Product of coaching or chemistry?
By Ravi Dhaliwal
WHAT have top athletes like Javier Sotomayor, Merlene Ottey, Linford Christie, Dennis Mitchell, Troy Douglas, Susantha Jayasinghe, Peter Korda and a host of others have in common? The answer is simple and not hard to seek. All have dazzled on the world stage, all have had the ability to turn sand into silver by their terrific performances, all have raked in the green bucks by the millions — and sadly all have now been tainted by dope scandals of various hues and colours.

Kapil & Indian cricket
By Sushil Kapoor
The wise men of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, who met at Jaipur on September 21 with the battle lines drawn between two “giant” cricket administrators – Mr I S Bindra, a former President of the BCCI, and Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya, the President of the ICC – for once made a wise and unanimous decision to hand over the reins of the Indian cricket team to Kapil Dev, the finest allrounder the country has produced, for a period of two years against Kapil’s published feelings of a minimum three-year stint to come up with some concrete and visible results.

India-New Zealand Test encounters
By S. Pervez Qaiser
New Zealand led by Stephen Fleming will play a three-Test series against the home team in their current tour of India. The first Test match of the series will be played at Mohali from October 10 to 14, the second at Kanpur (October 22 to 26) and the third at Ahmedabad (October 29 to November 2).

Sport Mail

Boston marathon: world’s premier event
By S. Rifaquat Ali

BEAUTY manifests itself in many forms, and not just the cherubic physical appearance of an erotic fair sex. Economist Amartya Sen won the Nobel Prize for his outstanding work to improve the lot of mankind through rudimentary economic reforms — a beauty that ensures better living; the manly courage of Kalpana Chawla to explore the beauty of the universe through hi-fi space exploration. In the same vein the beauty of human endurance was manifested in the Greek soldier Pheilippides’ great accomplishment: the long distance run from the Plains of Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over the invading Persians. Though Pheilippides dropped dead immediately after reaching Athens, his ‘Marathon effort,’ a beauty par excellence, is written in letters of gold.

Marathon running is today a vital segment of the Olympics extravaganza beyond which two of the world’s greatest marathons — Bostan Marathon and London Marathon — dominate the event and the number of participants in both are Boston and London marathons is phenomenal compared to the marathoners in the Olympics. There is a history behind the Boston marathon: an event which is more than 100 years old.

The first major running events in America were professional and highly promoted in 1884 when four English runners challenged a field of 32 Americans over 10 miles for a prize of $ 1,000. Between 25,000 and 30,000 people turned out to watch an unheralded American Indian named John Gildersleeve upset the favourite, John Barlow. These runners were fast even by today’s standards. Later that year Barlow ran 54:21 for 10 miles to win $ 1,400 in a rematch. The Scottish nearly brought organised running competition to the new world. The Boston Caledonian Club held their first games, a tradition carried to Boston by Scottish immigrants in 1853 in Boston. The games included a three-mile running race and other track and field-type events like caber tossing.

The Boston marathon was born a few months after the first modern Olympic marathon in Athens in 1896. The Greek water carrier, Spiridon Louis, won the first Olympic marathon. Louis ran from the Plains of Marathon through the flat village Nea Makri past Rafina along the Pendeli hills up a seven-mile climb into the Hymettus hills then down six miles and into the new 50,000 capacity marble Panathinaikon Stadium near the Acropolis. Louis won the world’s first marathon in 2 hours and 58 minutes, 50 seconds. Louis was a Greek like his compatriot Pheidippides and ran a perfect race in great style. The victory thrilled the people from Boston. How would Boston Amateur Athletic (BAA) officials find a course like that near their city, the one they considered the Athens of the New World?

The officials from the BAA designed a course to resemble the original in Greece. For the start, they marked a spot in Ashland, 25 miles west of the nearest thing they had to a stadium, the 220-yard Irvington Street Oval that served as their running track. The oval did not have 50,000 seats, the Newton hills were no match to Hymettus hills, and Ashland, unlike Marathon, was not a plain, but the railroad did run in that direction.

The six runners from New York, including the indomitable Hemilton Gray and John J. McDermott, took their evening meal together in the dining hall of the Central House in Ashland at a table apart from the Boston runners, the night before the first Boston marathon. McDermott and Gray had trained well for the inaugural Boston marathon. Their diet was so perfect that the Bostonians felt that neither carried an ounce of extra flesh. A rivalry developed between the host Bostonians and invading New Yorkers.

