Ready for the fast track

Force India, the Formula One team co-owned by tycoon Vijay Mallya, is all set to enter the elite league at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne tomorrow, writes Alan Baldwin

Eddie Jordan had fun in Formula One and now tycoon Vijay Mallya intends to bring back the good times after buying the team founded by the Irish entrepreneur.

Force India will represent a startling new departure for the sport when the first Indian-owned team makes its debut at the Australian Grand Prix tomorrow but they have not forgotten their roots.

A decade ago, in 1999, the Jordan team punched well above their weight by finishing third in the championship and winning races while bringing a renegade, rock ‘n’ roll attitude to the sport.

The Silverstone-based team then slid into decline, were sold to Russian-born Canadian billionaire Alex Shnaider in 2005 and renamed Midland before being passed on to Dutch sportscar-maker Spyker.

Mallya, a liquor and airline billionaire known as “The King of Good Times”, took over last year with Dutch entrepreneur Michiel Mol and Force India were created.

“There is a good old English saying which holds that history repeats itself,” Mallya said during the final pre-season testing in Barcelona recently.

Formula One regulations are changing next year, which could level the field considerably, but it will still take some doing for a team that scored only a point as Spyker last year.

Mallya, who has said he wants Force India to be on the podium when New Delhi hosts a Formula One race in 2010, recognises the obstacles but expects results.

He said the Ferrari-powered team should at least aim to get through to the second phase of qualifying this season and be reliable.

“With the right kind of direction, motivation and of course the right kind of resources — both engineering as well as financial — we are already showing improvement,” he said.

Big budget

“I am a firm believer that money cannot buy performance so I don’t necessarily subscribe to having a big budget and then taking it for granted that you will succeed,” added the former Toyota sponsor.

“I know of many teams with big budgets that are not entirely successful. Having said that, 2009 presents us with a unique opportunity. With the new specifications, all teams have to change significantly so if we are behind the game in 2008 it gives us the ability to be on a par in 2009.”

Jordan, a keen drummer, was invited to play with his band at the team’s Christmas party and some of the old spirit is returning.

Soaring spirits are in any case what Mallya is all about, with his UB Group last year acquiring the Whyte & Mackay Scotch whisky maker to become the world's second largest spirits company, while his Kingfisher airline is expanding rapidly.

“Vijay always says that he wants everyone to enjoy themselves like they used to,” a team insider told Reuters.

“He constantly mentions Eddie’s name, he definitely uses him as his yardstick. That’s the role model that he cites which certainly enthuses everyone at Silverstone after three very miserable years.”

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, the 35-year-old Roman who secured Jordan’s last race win in a wet and accident-strewn Brazilian Grand Prix in 2003, is back in the driving seat. His fellow driver is the far less experienced German Adrian Sutil, backed up by Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Mike Gascoyne, an important figure in Jordan’s early years, is in charge of the technical side, with former Jordan head of mechanical design Mark Smith also back on the payroll.

Key presence

Ian Phillips, Eddie Jordan’s right-hand man who has his finger very much on the paddock pulse after decades in the sport, remains a key presence. “We want to be like Jordan was in 1999 — not the biggest team but small and efficient and rocking the boat a bit,” Gascoyne said.

Jordan liked what he saw. “I was impressed when I went back at Christmas, I hadn’t been back for some years prior to that — in fact since the day I left,” he said.

“Vijay made a speech and I spoke to the whole team, mainly the people as had been there before,” he added. “It was not an extraordinary motivational speech but it was about pulling together, making sure that we have a target, to focus and achieve it.

“Mallya is a bit of a maverick and I like him. He’s not afraid to spend money, he stands up and says his dream is to be like Jordan again and winning races — not on a regular basis, because that is unlikely to happen. But he is going to make a big effort to get it where it was.”

Mallya said the party had been the perfect opportunity to get his message across. “It is absolutely essential to have a high level of motivation among employees, people must be excited about what they do, they must relish challenge and when I inherited the team obviously that spirit was sadly lacking,” he said.

“In the past few months I think I have succeeded in bringing back that spirit and people are excited, you can see the energy in the garage and you can feel the energy in the motorhome, you can feel the energy back at Silverstone.” — Reuters

Lull after the storm
Donald Banerjee

With Mahesh Bhupathi, Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna finally agreeing to play for India in the Davis Cup tie against Japan in April, the All-India Tennis Association must have heaved a sigh of relief. However, it’s just a breather for the tennis body as the players are determined to resume their revolt against skipper Leander Paes later on.

