Sports: India
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| + | ==2019== | ||
| + | ===An overview: A Year That Promised More=== | ||
| + | [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2019%2F12%2F28&entity=Ar02010&sk=1E6EC859&mode=text Boria Majumdar, Dec 28, 2019 ''The Times of India''] | ||
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| + | 2019 will go down in Indian sport as a year that promised more, while 2020 looks full of possibilities. In cricket, the team played superbly to make the ODI World Cup semi-final, before one bad session against New Zealand ruined their hopes of winning the world title. The team under Virat Kohli continues to lead the world Test Championship rankings and have shown much promise going into 2020. | ||
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| + | In badminton, PV Sindhu’s world championship win was the only major triumph and the last few months have been underwhelming by her standards. While Kento Momota, the men’s world champion, has won 11 tournaments in the year, Sindhu has won just the one world competition. While Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have had a breakthrough year in doubles, Indian badminton is at a crossroad as we approach the Tokyo Olympics in July 2020. | ||
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| + | The story is hardly different for wrestling and boxing. Bajrang Punia was almost there each time he fought at a major championship and was denied a place in the final of the world championship by the referee, while Amit Panghal won a historic silver in the world boxing championship but could well have won gold and made it bigger. | ||
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| + | The real breakthrough, however, happened in shooting. Leaving the Rio 2016 disappointment behind, Indian shooters have dominated the world stage in 2019. With the introduction of the mixed events, India has done well in both pistol and rifle and made the podium at every world competition they participated in. | ||
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| + | In fact, it isn’t an exaggeration to suggest that on current form India stands to win at least 4-5 medals in shooting in Tokyo and anything less would be deemed underperfor mance. Fifteen Indian shooters have qualified for the Olympics and will be competing in 21 events in Tokyo, a first in India’s Olympic history. | ||
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| + | The other standout feature of the year is that the three men who dominate Indian sport at the moment are all united by a singular chain of thought – emphasis on process. While Kohli continues to hurt because of the ODI World Cup loss, he is aware that process is what will eventually make a difference. Taking the team’s fitness to a different level, he knows he has a huge opportunity in 2020 at the T20 World Cup in Australia. | ||
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| + | That’s where Pullela Gopichand is on the same page. The national badminton coach, aware that things have not gone well for his students in the last few months, gets up every morning at 3.30am to go to his academy. He also knows, however, that the process remains firmly in place and a change of fortune is a logical outcome in the future. | ||
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| + | There’s no reason why Sindhu can’t emulate her Rio feat in Japan next year. And in the long term, Indian badminton looks in good health with multiple youngsters now knocking on the doors of the senior circuit. “We have some excellent players coming up the ranks and it is now on us to mentor them well and get them ready for the challenges in future,” says Gopi. | ||
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| + | The third musketeer has just taken over BCCI’s reins and by doing what he has with the pink ball Test in Kolkata, has demonstrated that with proper processes in place, Test cricket in India can well rival Australia and England. Sourav Ganguly says that first class cricket is his priority, and prompt decision making has always been his forte. | ||
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| + | The other talking point of 2019 is a ‘youth takeover’ of Indian sport. If it is Saurabh Chaudhary, Manu Bhaker, Elavenil Valarivan, Yashaswini Deswal and the lot in shooting, it is Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues in women’s cricket and Deepak Punia and Ravi Dahiya in wrestling. None of them, for the record, have touched 22 yet. And yet, each of them are now on the cusp of doing consistently well at the world level giving Indian sport new found teeth and muscle. | ||
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| + | There is little doubt India has the team to dominate men’s cricket in the new year. There has rarely been a bowling unit as good and with Virat and Rohit Sharma playing the way they are, few will want to argue against India at the moment. | ||
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| + | And as far as Olympic sports are concerned, anything under 8 medals in Tokyo wouldn’t be satisfactory. While this is a 400% jump in comparison to Rio, with some luck India can touch double digits for the first time in the country’s Olympic history. | ||
