For all the sweat and toil on the field for Indian athletes, there is nothing more rewarding than getting an Arjuna Award or the Rajeev Khel Ratna. No, it’s not about the money or scroll which the sporting stars get from the President of India. It’s got to do with pride and recognition.
At the Ashoka Hall on Wednesday, as athletes filed to collect their trophies from Pratibha Patil, there was pride in their hearts. And there could have been nothing more real than to see the world champion fly down from Europe just before a major competition to collect the Rajeev Khel Ratna. Who am I talking about? Well, none other than trap shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu, who in his new chiseled avatar looks a real dude.
He has lost nearly ten kilos and it has got nothing to do with getting married nine months back, but a new desire to shed weight. And for a man who stands well above six feet, Manav, as he is popularly known, was all smiles in the company of his wife Kangan and his parents.
Watching Manav mingle freely with Anjum Chopra, the template of Indian women’s cricket, I was a bit surprised. Guys, do you know each other I asked without batting an eyelid. The two kept quiet for a few seconds, and then let out the secret. “We were in the same school at the same time at DPS, RK Puram,” the duo said.
Come on, as a professional sports writer, I couldn’t have felt more embarrassed, not knowing that two of India’s best sporting stars knew each other well before. But would they have met at any other common venue? Unlikely, since shooting ranges are situated so far away and women’s cricket doesn’t have too many takers at home.
Today, Anjum is a well-known personality because of her TV presence, where she anchors major cricket programmes. But being at the Ashoka Hall, she looked starry-eyed. “Kannan, it’s so special to be here. Winning the Arjuna is like a dream come true,” she said. I don’t think she was exaggerating as having played well over a 100 ODIs and being in the sport for so long, she has got the recognition. Late, no doubt, but still better to be there unlike the men cricketers who are now not even considered for the Awards by the committee now.
The presentation of the awards was a very somber affair, and as has now become a practice, no voluble speeches from the President. Awardees just collect their trophies and make it the dining half for snacks.
In fact, Anjum Chopra was actually pleading with a waiter for some nimbu paani. Why? I guess like well-attended wedding ceremonies running short of food, maybe the chef at the Rashtrapati Bhawan was told to keep a check on consumption of raw materials from the kitchen.
His boss is now a lady!
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
Slow coach!!!
So, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has finally woken up and decided to advertise for the post of national coach. But what comes as a mild surprise is why did the Board have to put out a press release to the media they were doing this?
Have they, after the ICL onslaught, decided to go in for a change of image and now comes across as “media friendly” all of a sudden? I don’t know what the logic behind the advertisement is, but advertisement, as described in management books in my college days went like this. The objective of advertising is: To attract attention, to arouse interest and to instill desire.
We used to laugh when we heard these lines from our lecturer as it was more than funny. Pray, after more than two decades, when I see a body as big and bombastic as the BCCI placing an advertisement for the coach’s job is a bit hard to digest.
We all know, after the Graham Ford fiasco, the BCCI has struggled to answer questions on the coach. We have heard skipper Rahul Dravid tell us how well Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh have worked with the team. So are Venky and Robin now going to formally apply for the job?
I have a nagging suspicion, the BCCI, well-known for plugs and leaks, will selectively tell journos who all have applied in the coming days. Why am I so cynical about every action which the BCCI takes? It’s like this, when an inert body like the BCCI suddenly tries to get proactive, doubts will arise.
Teams from the sub-continent woke up soon after the World Cup and began their hunt for a coach. And that is why Pakistan could get someone as well qualified as Geoff Lawson to help them out well in time. In India, we believe in doing things at the last minute.
So if the BCCI is releasing advertisements, I bet it is going to take a few months to scan the applications, shortlist them, and then call the coaches for interviews. We would have finished with the England tour by then and perhaps be preparing for another series. But how does it matter. In the present scenario, appointing a coach (desi or foreign) is hardly the priority.
The BCCI has bigger agendas to handle, just that someone out there must have told them about the fact India has no foreign coach!
