Memories from Beijing and earlier

Watching the Olympics was good fun after a long time. The first sporting extravaganza that I remember watching was the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Even Doordarshan’s animated athletes, swimmers or boxers before the events were objects of fascination then. I don’t remember much from the LA Games but the sight of Mohammad Shahid, our hockey captain has not faded. Shahid used to wear a head band, besides being a fantastic hockey player and since he was the captain, he was obviously one of my childhood sporting heroes along with Kapil Dev, Mohammad Azharuddin and some of our local football heroes.

As football is the principal sport (even now) in Calcutta, watching football matches played between any two teams on earth is a matter of great significance for us Calcuttans and thus, I was thrilled to watch India play Bahrain at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. I had earlier watched India play Malaysia at the Saltlake Stadium in Calcutta. India had won 3-nil. I don’t remember much from that match too apart from another long-haired guy, Narender Thapa who used to play in the defence. In Seoul though, the results were reversed and Bahrain pumped in all three goals with alarming regularity and clinical precision to put the match beyond India moments after it started.

From then on, watching the Indian football team was a weird, pointless sort of a habit. As for Shahid, I’d forgotten him till 2002 or 2003, when Ten Sports aired his story. Now bald, Shahid was training kids in Allahabad and he was not really doing well for himself. I can’t describe how it felt watching one of my earliest sporting heroes after almost two decades tell his forgotten story to the TV camera. About four years later, while working as the sports editor of a Bengali daily, I came to know that a former footballer, who had played for either East Bengal or Mohunbagan or both, by the name of Narender Gurung had died. Knowing how things worked with the innumerable experts in the media, I wanted them to find out before publishing the news whether it was Gurung or Thapa. No one seemed to know and since the press deadline was fast approaching, it didn’t matter after a while. I knew for sure that Pem Dorjee, one of Thapa’s contemporaries had died of cancer.

I don’t remember much from the 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 Games either apart from the heroics of Leander Paes (’96), Karnam Malleshawari (’00), Rajyavardhan Rathore (2004) and the 100m races.

In 2008 though there were things to watch, moments to savour and all-in-all, the Beijing Games were a treat for every sporting aficionado in India. Along with Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar, Vijenjder Singh, Jitender Kumar, Akhil Kumar, Anthresh Lalit Lakra, Dinesh Kumar, Saina Nehwal, Anup Sridhar, Achanth Sharath Kamal, Neha Agarwal, Dola Banerjee, Pranita Vardhineni, JJ Shobha, GG pramila, Sushmita Singharoy, Bajrang Lal Tahker, Sandeep Sejwal, Vridhawal Khade and all those who made India proud, I would also remember Sakal Bhatt, the DD Sports anchor for her mindboggling commentary. Here’s Sakal right after the men’s 110m hurdles, won by Dayron Robles of Cuba.

“We just watched the men’s 110m hurdles and what an exciting finish it was! As you saw, it was an all-American finish and the gold medal was won by a Cuban.” She went on to award the silver to David Oliver, who had won the bronze and the bronze to David Payne, who had won the silver. Both were American citizens.

From cricket nation to boxing nation

Three Indian boxers in the quarterfinals at the Beijing Olympics! All three are from the famous SAI boxing hostel at Bhiwani. Well, the inclusion of ‘famous’ in the line above is the famous Indian habit of ornamenting an article with adjectives. Most people in India do not know where Bhiwani is, let alone knowing about its relationship with boxing.

Bhiwani is a district in Haryana, also known as ‘Chota Kashi’ for its temples. A district where worshipping and boxing exist side-by-side! Akhil Kumar, Jitender Kumar and Vijender Kumar, the three pugilists who have made it to the last eight in their respective categories in Beijing, have honed their skills here. While the rest of the country was busy playing cricket, this district quietly prepared its boxers. And boy, weren’t they prepared!

Akhil’s bout against the Russian world champion Sergey Vodopyanov was undoubtedly one of the greatest sporting achievements by an Indian. Trailing 2-6 at one point, Akhil fought hard to level scores and since he came from behind to lock horns with the Russian on points, the jury decided the bout in his favour. Buoyed by Akhil’s never-say-die attitude, Jitender and Vijender practically demolished their opponents in the pre-quarters.

I spoke to Vijender and Jitender in New Delhi at the send-off ceremony organized by the official sponsors for the Indian contingent. While it’s common knowledge that boxers are a bit ‘different’ than the rest of the lot, I was kind of taken aback to see the attitude of the Indian boxers. It didn’t make much sense to me till they booked those quarterfinal berths. They seemed unfazed by the lack of attention, awareness and the stupid, meaningless questions thrown at them by the self-proclaimed sports journalists. Jitender kept saying, “Ja rahe hai, medal lane ki koshish to karenge hi.” No one took him seriously. Jitender doesn’t really look the kind who inspires belief.

The shooters, who usually have the privileges of a better educational and financial background, were smarter when it came to handling the media. The suave Manavjit Sandhu or the pretty Avneet Kaur Sidhu looked more in control of things. In any case, the most was expected from the shooters and even though it was known that India did have strong boxing and archery contingents, the spotlight was always on the shooters. It could now be said that in spite of Abhinav Bindra’s historic gold medal, the shooters and archers have disappointed but the boxers haven’t.