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| + | To end with a caveat: the one thing Indian sport needs to do better in 2020 is be a little more consistent. While we had a huge high in football when we drew against Asian champion Qatar, we failed to build on the momentum generated by drawing our next two games against Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The hockey story is the same. While the men and women have both qualified for Tokyo, conceding goals in the last few minutes continues to plague Indian hockey, impacting consistent performance at international competitions. | ||
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| + | While results aren’t always in one’s hands, what matters is what Virat said to me in a recent interview, “Playing for India is a dream. And when the dream turns real, the effort will have to be at its highest. Results are a logical outcome of the effort put in.” | ||
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| + | [[Category:India|S SPORTS: INDIASPORTS: INDIA | ||
| + | SPORTS: INDIA]] | ||
| + | [[Category:Pages with broken file links|SPORTS: INDIA]] | ||
| + | [[Category:Sports|S SPORTS: INDIASPORTS: INDIA | ||
| + | SPORTS: INDIA]] | ||
=Coaches= | =Coaches= | ||
Revision as of 21:34, 28 February 2022
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
The business of sports
See graphics:
The business aspect of India's sports leagues as well as the growth of the sports business in India, 2008-13- I
The business aspect of India's sports leagues as well as the growth of the sports business in India, 2008-13- II
The business aspect, 2008-13
See graphic:
Sports business: 2008- 2013
TV viewership: 2014
See graphic:
TV viewership in India- 2014
2019
An overview: A Year That Promised More
Boria Majumdar, Dec 28, 2019 The Times of India
2019 will go down in Indian sport as a year that promised more, while 2020 looks full of possibilities. In cricket, the team played superbly to make the ODI World Cup semi-final, before one bad session against New Zealand ruined their hopes of winning the world title. The team under Virat Kohli continues to lead the world Test Championship rankings and have shown much promise going into 2020.
In badminton, PV Sindhu’s world championship win was the only major triumph and the last few months have been underwhelming by her standards. While Kento Momota, the men’s world champion, has won 11 tournaments in the year, Sindhu has won just the one world competition. While Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have had a breakthrough year in doubles, Indian badminton is at a crossroad as we approach the Tokyo Olympics in July 2020.
The story is hardly different for wrestling and boxing. Bajrang Punia was almost there each time he fought at a major championship and was denied a place in the final of the world championship by the referee, while Amit Panghal won a historic silver in the world boxing championship but could well have won gold and made it bigger.
The real breakthrough, however, happened in shooting. Leaving the Rio 2016 disappointment behind, Indian shooters have dominated the world stage in 2019. With the introduction of the mixed events, India has done well in both pistol and rifle and made the podium at every world competition they participated in.
In fact, it isn’t an exaggeration to suggest that on current form India stands to win at least 4-5 medals in shooting in Tokyo and anything less would be deemed underperfor mance. Fifteen Indian shooters have qualified for the Olympics and will be competing in 21 events in Tokyo, a first in India’s Olympic history.
The other standout feature of the year is that the three men who dominate Indian sport at the moment are all united by a singular chain of thought – emphasis on process. While Kohli continues to hurt because of the ODI World Cup loss, he is aware that process is what will eventually make a difference. Taking the team’s fitness to a different level, he knows he has a huge opportunity in 2020 at the T20 World Cup in Australia.
That’s where Pullela Gopichand is on the same page. The national badminton coach, aware that things have not gone well for his students in the last few months, gets up every morning at 3.30am to go to his academy. He also knows, however, that the process remains firmly in place and a change of fortune is a logical outcome in the future.
There’s no reason why Sindhu can’t emulate her Rio feat in Japan next year. And in the long term, Indian badminton looks in good health with multiple youngsters now knocking on the doors of the senior circuit. “We have some excellent players coming up the ranks and it is now on us to mentor them well and get them ready for the challenges in future,” says Gopi.
The third musketeer has just taken over BCCI’s reins and by doing what he has with the pink ball Test in Kolkata, has demonstrated that with proper processes in place, Test cricket in India can well rival Australia and England. Sourav Ganguly says that first class cricket is his priority, and prompt decision making has always been his forte.