Dick Grant took the lead immediately after the start. He was the only runner in the field without a handler to provide him water and take care of his needs.

The Bostonians pinned their hopes, aspirations and money on Grant, a man from Harvard with a strong background in track racing. He felt the bright sunshine on his right shoulder and a cool west wind on his back. He also felt the stiff leather soles of his black leather shoes strike the hard dirt road. Cross-country Hamilton Gray, running for the St. George AC (Athletic Club) of New York, followed him stride by stride. As Grant and Gray ran along the course, Gray’s handler rode up and handed him a water canteen. He took a drink and then handed the rest to Grant. The two held a common cause against the enormous distance. The fear of 25 miles bound them.

So great was their respect for the distance that J.J. Kiernan, representing the St. Bartholomew A.C. of New York, and John J. McDermott, a lithographer of the Pastime AC of New York, ran 30 yards behind determined Grant and Gray at South Framingham. McDermott was the only athlete in the field who had won a marathon. The newsmen’s favourite was McDermott to win the inaugural Boston marathon; though many thought that he would pull out from the marathon regardless of his position in the lead. McDermott held his leg stiff and yelled to Heinlein: “Rub”. Heinlein tore at the cramp with his fingers and held the quivering muscle fibres apart until they relaxed.

Writing about the inaugural Boston marathon, Tom Derderian recorded thus: “The cured McDermott jumped back into the race and ran on Beacon Street to Coolidge Corner and to St Paul Street, where he walked to Carleton Street. Blisters filled his shoes and the skin had begun to peel off the soles of his feet. When he heard that a runner had just come over the hill, he shut his teeth and set his face and leaning well forward dug his shoes into the hard Boston Street. The spectators said that he ran up the hill like a half miler and down the other side to Commonwealth Avenue and across Massachusetts Avenue. There, sweaty and dusty, he plunged into the dignity of a funeral procession as it moved along Massachusetts Avenue. He so started the drivers of two electric cars that they stalled their vehicles.”

McDermott’s time of 2:55:10 — 10 seconds faster than Spiridon Louis had run in Greece and faster than he himself had run six months earlier — was a new world record and he was the champion marathoner of America and the world.

Thus, the mega event — Boston marathon — was born in which there were 18 entrants, 15 starters and 10 finishers. Long live the Boston marathon!

Product of coaching or chemistry?
By Ravi Dhaliwal

WHAT have top athletes like Javier Sotomayor, Merlene Ottey, Linford Christie, Dennis Mitchell, Troy Douglas, Susantha Jayasinghe, Peter Korda and a host of others have in common? The answer is simple and not hard to seek. All have dazzled on the world stage, all have had the ability to turn sand into silver by their terrific performances, all have raked in the green bucks by the millions — and sadly all have now been tainted by dope scandals of various hues and colours.

How time flies and how traditional values, like ornaments gather dust. Tradition has it that when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine. But now at the dawn of a new millennium, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.

Any discussion on drugs and sport triggers a feeling of suspicion and distrust, that colours attitudes toward the contemporary sporting establishment. Among those outside the athletic community, there is a growing concern that all is not well: that idealism and the spirit of honest competition have been replaced by cynical and calculating manipulation — the most obvious forms of which are to be found in the (in the eyes of the public, at least) abuse of chemicals and pharmaceuticals by athletes and those who train them.

The central concept of George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’ was ‘double-think’. ‘Double-think’ means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously and accepting both of them.

The athletic world, to a certain extent, has been guilty of ‘double-think’ — mouthing hollow condemnations about the use of drugs in sport while, by our own inactivity and neglect, simultaneously demonstrating a tacit acceptance of the whole sorry situation.

Recently, Wilson Kipketer, the 800-metre world record holder, called on the international athletics body (IAAF) to impose blood testing of the sports leading lights in view of several high profile athletes like Sotomayor and Merlene Ottey failing dope tests. In blood doping, blood is withdrawn from an athlete, stored for a period of time and then re-infused. Following the initial withdrawal of blood, the body compensates by increasing the production of red blood cells, until a normal level is reestablished. Then when the athletes stored blood is reinfused, a higher than normal level of red blood cells is established and the ability of the blood to transport oxygen is significantly enhanced.

This ‘blood doping’ technique, now very popular with even Indian athletes, ‘elegant’ in its simplicity yet ‘sinister’ in its implications.