India finally made its presence felt at the Olympics! And Bhiwani could rightfully claim its share of credit now. According to former 100m world champion Linford Christie, Olympics are not the place for team events. Rather, this is the stage where individual performers should thrive to excel. Abhinav Bindra’s gold medal would have been looked upon as a freak accident somewhere down the line had the boxers not consolidated India’s position at the Beijing Games.

A gold medal in shooting, quarterfinal exits in tennis and badminton, swimmers and rowers putting their best feet forward – the performances augur well for the future of Indian sports. And it’s doubly satisfying to see boxing of all the sports leading the Indian performance in Beijing from the front. It symbolises the fight.

Let’s be honest, I’m sick and tired of cricket, cricketers, cricket experts, cricket administrators, cricket analyses, cricket theme restaurants, cricket songs, cricket fanaticisms, cricket patriotisms and those endless drunken cricket conversations. I would be happy to see all of those replaced with boxing. I pray (though I’m not sure to whom) that Akhil Kumar remains a bigger name in India than Ashish Nehra or Vijay Dahiya. I have my loyalties towards him. We both belong to the same weight category. Well, unlike him, I stay far away from Bhiwani and its boxing rings.

'We love watching sports when we win'

A Russian world champion boxer crying after losing a bout is not a common sight. A Russian/American/Cuban/Papua New Guinean/Moldovan/Indonesian world champion/non-world champion boxer crying after losing to an Indian boxer in the pre-quarterfinal at the Olympics is unheard of! Akhil Kumar managed to achieve just that. After his bout against Russian Sergey Vodopyanov ended tied at 9-9 after four rounds, the jury decided it in favour of the Indian Railways boxer. Vodopyanov, who goes out in tears, is the world champion in men’s 54 kg bantamweight boxing.

Akhil had quite a few viewers watching him back home in India. Reason 1: It was August 15, India’s Independence Day, which is nothing more than a holiday for most. Reason 2: Abhinav Bindra won the historic gold medal (India’s first individual Olympic gold in 108 years) in 10 metre air rifle shooting only four days back. One of them, a well-meaning, responsible female citizen who otherwise does not bother about sports was all excited when I found her online right after the bout. She said, “I love watching sports when we win something.” While there is no way one can deny that results are important and nothing succeeds like success, it once again underlined the hypocrisy of Indian sports fans.

What have we won in cricket in all these years? I started following the sport in 1986-87. For a decade or so, we knew that whenever the cricket team toured abroad, it was a matter of saving the blushes more than anything else. A Test victory in away conditions, particularly in countries like Australia, South Africa and England was something that never weighed on the mind of the most optimistic one and a decent performance in the ODIs was enough to keep everyone happy.

During the same time, India started doing poorly in other popular sports such as football and hockey. The decline had started but the hockey team was still one of the best in the circuit. But as this friend of mine said, Indians had stopped watching everything apart from cricket since the country was not ‘winning’ anything. They were not winning anything in cricket too!

My generation’s passion for cricket is largely attributed to Sachin Tendulkar, a man clearly unlucky to be born in India. Why I say this is because if he had the good fortune of playing the Bhupinder Singh seniors and Paras Mhambreys and Dodda Ganeshes and David Johnsons of the world, people by now must have had stopped talking about Sir Donald Bradman or Vivian Richards. His good fortune would have continued if those names were replaced with those of the Ajit Agarkars, Venkatesh Prasads, Javagal Srinaths and Manoj Prabhakars. In spite of Navjyot Singh Sidhu’s famous quote on statistics and miniskirts, the numbers would have shut everyone up.

We grew up watching a small man who looked and behaved like a boy take up the duty to restore pride for the nation upon him without even asking his teammates once to share the burden. And who would he have asked such a favour for? Praveen Amre or Vinod Kambli! But India hardly won anything in cricket in spite of his efforts and when Sachin became the captain, the trend continued.

Then in 1996, out of the blue we found a pair of world class batsmen in Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. Make no mistake, they were not the most talented ones around. During Vinod Kambli’s days, the most refined of the cricket experts used to say that he was even more talented than Sachin Tendulkar. Kambli’s sad story of a career ended on mediocre notes.

What set Sourav and Rahul apart from the bunch was a rare mix of talent and attitude. While Indians were always a talented lot, the word attitude did not exist in their dictionary. And in due course, Sourav became the captain and it was under his captaincy we saw the ‘Dream Tream’ emerge. Everyone from Dinesh Mongia to Ashish Nehra stood up to the moment, inspired by Sourav’s aggressive captaincy. India reached the finals of almost every tournament that was played at that time, including the 2003 ICC World Cup and lost all but one.

We are not supporters, we are viewers. Several other channels will take care of our sorrows today after a last ball loss against Pakistan. One just has to follow the instructions of Darsheel (Safari) and Sonali (Bendre). We anyway never watched the World Track and Field or world championships in any other sport, even though Indians were there and winning. There were far more interesting things on Indian television.