The other talking point of 2019 is a ‘youth takeover’ of Indian sport. If it is Saurabh Chaudhary, Manu Bhaker, Elavenil Valarivan, Yashaswini Deswal and the lot in shooting, it is Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues in women’s cricket and Deepak Punia and Ravi Dahiya in wrestling. None of them, for the record, have touched 22 yet. And yet, each of them are now on the cusp of doing consistently well at the world level giving Indian sport new found teeth and muscle.
There is little doubt India has the team to dominate men’s cricket in the new year. There has rarely been a bowling unit as good and with Virat and Rohit Sharma playing the way they are, few will want to argue against India at the moment.
And as far as Olympic sports are concerned, anything under 8 medals in Tokyo wouldn’t be satisfactory. While this is a 400% jump in comparison to Rio, with some luck India can touch double digits for the first time in the country’s Olympic history.
To end with a caveat: the one thing Indian sport needs to do better in 2020 is be a little more consistent. While we had a huge high in football when we drew against Asian champion Qatar, we failed to build on the momentum generated by drawing our next two games against Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The hockey story is the same. While the men and women have both qualified for Tokyo, conceding goals in the last few minutes continues to plague Indian hockey, impacting consistent performance at international competitions.
While results aren’t always in one’s hands, what matters is what Virat said to me in a recent interview, “Playing for India is a dream. And when the dream turns real, the effort will have to be at its highest. Results are a logical outcome of the effort put in.”
Coaches
International coaches (till 2018)
Abhinav Bindra is celebrated by Indians as their lone individual Olympic gold medallist; Sushil Kumar is the only Indian with two individual Olympic medals to his name, while Neeraj Chopra is the first javelin thrower from the country to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, apart from being the world junior champion.
These names embody the attributes of perseverance, determination and resilience. But ever wondered who worked behind the scenes to transform these athletes’ career from a sporting novice to a legend? It’s the coaches, especially those from foreign shores employed in India, who work tirelessly in equal proportion to bring out the best in their wards. Foreign coaches, with due respect to all our national coaches, have shaped the careers of many Indian sporting icons, but have mostly remained unsung.
Apart from Bindra’s single-minded determination to succeed, he would have struggled in his bid to become the best in his field had he not got the support of his German coach for 16 years, Heinz Reinkemeier. Similarly, if legendary Georgian Vladimir Mestvirishvili hadn’t coached Sushil for Beijing and London Games, India may have still been searching for a double Olympic medallist. Or, for that matter, had it not been for Australian Garry Calvert, who recently passed away following a heart attack, India may have still been hunting for that elusive gold medal in javelin.
Table tennis player Manika Batra stole the limelight at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, winning four medals. And a lot of credit for her success goes to her foreign coach, Italian Massimo Costantini. The contribution of Cuban coach B I Fernandez to Indian boxing has been immense in the past two decades.
So, it is no surprise that for the upcoming Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games, India will have in its fold a battery of foreign coaches. Around 30 foreign coaches and experts will accompany the Indian athletes as compared to some 50-odd Indian coaches.
The athletics team will be accompanied by six foreign coaches, shooting four, badminton three (including two ‘P’ category accreditations), boxing two and hockey teams (both men and women) will have six foreign experts (including the scientific advisor) to help them. In fact, the boxing federation has started a new trend by designating Santiago Nieva and Raffaele Bergamasco as the chief coaches, sidelining national coaches Shiv Singh and S R Singh, who have aged as well.
India’s dependence on foreign coaches isn’t a new phenomenon. The trend started in the 1980s when the athletics federation hired foreign experts. But the surge came just around the 2000 Sydney Olympics. That’s the time disciplines like hockey, shooting and weightlifting started getting help from foreigners. The sports ministry gradually opened its coffers and started funding contingents for more exposure trips, buying equipment and appointing foreign support staff.
The faith and belief in a foreign coach’s ability has always been there. They have always been preferred over our national coaches – given their experience, scientific knowledge and their record of delivering impressive results. Thus, they are paid highly for their services: ranging from $4,000 to $15,000 per month. India didn’t hesitate in giving former Dutch hockey coach Roelant Oltmans $15,000 per month and is paying the current hockey high performance director David John $12,000 per month.