In this endless war against doping, where does India stand? Nowhere, perhaps. The SAI lab in New Delhi is not accredited by the IOC and, as such, the samples tested there have no legal sanctity. By and large, the Indian testing is a deterrent rather than a foolproof method to test and enforce sanctions. Moreover, the rumour that the AAFI is hand in glove with the SAI lab refuses to fade away. Last year the Indian athletic officialdom was caught totally unawares when 27 junior athletes tested positive after random checking. Instead of acting promptly, our athletic body (AAFI) thought it prudent to turn a blind eye. This case can be compared to a situation, in which a harmless looking tumour was slowly growing, was noted, but then ignored, only to burst forth with an unanticipated intensity and malignancy.

The dope crises in sport is just like the population explosion. It happened yesterday but everyone says it will not happen tomorrow.

Some decisions have to be made. Do we continue to turn a blind eye to the clear violations of the rules? Or do we seek to exercise our ethical sensibilities and begin to end a situation, which some would say make them winners — but ultimately make us all losers. It is a challenge we must not evade. A test we must not fail.

Kapil & Indian cricket
By Sushil Kapoor

The wise men of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, who met at Jaipur on September 21 with the battle lines drawn between two “giant” cricket administrators – Mr I S Bindra, a former President of the BCCI, and Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya, the President of the ICC – for once made a wise and unanimous decision to hand over the reins of the Indian cricket team to Kapil Dev, the finest allrounder the country has produced, for a period of two years against Kapil’s published feelings of a minimum three-year stint to come up with some concrete and visible results. Kapil strongly felt that the coach needed more time to consolidate the gains after the initial initiation and experimentation to give benefit to the players on a long-term basis.

It was curtains for Anshuman Gaekwad, whose wards once again flattered to deceive in Kenya. The Indian coach was a picture of grief when the Indian team lost to South Africa, after being in the driver’s seat for most part of the proceedings. South Africa for once, cannot take pride in beating a team which only facilitated its own doom. The ebullant Ajay Jadeja’s remarks that the boys gave their 100 per cent has to be taken with a pinch of salt. If the performance was 100 per cent then one has to go beyond that to find out the real reasons for this abject surrender. The Indian cricket team is as good as the best in the international arena but lacks the acumen to hold on in a crunch situation which has led them to end on the losing side on more than one occasion.

Coming back to the Indian team’s future in the coming years, one can be quite certain that the Kapil factor will have a great bearing on the team’s performance. Kapil, who swayed cricket fans all over the world with his swashbuckling batting and penetrating bowling for about 15 years, also had the distinction of leading the country to the only World Cup triumph in 1983 in England. A team-man to the hilt and a performer in all situations, he has been a fitness fad and that is where he would make a huge difference to the Indian squad under his wings. His personal stature as a cricketer is bound to win him the respect and confidence of the players. He has played along with a few of the current players and for other aspiring youngsters he is a role model. His commitment to the game is phenomenal. The moment he was named the coach he made his plans very clear by packing his golf kit and making alternative arrangements for managing his business. The big question now is how much free hand Kapil is given to implement his resurgence plan for the team. he has made it amply clear to the BCCI that he would like to have a say in the formation of the team and then of course he will like to have his own schedule of training. It is fervently hoped that the board authorities will follow a hands-off policy in the matter of selection and training of the team.

An in-depth analysis of the team’s performance over the years will reveal that the team sadly lacked in physical fitness and mental toughness. it is this aspect of the game which Kapil would be addressing as all the players have normally honed their bowling and batting skills before they are baptised into Test cricket. Physical fitness and mental toughness will enable the players to improve their agility on the field. Kapil has always led from the front and his nature will certainly endear him to the players who are likely to respond with a positive frame of mind. Indian cricket has already undergone many traumatic experiences in the recent past and it would take a tremendous personal effort from Kapil to bring the team back to the winning ways.

The acid test is around the corner when the Indian team take on the methodical and fighting fit New Zealand squad in the first Test match at SAS nagar in the vicinity of Chandigarh where Kapil Dev himself had his baptism as a cricketer and become one of the most exciting allrounders in contemporary cricket. It is to be seen if he can rub that aura into the youngsters put under his charge.

India-New Zealand Test encounters
By S. Pervez Qaiser

New Zealand led by Stephen Fleming will play a three-Test series against the home team in their current tour of India. The first Test match of the series will be played at Mohali from October 10 to 14, the second at Kanpur (October 22 to 26) and the third at Ahmedabad (October 29 to November 2).

