Bickering among coaches, tantrums from stars

Vinayak Padmadeo

Tribune News Service

Jakarta, August 19

A last-minute push to change the team sheet, constant bickering amongst coaching staff, young stars throwing tantrums — this is the state of Indian shooting in a nutshell.

On August 17, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) tried to bring in Heena Sidhu in place of Manu Bhaker in the 10m Air Pistol mixed team event, which took place today.

A source said Manu was informed about this, but when the NRAI top brass was told that the change may impact the confidence of the 16-year-old, NRAI relented. 

In late June, Manu and Abhishek Verma were picked by NRAI for the mixed team event. At this, Heena had protested, claiming that the selectors had overlooked the selection policy to pick Manu instead of her. Heena then met NRAI president Raninder Singh, but no changes were made in the squad. Incidentally, Manu and Verma finished sixth today and failed to qualify for the final.

Late twist

The latest twist in this saga has opened old wounds in the shooting contingent. It is an open secret that Ronak Pandit, NRAI’s observer assigned to look after both pistol and rifle teams, and chief coach of the junior pistol team, Jaspal Rana, don’t get along well. Incidentally, Manu is a protégé of Rana and Pandit is married to Heena.

The friction has the team in disarray. Anish Bhanwala, a medal contender here in the 25m Pistol Rapidfire event and winner of gold in the Commonwealth Games, has stopped training under Rana.

Also, 10m Air Pistol shooter Saurabh Chaudhary trained away from Rana before the Games. He was to train with the rest of the junior squad at Madhya Pradesh’s Shooting Academy in Bhopal from early August, but he trained with the seniors at New Delhi’s Tughlakhabad range.

He had written to NRAI asking to be included in the senior camp to work with the senior coaches and foreign coach Pavel Smirnov. In his letter, a copy of which is with The Tribune, the 16-year-old Baghpat boy wrote: “…I wanted to do practice with the Asian shooters & coaches as they are all practicing for Asian & World Championship. I’ll get the same atmosphere in the senior camp as I will be getting in Asian Games.... So I request you to please allow me to attend Asian Games camp in Delhi for which I have worked very hard.”

Angry Rana

Both the camps were held from August 1 to 13. Rana was furious as he didn’t know how Chaudhary was training. “He never wrote that he will not train with me. His name was not there so that’s why he wrote a letter to them. He is still training with me,” Rana retorted. “I can give up everything,” an upset Rana said. “They can take all the trainees if they (other coaches) think they are the right people. I am happy going back to my home and look after my family.”

Bhanwala out

Rana, who was tasked with putting up a robust junior training programme by NRAI, spoke against “some people” in NRAI for running a campaign against him. He said Bhanwala was not training under him and is not disciplined any more.

“These kind of games by some people in NRAI will ruin this sport. Not the president, but others,” he said.  “Just look at what Anish is doing these days. He is missing the morning yoga sessions, he is not doing the physical workouts, he’s coming late for training too.”

“I think I am being targeted. But if they want to destroy this (shooting), then let them do it,” he added. “I will not interfere, let it get destroyed, because I want them to see what they are doing.”

India first

Raninder Singh agreed that there were differences among the coaches, adding that they have to fall in line. “It’s of no concern to NRAI whether someone is a junior or a senior, once they get selected they are representing India,” Singh told The Tribune. “Similarly, it is of no concern to us whether this bickering among the coaching staff is because some of them are eyeing rewards from the government. Once they come into the national programme, they have to fall in line.”