Have they, after the ICL onslaught, decided to go in for a change of image and now comes across as “media friendly” all of a sudden? I don’t know what the logic behind the advertisement is, but advertisement, as described in management books in my college days went like this. The objective of advertising is: To attract attention, to arouse interest and to instill desire.
We used to laugh when we heard these lines from our lecturer as it was more than funny. Pray, after more than two decades, when I see a body as big and bombastic as the BCCI placing an advertisement for the coach’s job is a bit hard to digest.
We all know, after the Graham Ford fiasco, the BCCI has struggled to answer questions on the coach. We have heard skipper Rahul Dravid tell us how well Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh have worked with the team. So are Venky and Robin now going to formally apply for the job?
I have a nagging suspicion, the BCCI, well-known for plugs and leaks, will selectively tell journos who all have applied in the coming days. Why am I so cynical about every action which the BCCI takes? It’s like this, when an inert body like the BCCI suddenly tries to get proactive, doubts will arise.
Teams from the sub-continent woke up soon after the World Cup and began their hunt for a coach. And that is why Pakistan could get someone as well qualified as Geoff Lawson to help them out well in time. In India, we believe in doing things at the last minute.
So if the BCCI is releasing advertisements, I bet it is going to take a few months to scan the applications, shortlist them, and then call the coaches for interviews. We would have finished with the England tour by then and perhaps be preparing for another series. But how does it matter. In the present scenario, appointing a coach (desi or foreign) is hardly the priority.
The BCCI has bigger agendas to handle, just that someone out there must have told them about the fact India has no foreign coach!
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Turning point
Sixty years after Independence, the Board of Control for Cricket in India continues to function in its own inimitable style -- zero tolerance towards players and scant respect for even an icon like Kapil Dev. Happenings in the last two days clearly suggest that the BCCI, arguably the richest sports body in the country, has taken the formation of the Indian Cricket League as a threat to its supremacy.
And hours after India’s embarrassing loss in the first one-day international to England at the Rose Bowl on Tuesday, questions will again emerge whether the BCCI runs the sport in the best possible way. It is a well-known fact that the BCCI officials – past and present – never bothered about how the sport was doing at the grass-root level. Their sole concern was, and still is, that the balance sheet looked impressive, figures of which we never got to know until of course yesterday.
The world over, sporting bodies are known to fund development programmes at the basic level. Just that in India, for every champion who is born or produced in any sporting arena, it is always despite the system and not because of it.
But the BCCI takes the cake simply because unlike other sports federations viz. the Indian Hockey Federation or the National Rifle Association of India, funds are never a problem. Hockey players are known to last it out a full 70-minute stretch on the turf despite being fed poor diets sanctioned by the Sports Ministry. If hockey players crib about bad diet being the reason for a loss, we will have to stomach it.
So doesn’t cricket, which is not a sport but actually a religion in India, need to be doing better in terms of a structure where players get what they want to excel at the nets? Ask the BCCI, and you will never get a positive answer. And this is exactly why Kapil Dev has come up with the idea of an ICL, where it is not just spent forces like Brian Lara and Inzamam-ul Haq who will rake in the moolah but also players we have hardly heard of. Die-hard cricket fans may recall one Ambati Rayudu of Andhra Pradesh being a bundle of talent, but does anyone care to find out what he has earned from the sport? It is almost a pittance, which is why he has decided to join the ICL.
And what of a thousand other teenagers who sacrifice academics and play cricket in gullies, then parks and make-shift grounds. Does the BCCI even have a list of how many clubs there are in India? No, they don’t unless it is a state association or an institution affiliated with them which will be part of their voting process.
Modern day sport is about professionalism in all forms. Just that in India, our cricket is hardly professional anywhere – on or off the field. We flop at the World Cup in West Indies five months back and put Kapil Dev on a committee to look into what went wrong. And just because Kapil has today dreamt of a good future for talent – around 50 signed till now with the ICL – he gets the boot from the same committee and is also thrown out of the National Cricket Academy of which he was chairman.