Now, the foreign coaches have been given more power, more say at the management level. They are deeply involved in framing the selection policy, preparing the Annual Competition and Training Calendar (ACTC) and finalising the dates and venues of national camps which has always been primarily the job of a federation.
The question here is: Why is India so dependent on foreign coaches? It’s because we as a sporting nation have not been able to develop and upgrade our own coaching programmes and systems. Sadly, India’s sports administrators have not been able to enforce an important clause which forms part of every foreign coach’s contract: they should train their Indian counterparts by holding workshops during the offseason. And until that happens, India will continue to bank on foreign help for its talented athletes.
Controversies in sports
India Today, December 29, 2008
Cricketers vs BCCI
The BCCI has never been a novice when it comes to controversies. Even in 1989, six cricketers—Dilip Vengsarkar, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, Arun Lal, Kiran More and Mohammad Azharuddin—took it to court over contracts. In October 1989, India Today reported,“ The showdown has caused a new rethinking on the board’s structure.”
Padukone vs BAI
Prakash Padukone, India’s greatest badminton player, became the unusual leader of a revolution when he set up the Indian Badminton Confederation as a rival to the Badminton Association of India (BAI), causing a schism in the sport. He wanted to reform the way badminton was played in India. “For a man like Padukone to have behaved so out of character is indicative of the magnitude of the problem,” said India Today in March 1996
Gill drops six senior players
This was the decisive crushing of player power. In 1998, IHF President K.P.S. Gill celebrated the Asian Games hockey gold by sacking the six most senior players. In March 1996, India Today had foretold the game’s death: “Everywhere this pungent smell of decay oozes from Indian hockey. Gill, inheritor of a disintegrating game in 1994, papered over some of the cracks but when an entire edifice is crumbling, a tube of quickfix is inadequate.”
Cricket match-fixing, since 2000
This is one controversy cricket-crazy Indians will never forget. It all started in 2000, with the Delhi Police tapping South African captain Hansie Cronje’s phone and stumbling on names that spelt match-fixing. India Today said in April 2000, “A mortar round has been fired into cricket’s stomach and it’s no good if administrators bring out a box of band-aids.” A number of names tumbled out of the closet including Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin. The word bookie entered our everyday vocabulary. There was nothing gentlemanly left in the Gentleman’s Game.
Milkha Singh turns down Arjuna Award
In an interview to India Today in September 2001, the Flying Sikh had said, “the prestigious award has been reduced to a tamasha”. More dirt was dug up. From the unappreciated Kanwaljit Sandhu, the first Indian woman to win an international athletics gold, to the moving plight of Makhan Singh, the only one to break Milkha’s record.
Pratima tests positive for dope at Athens
A shocked country looked on as Pratima Kumari was banned from the event and for life at the Athens Olympics 2004, for testing positive for drugs. While she blamed her coaches, they pointed at her personal trainers and even on her habit of turning up inebriated for training. Since 2004, no less than 113 Indian athletes have been accused of doping. India Today reported in September 2004 that the International Weightlifting Federation president had threatened to suspend the Weightlifting Federation of India, saying: “These positive cases have demolished your country’s prestige.”
Chappell vs Ganguly
It became the clash of the titans, which divided the entire cricket fraternity.Aleaked e-mail to the BCCI exposed coach Greg Chappell’s stance on skipper Sourav Ganguly in which he had doubted the latter’s behaviour, physical form and team spirit. Ganguly accused the coach of pitting players against one another. The result: “Chuck a pebble into the team bus and the chances of it striking a conflicted player are high,” reported India Today inOctober 2005.
Sania’s fatwa controversy
After storming the international tennis circuit in 2003, Sania Mirza has never been left alone. Fatwas were issued against her for her clothes to which she replied, “Some say Muslim girls shouldn’t wear mini-skirts, others say I’ve made the community proud. I hope God forgives me... but you have to do what you have to do.” (India Today, January 2005). Sometimes she bent to the furore and refused to play, but mostly, Mirza just let her racquet do the talking.
