Eleven years ago, Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu relocated to Chennai. North to South, Mohali to Chennai, butter-chicken to sambar-vada — the change was massive, Sandhu was just a slight and wiry lad of 14.

Sandhu moved to Chennai to train at the Indian Squash Academy. He’s been there for 11 years, and today was the biggest day of his life, because he helped India win the gold medal in the team event of men’s squash.

Sandhu shocked Mohamad Azlan Iskandar, who had won the singles title four years ago in the Guangzhou Asiad, and the singles silver at the Doha Asiad in 2006.

Sandhu won 11-8, 11-6, 8-11, 11-4 in a little short of an hour, and India had their tails up. Then Saurav Ghosal, who lost the singles final on Wednesday, beat Ong Beng Hee 6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 12-14, 11-9 in a little short of 88 minutes.

When Ghosal won, the celebration was wild — Ghosal leapt high into the side of the court, then collapsed on the floor, and the rest of the team members heaped themselves on top of him. Ghosal and Hee played a high-quality match. Ghosal, who hares around the squash court with amazing speed, wears his heart on his sleeve and speaks with pleasing sincerity. He’s not coy in accepting that he’s one of the quickest retrievers of the squash ball in the circuit. “Well, I am, actually,” he says.

Ghosal also displayed some other very useful characteristics. He created acute angles with deft use of the side walls of the court, chased the ball back and forth, right and left, overhead and low, with terrific speed; he dared to attempt drop shots even from the back of the court, and went for crosscourt smashes off the serve.

After losing the men’s singles gold from a winning position, Ghosal was shellshocked, roaming the passageway around the court like a zombie. Today, he was able to laugh and grin. “I can’t say that I’ve forgotten that pain, but I’ve gone a long way in redeeming myself today by wining the team gold,” he said. “It will help me erase the ugly flashbacks, the nightmares that I’ve been having over the last four days. I’m happy.”

The men’s archery team that clinched a gold medal celebrate their feats

Incheon, September 27
Sandeep Kumar, the compound archer, has a hotline to mum, back home in Jind in Haryana. As he went for his last shot at the target, he talked to his mother. “I told my mother, who I knew would be glued to the TV back home, to watch over me,” Sandeep said later.

Did mum hear him? Sandeep believes she did, for he shot a perfect arrow right into the target. India had a two-point advantage over South Korea at that stage — and Sandeep was to fire the last arrow of the event. If he’d shot an 8, the contest would have been tied — if he’d shot a 7, India would have lost.

Incheon, September 27
Yeji Kim, the 22-year-old Korean boxer, couldn’t hurt our Mary at all.

Mary Kom’s strong left rattled Kim early in the first round of their 51kg bout; the Korean only barely touched Mary in the four two-minute rounds. Koreans have stayed away from most of the venues here, but local Indians had come in good numbers to support Mary — her devotees easily outshouted the local girl’s fans.

“I’m experienced, I don’t take anyone easy, I want to take every bout seriously,” Mary said later. “But today, my opponent was worried… punch nahin khol rahi hai, she wasn’t putting weight behind her punches,” Mary laughed. “When her punches fell on my face, it seemed that she was caressing my face.”

Mary’s ingenuousness, her manifest innocence, contrasts with the ferocity of her spirit and her punches. Her lack of fluency in Hindi and English, her struggle to express herself in these two prominent Indian languages, provide her an air of simplicity. As they heard her speak, posed with her, Mary’s fans — some 20 of them, men, women and kids — began to shout: “We love you Mary!”

But then Mary, yet again, started on the Commonwealth Games trials, which she’d lost to Pinky Jangra, in May — that’s four months ago. Mary was provided a magnificent opportunity to be gracious about that defeat – she chose to be bitter and angry. “I didn’t participate in the Commonwealth Games, and I was not happy with the selection trials,” she said. “There was some politics involved there. There was something wrong there… I think the referee favoured Pinky!”

Boxing is an inexact art, the scoring pattern can be difficult to understand; but most of the neutral observers, including reporters, who watched the trial bout in May believe that Mary had lost fair and square.

“It was a close bout, but Pinky had clearly won,” said an Indian coach, not wishing to be quoted.