Was Kapil going to ruin the technique of players who go to the NCA in Bangalore just because he will now run the ICL? Was Kapil going to poach on NCA trainees which is why he gets thrown out by the BCCI. There will be more questions than answers, but at the end of it we all know Kapil has never been liked or respected by the BCCI despite all the laurels he has won.
There are true stories of how Kapil, who wanted to be part of the Haryana Cricket Association administration over 15 years back, losing the elections simply because he had no clue of the politics being played. Nothing has changed even today and the sport is still run in India not by players who know the sport, but politicians and businessmen. And if you happen to ask any one of them how to hold a bat or show how to grip the ball, they will never last one day at the nets!
Today, it is easy to accuse Kapil of making money from the ICL. Even if he is, what’s wrong, at least he is guaranteeing a player like Rayudu or former international like Deep Dasgupta and Dinesh Mongia a future where they will have decent bank balances and not worry of what will happen in years to come when they cannot play cricket anymore.
Barring a few hundred cricketers who get jobs in public sector undertakings or banks, domestic cricketers have no future. Yes, if you play Ranji Trophy cricket from the 2008 season, you can earn Rs 36,000 per match day. So whether it is a Himachal Pradesh vs Jammu and Kashmir match or Delhi vs Mumbai, players will get decent money.
There are so many success stories of cricketers like Rajinder Goel and Padmakar Shivalkar having been excellent spinners in domestic cricket but never got to do the same for the country just because they were in the sport at the wrong time. But in modern day cricket, players like these can never exist simply because of the rigours of the sport. So, money does become very important.
Take the case of a speedster like Ashish Nehra from Delhi. Having done well in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, where India made the final, he is almost forgotten now and struggled to pay the bills for his ankle surgery and rehab in Australia last year. Was it not the BCCI’s responsibility to handle all this? If this is the plight of someone who has played at the highest level, imagine what happens to the lower rung cricketers if they get injured. They never get treated properly or simply fade away into oblivion.
So, why could the BCCI not have upped match fees for domestic cricket before? Is it because they know the Indians first class cricketers are like Oliver Twist and wouldn’t dare to ask for more. The BCCI’s change of heart will always be looked at as a knee-jerk reaction. Or is it an attempt to stop movement of players to the ICL.
Kapil, you need to be saluted for instilling fear in the BCCI. A body which flexed its muscles and thought they were answerable to none has been woken up from slumber. Looking at the money which can now be earned, youngsters who dream of representing India on the big stage can at least think of a livelihood from cricket if their dreams are shattered.
This is a big turning point in cricket and whether the ICL clicks or fails, fringe players will always thank Kapil for what he has already done. Twenty20 or the longer version, Kapil and his sponsors have started the churning process. And how the International Cricket Council (ICC), which has maintained silence till now reacts will be interesting to see.
The best, of course, is to hope the ICC does not see Kapil and the ICL as villains. It’s cricket after all.
And hours after India’s embarrassing loss in the first one-day international to England at the Rose Bowl on Tuesday, questions will again emerge whether the BCCI runs the sport in the best possible way. It is a well-known fact that the BCCI officials – past and present – never bothered about how the sport was doing at the grass-root level. Their sole concern was, and still is, that the balance sheet looked impressive, figures of which we never got to know until of course yesterday.
The world over, sporting bodies are known to fund development programmes at the basic level. Just that in India, for every champion who is born or produced in any sporting arena, it is always despite the system and not because of it.
But the BCCI takes the cake simply because unlike other sports federations viz. the Indian Hockey Federation or the National Rifle Association of India, funds are never a problem. Hockey players are known to last it out a full 70-minute stretch on the turf despite being fed poor diets sanctioned by the Sports Ministry. If hockey players crib about bad diet being the reason for a loss, we will have to stomach it.