India Fails to qualify for Olympics Hockey
Indian hockey has seen it all. Good days, from 1928 to 1956 when it won six Olympic golds in a row, and the worst being its failure to even qualify for the games in 2008. A long history of maladministration and insularity on the IHF’s part led to this shocking elimination. The poor run of the national game made India Today observe in March 2008, “Indian hockey can no longer be pined over like a lost love. It is a sick industry in need of restructuring. Otherwise let’s roll up all the astro turf and lock up the stadiums.” 10. VOLLEY FOLLY
Bhupathi vs Paes
They were India’s best hopes for an Olympic gold in tennis. But then Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi decided they had had enough of each other. “The best way to deal with Bhupathi-Paes these days is to convince yourself that today for each man, the other does not exist” (India Today, June 2008).
Corporate sponsorships
The Times of India, Oct 17, 2011
‘Today, sport is much more than just entertainment or physical exercise’
The Sahara India Pariwar’s foray into the fast and furious world of Formula One – with its purchase of 42.5 % stake in F1 team Force India for a sum of Rs 500 crore — is yet another reminder of the company’s growing presence in the world of sport.
The Sahara Group has emerged as the biggest sponsor and promoter of sport in India. The shirts of the Indian cricket and hockey teams are synonymous with the company’s name. It also owns Pune Warriors, the IPL team which it bought at last year’s auction for Rs 1,800 crore. Add to that Rs 500 crore which the company spends for sponsoring the Indian cricket team and its financial presence cannot be ignored.
This is not all. Sahara is also spending in a big way in its bid to support Indian sportspersons training to win medals at the Olympic Games. It has adopted boxing, wrestling, archery, shooting, athletics and tennis and has under its umbrella 95 sportspersons preparing for the 2012 London Games, quite a few of them being medal prospects.
When the Indian hockey players revolted last year for not being suitably rewarded for their efforts, Sahara moved in with a cash award of Rs 2 lakh each for the players. The company was also instrumental in bringing the prestigious Laureus World Sports Academy Awards to India in 2002 and 2003.
This is not to say that others in the corporate world do not have a connect with sport. Hero, earlier Hero Honda, is one of the major investors. With a budget of Rs 100 crores, they have long-standing forays in golf, cricket and hockey, and like Sahara, also co-sponsored the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
It is a similar case with multinationals like Coca Cola and Pepsi or tyre giants MRF and JK. Coca Cola spends a couple of million dollars on talent-hunting programmes in cricket, while Pepsi does the same though figures are not available. Communication bigwigs Airtel and Nokia spend around Rs 50 crore each annually primarily on cricket, while MRF and JK mainly spend on supporting motorsports in the country.
The Tatas have been among the pioneering big spenders in Indian sport, with others taking the cue from them. They started off by employing several top sportspersons. Their flagship endeavours were the Tata Football Academy, an athletics stadium and the archery academy in Jamshedpur. Figures may not be available but of late their presence in Indian sport seems to have faded a bit.
The United Breweries (UB) Group is another active sports sponsor and promoter in the country, and would come close to Sahara in its spending but figures are not readily available in this case either.
Mention must be made of the Indian Tobacco Company (ITC), a busy cricket sponsor some years ago, which has been forced to pull out due to regulations on tobacco Their withdrawal brought Sawhich make them ineligible to pro- hara to the fore as Indian crickmote or sponsor sports.
Sahara's major buys/sponsorship
1,800 CRORE for IPL franchisee 'Pune Warrior India'
500 CRORES as Indian cricket team sponsorship till 2013
500 CRORE (approx) on the acquisition of Force India (now Sahara Force India)
TOTAL: 2,800 CRORE
Besides this, Sahara sponsors six other sports and 95 individual sportspersons
Other top sponsors in Indian sport
HERO MOTOCORP: One of the major investors in the sports arena whose annual budget is around Rs 100 crore. The company has exposure in cricket and IPL, golf and hockey.
COKE: The company is believed to be spending a couple of million dollars on U-16 cricket, football tournaments.
PEPSI: Runs a 'pacers' programme, a grassroot-level initiative to identify talent in the sphere of bowling. Selected bowlers are trained by experts. JK TYRE: They have spent Rs 100 crore on sports promotion, primarily motorsports, in the past 10 years.
