Sporting a winner’s smile

For once it appeared that India was making its presence felt in a range of sporting arenas. There was good news from the fields of cricket, hockey, football, tennis and more.

IT was the best of times and the year of content for Indian sport. Prodigies from different sporting arenas ensured that the smile remained intact on the faces of their respective fans throughout 2003. The smile became brightest on December 16 when India shattered a 22-year-old jinx when it annihilated the mighty Australians in to win the Adelaide Test and go up 1-0 in the four Test series.

But apart from cricket, for once it appeared that India was starting to make its presence felt in a range of sporting arenas. For hockey, unofficially billed as the national sport of the country, the year marked the resurgence of this dying art. The winning streak of the Indian hockey helped revive the game's lost glory. It's year-round good performance matched the near-crowning glory of the Indian cricket team that managed to reach the World Cup finals after a gap of two decades.

The Indian athletes too set the track on fire with Bobby Anju George annexing the bronze at the World Championships and an overall excellent performance in the Afro-Asian Games.

The year started on a bright note with Leander Paes, the old war horse of the Indian tennis circuit, bringing glory home by winning the mixed doubles title at the Australian Open teaming up with the legendary Martina Navratilova.

Paes followed his excellent form in the Davis Cup back home where India defeated Japan. Pairing up with Mahesh Bhupati and re-creating the old magic, the two showed their hunger for wins had not satiated. In a mere 90 minutes, the two ripped through the challenge offered by the Japanese pair of Jun Kato and Thomas Shimada. But Indian sports lovers had little time to relish the Davis Cup win as another even grabbed their attention—the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa. However, the shaky start against Holland made many miss a heartbeat and then came the debacle when the Indian boys in blue fell like a pack of cards in their second game against the mighty Aussies. Predictably, there was a volcanic eruption of emotions back home with fans burning effigies of players and boycotting the products endorsed by them.

Virtuous performances

This angry outburst had an electric effect on the shaken team which shook out of its slumber and started giving some of its most virtuous performances in recent years. Gelling together as a cohesive unit and guided by the experience of senior players, young guns like Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Virendra Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Harbhajan Singh performed brilliantly and the team reached the finals after two decades. Though in the end, the Aussies raised their game to heights that India could only dream of, it was defeating Pakistan and then reaching the finals that mattered to fans. However, on December 16, India took sweet revenge in the second Test in Adelaide with a four-wicket victory over the Aussies to clinch their first victory in Australia in 23 years.

The momentum set up by the Indian cricket team was superbly carried on the hockey turf. 

Led by Dhanraj Pillai, the team won four major tournaments bringing back hopes of another Olympic Gold which India last won at the Moscow Olympics in 1980.

In hockey too the youngsters led the onslaught. Powered by the young legs and magical sticks of Jugraj Singh, Gagan Ajit Singh and Parabjot Singh, the team started its dream run in Australia in June 2003. The highlight of the year obviously was India defeating arch-rival Pakistan five times out of the eight encounters.

Fortune smiled on the brave as the Sahara India Parivar announced its sponsorship of the Indian hockey team for the next eight years. The group is planning to promote the players in various endorsements and raise the standard of game from the grassroot levels. 

With the team winning Australian Men's Challenge, then the four nations tournament in Hamburg, Asia Cup title in Kula Lampur and the Afro-Asian Games gold medal, hopes have rocketed sky high as the nations is now eying the coveted Olympic gold which India last won in 1980 in the Moscow Olympics.

With hockey and cricket in the thick of action, other sports too managed to make a mark. The year saw the emergence of three young champions in motor racing, tennis and snooker.

Karun Chandok started the proceedings at the Silverstone Grand Prix on May 26, 2003. He raced to glory, winning the race at a tender age of 19. The F-3 championship is a very competitive arena and Karun competes in the scholarship class.

" These are just the beginnings. I have age on my side," he told media people soon after his amazing triumph at Silverstone after claiming victory in Round 10 of the all-important championship. His dream—like that of fellow countrymen Narayan Karthikeyan—is to be a Formula racer.