So doesn’t cricket, which is not a sport but actually a religion in India, need to be doing better in terms of a structure where players get what they want to excel at the nets? Ask the BCCI, and you will never get a positive answer. And this is exactly why Kapil Dev has come up with the idea of an ICL, where it is not just spent forces like Brian Lara and Inzamam-ul Haq who will rake in the moolah but also players we have hardly heard of. Die-hard cricket fans may recall one Ambati Rayudu of Andhra Pradesh being a bundle of talent, but does anyone care to find out what he has earned from the sport? It is almost a pittance, which is why he has decided to join the ICL.
And what of a thousand other teenagers who sacrifice academics and play cricket in gullies, then parks and make-shift grounds. Does the BCCI even have a list of how many clubs there are in India? No, they don’t unless it is a state association or an institution affiliated with them which will be part of their voting process.
Modern day sport is about professionalism in all forms. Just that in India, our cricket is hardly professional anywhere – on or off the field. We flop at the World Cup in West Indies five months back and put Kapil Dev on a committee to look into what went wrong. And just because Kapil has today dreamt of a good future for talent – around 50 signed till now with the ICL – he gets the boot from the same committee and is also thrown out of the National Cricket Academy of which he was chairman.
Was Kapil going to ruin the technique of players who go to the NCA in Bangalore just because he will now run the ICL? Was Kapil going to poach on NCA trainees which is why he gets thrown out by the BCCI. There will be more questions than answers, but at the end of it we all know Kapil has never been liked or respected by the BCCI despite all the laurels he has won.
There are true stories of how Kapil, who wanted to be part of the Haryana Cricket Association administration over 15 years back, losing the elections simply because he had no clue of the politics being played. Nothing has changed even today and the sport is still run in India not by players who know the sport, but politicians and businessmen. And if you happen to ask any one of them how to hold a bat or show how to grip the ball, they will never last one day at the nets!
Today, it is easy to accuse Kapil of making money from the ICL. Even if he is, what’s wrong, at least he is guaranteeing a player like Rayudu or former international like Deep Dasgupta and Dinesh Mongia a future where they will have decent bank balances and not worry of what will happen in years to come when they cannot play cricket anymore.
Barring a few hundred cricketers who get jobs in public sector undertakings or banks, domestic cricketers have no future. Yes, if you play Ranji Trophy cricket from the 2008 season, you can earn Rs 36,000 per match day. So whether it is a Himachal Pradesh vs Jammu and Kashmir match or Delhi vs Mumbai, players will get decent money.
There are so many success stories of cricketers like Rajinder Goel and Padmakar Shivalkar having been excellent spinners in domestic cricket but never got to do the same for the country just because they were in the sport at the wrong time. But in modern day cricket, players like these can never exist simply because of the rigours of the sport. So, money does become very important.
Take the case of a speedster like Ashish Nehra from Delhi. Having done well in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, where India made the final, he is almost forgotten now and struggled to pay the bills for his ankle surgery and rehab in Australia last year. Was it not the BCCI’s responsibility to handle all this? If this is the plight of someone who has played at the highest level, imagine what happens to the lower rung cricketers if they get injured. They never get treated properly or simply fade away into oblivion.
So, why could the BCCI not have upped match fees for domestic cricket before? Is it because they know the Indians first class cricketers are like Oliver Twist and wouldn’t dare to ask for more. The BCCI’s change of heart will always be looked at as a knee-jerk reaction. Or is it an attempt to stop movement of players to the ICL.
Kapil, you need to be saluted for instilling fear in the BCCI. A body which flexed its muscles and thought they were answerable to none has been woken up from slumber. Looking at the money which can now be earned, youngsters who dream of representing India on the big stage can at least think of a livelihood from cricket if their dreams are shattered.
This is a big turning point in cricket and whether the ICL clicks or fails, fringe players will always thank Kapil for what he has already done. Twenty20 or the longer version, Kapil and his sponsors have started the churning process. And how the International Cricket Council (ICC), which has maintained silence till now reacts will be interesting to see.
