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sport Despres sizzles at Dakar Rally Will to win was stronger than fear of losing, s ays champion
dna.sunday
Bangalore, January 17, 2010
FOR WHOM
the bell tolls
Buenos Aires: Frenchman Cyril Despres won his third Dakar Rally motorcycling title on Saturday after the 14th and final stage, which was won by Portuguese rider Ruben Faria. Despres, who will turn 36 on January 24, finished over five minutes behind his KTM teammate. Norwegian Pal Ullevalseter finished second overall, over an hour behind Despres, after finishing second on his KTM in the stage, 3min 45sec behind Faria. Chilean Francisco Chaleco Lopez riding an Aprilia was third overall, less than five minutes behind the runner-up. “All victories are nice but this one is particularly beautiful,” said Despres after the final stage, a 335km special from Santa Rosa. “It is a victory for hard work, of expertise and of an incredible team. Of course there is a lot of emotion. We have had three tough years, three years of injuries, training, hard times.” Despres was also the champion in 2005 and 2007 when the race was still staged in Africa. “We can only be moved by this third victory. I have been riding this bike for 15 days and I am exhausted but the little strength I had left just went in tears. “One thing is clear — I was not afraid of losing. I just wanted to win. And this will to win was stronger than the fear of losing. It was a tough Dakar, a beautiful Dakar and I am so glad I won.” Spanish rider Marc Comas Dakar Rally ended on a suitably low note. Having been regarded as Despres most dangerous rival, all hope of winning were dashed last weekend when he was penalised six hours for illegally changing a wheel and on Saturday he was again penalised. AFP
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Coach J Sreedharan, who dedicated his life to teaching the art of boxing, now lies immobile from a paralytic stroke. His students wonder if there is any fight left in the man who taught them to box
ABOVE: J Sreedharan still smiles despite being unableto speak or move. He suffered the stroke more than three years ago RIGHT: As a young man and a fan of Md Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard LEFT: A boxer is floored and being counted out. Sreedharan’s basic tenet was to embrace pain in order to overcome it Pics: Dev S Sukumar
INDIAWATCH Dev S Sukumar.
Bhutia cheer in barren tie Mumbai: The loudest cheer at the Cooperage was when Baiching Bhutia was introduced by East Bengal coach Phillipe De Ridder in the 70th minute in their ONGC I-League match against Mumbai FC on Saturday. The crowd waited in anticipation for the Indian captain to add colour to an otherwise dull affair that ended in a goalless draw. But even Bhutia couldn’t inspire his team to make the most of the ball possession East Bengal had. None of the teams really looked like winning the match. Both teams remain in the sixth and seventh positions, respectively.
JCT-Viva match postponed Kozhikode: The crucial ONGC I-League match between Viva Kerala and JCT Phagwara was cancelled this evening after floodlights failed to light up at the corporation stadium grounds, after which enraged spectators damaged some chairs and tables. The match was scheduled to start at 7.30pm, but organisers announced an hour later that the tie had been cancelled due to snags in the generator. Players of both teams apparently refused to take to the field due to insufficient light at the grounds. The match would be played tomorrow, officials said.
Goa in baseball finals Cuttack: The men and women baseball teams from Goa stormed into the finals of the ongoing 24th Senior National Baseball Championship at Ravenshaw University playground here. In the men's final to be played on Sunday, defending champion Goa will take on Delhi, while in the women's final it will be Goa versus Manipur. In the men's semifinal on Saturday, Goa defeated Orissa 3-1, while Delhi outplayed Andhra Pradesh 7-0.
'Woodball' makes debut Amravati: Woodball, a game similar to golf and gaining in popularity in Taiwan, Indonesia, Korea and Malaysia, made its entry here on Saturday as the first Woodball course was inaugurated at the Government Vidarbha Institute of Science and Humanities (GVISH) here. Although Woodball is played on grass and also on the sand as beach woodball, the unique course has been developed here on clay. President of International Woodball Federation, Min Hui Weng, who invented this game, inaugurated the course.
Nanao storms into final Mumbai: Nanao Singh breezed into the final of the 48kg category of the Super Cup IV held at Shivaji Park Gymkhana on Saturday. The Services boxer never allowed his opponent Amarjit Singh to settle down, winning the bout 18-7. Nanao Singh will face Amandeep Singh of RSPB, who defeated his North Zone Green opponent Paramjeet Singh 9-6.