The current tour is New Zealand’s seventh on Indian soil where New Zealand have played 21 Test matches, won two, lost nine and drawn 10. Overall New Zealand have played 37 Test matches against India, won seven, lost 13 and drew 17.

The New Zealand team first toured India in 1955-56 under the captainship of Henry Cave and lost the five-Test series by 0-2.

Highest totals

India’s 537 for three declared at Madras in 1955-56 is their highest total against New Zealand. New Zealand recorded their highest ever total against India when they piled up 502 at Christchurch in the 1967-68 series. Their highest against India in India is 462 for nine declared at Calcutta in 1967-68.

Lowest totals

India were bowled out for just 81 runs at Wellington in the 1975-76 series which is their lowest ever total against New Zealand. Their lowest against New Zealand at home in 88 at Bombay in 1964-65. New Zealand’s lowest against India is 100 at Wellington in 1980-81 while their lowest against India in India is 124 at Hyderabad in 1988-89.

Highest Aggregate

As many as 1505 runs were scored for the loss of 25 wickets at Auckland in the 1989-90 series which is the highest match aggregate between the two teams. The highest match aggregate in a Test match played in India is 1275 for the loss of 28 wickets at Kanpur in the 1976-77 series.

Lowest aggregate

The lowest match aggregate between India and New Zealand was recorded at Wellington in 1975-76 when only 635 runs were scored for the loss of 29 wickets. The lowest match aggregate in a complete match played in India between the two teams is 757 for 32 wickets at Bangalore in 1995-96 series.

Highest scores

Graham Dowling’s 239 at Christchurch in 1967-68 is the highest individual score on either side. Bert Sutcliffe’s unbeaten 230 at Delhi in 1955-56 is the highest individual score by a New Zealand batsman in India. The record of highest individual score for India is held by Vinoo Mankad. Mankad made 231 at Madras in 1955-56 series.

Best bowling

Erapally Prasanna’s eight for 76 at Auckland in1975-76 is the best bowling performance for India against New Zealand. The record of best bowling performance in India is held by Srinivas Venkataraghavan who took eight wickets for 72 runs at Delhi in 1964-65. Richard Hadlee’s seven for 23 at Wellington in 1975-76 is the best bowling performance for New Zealand against India. He also holds the record of best bowling performance for New Zealand in India. Hadlee took six wickets for 49 runs at Bombay in 1988-89.

Srinivas Venkataraghavan’s 12 for 152 at Delhi in 1964-65 is the best bowling performance on either side. Richard Hadlee’s 11 for 58 at Willington in 1975-76 is the best bowling for New Zealand. Hadlee also holds the record of best bowling performance for New Zealand in India. He took 10 for 88 at Bombay in the 1988-89 series.

by K. R. Wadhwaney
A self-made golfer

Vijay Kumar is a self-made golfer. He belongs to an obscure city, Lucknow, where a nine-hole course has been patronised by ‘oldies’ and businessmen and bureaucrats for decades. He began modestly as a caddy and turned pro after putting in rigours of solo practice. He soon participated in various competitions in UP and other places to announce his arrival as a proficient golfer of tremendous skill and ability.

Modest and unassuming, stocky Vijay Kumar displays no ‘airs’ at all although he is the only golfer to have won the Mahindra ranking award twice in succession.

Winner of Rs 5.75 lakh, Vijay’s achievements on the domestic circuit have been outstanding during the past three years. Champion in 46 competitions, second in 24 and third in 22, Vijay won eight tournaments in 1995-96, seven in 1997-98 and six in 1998-99. In the last season, he outclassed all the opposition by claiming six of the 23 events in which he participated with 19 top 10 positions and made the cut in all the competitions.

Vijay Kumar is a golfer who has in him to cause many surprises in international competitions if he is handled judiciously by a seasoned manager or psychologist before he tees-off in the competition outside his country. He is a golfer who should be able to perform better than Ali Sher, who won Indian Open twice, both times at Delhi, in 1991 and 1993.

Taught by his father, Lakshman Prasad, also a professional golfer, Vijay Kumar was helped by many, particularly by Ram Advani, a gentleman-golfer in Lucknow.