The best, of course, is to hope the ICC does not see Kapil and the ICL as villains. It’s cricket after all.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Zak the ripper
It’s nice to know what I write evokes some emotion in people who read and actually respond to what I have written.
I am talking about my last blog and the timing of it could not have been better after what Zaheer Khan said today. The pace ace has said emphatically that he was not tired and surprised at Rahul Dravid’s decision not to enforce the follow-on in the third Test at the Oval.
As it were, almost anyone from the panwallah on the street corner to the better known names like Gundappa Vishwanath and Ravi Shastri have criticised Dravid for his decision. Some people say it was a safety first tactic, but the truth is Dravid did not trust his bowlers.
When you go into a Test match, the captain knows how much pressure he can put on his bowlers. So, if Zaheer Khan has actually said he was not tired, we have to believe him. I am sure, modern day cricketers are a fit lot even if they have stopped walking around at training sessions with old tyres tied around their waist as Greg Chappell wanted them to.
Indian cricket is well-known for having produced fast bowlers who could never shoulder the workload simply because they were not training hard enough at the gym. Ashish Nehra and Atul Wassan are names which readily come to the mind when one talks of bowlers who did not work hard enough on their fitness.
It is only now that we have bowlers like Zaheer, Sree Santh, Pathan and company working hard to stay fit for the grind that international cricket now is. So, if Zaheer has actually spilled the beans (leave the jellybeans aside) he is actually going to stir a whole new debate.
Any single quote from a cricketer today is observed so minutely today under an electron microscope, it can be twisted and turned to any extent. Maybe, Zaheer Khan said he was not tired in a routine matter and it has become a big issue now.
Well, this is cricket, and controversies will always be part of it. Good, bad or ugly!
A
I am talking about my last blog and the timing of it could not have been better after what Zaheer Khan said today. The pace ace has said emphatically that he was not tired and surprised at Rahul Dravid’s decision not to enforce the follow-on in the third Test at the Oval.
As it were, almost anyone from the panwallah on the street corner to the better known names like Gundappa Vishwanath and Ravi Shastri have criticised Dravid for his decision. Some people say it was a safety first tactic, but the truth is Dravid did not trust his bowlers.
When you go into a Test match, the captain knows how much pressure he can put on his bowlers. So, if Zaheer Khan has actually said he was not tired, we have to believe him. I am sure, modern day cricketers are a fit lot even if they have stopped walking around at training sessions with old tyres tied around their waist as Greg Chappell wanted them to.
Indian cricket is well-known for having produced fast bowlers who could never shoulder the workload simply because they were not training hard enough at the gym. Ashish Nehra and Atul Wassan are names which readily come to the mind when one talks of bowlers who did not work hard enough on their fitness.
It is only now that we have bowlers like Zaheer, Sree Santh, Pathan and company working hard to stay fit for the grind that international cricket now is. So, if Zaheer has actually spilled the beans (leave the jellybeans aside) he is actually going to stir a whole new debate.
Any single quote from a cricketer today is observed so minutely today under an electron microscope, it can be twisted and turned to any extent. Maybe, Zaheer Khan said he was not tired in a routine matter and it has become a big issue now.
Well, this is cricket, and controversies will always be part of it. Good, bad or ugly!
A
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Keep winning
The first day of the week is an important one for all of us. And when you gear up for the grind ahead, getting to hear good news from the sporting arena is a huge boost.
I woke up on Monday hearing the good news that my good friend Mahesh Bhupathi had won his 40th doubles title with a new partner at the Super 9 in Canada, and Sania Mirza had climbed up one place in the WTA rankings. But what fans really were waiting for was the Indian cricket team to win the Test series in England.
All day long, TV channels were dissecting the Indian team, and the ‘gurus’ of yesteryears had their own opinions: Dravid should have enforced the follow-on, RP Singh had been underbowled and Sachin has got to tweak his arm more. And, of course, how Harbhajan would have been useful.
I am convinced about one thing, former cricketers who give opinions don’t usually have the best ones. I think the average Indian cricket fan, whoever he or she may be, understands the sport so intricately, opinions from Jadeja and company hardly matter.
