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SPORT TRIBUNE | Saturday, July 1, 2000, Chandigarh, India |
Troubled (cricket) waters Teeing-off |
Uncertainty eating into confidence THE status of Indian sport in the post-Bangkok and pre-Sydney period is that the past has not been so perfect and the future remains tense. For the present, Indian sport resembles a boxer with a glass jaw, having an aura of uncertainty to it. And in sport, it is this element of uncertainty which gnaws at a sportsman’s self belief, eats into his confidence and tears his psyche into ribbons. Sometime ago Sunil Gavaskar said after a World Cup match involving India and Zimbabwe that there should be an inquiry into the working of Indian cricket. But for once, the great man seemed to have misplaced his priorities. In fact there should be an inquiry into the working of Indian sport in totality. True, for a billion on Indians, hoping for a medal in the Sydney Olympics is akin to sighting an igloo on the hot sands of the Sahara. But what is worse is that our own sports administrators who, barring the odd few, have the collective wisdom of a sparrow, and in all their purified wisdom, have already admitted in black and white, that “there is a very remote chance of India winning any medal at the Olympics. But we should not discourage our sportspersons and should send a selective contingent to Sydney”. This premature and shocking admission of our failure in the Olympics has been recorded in the agenda papers prepared by Sports Ministry officials at a meeting held recently by ministry officials with officials of federations and senior IOA office-bearers. More significantly one should take note of the timing of the evaluation of our medal chances at Sydney. Various national camps are on in full swing, even as crores are being spent on training our sportspersons for the Olympics. More than the fear and trauma of failure, the fact is that these statements by federation officials and others of their ilk, wreak havoc on the psyche of a sportsman. Why is that label of mediocrity still sticking? Why is that we are big boys on the subcontinent and wimps abroad? True, aesthetics is ingrained in the approach of our players, but it is hardly the ingredient for a favourable result. Are the federation officials to be blamed? These federation officials are merely using sport for their benefit to climb up the ladder in their chosen fields, particularly in the political arena. It would be of immense interest to catalogue the number of politicians having a vice-like grip over the sports administration. It is only after the advent of such discredited political satraps that our sports mechanism has become polluted by prejudice and pathetic incompetence. Sydney beckons. But for our administrators, it is a case of Olympics coming and going, yet we desire no tryst with excellence. Actually, the Bangkok Asiad should have been treated as a vehicle for transforming the worn out system into a completely different octave for charting a new course for the Olympics. But unnecessary polemics by our sports administrators those men masquerading as messiahs of Indian sport — have fouled up the atmosphere to such an extent where Indian sport has slithered a few notches below from the Bangkok period. After Bangkok, for some reason, our administrators have grown too much careless, often resembling rhetoricians constructing flights of fancy rather than an orater constructing words of command. After Sydney, the same old questions with reverberate in Parliament. And the same stale answers will be given. A few days later all the heat and dust will settle down and reports of India’s performance, or rather non-performance, in the Olympics will be consigned to some dusty cupboard in an obscure room of the Sports Ministry. One thing which is difficult to comprehend is why Indian sport ducks every embrace of professionalism? A case in point is of Dutch hockey coach Floris Jan Bouvelander. The reasons may be many, but the most viable one seems that Bouvelander, a modern coach, with his state-of-the-art techniques, has no place in an ancient system. Maybe his pragmatic methods will not fit into an artistic Indian hockey team — whose vocabulary remains what it was two decades ago, while the hockey world is rushing ahead technically and technologically. So, the very name of Bouvelander frightens the hockey establishment. The talk of professionalism again surfaces when it
comes to coaches. The Germans have Paul Lissek on a five year contract, the Dutch have one who is contracted for the next two Olympics. Here the IHF has made a laughing stock of itself. It is all too happy to change its coaches as fast as a chameleon would change colours. Perhaps the IHF is not aware that Bob Woolmer, with professionalism oozing out of his every move, changed the colour of South African cricket — turning them to lions from lambs. But the problem inflicting Indian sport officialdom will continue to persist if it continues to swim in the whirlpool of ridicule. By finishing off a team before the event is yet to start will take us nowhere. To purify the system, the resistance should come from within the sportspersons — those sportspersons who deliberately endure pain in the gym, who toil-come rain sunshine or sleet. |