Vijay Kumar (415.25 points) had a total earning of Rs 13,41,564 last year. He was followed by Shiv Prakash (307 points) with earnings of Rs 10,34,515. Other eight leading money earners were — Basad Ali Rs 6,89,686, Mukesh Kumar Rs 7,75,385, U.S. Mundy Rs 9,52,916, Ali Sher Rs 5, 95,880, Rafiq Ali Rs 6,07,751, Firoz Ali Rs 5,52,592, Gaurav Ghai Rs 6,89, 575 and Sanjay Kumar Rs 4,83,927.

Born on October 9, 1978, Gursimran Singh Sethi (Chandigarh) is one of the most promising golfers in the country. Declared ‘rookie’ golfer of Mahindras, he turned pro in July, 1998. Gursimran started playing golf when he was only nine. He soon showed his promise. Some veterans, who saw him play, hold the view that here is a youngster who should go miles if he is groomed properly.

JOHNNIE WALKER

Rambagh Club (Jaipur) (436.6 points) won the North Zone regional final at the Delhi Golf Club course the other day. Similar competitions were held at Mumbai and Bangalore. Contests in Nepal and Sri Lanka have already been held. Finalists of all three countries will compete for the title at the Classic Golf Resort on October 15 and 16.

The champion team will be invited to watch the Johnnie Walker Classic in November, 1999 at Taipei (Taiwan). Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh, among others, are expected to take part in the competition, which carries a prize money of £ 1 million.

GOING STRONG

Ashok Malik (61) provided a lot of glimpses of young days when he was the country’s sought-after golfer. Coming from a family of golfers, he showed that he was still good enough to rub shoulders with youngsters. He finished first (par score 72) on the first day in the Northern India Amateur Golf Championship at Delhi recently. He found the sultry and humid weather too much and slipped to sixth position with the aggregate score of 304.

Those, who had an occasion to watch Amish Jaitha (winner with 292) thought that he was a player good enough to turn pro. Hitter of a long ball, he putted consistently.

The over-all standard was not as good as it ought to have been. The course was in an ideal condition and the players were expected to return better aggregate score than they during the four-day meet.

MAJOR MEET

Many leading golfers from different parts of the world are expected to take part in the APGA Meet in Delhi from October 28 to 31. In view of it, the course will be closed for members for some time. Many addicts may switch over to the Air Force course, which has been renovated. It is a nine-hole course but it has been considerably improved.

Sport Mail
Kapil should keep away from selection

KAPIL Dev has been made coach of the Indian cricket team. This decision of the cricket board is indeed welcome. Indian cricket does need such personalities at the helm of the affairs. Kapil Dev shall really be an asset to the nation as a coach. The cricket board should clearly define the role of the coach. Kapil feels he should have a hand in choosing the players. The role of the selectors and the coach should not be mixed. The selection committee makes available the best possible team. The role of the coach should be to take the best out of the players selected. Players should respect the coach because of cricketing abilities and not for the power associated with the selection process. The association of the coach in the selection process will give rise to unnecessary politics. Cricketers like Kapil should not aspire for a hand in team selection.

DR DEEPAK BAGAI
Chandigarh

II

Kapil Dev’s statement regarding quality cricket will find support from even a child who has got a little bit of cricket sense. Basically, a match tires players not only physically but mentally too. The matches seldom provide time to players to rest and they are used as a machine which naturally affects their body language and finally their approach to the game. However, secretary of the BCCI Jaywant Lele has taken it as transgression by Kapil in his field. I support the views of Kapil and his demands. Go ahead Kapil. Indians are desperately looking for your guidance.

RAVI SHEKHAR SINHA
Nangal Township

Team work

After a long gap the Indian cricket team displayed total team-work at Toronto and Nairobi. In my opinion Sachin should come at No 4 so as to reduce the burden on him.

SUBHAV SINGLA
Hisar

Milkha Singh

“Flying Sikh” Milkha Singh, as Director of Sports and Youth Programme, Punjab Education Department, produced top class athletes like Mohinder Singh Gill, a triple jumper, who won a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games and a few gold medals in the Asian Games.

Mohinder Singh was a product of Sports School, Jalandhar, which got guidance and advice from Milkha Singh. Similarly the ‘Flying Sikh’ produced Jagraj Singh, a shot putter of high calibre, and Rajbir Kaur, captain of the Indian women’s hockey team, which won the gold in the 1982 Asiad.

Famous hockey players like the late Olympian Surjit Singh, Pargat Singh and Harcharan Singh were trained under the able guidance of Milkha Singh. Recently Milkha Singh, adopted a Kargil martyr’s son.

NARINDER SINGH
Chandigarh