Such an unsavoury situation could have been averted had the AITA taken a strong decision on the letter written by Bhupathi, Prakash and Rohan in which they said in no uncertain terms that they would not play under Paes’ captaincy. The association tried to project it as yet another Bhupathi-Paes tiff which had been made into a larger issue.

The letter was the result of an ongoing tussle between the players and skipper Paes, who reportedly called Prakash “unprofessional” during the Davis Cup tie against Uzbekistan last month. That was the last straw. The leading players fired off the letter to the AITA.

Even before the the AITA made any mention of the “revolt” letter, the media was brandishing copies of the letter and seeking the views of the rebels.

While the AITA held a press conference on February 28 deciding that everyone should keep quiet till the Beijing Olympics in August, the two main rebels — Prakash and Rohan — told a news channel that if Paes continued to be the captain of the Indian team they would not play in the Davis Cup tie.

Why was this controversy allowed to linger? The simplest solution for the AITA would have been to appoint a non-playing captain, with Paes very much in the playing team.

There is definitely more to the revolt than meets the eye. The AITA has been fearing that Bhupathi may take over the association with rebel support. It has virtually announced its total support to Paes and cleared the same team, including the former as captain, for the Davis Cup tie against Japan.

It has also directed Bhupathi and Paes to sink their differences and play for the country in the Olympics as a doubles combination. AITA secretary Anil Khanna said: “August is an extremely important month for India. We have a medal prospect if Paes and Bhupathi team up in the doubles. No differences should surface before the Olympics, especially between the two tennis stars. They have to show maturity and magnanimity.”

Bhupathi admitted to a news channel that sometime ago a group of people had approached him and his father suggesting that they take over the AITA. “But administration and running the day-to-day affairs of the AITA have never been my cup of tea,” he said, adding that “I have no interest in Anil Khanna’s chair. He can rest easy.”

The AITA should follow the age-old practice of having a non-playing captain. All over the world, teams field non-playing captains. Controversies are bound to happen when a player is burdened with the jobs of captaincy and team selection.

Paes will certainly be more at ease without having to carry the mantle of captaincy. But then strange are the ways of the AITA. A long-term solution must be found urgently to clean the mess.

IN THE NEWS
Back on course

Arjun Atwal overcame great odds to win his first golf title in five years

Having ended a winless streak running five long years with a victory at the Malaysian Open, a relieved Arjun Atwal couldn’t help but thank world number one Tiger Woods for helping him with his swing.

Nagging injuries, a freak road mishap that almost put him in the dock on vehicular homicide charges, and a slump in form — Atwal’s cup of woes was full to the brim. Having banished all his nightmares to lift his third European Tour title, a grateful Atwal acknowledged the help he received from Woods.

“I belong to the same club as Tiger in Orlando and he’s been a big help. Just practising with him and watching him work the way he does is motivation enough for me,” he said.

“For him to come and help me with my swing and more on the fitness factor has been really big for me,” Atwal said.

“He doesn’t give me lessons. But anytime I have problems, I can ask him and he’ll help me out. If you get anything from the world number one, you’ll take it gladly,” he added.

Atwal said he was indebted to the Asian Tour as well. The Asian Tour has helped me immensely. I went to my first Qualifying School in 1995 and to learn how to make cuts, then to be in contention and finally win, all those I have learnt on the Asian Tour,” said Atwal, the 2003 Asian Tour number one.

“Those were the best years of my life. I had so much fun and everyone are so close. You still see the guys out here, it’s great.”

Atwal’s sensational win also came as a double delight for Indian golf, after SSP Chowrasia’s fairytale Indian Masters triumph in New Delhi last month. — PTI

SPORTS MAIL

National shame

March 9 will go down as the blackest Sunday in the history of Indian hockey when eight-time gold medallists India failed to make it to the Olympics for the first time. Britain shattered India’s Olympic dream with a 2-0 win in the final of the qualifying tournament.

The national game (in name only) has become the national shame. What’s the cause of the steep decline of Indian hockey? It’s the stepmotherly treatment meted out to this sport in comparison with cricket.

If a junior cricket team wins the World Cup, they become millionaires. If Team India wins the tri-series, each player gets more than half a crore. But how are we treating hockey players and other sportspersons when they bring laurels for the country in international meets? The best hockey players are poor but the worst cricket players are rolling in riches.

The Sports Ministry, the Indian Hockey Federation and Indian Olympic Association are equally responsible for the sad state of Indian hockey. The corporate and entertainment worlds — who don’t see anything beyond cricket — are also to be blamed.

The IHF president should resign, owning responsibility for the debacle. The government should form a sports council controlling the BCCI, the IHF, IOA and other sports bodies so that equal attention is paid to all the sports.

Dilbag Rai, Chandigarh