The A to Z of Indian sporting controversies

Sunil Rajguru

In India there is a scam and scandal for almost everything. The sporting arena is no different.

A look at the A to Z of Indian sporting controversies and other general messes…

A for Awards

In 1981, billiards champion Michael Ferreira turned down the Padma Shri because Sunil Gavaskar got the Padma Bhushan. Milkha Singh turned down the Arjuna Award in 2001 calling it a “tamasha”. In 2009, cricketers MS Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh didn’t even turn up for the awards function. There’s never a dull moment with sports awards. Sometimes deserving people are left out and sometimes they go to the undeserving. Now they're introducing the Bharat Ratna in the sports category too!

B for Badminton

In 1997, frustrated with the way the Badminton Association of India was being run, the great Prakash Padukone launched the rival Indian Badminton Confederation. Luckily for India, a merger took place and we had champions like Pullela Gopi Chand and Saina Nehwal. Badminton was also in the news recently when a rule making it mandatory for women players to wear skirts kicked up a storm.

C for CWG

This is the big daddy of them all. Missing crores. Charges of favouritism. Shocking delays. Shabby infrastructure. Unwanted international media attention. Bigwigs Suresh Kalmadi and Sheila Dixit squirming. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief when the 2010 Commonwealth Games ended. But some were convinced it could have been a lot worse.

Image: AP/AFP