Funds and facilities will flow: Gill
M.S. Unnikrishnan

FOUR months into his job as the Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports, Dr M.S. Gill wants to provide more funds for players, for coaching, and for facilities, and work for better sports management.

Having been a sportsman himself — he played tennis, hockey, football and squash, Dr Gill understands the needs of a sportsperson striving for excellence. He would prefer to work along with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and various sports federations by giving them space and resources to do their job well. He is keen to ensure more funds so that the potential in sports is tapped and nurtured. He is willing to tackle the challenging task of putting India on a firm footing in the international sports arena.

In a freewheeling interview, Dr Gill talks about his plans for Indian sport, focusing on the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune later this year, the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi and the 2012 London Olympics. Excerpts:

The gold medal won by Abhinav Bindra is the first step for Indian sports. A similar thing happened with China, which won its first Olympic Gold in 1980. Twenty-eight years later they have increased the number to 50. We have won three medals, though K.D. Jadhav, who won the first individual bronze for us in wrestling in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, died in poverty. I wish I could do something for his family even now.

Manavjit Sandhu, a world-class shooter (double trap), was the world No 1 last year could have won a medal. After Bindra and Rathore’s performances, there is increasing interest in shooting. The sale of guns has gone up. More shooting ranges are coming up. Parkash Singh Badal has set up a shooting range in his village and I would request him to provide such facilities in other parts of Punjab as well. Wrestling and boxing, too, are generating interest among the younger generation. We will encourage other games also such as archery where our prospects are good. Saina Nehwal did very well in badminton.

We got a good start in Beijing. I have got Rs 678 crore sanctioned by the Cabinet for a three-year coaching programme, starting from this year’s Commonwealth Youth Games. This will ensure around Rs 250 crore every year for coaching sportspersons. It is for the first time that such a large amount would be spent on coaching alone.

In each sport, we will pick up 20 to 30 players and identify coaches in collaboration with the federations, the IOA and the Sports Ministry. Such coaching support will continue until the London Olympics, where we should be able to get more medals.

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) is being strengthened. It has 1,300 coaches, at present, though the number used to be 1,800. I want to add 400 to 500 coaches immediately. The SAI will also get more hostels.

With the administrative situation changing (the IOA has formed an ad hoc committee for the game after the exit of Indian Hockey Federation president K. P. S. Gill), we can do quite well given better management and selection. We will have more astro turfs in the country. I will provide one to Guru Nanak Dev University and one or two more to Punjab. By 2012, hockey will be a different game. India might repeat the feat of Balbir Singh (Sr) in the London Games in 1948. India had won with Balbir on a wet ground scoring lots of goals. Football is another game I will encourage in a big way. I want Real Madrid to come here.

I want to have a world-class dope-testing laboratory in India. A committee consisting of top scientists has been formed to deal with doping cases. I am determined to check doping. We want to win many medals, but honourably.

Tigers of the turf

IT was in 1952 when K.D. Jadhav got India its first individual medal in wrestling in the Helsinki Olympics. After a gap of 56 years Sushil Kumar has become only the second Indian grappler to win an Olympic bronze. The reasons are not hard to see.

Although the sport has undergone a sea-change, especially after the introduction of synthetic mats, the state of the akharas in and around Delhi and other parts of the country do not seem to have changed much since Jadhav’s time. Still many a village youth is prepared to slog it out to make it big on the world stage.

They often become victims of their circumstances and remain pawns in the hands of officials because of their simple and humble nature, and lack of an English-medium education.

Sushil was lucky to be initiated into the game at the famous Guru Hanuman Akhara. One of the oldest akharas it was set up by the venerable Guru at the Birla Mills complex in North Delhi in 1928. It has produced many top wrestlers of the country like Satpal, Kartar, Sudesh Kumar, Prem Nath and Mahavir. There is another akhara of the Delhi Government at the Chhatrasal Stadium, not very far from the Hanuman Akhara run by Satpal. It is here Sushil has been training since the past 14 years.

Despite the fact that it is under the control of the Sports Authority of India, the facilities continue to remain archaic here, as they are in most of the other akharas. Dozens of boys are crowded into ill-ventilated dormitories, under poor living conditions. Their only material possessions seem to be their tin trunks and bags, and a few worn-out shoes and tracksuits. But they grapple with their difficulties stoically, dreaming of a better tomorrow when they will hit the big league. Sushil’s success story has naturally raised hopes of the trainees at the Chhatrasal stadium.

Though Satpal’s clout as a deputy director with the Delhi Government, the Chhatrasal stadium boasts of a couple of synthetic mats, but the living conditions remain abysmal.

The wrestlers subsist on a vegetarian diet, with gallons of fruit juice, milk, almonds and ghee to supplement their diet. They lead a celibate life, as it takes almost 20 years of disciplined and focused training for a boy to reach the level of an Olympic performer. Wrestlers’ day begins around 4.30 a.m and after a series of exercises, including rope climbing and weightlifting, they do grappling on the mat before the morning session ends around 10 a.m. The evening session starts at 4 p.m and continues late into the evening. There is no break in such a sapping training schedule. The grapplers are also kept away from all other distractions. Being a champion wrestler himself, Satpal understands the rigors of this sport, and he also knows that there is no gain without pain. "Sushil’s medal will hopefully bring a better deal for wrestling and wrestlers", said Satpal on his return from Beijing, along with his famous ward.

— M.S.U.

No champions, no trophy
Abhijit Chatterjee

BY opting to postpone the Champions Trophy by one year the ICC has probably avoided a split in the international cricketing fraternity, with the Asian countries together with Zimbabwe on one side and the remaining on the other. But putting off an international tournament by one whole year is not postponement rather cancellation.

So why is the ICC so cagey to use the word? And the postponement of the tournament will lead to a piquant situation with two Champions Trophy scheduled to be played out in two years as the next is to be held in 2010. The year 2009 is also to see the hosting of the ICC World Twenty20 and the Champions League, for which a window will have to be found, besides the other scheduled tours of various cricketing nations as also the money-spinning IPL, which by any estimate no cricketer would like to miss, never mind the strain of playing non-stop cricket.

Even before the postponement there were enough indications that all the participating teams would not travel to Pakistan for the tournament.

In any case as far as the Australians are concerned they have not toured Pakistan in the past 10 years, though they have no hesitation coming to India. But then they know that if they annoy the Indian board they would lose out on India touring their country, the only time their stadiums are full to the brim given the backing the Indian team gets from the expatriates in Australia, barring the occasional Ashes series.

The only country, which was wholeheartedly backing for the Champions Trophy to be held as per schedule was India. In any case the Indian team had toured Pakistan very recently for the Asia Cup and they did not encounter any significant security problems.

But in this scenario the television rights holders would not have accepted it as the Champions Trophy leading to huge financial losses both to the ICC as also the participating teams.

It may be recalled that when the World Cup was held in the sub-continent in 1996, Australia together with the West Indies had refused to play their allotted league matches in Sri Lanka. PILCOM, the organising committee, after a prolonged meeting in Kolkata, decided that the tournament would go ahead as per the schedule even if these two teams forfeited their matches in the island nation. And that is exactly what happened.

India, Pakistan together with Sri Lanka are scheduled to hold the World Cup in 2011. Therefore, the Champions trophy next year should give the organisers as well as the ICC a feel of the ground situation in Pakistan. The Ashes went ahead in 2005 despite blasts in England, while we in India have seen how the IPL matches were played in Jaipur soon after a bomb had devastated the city. But then, as the saying goes, the show must go on.