BANGALORE
Pain was an inherent part of J Sreedharan’s philosophy. He always told his disciples to love pain. That was the only way they could survive as boxers – to embrace pain, cherish the taste of blood in one’s mouth. For pain was inevitable in boxing at any level, and no one was exempt from it. Courage, spirit, defiance… like pain, mere words would never do. Words had to be transmuted into will… and destinies changed. For boxers like the South Zone champion K Rajkumar, who was born in a slum and growing up into a street thug, Sreedharan was the one who showed him the way to a gym instead, showed him there was a science and art to fighting. And now Sreedharan needs, more than anyone else, to believe. It has been three years and four months since he was felled by a stroke that took mobility away from him. For three years he has been lying, nearly still, able only to move his left hand. He can nod, he can smile, but he can’t speak. His disciples come by sometimes. Some tell him the same lessons that he taught them – to fight, to not give in, to keep the faith against the odds. But can he do it – pull of a final victory with his own body ranged against himself ? As a coach with the Sports Authority of India, Sreedharan earned a reputation for being an astute and scientific coach. He scouted for talent, especially among lower income
neighbourhoods, and spent his own money liberally on the boys. He was respected on the circuit, and turned Karnataka into a formidable team. Many of his boxers, such as Dheeraj Singh, Vinod Kumar and Rehman Hussain became national medallists, and one of them, Sudhakar Rao, even became an Asian medallist. “He was one of the finest coaches around, one of the most scientific,” says Dheeraj Singh, who was selected to be part of an Olympic camp. “Karnataka was taken lightly earlier, but after he took over, other teams began to fear us.” The coach cut a distinctive figure – he idolised Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, and modelled himself after them. In his younger days his dark colour, and Afro hairdo, went well with his chosen profession – and he was passionate about boxing. Having come through the domestic ranks, he passed out of National Institute of Sport (NIS), Patiala, and had a stint with Military School, Belgaum, before returning to Bangalore. Somewhere down the line he would develop an unusual lifestyle choice – an insistence on a fruit-only diet, eschewing all the other dietary requirements of animal protein that boxers were supposed to thrive on. “The younger boxers blame me for that,” says Dheeraj Singh. “We were travelling for a tournament when I showed him a book of the Buddha. After reading it, he immediately turned vegetarian. Shortly after that, he went on a fruit-only diet. That was so different
from what he was earlier – he used to eat everything. At SAI Kengeri, he and Santosh, another boxer, used to hunt for snakes to catch and eat!” So steadfast was he with his new diet that he imposed strict vegetarianism on all his boxers. He was trying to impart a deeper, calmer philosophy of living.
Somewhere down the line he would develop an unusual lifestyle choice – an insistence on a fruitonly diet, eschewing all the other dietary requirements that boxers were supposed to thrive on “To most of us, these things were unheard of,” says Sai Sathish, Sreedharan’s protege and now Secretary of the state association. “He was questioning some basic assumptions. He would ask why we needed to fill our bodies with dead matter, like meat. He wouldn’t even eat cooked food, not even chapattis. Most of us couldn’t sustain on that diet, we would help ourselves to other food when he wasn’t around. But he taught us so many things. He made us what we are. If we are doing well today, it’s because of him.” The stroke happened on 9th October, 2006.
He was admitted to hospital, but then, to the consternation of the doctors, insisted on continuing with his fruit-only diet. He wouldn’t concede even to have rice or chapattis. His condition steadily got worse, despite hopping several hospitals, and various kinds of treatment. What’s perplexing is his insistence on that diet. His students believe he can be cured, or at least will give himself a chance to be cured, if he accommodates other kinds of food. “But he will not give in,” says Sathish, who has been by his side ever since the stroke happened. “He still believes in the natural healing power of fruits.” It’s a kind of superhuman stubbornness, in the face of the greatest challenges, to believe in something that has offered no evidence to the contrary. For even the Buddha, whose book converted him to a radical vegan, advocated the use of meat in treatment. … And so he stays immobile on a bed, in the house he grew up in, a small tenement with shelves full of his trophies, and a Sharp television from another era. Most of the boxers, except for Sathish and a couple of others, have stopped coming around. His 83-year-old mother tends to him; she makes it look like business as usual, talks of his father and his own younger days, how he reformed his youngest brother through boxing. He still smiles beatifically, and offers something to his guests. It’s a steel cup with slices of coconut inside.
‘Talk about women’s hockey too’ Indian women’s hockey coach MK Kaushik opens up to DNA’s Vivek Phadnis about the current situation in the national sport in the aftermath of the players’ revolt, and the need for professional management he players’ revolt is not a new thing in Indian hockey. Then, there was a players’ association and in 1991 and a similar thing was planned. But then the Indian Hockey Federation had a lot of influence over the players and there were instances when the players were divided. The kind of unity shown by the players in the camp at Pune is okay. But the point here is also that a few days of practice for a big event like the World Cup have been missed. However, that is the past and the players should get cracking and focus on the game now. The other issue here is that professionalism is the basic require-
T
ment for running any sports federation. Just take a look at any other sports federation around the world. If we are not professional, it shows. That has been the case all along with hockey. The management needs to understand the needs of the game. We need professonal people to run the game. Apart from everything else, what I want to ask is: do we have a calendar of events? No. Having a calendar of events and planning for the year ahead is part of being professional. Also, what I am not pleased about is that there is just talk of men’s hockey and women’s hockey is just not talked about. This should not happen, particularly
when the men’s and women’s federations have been merged under Hockey India. As the National coach of the women’s team, I want the welfare of women’s hockey also. The women’s team has been winning medals but they have hardly got the recognition they deserve. Railways is the only employer that hires them. This revolt cannot happen in women’s hockey. We have got a bronze in the Doha Asian Games and won gold in the Champions Challenge tournament. Why are they being ignored? For the improvement of hockey, there should be welfare schemes for the players. They should have some sort of insurance. If not, what will a player do after finishing his or her career? If there is no security for the future, how will your son or daughter take up hockey? There needs to be some motivation and these are some of the things that need to be done to improve the game.
Coach MK Kaushik believes that women players, despite top-notch performances, haven’t got the credit they deserved