Chachu's column #11: Of Commonwealth, Asian and Olympic Games

A sudden Euphoria has gripped Indian sporting arena. First it was Lords where two young lads, Kaif and Yovraj, led India to a sensational victory in the Natwest Trophy. Not only the victory ended India's drought of umpteenth final loss, it also made India register their highest second innings winning score. (The subsequent loss in the First test against England and the last-day fight back to save the Second test notwithstanding, Indian cricket team is now viewed as a candidate to lift the World Cup). Then, the Indian Football team won the LG cup held in Vietnam a week back. This was the first major tournament win for the football team in three decades; this augurs well for the future.

If this was not enough, the Indian Contingent picked up a rich of haul of medals to come third in the recently concluded Seventeenth Commonwealth games held at Manchester. Leading the pack were the shooting stars Jaspal Rana (4 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 bronze) and Anjali (Vedpathak) Bhagwat (4Golds). Apart from these two, there were many others shooters who contributed to the Indian kitty, enabling India to collect 14 Golds from shooting. Then there were weightlifters, mainly women, who helped India collect 13 Golds from the event. N Kunjarani Devi, Sanamacha Chanu, and Shailaja Pujari made a clean sweep in Clean and Jerk, Snatch and Overall categories to pick three Golds apiece. Pratima Kumari and Sateesh Rai also picked two golds each. Three gold in wrestling, one in Boxing, and one in Women's hockey enabled India to come third overall with 32 Gold, 21 Silver, and 19 Bronze. This was a vast improvement from the showing in previous Commonwealth games held at Kuala Lampur in 1998. There, India had come eighth and had managed 25 medals including 7 golds.

Among the medal winners, the most commendable performance came from India's Women hockey team. The Indian team won the Gold facing stiff opposition from highly fancied teams like Australia, New Zealand, England and South Africa. Despite the strong opposition, Indian team overcame all obstacles to win in a rather dramatic fashion. In the finals, the teams were tied 2-2 at full time. In the extra time, the lanky forward Mamta Kharab scored through a rebound in penalty corner after the hooter had blown. The referee disallowed the goal. Now, as per the rules, the penalty is not complete till the ball is out of D. As the ball was within the D, play was on despite the hooter having blown. Thus, the technical team awarded the goal to India, much to the delight of India contingent.  The fighting spirit was not limited to the final. Even in the league stage, India was down 3-0 against South Africa. However, in a remarkable comeback India overcame the deficit and eventually defeated South Africa 4-3 to enter semis. In semis too, India were down by 1-0 against New Zealand. But in that match too, the team came from behind to defeat New Zealand 2-1. Overall, it was a remarkable performance and the Men's hockey team could take a leaf from their women counterpart. You may wonder what happened to the Men's team in Commonwealth games. The answer is that they could not qualify for the tournament as only one team qualified from Asia, and that team was Pakistan because of their better performance in Sydney Olympics.

The glory of the rich haul of medals was however marred by the positive dope test of 62 kg lifter Krishnan Madasamy, who was stripped of three silver medals. There were also reports that another weightlifter, Sateesh Rai, was tested positive. This report was not confirmed though.

In the media, there has been speculation as to what this achievement at Commonwealth games implies ¾ Whether this performance will be repeated in the Asian Games, which is to be held at Busan later this year ¾ Whether Indian athletes can match the skill, stamina and speed of nimble-footed Korean, Chinese and Japanese, the three sporting superpowers in Asia. While the debate will continue till Indians prove or disprove the critics the wrong, there is no denying the fact that the haul has brought rich financial gains. The Indian Government announced a cash award of 20lakhs for Gold, 15lakhs for Silver and 10lakhs for Bronze medal. Such prize money implies that some of the winning athletes (like Jaspal Rana) will pick more than a crore of rupee. Given the poor monetary rewards that have traditionally accompanied sporting success, such handsome payouts will go a long way in making sports as a lucrative career.

If reports are to be believed, the Indian Government has also announced a prize money of 1crore for anyone winning a gold at Olympics to be held in Athens, 2004. This is a huge amount, and many organizations including the Army and the railway men have started preparing for the Olympics. Historically, the performance of India in Olympics has been abysmal. With a population of 1 billion, there is that oft-lamented refrain that even 1 billion people cannot bag an Olympic Gold. Till now, no Indian individual has bagged more than a Bronze medal. In team events, the Indian Hockey team has won many a gold medals, including six consecutive Gold medals in years 1928, 1932, 1936, 1940, 1952, and 1956. After that, India again won Gold in 1964 and 1980. However, after 1980, Indian hockey has failed to retain its premier position that it once occupied.

In the Individual events, Norman Pritchard, an Anglo-Indian from Calcutta, was the first Indian athlete ever to win an Olympic medal. He won silver in the 200 metres sprint and 200 metres hurdles events in 1900 Olympics. However, his name hardly finds a mention in various discussions. Post-independence, the first Indian to win a medal was the wrestler K D Jadhav. Jadhav won a bronze medal, in the bantamweight category in 1952 Olympics at Helsinki, Finland. After that, India had to wait for 44 years for another individual medal. This time, it was India's very own Davis Cup star and hard-core patriot Leander Peas, who won India a bronze medal in Tennis at Atlanta Games, 1996.  In the next games held at Sydney in year 2000, India retained its medal haul of 1 bronze when Karnam Malleswari won the bronze with a total lift of 240 kg in the women's 69 kg weightlifting. Apart from Jadhav, Leander, and Malleswari, when it is Olympics, only two other Indians find a mention. The first of them is Flying Sikh, Milkha Singh who finished fourth in a photofinish in the Rome Olympics in 1960. The other Indian is, who else, but Payolli Express P. T. Usha who finished fourth in 400 meters race by one-hundredth of a second at Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. Apart from these handful of athletes, hardly any other Indian has made his/her presence felt. What the 2004 Olympics at Athens holds for India, only time can tell. But it is not too optimistic to believe that India just might better its performance of 1996 and 2000 Olympics. And if not Olympics, the Busan Asiad might just be the platform where the Indian sporting flag flies high.