Soaring spirits, Zooming cars
M. S. Unnikrishnan recaps the sporting scene in the year gone by and details the defining moments

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men tasted the biggest sporting success in 2011 when they lifted the cricket World Cup crown, though the year was, otherwise, mired in and marred by controversies. Dhoni led from the front, as it were, with Yuvraj Singh playing the sheet-anchor to add the ODI World Cup to his prized collection of trophies, which also included the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup, held in 2007. Dhoni annexed the World Cup, 28 years after Kapil Dev had inscribed India’s name on the Cup for the first time, when Indian cricket was still at an evolving stage.

Sports Minister Ajay Maken’s actions, though well-meaning, ruffled the feathers of heavyweight sports administrators; recognition was restored to the IHF, then led by KPS Gill

India joining the prestigious Formula One car race circuit was another big news, when the Noida track enabled the country’s F1 debut possible. The big-ticket event, literally, was lavishly and presciently mounted, earning India another feather, though a debate is still raging whether car racing is a sport at all. Some argue that it’s a hyped-up business venture, promoted by auto and tyre manufactures the world over, and not a pure sport.

F1’s sporting status was questioned by none other than Sports Minister Ajay Maken, when he caustically remarked, "I am not an item girl, so didn’t get an F1 invite". Maken had rubbed the F1 organisers the wrong way when he turned down their request for a Rs 100-crore tax waiver.

Maken came to the`A0Sports Ministry in January, with new ideas and a fresh perspective. It was after his appointment as the Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge) that the holy cows of the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG), like Suresh Kalmadi, Lalit Bhanot and V.K.Verma were taken to the cleaners. Maken’s predecessor, Dr M. S. Gill, who was the Sports Minister in the run up and during the CWG, was given a lesser punishment when he was shifted out to the Programme and Statistics Implementation Ministry, though Gill was eventually dropped from the Cabinet in the next reshuffle, holding him responsible too, for the CWG scams.

Mandeep Kaur, one of the athletes found guilty of doping, sheds tears

Maken’s first major action after taking over the sports portfolio was to remove Kalmadi as the chairman of the CWG Organising Committee, which led to his arrest and incarceration in Tihar Jail. Kalmadi was also replaced as the president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) when senior vice-president Prof Vijay Kumar Malhotra was appointed the Acting President of the IOA.

Hockey fiasco

Maken’s many other actions, though well-meaning, not only ruffled the feathers of the sports federations and heavyweight sports administrators but also the International Hockey Federation (FIH), and even the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The FIH was incensed at Maken’s bid to forge a working relationship between the two warring hockey factions — the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) and Hockey India.

Hockey India was formed before the 2010 Hockey World Cup in Delhi, following the disaffiliation of the IHF by the FIH,`A0followed by the Sports Ministry. But the IHF, then led by KPS Gill, took the matter to the court, which restored its recognition, forcing the Sports Ministry to fall in line too.

The biggest sporting success of the year was when Team India lifted the cricket World Cup after 28 years

The only way out for the ministry was to bring the IHF and HI on board together for the smooth running of the game in the country. But the FIH would have none of it. When the IHF went ahead with its plans to hold the World Series Hockey (WSH) league, promising hefty cash rewards to the players, the hosting associations and all those associated with the league, the FIH showed its fangs again, taking a strident stand, and withdrew the Champions Trophy, slated to be held in Delhi in November.

The event was shifted to Auckland in New Zealand, and as a fall out, India lost a chance to play in the Champions Trophy. The FIH tried to mollify India by giving them a slot in the inaugural Champions Challenge Trophy in South Africa, where India finished second, behind Belgium.

To spite the IHF, the FIH also recognised Hockey India as the sole body responsible for the running of the game in the country, which the government and the IOA were forced to accept, to ward off the FIH threat of pulling out the Olympic qualifiers as well, slated to be held in Delhi, in February next year. India had missed out on the 2008 Beijing Olympics hockey competition for the first time in 80 years, and the spectre of the country failing to qualify for the Olympics if the qualifier`A0was pulled out of the country, melt down the government’s posture, allowing the HI a free hand to run the show. As a consequence, the IHF had to postpone the WSH till the completion of the Olympic qualifiers.

Sports Bill

Maken’s pet National Sports Development Bill also came a cropper as not only`A0the IOA and the National Sports Federations (NSFs), but also the BCCI, objected to some of its contentious clauses. The IOA and the NSFs were particularly incensed at the tenure and age-limit clauses, which put a ceiling of two consecutive terms for the office-bearers, with an upper age limit of 70 years.

The BCCI was against bringing it under the ambit of the Sports Bill, particularly in the Right to Information Act category, on the plea that it did not take any help or grant from the government to run its show. But Maken’s contention was that if the BCCI wanted to field the national team under the country’s banner, it would have to fall in line.

But the draft bill was opposed in the Cabinet Committee meeting by political heavyweights like Sharad Pawar, a former BCCI president and presently chairman of the International Cricket Council, Praful Patel, Farooq Abdullah, Kapil Sibal, P. Chidambaram etc, and returned it to Maken for redrafting. The redrafted Bill is ready, though it will not be a smooth-sailing for Maken to see through it as a piece of legislation in Parliament.

Doping menace

Another issue that rocked Indian sports was some of the medal winners in the CWG and the Asian Games getting caught in the dope net.

They included a few top women athletes, who should have been part of the country’s preparations for the 2012 London Olympics, like Ashwini Akkunji, Sini Jose, Mandeep Kaur, Tina Mary Thomas, Juana Murmu and Priyanka Panwar. Poor Ukranian coach, Yuri Ogrodnik, who was in charge of the women’s relay team, was sacrificed to satisfy a prying media, though the real culprits have not be caught yet, despite a probe conducted by Justice Mukul Mudgal.

Since the Sports Authority of India, the NSFs, the Ministry et all are guilty of the rampant doping among the sportspersons, Justice Mudgal understandably could not hold any particular individual or body responsible for the menace.

And in this melee, India’s preparations for the London Olympics have taken a hit, as those concerned with this vital aspect, have been squabbling over the turf war, to protect their fiefdom.

Facesaver football

And last, but not the least, India retained the SAFF Football Championship for the sixth time, though holding the event at the Jawahwarlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi was a revelation.

The SAI and the All-India Football Federation, headed by Union Minister Praful Patel, have signed an agreement to utilise the Nehru Stadium free of cost for 40 days every year to hold tournaments and coaching camps for the next three years, as part of the Legacy Plan worked out by the Sports Ministry to put the CWG stadiums to proper use.

The conduct of the SAFF Soccer at the Nehru Stadium, which was the first event to be staged at the show piece venue after the CWG, brought out the terrible state in which the venue had deteriorated to, without any maintenance for one year after the CWG.

This truth, hopefully, will propel the SAI and the Sports Ministry to work out, sooner than later, a proper plan to maintain and utilise the many stadiums in Delhi, for the larger good of Indian sports, so that the coming generations can a live a rich legacy of the Commonwealth Games.