Troubled (cricket) waters THE dust being kicked up on the issue of betting, match-fixing, and gambling, following the “not totally honest” confession by the South African Hansie Cronje, has taken a bizarre turn. Mr Inderjit Singh Bindra has bowled a bouncer at Kapil Dev who has ducked it. The hardcore of the problem is gambling instinct. By nature, we are all gamblers, just as we are liars. A modern day Diogenes will discover it sooner than did the ancient one. The reason is simple: our faded sensibilities crave for thrill and excitement. Gambling comes handy. From horse racing to “satta”, and from cards to toss of the coin, in an international cricket match, gambling is a worldwide scourge. However, the most important thing to bear in mind, often blinked away, is that beneath the glitter and glamour of “fancy” and “unfancy” cricket matches is the sinister shadow of the underworld, administrators and “innocents” in whose mouth butter would not melt. In a world overcrowded by “honourable Brutuses,” it is easy to name some people, and easier to point a finger at some others. It is still easier to throw a hint, stabbing a reputation. Gambling is big business everywhere. In many western countries, it has become a “way of life”. One writer has said “statistically, gambling is the normal thing. It’s the non-gambler who is abnormal in American society”. We are no exception—Mahabharat apart. Millions are “addicted” to gambling. They gamble regularly. State-run lotteries exist in 84 countries. Lurking behind is the invisible hand of the syndicate or organised crime. Betting is on the all-too-human urge to have a fling, to make a bet, to get something for nothing to take a chance. One former cricket captain gives Rs 16 crore in VDS. But the less than totally honest Hansie now lives as a “tortured recluse” in a $ 4,70,000 villa. Shocking? Unbelievable? It is incredible — but it is true. Though there is no accurate way of ascertaining
earnings from gambling in any country. Every day countless Indians make illegal bets with bookmakers. When cricket matches are played across the country, the heat spreads. The gambling fever goes up many degrees. Is it just fun? There is more behind the mania than you may guess. Look at the human mind. Human nature believes in grabbing. It is greedy. It craves for fun, fast living, and the risks involved in a gambler’s odds. The bright lights in stadiums during day-night matches attract even the common man with money burning holes in his pockets. He spends his money wildly, to “have a good time.” The odds, of course, are in favour of the bookies because they know to fix a match. Though gamblers have what they call hot and cold streaks of luck, the longer they play the more compulsive the urge to gamble becomes. Habitual gamblers forget everything else. Food is forgotten. So is sex. Everything recedes into the vague background as the gamble’s concentration approaches a trance as he watches the match. Betting, gambling is a substitute of a lavish sexy show spiced with sex and ribaldry. It is racy, sensuous, permissive. It encourages vice. The publicity blasts being given to Hansie and others’ acts, real or
imaginary, will not mean anything in the long run. The august “busybodies”will do nothing except churn waters. Amnesty is already in the air. A stage might come when some bright chap with a foreign degree in business management will give it a new phrase, calling betting, gambling, match-fixing our new “growth industry.” Till then let’s amuse ourselves with what various cricket bodies dish out in the form of punishments, censure, suspension, fine and globalisation of the name . The International Cricket
Council (ICC) has already ended its emergency meeting and proved that it was a mountain in labour producing a mouse. It has appointed a special investigating committee to look into the matter. But we should remind ourselves that a mule is a horse drawn by a committee. |
Teeing-off He is calm and composed. He is not exceptionally tall or strong although he is lithe of muscle. He gets all his energy and strength from his superb timing, which helps him hit a very long ball. He is a player who is engaged in playing against himself. This helps him concentrate on his game as he romped home with a remarkable win in the 100th US Open by a fantastic 15 strokes. He is 24-year-old Tiger Woods who reduced the opposition virtually non-existent at Pebble Beach. Never has any prestigious international golf competition been more one sided than this one. There was only one player on view and that was Tiger Woods. The extraordinary champion will now be engaged in displaying his prowess at next month’s British Open at St Andrews. The competition on all four days was so lop-sided that it became boring on the final day. Most of the spectators were