IOA Elections: Families rule Indian sports

November 7, 2012
Indian_olympic_association


Bangalore, November 7: The elections to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) are turning out to be family soap opera. A look at the electoral college shows how several families have used various sports as their personal fiefdoms. It also reveals that some of the big names which courted controversies recently are still very much in control.

Lalit Bhanot, the former big boss in athletics, who is being tried in cases relating to the Delhi Commonwealth Games, will attend the annual general body meeting on November 25 representing the Delhi Olympic Association.

Bhanot, who is likely to contest for the post of secretary-general, will be joined by Abhay Singh Chautala with the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) forwarding his name as one of the three voters from the federation.

IABF has also named Chautala's brother-in-law Abhishek Matoria, who was controversially elected as the president, despite not being eligible to attend the meeting. Chautala can also expect the support of his brother Ajay who will cast his vote as the representative of the Table Tennis Federation of India.

The electoral rolls, released for the first time after the 1996 elections held in Bangalore, also expose the tradition of families ruling Indian sports.

Secretary-general and a candidate for the president's post, Randhir Singh, can expect support from the National Rifle Association of India led by Raninder Singh, who is his nephew. The same applies to Bowling Federation of India headed by Randhir's daughter Sunaina Kumari. Randhir also has a vote as the member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Among those from other families who will be part of the elections and attract attention in the list, officially released on Tuesday by IOA acting president VK Malhotra, are SS Dhindsa (Punjab Olympic Association) and his son Parminder Singh Dhindsa (Cycling Federation of India), CP Singh Deo and his wife Raj Laxmi (rowing), the Nanavati brothers Kamlesh and Virender (swimming) and Rajeev Mehta (kho-kho) and wife Deepa Mehta (luge). There may be more such instances in this list and it appears that the fate of the candidates, which will be known soon, will depend on the favourites of these families.

That the prospective candidates have left no stone unturned in ensuring victory in the elections was evident from the nominees of Athletics Federation of India which excluded its president Adille Sumariwalla. AFI, in turn, nominated ML Jadam, who doesn't hold any post, along with CK Valson (secretary) and Sushil Salwan (vice-president).

Meanwhile, Union sports secretary PK Deb told TOI that the ministry will write to IOA and the returning officer about Abhay Singh Chautala.

"We will bring to their notice that the post of chairman doesn't exist in IABF. Whether he can vote or contest is for the returning officer to decide," Deb said.

HI gets IOA nod

With the administrators of hockey vertically split, the IOA on Tuesday went with Hockey India, giving voting rights to its nominees - Mariamma Koshy, Narinder Batra and Sudharshan Pathak. It also allowed the Indian Hockey Federation nominees - V Dinesh Reddy, Jatinder Peter and RK Shetty - to attend the meeting. "As per the Delhi High Court order dated October 16 you will be permitted to participate in the meeting but will not be entitled to vote as per the IOA constitution," acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra said.



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Agencies
May 25,2020

Chandigarh, May 25: Legendary former hockey player Balbir Singh Senior died in a private hospital on Monday, his family said.

He was 96 years old. His condition was critical for nearly a fortnight.

He was undergoing treatment at Fortis Mohali and was in a "semi-comatose condition".

He was hospitalised on May 8 with high fever and breathing trouble. His COVID-19 test came negative.

Balbir was part of the Indian teams that won gold at the 1948 London Olympics, Helsinki 1952 and Melbourne 1956. His record for most individual goals scored in an Olympic men's hockey final remains unbeaten.

Balbir had set this record when he scored five goals in India's 6-1 win over Netherlands in the gold medal match of the 1952 Games.

He was the head coach of the Indian team for the 1975 men's World Cup, which India won and the 1971 men's World Cup, where India earned a bronze medal. He was also conferred with the prestigious Padma Shri in 1957.

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News Network
March 28,2020

Milan, Mar 28: Juventus star Paulo Dybala revealed how he "struggled to breathe" after contracting coronavirus which has killed over 9,000 people in Italy.

The Argentine international announced last Saturday he was one of three Juventus players to catch the virus along with Daniele Rugani and Blaise Matuidi, who both had no symptoms.

"I feel better now after some strong symptoms," the 26-year-old Dybala told JTV channel.

"A couple of days ago I was not well, I felt heavy and after five minutes of movement I had to stop because I was struggling to breathe.

"Now I can move and walk to start trying to train, because when I tried in the past few days I started to shake too much.

"I gasped for air and as a result I couldn't do anything, after five minutes I was already very tired, I felt the body heavy and my muscles hurt.

"Now I'm fine. My fiancee Oriana (Sabatini) has also overcome the symptoms."

Dybala has scored 13 goals in all competitions this season, including in league leader's Juventus's last game against Inter Milan before Serie A and all sport in Italy was suspended.

"The goal against Inter was the greatest emotion, (Aaron) Ramsey provided the perfect assist - it's a pity that there was no public," added Dybala.

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Agencies
January 19,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 19: Opening batsman Rohit Sharma on Sunday became the third-fastest batsman to register 9,000 runs in the 50-over format.

He achieved the feat in the ongoing third ODI against Australia here at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Only Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers have achieved the feat faster than Rohit.

Sharma brought up the milestone in the first over of the Indian innings as he clipped Mitchell Starc away for a single.

With this, the right-handed batsman has become just the sixth Indian to achieve the milestone.

Apart from Sharma, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, and Sachin Tendulkar have more than 9,000 runs in the 50-over format.

Overall, 20 batsmen have more than 9,000 ODI runs to their name.

In the match between India and Australia, the former won the toss and elected to bat first.

Steve Smith played a knock of 131 runs to propel Australia to 286/9 in the allotted fifty overs.

 

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