AIRTEL: Rs 50 crore annually on sports
NOKIA: Rs 50 crore annually on sports
ITC: Used to be a big sponsor but is ineligible for any sports promotion now, because of ban on tobacco advertising.
Dope tests
2018/ Five top national athletes fail tests
Three Of Those Caught Represented India In Jakarta Asian Games
Indian athletics continued to add to the doping hall of the shame with reports emerging on Monday that five of the top stars including, 400m runner Nirmala Sheoran, have allegedly failed dope tests.
The others in the list who have failed the dope tests conducted by world athletics body’s (IAAF) Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) are Sanjivini Jadhav (5000 and 10,000m), Sandeep Kumari (discus throw) and Jhuma Khatun (1500m). The only male athlete to figure in the new list of dope cheats is shot putter Naveen Chikara. Three of these dope offenders — Nirmala, Sanjivini and Sandeep — took part in the Jakarta Asian Games this year.
While two of the athletes caught were training at the national camp at the SAI South Centre Bengaluru, the others were part of the federation’s list of athletes who were to train at the NIS in Patiala. Star athlete Nirmala, who had disappeared for long periods before being flown into Jakarta for the Asian Games, has been traced but she hasn’t joined the national camps, sources said.
“There are reports that these samples were collected during the Inter-State meet — billed as the Asian Games trials — held in Guwahati. These results have arrived only now and that’s why some of these athletes were able to compete at the Asian Games,” sources told TOI.
“There is no change to the situation from what it was before. Even the other day, some athletes ran away from the camp when Nada officials made a surprise visit to collect samples,” sources added, stressing the fact that athletes continue to do the disappearing act with connivance of the authorities.
The latest case of positive tests is clearly going to undermine the stand of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) that athletes are averse to joining national camps as they can’t take banned substances during the camps. The fresh cases are proof that doping goes on in the national camps. “Some of them were training outside the national camps at that time,” sources said.
What’s shocking is that many of these athletes were part of India’s campaign at the Asian Games in Jakarata where the nation won 69 medals, its best-ever performance. Athletics added 19 medals, including seven gold, to India’s tally.
The latest reports also put a question mark over the National Anti-Doping Agency (Nada) as the agency had claimed a reduction in doping cases over the years, citing new numbers, even though it had emerged that the reduced numbers were due to a decrease in the number of dope tests conducted by the agency.
Meanwhile, NADA officials were not willing to comment on the reported cases. “We have not sent any samples to any foreign lab. All the tests are conducted at our NDTL lab only,” he said.
Foreign clubs
Indian sportsmen in foreign clubs
See graphics, Indian sportsmen in foreign clubs-I
Indian sportsmen in foreign clubs-II
Incentives by governments, official agencies
2018: IOA to hand out cash awards to athletes
For the first time in its history, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) will give away cash awards to the medal winners of the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games. IOA had never felicitated the medallists of any multi-sport event with monetary rewards.
IOA will give each gold medallist a cheque of Rs 5 lakh, silver medallist Rs 3 lakh and bronze medallist Rs 2 lakh at a ceremony in the Capital on September 23.
According to IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta, the trend will continue in the future as well. “There’s always a first time and this is the start of a new trend in the IOA. We will be rewarding the Asiad medallists since they have done the country proud,” he said, while informing that the Gold Coast CWG medallists won’t be extended the favour.
It’s been understood that the IOA will use the sponsors’ money to reward the medallists. Recently, the sports ministry felicitated the Asiad medallists with cash awards after India registered its best-ever medal haul in the history of the Games. Gold medallists were given Rs 40 lakh, while silver and bronze winners received Rs 20 and Rs 10 lakh each.
India won 69 medals at the Games – 15 gold, 24 silver and 30 bronze.
Multi-country tournaments and India
India at the Asiad, CWG and Olympics
From: April 8, 2018: The Times of India
See graphic:
India’s medal tally at the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and the Olympics, 1958-2016
Until 1990, India’s medal tally in Asian Games was far better than in CWG. As China and Korea became sporting powerhouses, India’s relative performance between the two championships reversed.