disappointed that they could not witness razor-sharp competition. But they were mighty pleased watching Woods at his dazzling best. All his opponents, including Ernie Els (South Africa) and Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain), gave Woods a grand ovation as he came on the victory stand to accept the $ 800,000 cheque. In winning this competition, Woods ate many records and set a few milestones, which will be difficult for any one to overhaul. It was a tremendous performance for a player who is only 24. Perrier golf J.B. Singh and Akbar Hussain (Jet Airways) turned out to be champion scrambler with a nett score of 12-under par 60 after gross score of 70. Anchordoqui and P.G. Rubio were second among 14 two-ball teams that participated in the competition at the picturesque DLF golf course. The competition began under sun shines and finished when the flood lights were on. The format was interesting. Both members of the team initiated proceedings on every hole and then the best-placed ball was chosen for onward journey until the ball was holed out. All the participants were unanimous in saying that it was a great fun playing in this kind of competition. Great losses Payne Stewart, a popular professional, was fondly missed by the golfing community at the 100th US Open at Pebble Beach. He had died in the air crash last October. Stewart was one of the few Americans who made it a point to play in the Indian Open. His loss was as much mourned world wide as at Delhi Golf CLub. “Ronnie” Durant was another stalwart, whose death in Australia was mourned by the DGC members the other day. An Australian by birth, he spent most of his 84-year life at Delhi where he played golf and helped developed the course. He provided all the assistance to Peter Thompson, who re-designed the course. Stocky and friendly, ‘Ronnie’ always wore a ready smile on his face. He played his round of golf with veterans like Bharat Ram, I.S. Malik and Virender Singh. Chaudhary Raghivendra Singh was 90 when he passed away last week. But he had a heart of a youngman who enjoyed playing a round of golf. No one, not even ‘Bedi Sa ‘ab’, knows when Chaudhary began playing golf. But it seems he began quite late in life as he was always seen in ‘buggy’. In recent years, he was accompanied by two nursing aids, should there be any need! Chaudhary sa’ab had a fall from his buggy once. He missed playing a round for a few days. But, addicted as he was, he was again back on the course with an improved seat belt! |
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Dhindsa’s suggestion carries weight SUBHASH C. TANEJA II After being charged of involvement in match-fixing, it is now for Azhar to come forward and speak the truth. Mere denials will not absolve him of the allegation. Last month Manoj Prabhakar released a videotape in which allegations of match-fixing were made against
Azhar, Kapil and Jadeja. Hansie Cronje has also confirmed that he took $80,000 as bribe. Last year Azhar had reportedly deposited Rs 16 crore under the
VDIS. It is for the IT Department, BCCI and the CBI to find out the sources of this money. SANJEEV
GARG Charges baseless The allegations of Hansie Cronje against Mohammed Azharuddin are completely baseless. He said Azhar was the man who introduced him to a bookie. What Hansie Cronje has done is known to all. Cricket lovers can never forgive him for his shameful deed. Hansie is the man who is responsible for bringing the game into disrepute. Hansie
Cronje, who was the darling of sport lovers and was a source of inspiration for the youngsters is now seen as a corrupt and dishonest cricketer. Such persons tarnish the image of other cricketers. Azhar has always contributed his best to Indian cricket. He is a gentleman cricketer.
RAJDEEP SINGH Asia Cup Asia Cup is over and Pakistan have emerged winners for the first time. Sri Lanka enjoyed the runners-up position whereas India and Bangladesh were unable to enter the final. The performance of India was not bad as they have a totally inexperienced bowling attack but there is no excuse for the Bangladesh cricket team. Their dismal performance continued throughout the tournament and Bangladesh looked pathetic when they lost the game against Pakistan by an unbelievable margin of 233 runs. It is really a matter of great shame to lose so badly and that too on a wicket which is considered to be a batsman’s paradise. Discussions are already on regarding the allotment of Test status to Bangladesh but I think at present it would not be appropriate to grant Test status to Bangladesh because their team does not match international
standards. UMESH DEWAN Brian Lara Prince charming is finally back in business. Brian Charles Lara is too talented a batsman to be wasted off the field. He is such a wonderful player that the fans all over the world had been waiting for his return. I have a feeling that something is going to happen during this English summer. Curtly Ambrose has decided to hang his boots after this series. I wish both of them all the very best. Vinish
garg |