It has been a rather messy week for Indian sport and we are seeing more than one Frankenstein's monster popping out of the troubled waters. For sure, Indian hockey is in an unholy mess and the culprits, Suresh Kalmadi and his henchmen, are roaming scotfree, while the Commonwealth Games is mired in a huge controversy over spending and readiness. Rest assured, we haven’t heard the last of these murky issues.
As for hockey, IOA president Kalmadi started the rot when he summarily disaffiliated the Indian Hockey Federation following the resignation of secretary K Jothikumaran who was a victim of a sting operation and India’s failure to qualify for the 2008 Olympics. It was the most ad hoc move in Indian sport and the International Hockey Federation accorded recognition to Hockey India.
Raina showed that he belongs to the Test arena
FIH’s move then was motivated as it had allotted the 2010 World Cup to India. And when Hero Honda chipped in as title sponsors, all that FIH saw was the money it could rake in. It was pure greed that led to it giving its blessings to Hockey India. The World Cup this year was an unmitigated organizational disaster, but FIH couldn’t care less as it laughed all the way to the bank. Any surprise then that the same FIH has now allotted the 2011 Champions Trophy to India?
With the HI elections stayed and yet more court judgments pending, the sport finds itself in a quicksand of politics. The Sports Ministry has added its two bits to the imbroglio by recognizing Kalmadi’s creation that now threatens to devour the sport.
The point is that HI was ruthless in splintering established affiliated units of the KPS Gill-led IHF in a bid to impose pliant officials in the various State units with an ultimate objective of garnering sufficient votes that would lend a legal hue to their shameless coup. It was nothing short of usurping power from a down-and-out IHF and then kicking the fallen organization black and blue.
Apparently, the HI, particularly its secretary aspirant Batra, has spent a small fortune fighting court cases in a bid to secure favourable decisions. Such a wasteful expenditure and yet an indicator of the financial might of those seeking top positions in Hockey India. But then, with Mumbai and Delhi courts ordering a stay on the HI elections, we have reached an impasse that is likely to be decided by the Supreme Court.
Add to this cacophony, the endless controversies over the facilities for the Commonwealth Games! For the life of me, I can’t imagine renovation of a stadium costing Rs 960 crores that is perhaps only a quarter of the overall budget. For all the money spent, none of the facilities offer a state-of-the-art media amenity. The much-heralded swimming pool has a flawed floor, insufficient change rooms and other incomplete or shabby structures. These have been photographed and widely reported. Yet, Kalmadi and the Sports Ministry are smug that “everything is ok”.
To top it, the Commonwealth Games is a hangover from the colonial days of the British Empire and the top sportspersons do not lose any sleep over skipping the event that in any case is scheduled at the fag end of the season and barely two months before the Asian Games. So whom is Kalmadi kidding? He doled out 100,000 US dollars, besides air tickets, boarding and lodging, to each of the participating countries to secure the bid for the 2010 Games. If Kalmadi spent the money from his pockets, nobody gives a damn, but it was not so. In a way, it was legalized bribery.
India vs Sri Lanka
It is time that the government intervenes and puts an end to such mega projects whose legacy are the white elephants called sports infrastructure that are eventually used for all purposes other than that they were expressly built for. The IOA is now eyeing the Olympic Games!
These wretched issues all but sidelined cricketing news, especially Muralitharan’s feat of 800 Test wickets in Galle where he bowled Sri Lanka to a thumping victory last week. Bedi calls Murali a “chucker” but in my book, the smiling islander has earned his spot in the pantheon of spinners. He is one of a kind and I doubt we will ever see any bowler coming close to the benchmark much less surpass it; certainly, not in our lifetime.