National sports federations (NSFs)
2020: 54 NSFs de-recognised
Sabi Hussain, June 26, 2020: The Times of India
An unprecedented situation has developed in Indian sports. 54 national sports federations (NSFs) – including nine belonging to the ‘high priority’ category – have been left without the sports ministry’s annual recognition, rendering them ineligible for the government’s financial grant and assistance for training and competition. Add to this list the Indian Golf Union (IGU), School Games Federation of India (SGFI) and Rowing Federation of India (RFI) and the count grows to 57 NSFs.
The federations, which had been crawling back to normalcy after three months of countrywide lockdown, received a shocker from the sports ministry on Thursday afternoon when they were told that their provisional annual recognition stood ‘withdrawn’ on the directions of the Delhi High Court. The ministry had granted recognition to NSFs on two separate occasions. For 54 NSFs, the ministry had issued notification earlier this month on June 2, while the affidavit to grant recognition to IGU, SGFI and RFI was sent to the court on June 16.
“…to this ministry’s letter of even dated 02.06.2020 regarding ‘Renewal of annual recognition of National Sports Federations for the year 2020’ and to say that in compliance of the order dated 24.06.2020 passed by the Hon’ble Delhi Court, the department’s letter of even number dated 02.06.2020 granting provisional annual recognition to 54 NSFs stands withdrawn,” wrote SPS Tomar, ministry’s deputy secretary, to Sports Authority of India (SAI) director general Sandeep Pradhan.
It’s been learnt that the ministry is contemplating filing a ‘Special Leave Petition’ (SLP) next week with a higher bench of the court, seeking directions to implement its June 2 order and grant the provisional annual recognition to all NSFs. The ministry isn’t particularly happy with the legal team for its abject surrender and recalling the affidavit filed on June 16, which stated grant of provisional recognition to IGU, SGFI and RFI. The ministry is of the view that it can’t go to the court every time for its approval to recognise NSFs.
However, the ministry and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) – both parties in the court – can’t escape the blame for negligence for overriding the court’s February 7 order which had categorically directed the two to file affidavits detailing steps taken towards recognition, derecognition, and creation of ad-hoc bodies in the NSFs, and not to grant any fresh recognition without first approaching the court and seeking its consent. The ministry and the IOA had decided to extend provisional recognition to NSFs until September 30, 2020.
In an interesting turn of events, the two-judge bench of the court, headed by Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Najmi Waziri, rapped the ministry on its knuckles for trying to “overreach” the court’s February 7 order, which had made it mandatory to inform the bench in advance “while seeking to take any decision in relation to the NSFs”.
The issue involved a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by senior Supreme Court lawyer, Rahul Mehra, in the High Court in 2010 which had sought a probe into the functioning of various sports bodies, including Hockey India (HI) and Indian Olympic Association (IOA).
Justice Kohli and Justice Waziri, during a hearing through video conferencing, told the ministry’s standing counsel Anil Soni to withdraw annual recognition to 54 NSFs and maintain status quo ante. On Thursday, the ministry “recalled” its order granting provisional recognition to NSFs, while also withdrawing its June 16 affidavit from the court.
WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?
According to annexure 15 of the 2011 sports code, the ministry is supposed to receive the performance chart of every NSF latest by December 15 of every year and, after evaluating and considering the submission, grants the annual recognition by January end. This time, the ministry didn’t follow the procedure and delayed granting the recognition. Mehra alleged that the ministry chose the pandemic time to arbitrarily grant the provisional recognition to shield those NSFs which had committed irregularities. The way forward for the ministry is to file a ‘Special Leave Petition’ (SLP) with a higher bench of the court after it withdrew its affidavit filed on June 16.
WHY IS THIS ANNUAL RECOGNITION IMPORTANT?
NSFs, priority or non-priority sports, largely depend on the government funding to manage their everyday expenses. In its absence, they would struggle to hold their national championships and certificates won at the meet wouldn’t have any validity. NSFs would find it difficult to organise national camps and hold tournaments. Railways concessions can’t be availed any longer to travel for camps and meets. For Tokyo Olympic probables, the NSFs in 14 sports disciplines would struggle to fund training camps. No business house and corporate will like to associate itself with a de-recognised federation, leading to a sponsorship crunch. Smaller NSFs will suffer the most as the CSR activities aren’t happening due to economic setbacks suffered because of the pandemic. For SAI, it would be difficult to arrange and fund camps for all NSFs.
