Kalmadi’s ouster is a boon

Gurbux Singh

The fountainhead of corruption in Indian sports is finally behind the bars. Yes, I am talking about none other than former Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Suresh Kalmadi, who was arrested on April 25 on charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy.

If you ask me whether I was surprised, I would say NO. It was always coming.

In 2008, I had said that people like Kalmadi are more than a mafia. And I think, in a way, I am vindicated. Kalmadi’s arrest and his subsequent removal as the IOA chief means that no sports administrator can take the country for a ride. I strongly feel that people like Kalmadi, Lalit Bhanot and VK Verma have no place in sports administration.

Kalmadi has been at the helm of IOA for 15 years and did not do anything for the sport. He, along with his henchmen, used to run the show in an autocratic way and whenever there was dissension, it used to be nipped in the bud either by using strong-arm tactics or dangling a carrot. Malhotra, senior-most vice-president of the IOA, has taken charge as the officiating president and it will be interesting to see what happens in the May 24 executive board meeting.

On a different note, the sports ministry’s felicitation of the 1960 Olympic football team last month was a good move. I am not disputing that. The likes of PK Banerjee and Chuni Goswami have made us proud and brought many laurels. If anyone thinks that I have something against them, then he/she is wrong.

But what I am trying to say is, why has the sports ministry not yet felicitated hockey Olympians who won gold? I think around 30 gold medal-winning Olympians are alive and this includes the 1980 Moscow team. Are we the children of the lesser god? Why treat us like pariahs? Hopefully, Ajay Maken, the sports minister, will look into the matter and there will be some recognition from the government.

Talking about the hockey, the Sultan Azlan Shah Trophy begins on Thursday. We have a good record in Azlan Shah as we won it in 2009 and shared the trophy with South Korea in 2010.

Talking about the Indian team, I was disappointed to see Sardara Singh and Sandeep Singh skip the Azlan Shah meet. They are playing in the Belgium league and did not even bother to send anything in writing to the Hockey India (HI). They just informed the association over phone! How ridiculous can it be! Players choosing club hockey over the country is a very disturbing fact and HI should deal with it firmly, especially since the Indian Hockey Federation has planned the World Series Hockey.

The squad for the Azlan Shah has a good mixture of youth and experience, but the defence still does not look compact. Dhananjay Mahadik and Diwakar Ram do not look that confident and I fear that our defence will let down the team, once again.

Locally, there was good news with the Khalsa English High School laying an artificial turf in its premises. There were some big names last Saturday, including Dhanraj Pillay, during the inauguration of the turf. Pillay was talking about resuming Indo-Pak hockey ties and I totally agree with him. That’s the way this game can regain the popularity.