We all know, a 2-0 win would have been better, but if that didn’t happen, do we go hammer and tongs at Rahul Dravid and his boys? I wouldn’t think so, since in what had been a miserable start to the year, getting bounced out of the World Cup early was so damaging. And when we had some needless drama over Guru Greg exiting and Graham Ford supposed to come, cricket was actually taking a backseat.
Luckily for Indian fans, who actually are a forgiving lot, the wins in Bangladesh went down well and Ireland, too, was a happy hunting ground. And what of the Tests in England? Well, we almost lost the first one, won the second and the third was ours, or so it seemed till the weakness in bowling again surfaced.
Yet, the fact remains our bowling -- four seamers and just one spinner -- is not always going to be good enough to take 20 wickets. Zaheer Khan’s burst in the second Test was inspirational, but on Monday, our bowling looked ragged.
Experts talk of Dravid the skipper having a defensive mindset, but heck, what does he do if his bowlers can’t take wickets on the last day? By night, when the third Test was confined to a draw, expert opinions were more pronounced. But I think, realising the next day was a working day, the real fan went to bed happy to know India had won the series, a feat achieved in England after 21 years.
And what of Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania. Well, they have made sure, Indian tennis is now spoken of in cities as far as Canada and the US. Just as we have the one-dayers promising more action, I am sure the US Open, starting in New York on August 27 will also be equally exciting.
Not bad in times when we have the Prime Minister boring us with the N stuff in Parliament!
I woke up on Monday hearing the good news that my good friend Mahesh Bhupathi had won his 40th doubles title with a new partner at the Super 9 in Canada, and Sania Mirza had climbed up one place in the WTA rankings. But what fans really were waiting for was the Indian cricket team to win the Test series in England.
All day long, TV channels were dissecting the Indian team, and the ‘gurus’ of yesteryears had their own opinions: Dravid should have enforced the follow-on, RP Singh had been underbowled and Sachin has got to tweak his arm more. And, of course, how Harbhajan would have been useful.
I am convinced about one thing, former cricketers who give opinions don’t usually have the best ones. I think the average Indian cricket fan, whoever he or she may be, understands the sport so intricately, opinions from Jadeja and company hardly matter.
We all know, a 2-0 win would have been better, but if that didn’t happen, do we go hammer and tongs at Rahul Dravid and his boys? I wouldn’t think so, since in what had been a miserable start to the year, getting bounced out of the World Cup early was so damaging. And when we had some needless drama over Guru Greg exiting and Graham Ford supposed to come, cricket was actually taking a backseat.
Luckily for Indian fans, who actually are a forgiving lot, the wins in Bangladesh went down well and Ireland, too, was a happy hunting ground. And what of the Tests in England? Well, we almost lost the first one, won the second and the third was ours, or so it seemed till the weakness in bowling again surfaced.
Yet, the fact remains our bowling -- four seamers and just one spinner -- is not always going to be good enough to take 20 wickets. Zaheer Khan’s burst in the second Test was inspirational, but on Monday, our bowling looked ragged.
Experts talk of Dravid the skipper having a defensive mindset, but heck, what does he do if his bowlers can’t take wickets on the last day? By night, when the third Test was confined to a draw, expert opinions were more pronounced. But I think, realising the next day was a working day, the real fan went to bed happy to know India had won the series, a feat achieved in England after 21 years.
And what of Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania. Well, they have made sure, Indian tennis is now spoken of in cities as far as Canada and the US. Just as we have the one-dayers promising more action, I am sure the US Open, starting in New York on August 27 will also be equally exciting.
Not bad in times when we have the Prime Minister boring us with the N stuff in Parliament!
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Good bye Moraad
This guy Moraad Ali Khan, I salute him for being such an honest soul.
I had called him casually a few days back when he said, "did you check your mail." I said 'no' and it was only after I came to work did I realise he had called it quits. Had Moraad been in a sport like cricket, he would have got much more mileage.