WHAT’S THE ROLE OF IOC AND INTERNATIONAL BODIES?
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and international federations (IFs) have limited role to play in this development. The IOC calls for autonomy in the IOA and NSFs, with no government interference. But granting recognition or derecognising an NSF is the ministry’s prerogative. The ministry can argue that it was following the law of the land and was acting on the court’s directive. It could very well say that the government wasn’t directly interfering into the matter.
Near Misses
1960-2016
The Times of India, Aug 29 2017
Many are already calling PV Sindhu's effort as one of the most enduring in Indian sport. Dhananjay Roy takes a walk down memory lane to pick a few of those special times when the contest left the Indian sportsman and the fan physically and emotionally drained...
PT USHA (1984 Los Angeles Olympics)
PT Usha was at the peak of her powers and was a real hope in the 400m hurdles. Usha clocked 56.81 sec in the heats and 55.54 sec in the semifinals.In the final, she clocked 55.42 sec, finishing fourth, trailing the eventual bronze-medallist by an agonizing 1100th of a second.
MILKHA SINGH (1960 Rome Olympics)
Milkha Singh had been clocking impressive timings in the run up to the Games and had beaten most of the top contenders at various meets. Expectations were sky high, but the Flying Sikh miscalculated his run when it mattered most and finished fourth. That's a memory that still rankles the great sprinter.
LIMBA RAM (1992 Barcelona Olympics)
The archer came closest to Olympic podium at the 1992 Games in Barcelona. Just ahead of Barcelona, Ram had equalled Takayoshi Matsushita's world record in the Beijing Asian Archery Championships in the 30m event with a score of 357360 for gold. Fans were counting on him for a repeat performance in the Olympics.However, he fell short by a single point in the 70m competition, and missed out on the bronze.
LEANDER PAESMAHESH BHUPATHI VS IVAN LJUBICIC MARIO ANCIC (2004 Athens Olympics)
In 2004, the pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi was rated as the finest doubles players in the world. All of India was certain that the duo would return with a medal from Athens. Things did not go as per plan and they were beaten by the wild card Croatian pair of Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic in the bronze-medal play-off. The Indians had numerous opportunities to shut out the match, but were pipped 6-7 (5), 6-4, 14-16 in three hours and 58 minutes in a nerve-racking contest that began on a Friday night and ended in the early hours the next day.
ABHINAV BINDRA (2016 Rio Olympics)
India's only individual gold medallist at the Olympics came extremely close to winning another medal before he ended up finishing fourth in the 10m air rifle event in Rio. Tied on 163.8 points after 16 shots with the eventual silver-medallist Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine, Bindra shot a 10.0 to Kulish's 10.5, depriving the Beijing Games gold winner of a fairytale ending in his fifth Olympics.
INDIA VS KOREA: MEN'S HOCKEY FINAL (2002 Busan Asian Games)
Defending champions India fell to hosts Korea 4-3 in the final despite putting up a courageous display. They were buoyed by a splendid 4-3 win over a strong Pakistan side in the semifinals and young defender Jugraj Singh almost did the star turn for India. But his shoulder-charge of an opponent led to a penalty corner off which the Koreans scored the winner in front of a stadium packed with members of the Indian contingent who had come to see an Indian triumph.
Poor sporting standards in India
2018: India way behind tiny countries
June 22, 2018: The Times of India
From June 22, 2018: The Times of India
From: June 22, 2018: The Times of India
See graphic:
Football is only a metaphor. These countries with small populations do better than India at most sports
Districts or continuous stretch of cities
India couldn't qualify for the world cup despite its large population and football following, but most of the qualifying countries have fewer people than our states and even cities. A look:
Popularity, inter se, of various sports
2019
From: February 16, 2021: The Times of India
See graphic:
The inter se Popularity of various sports, presumably as in 2019