Tennis prodigy

Following Karun's win, India got it's first-ever international ladies tennis star when in July, Sania Mirza teaming up with Russian Alisa Kleybanova became the first Indian girl to lift the Wimbeldon Championship by defeating the pair of Katerina Bohmova and Michaela Krajicek 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Sania Mirza later won the US $ 10,000 ITF tournament at Jakarta, defeating compatriot Rushmi Chakravarty 6-3, 7-5 in the final. Teaming up with Mahesh Bhupathi, she also won the gold at the Afro-Asian Games. It is not surprising that she's being seen as the future of Indian tennis.

Good news came from another quarter when in September Manan Chandra lifted the Under-21 Snooker Championship in Mumbai. The best thing was that at the start of the Merrill Lynch Invitation Snooker Championship, Manan's name did not figure among the probable winners but he surprised all with his brilliant skills and went on to lift the title.

The Afro-Asian Games brought an avalanche of awards as the Indian contingent won 80 medals: Nine gold, 32 silver and 29 bronze. The athletes bagged five gold, six silver and five bronze medals. In boxing, Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumar won two gold medals and seven other Indian boxers brought in five silver and two bronze medals. In football, India had to contend with a silver medal.

But at another venue it was roses all the way for football fans. 

East Bengal scripted history by becoming the first Indian club to win any Asian-level football tournament. Led by Baichung Bhutia, Indians took sweet revenge of their loss in the league match defeating Thailand's BEC Terro Sasana 3-1 in the final of the LG Asean Cup in Jakarta.

The year ending was as spectacular as the beginning with the Under-19 cricket team lifting the Asia Cup defeating Sri Lanka in the finals. The find of the tour was rookie Vadodara pace bowler Irfan Pathan who managed a seat in Indian senior squad after his magnificent performance with a career best of nine wickets in an innings against Bangladesh. However, the year was ending with another bad news for Indian cricket.

Two national selectors Kiran More and Pranab Roy charged Maharashtra middle-order batsman Abhijit Kale of offering them a bribe for his selection to the India team. 

The incident, once again, brought back to mind the scandal that ripped through Indian cricket when players like Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja were banished from the team. Experts blamed the incident on the role of big money in cricket.

However, the best outcome of 2003 was that the focus seemed to be shifting from cricket and spilling into different sports. Even as the eventful year was coming to an end, Indian fans were hoping that the winning streak continues in the next year. — Newsmen Features

Not in the spirit of sports

On the field, Indian sportsmen and women might have covered themselves with glory — albiet in fits and starts — but off the field it were issues like doping and bribery as well as certain unusual controversies that hogged the headlines on the sports pages in newspapers, says Abhijit Chatterjee

ON the field, Indian sportsmen and women might have covered themselves with glory, albiet in fits and starts, but off the field it was unusual controversies as well as issues like doping and bribery that hogged the headlines on the sports pages in newspapers across the country throughout the year. Needless to say, such off-field issues have only brought a bad name to Indian sports.

The year started on a disastrous note for Indian sports when as many as 21 athletes were found using performance-enhancing drugs during the Hyderabad National Games in December, 2002. That these ‘‘cheaters’’ could be not detected while the Games were on is the fact that the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) did not have an accredited dope test lab under its control. (Such a lab has now started functioning in the country, thanks to the Afro-Asian Games held in Hyderabad in October this year.) But there were still more shocks to come for Indian sports. The government was caught in a bind over allegations of favouritism in the grant of the Arjuna Awards, which are given out every year for excellence in various sports disciplines, while superstar Sachin Tendulkar hogged the headlines, but for the wrong reasons.

But arguably the biggest scandal to hit Indian sports in the year is the attempt by a first class cricketer — Abhijit Kale — from Maharashtra to bribe his way through to the Indian team currently touring Australia. The issue could not have come at a worse time. The scandal hit Indian cricket straight in the eye just when Indian cricket had managed to climb out of the quagmire created by the match-fixing scandal and the performance of the Indian team in the World Cup (where India finished runners-up) was being talked about in cricketing circles and the powers that be which control Indian cricket were concentrating on the promotion of the game. But even the allegation made by two of the five members of the national selection committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) against Kale is not without controversy.

