Wrestling’s decline causes alarm, search on for new coaches

Sabi Hussain

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 6

Miffed with the alarming slide in the performance of Indian wrestlers over the past few months, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has decided against renewing the contract of India’s three foreign coaches. Among them, the men’s freestyle coach, Vladimir Mestvirishvili, served the team for more than a decade.

Not stopping there, WFI is also contemplating to do away with the services of the chief national coaches, who are no longer seen by the federation as the right people to train the teams for major international competitions, most prominently the 2018 Asian Games and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Apart from non-performance, age had also been seen as a major factor for WFI to look for “young and dynamic” foreign coaches, who would be appointed before the World Championships in August in France. WFI has received applications from coaches from Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan and Russia.

According to a WFI official, the criteria set for selecting a foreign coach would be his own performance during his playing days and he should have won either an Olympics or World Championship medal. For the women’s freestyle team, WFI has specifically been looking to hire the services of a Japanese coach. The coaches would be offered contracts till the Tokyo Games, with an initial contract of one year. WFI office-bearers would also engage in active discussions with the foreign coaches who would come for next week’s Asian Senior Wrestling Championship in Delhi. 

“By the World Championship, we will have a new set of people, all young chief foreign coaches. There would be Indian coaches, too, to assist them, but it’s the foreign coaches who will take Indian wrestling forward,” WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said.     

The contract of the foreign coaches — Mestvirishvili, Roin Doborjginidze (women’s freestyle) and Emzar Makharadze (Greco-Roman) — had come up for renewal before the Sports Authority of India but WFI recommended against offering them a fresh contract. 

Mestvirishvili served Indian wrestling for nearly 15 years and was closely involved with the rise of celebrated wrestlers Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt. Doborjginidze, too, was instrumental in building up a talent pool of women wrestlers. But it was Makharadze’s inability to lift the Greco-Roman standard that disappointed the WFI mandarins.

Similarly, the three Indian coaches — Jagminder Singh (men’s freestyle), Kuldeep Malik (women’s freestyle) and Kuldeep Singh (Greco-Roman) — also failed to deliver the results as desired by WFI. The three had been appointed as chief national coaches last year in January. However, the interesting part is that WFI has recommended Malik’s name for this year’s Dronacharya Award.

Since the 2016 World Cup at Los Angeles, Indian wrestling has been on a downward spiral. At the World Cup, the freestyle wrestlers lost 15 of their bouts against the hosts and Iran. At the Rio Olympics, Sakshi Malik’s bronze saved the blushes for India. The rest of the wrestlers, barring Vinesh Phogat’s quarterfinal appearance, didn’t even cross the second round.

At this year’s World Cup in Iran, where WFI had sent national champions in each of the eight weight categories, the Indians were left thoroughly embarrassed. They lost 29 of their 32 bouts and offered walkovers in seven.