been different. Indian fans felt let down not because of the defeat but by the poor fight back by our team.

NARESH POPLI
Chandigarh

The poor performance of the cricket team in the World Cup match against Australia shattered India’s dream of winning the Cup after 20 years. India, in fact were strong contenders initially. A question now arises as to why skipper Ganguly opted to field first. Spectators who had thronged the field from all over the world would have loved to see India batting in full form and thereby piling up a good score. The final match was expected to touch dizzy heights. However, the skipper’s defensive approach dashed our hopes.

ML BATURA
Karnal