When the first reports were heard of Kale's bid to bribe two selectors, Kiran More and Pranab Roy, just prior to the departure of the Indian team for the tour of Australia it was said that Kale had offered to pay money to the two selectors to be included in the Indian ‘‘A’’ team which was also selected about the same time that the squad for Australia was picked. When they were asked why should anybody offer to pay Rs 10 lakh to two selectors merely to be included in the Indian ‘‘A’’ team when the earnings from the ‘‘A’’ tour would be even less than Rs 1 lakh for the tour of Sri Lanka where the ‘‘A’’ team was heading, the two selectors quickly went on to say that the offer was made for inclusion in the national squad and not the ‘‘A ’’ team.

Subsequently, the board set up an inquiry committee under D.V. Subba Rao which found Kale ‘‘guilty’’ and the guilt was finally confirmed by the disciplinary committee of the Board. But many questions remain even as Kale has been told that he would not be permitted to play. The foremost question which comes to mind is: Where would a person like Kale, who comes from a middle-class family, find the Rs 20 lakh which he allegedly offered to the two selectors. In the 2002-2003 cricket season Kale earned a little more than Rs 13 lakh from the game. But more important than that is the question: Don't the national selectors know the difference between the Indian senior team and the ‘‘A’’ team? If they don't, then they should have been told to quit their job. The third question which arises is: Why did the two selectors wait for so long (the offer was reportedly first made in August) before blowing the whistle on Kale? If these questions remain unanswered then many sceptics will not believe that Kale did indeed offer money for a berth in the national squad.

But even as Kale cooled his heels came the news that Ajay Jadeja, who had been suspended from playing cricket in the wake of the match-fixing scandal which had hit Indian cricket nearly three years ago, found himself back on the playing field after the Delhi High Court stayed the ban imposed on him by the BCCI and allowed him to play in the domestic matches.

Sachin Tendulkar was given a duty-waiver of Rs 1.3 crore to import a gifted Ferrari car by the government and this promptly even divided sportsmen into two groups, one favouring the government's action and the other saying that while the government did not have enough money for sports it could grant a duty-waiver to a person whose reported income is over Rs 10 crore annually. Thankfully, the issue was solved to the satisfaction of all concerned.

Eight track and field athletes and seven weightlifters were among the 21 persons found using dope during the Hyderabad National Games. All were stripped of their medals but more serious was the allegation by certain medallists that they were ‘‘forced’’ to use dope by the host state (Andhra Pradesh) which wanted to showcase its sports prowess. Although Andhra officials quickly denied the allegation and even banned the athletes who were tested positive, the allegation was a further slur on Indian sports. About the same time, the Weightlifting Federation of India suspended as many as 35 lifters (including 23 lifters who had tested positive in the junior nationals) for using dope. It was at these Hyderabad games that three boxers, as also one footballer, also tested positive, lending credence to the view that the issue of using dope had far-reaching ramifications in Indian sports.

Doping has been in the public glare ever since two men lifters were stripped of their medals after testing positive in the Manchester Commonwealth Games. Punjab's Sunita Rani was also stripped of her gold and bronze medals which she had won in the Asian Games in 2002 but the medals were subsequently returned this year by the AsianGames Federation after discrepancies were found in the testing procedure.

The IOA has taken strong steps to curb the menace of dope but the monitoring has to be on a constant basis because even one dope user can bring a bad name to the country, May be the menace is not so acute as in China but the IOA should not let down its guard as the lure of easy money can take any athlete to the doping way.

The year also saw a major change in the process to select Arjuna awardees but not before without a fair share of controversy. The controversy was triggered by a bitter debate following allegations of ‘‘favouritism’’ as also the refusal of legendary Milkha Singh to accept the ‘‘lifetime’’ Arjuna Award and cases filed in courts by sportsperson who were of the view that the award, which is given for outstanding performance in sporting arenas, was not being given strictly on merit. From this year a 13-member panel consisting of former sportspersons has already given its first awards and the issue has, thankfully, been set to rest.

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