Mary could genuinely have believed that she’d won, and that’s understandable; but then she launched an angry tirade against officials and coaches, alleging that she lost the bout because she been discriminated against as she’s from the Northeast of the country. “I felt cheated along with other Northeastern boxers during the course of CWG trials and this time it should not be repeated,” Mary wrote in a letter to the Sports Minister and the Sports Authority of India before the trials for the Asian Games.

Many boxing fraternity people believe that it was extremely wrong of Mary to rake up this regional/race issue. “She’s been a great boxer, and she’s been always lauded when she won different championships,” says a boxing observer who’s followed Mary’s career from her days of initial fame. “For her to say now that she’s been discriminated against because she’s from the Northeast is just not right.”

Why did Mary do it? A source familiar with the views of Pinky Jangra’s inner circle says that Mary’s intention was to put pressure on the boxing officials, to make sure that she was selected for the Asian Games. “How could her first coach, L Ibomcha Singh, be appointed the government observer for the trial involving her?” asks the source.

Mary won the trial for the Asian Games, on August 27; it was a close bout, but Pinky’s supporters believe that she just may have won it. “All the judges didn’t have Mary as the winner,” says a source in the Indian camp.

There were many things happening with Mary at that time. Late last year, her autobiography had been published; the movie based on her life was released early this month. “The marketing machinery needed Mary in the limelight,” says a source. It’s alleged that ‘extraneous’ influence was applied to have Mary selected for Incheon.

“We are not influenced by such things,” says an Indian boxing camp insider, without denying this charge. When it comes to Pinky, Mary has been a sore loser: In 2009, when she’d lost to Pinky in the Nationals, Mary rained abuse on the jury, attracting punishment.

Mary doesn’t seem to be anything other than a simple, straightforward boxer. Yet, it seems possible that she’s been converted into a ‘product’ by the marketing machinery, and the product must be promoted in a more hectic manner as the clock ticks away towards the end of her great career.

Chandigarh, September 27
Union Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday expressed hope that India would put up a good show in Asian Games in the coming days.

“The Indian contingent is performing well and we are looking forward to have more number of medals. The players are putting their hard work with giving their cent percent and we are expecting more medals,” said Sonowal.

When asked about financial discrepancy in sports' associations of India, the minister stressed there should be transparency in the financial functioning and everyone should come on one platform to promote sports. “There should be transparency in functioning of every sports association. Everyone should come forward to chip-in the best to promote sports in good manner and pure heart,” said Sonowal.

Soon after arriving in Chandigarh Sonowal straight away went to meet 92-year-old triple Olympic hockey gold medallist Balbir Singh (Senior) at his sector 36 residence.

The minister, who was here to attend an international youth fest, discussed Balbir’s plans for reviving hockey in India. He also supported the suggestion of nominating Balbir for the prestigious Bharat Ratna award.

As a gesture of respect Sonowal touched Balbir's feeta and presented him a life-time achiever's memento along with a shawl, and maintained that Balbir's suggestions would help to develop Indian sports in better way.

“It's an honour to get blessed from such an inspirational soul. Balbir Singh is a gem of this country and he deserves to get the best. His suggestions are always welcome and his plans would be taken in consideration to revive hockey in India. He is a living legend of hockey and is widely acknowledged for his achievements. I have no words to explain his hard work and the effort to make this country's fame,” said Sonowal.

BRIEFLY

MOHALI
Uphill task for Cape Cobras as KXIP on a rampage: On a roll after making the semifinals, Kings XI Punjab would aim to keep the winning run going when they take on South Africa's Cape Cobras in a Group B encounter of the CL T20 on Sunday. On the other hand, the Cape Cobras, after losing two matches on the trot, salvaged a win against the Barbados Tridents here after the outcome of the match was decided through a Super Over (eliminator).

LONDON
Records fall as Europe lead by point after birdie blitz: Europe led the United States by 6 1/2 points to 5 1/2 after both teams produced an extraordinary exhibition of shotmaking in a record-breaking morning fourball session at the 40th Ryder Cup on Saturday. Hunter Mahan, Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed were the stars of the show as the Americans picked up two wins and a half after starting the day with a 5-3 deficit. — Agencies