But shooting, a sport which still a lot many are struggling to still follow, is obviously not going to generate the same kind of passion among sportslovers and the media. I was, in fact, surprised Moraad has decided to pack his shotgun. I know he has a huge collection of weapons and to be putting the double trap gun into the attic would have been a hard decision.
It seems just like last week when he suddenly came out from nowhere, decided to shoot in the Nationals at the Karni Singh Ranges after a long hiatus and walked away with the double trap title. That 's Moraad for you, an analyst who will go into the minutest of details in whatever work he is doing. And even at that time, Moraad was rock sure, he was not going to be in the sport for long.
He did shoot in an ISSF World Cup three months back, but it was just an aberration. He has decided to work more for Indian shooters, be it raising sponsorship or enhancing their profiles. And if the decision to take up coaching as a new task is true, I think Moraad is making the right decision.
I have seen Moraad at the ranges for long and what impressed me most, even when he was faring badly in a practice round was that he could analyse then and there. But then, for a man who impressed with scores, medals and consistency in trap shooting first, it was not difficult when he moved to double trap. It was, after all, a conscious decision, not because he was going to be booted out of the trap team.
To be sure, not many knew what double trap was till RVS Rathore made that huge mark at the Athens Olympics. Believe me, Moraad had already educated some of his friends like me on what an exciting and thrilling sport it was. Shooting is one sport where age does not matter. You can continue well into your fifities and still do well at the National level, if not the international arena.
But the Moraad I know will never do anything half heartedly, even if it is his dream to raise funds for sportspersons so that they can do well in their quest for Olympic glory. I know for sure, Moraad can come back even a year later, train for a few weeks and again bust the orange clay targets.
Yet, for a man who has an aura, he will never have a myopic vision and will focus on the task of soon becoming the Indian shotgun coach. Where would he he stand when compared to the foreign coaches our marksmen crave for?
I am sure time will tell.
I had called him casually a few days back when he said, "did you check your mail." I said 'no' and it was only after I came to work did I realise he had called it quits. Had Moraad been in a sport like cricket, he would have got much more mileage.
But shooting, a sport which still a lot many are struggling to still follow, is obviously not going to generate the same kind of passion among sportslovers and the media. I was, in fact, surprised Moraad has decided to pack his shotgun. I know he has a huge collection of weapons and to be putting the double trap gun into the attic would have been a hard decision.
It seems just like last week when he suddenly came out from nowhere, decided to shoot in the Nationals at the Karni Singh Ranges after a long hiatus and walked away with the double trap title. That 's Moraad for you, an analyst who will go into the minutest of details in whatever work he is doing. And even at that time, Moraad was rock sure, he was not going to be in the sport for long.
He did shoot in an ISSF World Cup three months back, but it was just an aberration. He has decided to work more for Indian shooters, be it raising sponsorship or enhancing their profiles. And if the decision to take up coaching as a new task is true, I think Moraad is making the right decision.
I have seen Moraad at the ranges for long and what impressed me most, even when he was faring badly in a practice round was that he could analyse then and there. But then, for a man who impressed with scores, medals and consistency in trap shooting first, it was not difficult when he moved to double trap. It was, after all, a conscious decision, not because he was going to be booted out of the trap team.
To be sure, not many knew what double trap was till RVS Rathore made that huge mark at the Athens Olympics. Believe me, Moraad had already educated some of his friends like me on what an exciting and thrilling sport it was. Shooting is one sport where age does not matter. You can continue well into your fifities and still do well at the National level, if not the international arena.
But the Moraad I know will never do anything half heartedly, even if it is his dream to raise funds for sportspersons so that they can do well in their quest for Olympic glory. I know for sure, Moraad can come back even a year later, train for a few weeks and again bust the orange clay targets.
Yet, for a man who has an aura, he will never have a myopic vision and will focus on the task of soon becoming the Indian shotgun coach. Where would he he stand when compared to the foreign coaches our marksmen crave for?
I am sure time will tell.
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