The Good, Bad & Ugly ft. Bajrang Punia, PV Sindhu and Asia Cup
From SAI initiating advanced courses to make life easier for its athletes to Indian swimmer scorching up the heat in waters, this week had many positives to look at. However, Bajrang Punia’s Khel Ratna antics and Indian baddy’s poor display maintained the other side of sports as well.
Good
Though it took years of negligence and a stunning 17-medal performance in the recently concluded Asian Games before the Indian government finally took notice of the athletes, it has undoubtedly taken giant strides towards their development since. Their latest advancement has been Sports Authority of India (SAI) ensuring a strong support system for the athletes before the upcoming Olympics in 2020.Â
The support system would have a number of coaches, sports science specialists, and academies with SAI that would help out the Indian athletes in many ways. And one of the most important lessons given out would be “life skills”, something which has been included in the training schedule and that will primarily focus aspects like stress and finance management apart from other sports training. Most Indian athletes emerge from the rural part of India and are oblivious to skills like media management, finance management, and most importantly the pressure of the game. It could be a major advancement in Indian sports.Â
Though swimming didn’t bore India any medals from the Asian Games, the tournament was widely viewed by the people of the nation and consequently, swimmers like Srihari Natraj, Sajan Prakash, and Virdhawal Khade have become a household name. And the encouragement seemed to have worked out pretty well as both the swimmers were seen breaking records.Â
It started with Natraj breaking his own national record twice on the same day to bag a gold medal in the men's 50m backstroke event in the 72nd Senior National Aquatic Championship. After breaking his previous national record by clocking 26:55 seconds in the heats, he went on to break it again in the final event, clocking 26.18 seconds. In the National Swimming Championship, on the other hand, Natraj’s compatriot, Khade recorded a time of 24.26 seconds breaking his own record of 24.36 seconds that had gone unbroken for nine years. These are surely exciting times for Indian swimming, a sport the nation has never really hogged the limelight in.
Bad
Indian badminton contingent could hardly call their Asian Games campaigns a success despite winning two medals, especially after their brilliant outing in the Commonwealth Games earlier in the year. And if that wasn’t enough, the stars have further fallen down in the following tournaments. While India
Sindhu had approached the Asian Games at the back of yet another brilliant display at the World Championships. And since her silver medal finish last month, she lost to China’s Fingjie Gao in just the second round of the Japan Open, followed by a quarter-final defeat in the China Open against Chen Yufei. The last time she was eliminated in the quarter-final was six tournaments back in the Indonesia Open against He Bingjiao. With the French Open and Denmark Open coming up next month, we hope she gets her mojo back.
It was a historical moment for the Puducherry team, who were among the nine teams instated in the prestigious domestic tournaments - Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy two months back. In the presence of veteran campaigner Abhishek Nayar, Puducherry even won their opening fixture against Manipur by eight wickets that looked like a dream start. However, calamity struck just two days later when BCCI was found cancelling as many as eight players’ registrations from the team, just one day before their match against Uttarakhand.
It had left Cricket Association of Pondicherry (CAP) digging for seven replacements at the very last moment and Uttarakhand won the match comfortably by 65 runs. Vijay Hazare saw many complaints concerning the number of guest players included by the newbie side. As per the rules, the number has been restricted to three for each
Ugly
Despite India starting well in the Asia Cup and defeating two of their most fierce opponents in the second and third games, one couldn’t shake away the nagging feeling that the tournament has lost its aura and every team is playing for something that is already decided. If the astronomical ticket price of the match between India and Pakistan was not enough indication, the way the Super Four schedule was set amidst the congested schedule and challenging weather conditions sure spelt it out.
Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza even blurted it out in the pre-match press conference of their group stage match against Afghanistan, when he was asked about the back to back games on consecutive days. He stated that it was as if Bangladesh were designated the second position even before they had finished the group stage. The moment the tournament was taken out of India to UAE, a country that has been infamous for betting scandals in Pakistan Super League and other minor ones in the last few years, controversies were bound to arise. Started back in 1983, Asia Cup has been one of cricket’s most iconic tournaments and we can only hope it doesn’t get tainted with the commercialization of the sport reaching a whole new level.
Bajrang Punia was one of the only two wrestlers to have returned with a gold medal from the Asian Games last month and has undoubtedly been one of India’s most accomplished athletes this year. However, his recent shenanigans revolving the Khel Ratna snub took matters too far. While one cannot really debate his argument that he had more points over the other two – Virat Kohli and Mirabai Chanu - given his achievements in CWG Gold Coast and also back in 2014, he didn’t set a good example in any way for the wrestling aspirants.
On the advice of his coach Yogeshwar Dutt, the wrestler even met the Sports Minister after threatening to move to theÂ