The Africans can’t say that they love to watch anything. The long-distance running world champions produced from the poorest of the countries hardly have television viewers back home but they are still national heroes! We on the other hand choose everything from Desperate Housewives to Sarabhai vs. Sarabhai over the Olympics too.

This year it’s different. Bindra has hit the target on the 3rd day of the Games. Thus, this is Akhil and Jitender’s (Jitender too won his pre-quarterfinal 51 kg flyweight category bout after Akhil) best chance to win and make people watch. One more win will see them in the last four and then they will have two more fights for a medal. The fight is not their alone. It is for all those athletes who did not choose cricket in India.

Dreaming with eyes open !!!

I couldn’t believe it! It must have been the conspiracy that I would always be indebted to. Watching Abhinav Bindra shooting his way to history, I didn’t even realize it was the final and not the qualification round! Amidst all the action in countless number of events, irregular hours made worse by a different time zone (China in this case) and almost no expectations from the Indian contingent, I overlooked the fact that the small man was yet to achieve such a big thing! But at least, the conspiracy kept me awake at that very moment.

Even Bindra didn’t help the cause after that final shot. It was a faint, almost embarrassed smile after a millisecond that first gave me the hint that something had possibly happened. Raja Randhir Singh, Secretary General of the Indian Olympic Association and others in the Indian box didn’t know how to celebrate. They were caught off-guard. The first person to gave Bindra a hug and whose expressions told the story was ironically a white woman, probably a staff member with the Indian shooting contingent.

Abhinav Bindra gave India its first individual Olympic gold! The event – 10 metre air rifle shooting. Indians had witnessed athletes from Suriname and Ethiopia winning the Olympic gold but never one their own. The last time Jana-Gana-Mana was played at the ‘Greatest Shown on Earth’ was way back in 1980 but the credit was shared by the entire hockey team, not by an individual.

Rajyavardhan Rathore was 34 when he won the silver in Athens in 2004 in men’s double trap rifle shooting. Karnam Malleswari was 25 when she won the bronze in Sydney in 2000 in women’s weightlifting. Bindra will turn 25 in a month and a half. India now has a medal each from the last four Olympics. Leander Paes had won the bronze in men’s tennis singles in 1996. He was 23 then.

Moments after the news channel expert predicted more medals for India at the Beijing Games, news came in that Saina Nehwal, India’s best and World No. 15 female shuttler won her third round match to advance to the quarterfinal of women’s badminton singles. I think I’m dreaming! Have things finally started happening? I must immediately stop writing and start cheering Anthresh Lalit Lakra, the boxer who’s about to hit the ring!

The story of an Indian Olympian and the media

At the send-off ceremony for the Indian contingent at the Beijing Olympics, ace rifle shooter Manavjeet Singh Sandhu said that it was stupid to ask an Indian athlete how many medals he or she will win. It made sense and so did his body language or the unspoken words. He did mention the uncanny Indian affinity towards one particular sport but did not name the sport.

Our attitude towards our Olympians is funny and completely devoid of logic, let alone passion. We don’t want our kids to be sportsmen unless it’s cricket and the kid has shown extraordinary talent at a very early age, we don’t bother reading or watching non-cricket news and thus, the write-ups or the programmes on these sports are few, almost never easily visible and more often than not, written or produced with utmost callousness with scant regard for the authenticity of the information.

We prefer saas-bahu serials or the innumerable talent hunt competitions on television over the Olympics. We don’t know the names of the athletes who represent India in the Games. We almost invariably crack a joke (not realizing that the joke is on us!) when we get to know that India will have representation in judo or yachting.

We do feel happy and proud when Karnam Maleshwari wins a bronze or Rajyavardhan Rathore wins a silver medal, but it does not bother us if they fail to win anything at all. Most of us unlike the Indian Premier League (IPL), do not keep a track of the day-to-day proceedings of the ‘Greatest show on earth’ and when we are informed of our yet another dismal performance in the Olympics, our first reaction is to express astonishment at the fact that the Games are over and then to agree that there never was a chance and it was pointless to feel bad about the results.

It is so unfair to the athletes who have tried hard all their lives to make us proud. We have relegated them to the ranks of other objects of ridicule.

It is quite funny to attend these ceremonies where journalists of all size and shape behave far more important than the athletes. The representatives of the most obscure channels decide who should be interviewed and who could be given a miss and decide the language in which the interview is to be conducted by the appearance of the athlete.

This is not a blame game, me and my colleague Shreyas Sharma, two individuals genuinely interested in sports and not cricket alone, spoke to the members of the boxing team, never sure of who were we speaking to, Jitender or Vijender.

How does it feel to represent India in the Olympics? I doubt the answer could ever be found. In other words, I doubt I will ever be happy with the answers that our athletes will come up with. I believe, it is a complicated issue to grow up playing a sport, earning a berth for the Olympics and yet reaching there with no burden of expectations. But the frustration of Sandhu and others is understandable and in spite of the assurances of the thick-skinned, shameless administrators, little or nothing will change in the near future.