Sex, corruption scandals tarnish India’s sport image

Allegations of sexual misconduct involving two national coaches exacerbated the problems engulfing Indian sport and had the head of the Olympic association running for cover this week at the launch of the Commonwealth Games tennis centre.

IOA president Suresh Kalmadi literally had to plead with Delhi’s chief minister for safe passage on Monday to avoid a hoard of reporters demanding answers to questions of impropriety in national sports, including the sexual misconduct allegations against national field hockey and weightlifting coaches.

The New Delhi Commonwealth Games have been plagued by delays in the construction of infrastructure and venues, which should have been finished months ago for test events but instead, are just starting to come on line now, cutting it fine with competition set to commence on October 3.

The problems within hockey and weightlifting ranks in the last week have only sharpened the focus on trouble in Indian sports.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India, the financial powerhouse in the international game, was already under investigation from federal tax authorities over perceived irregularities in the running of the immensely popular, multibillion dollar Indian Premier League.

The head of the IPL is under suspension and investigation by the BCCI and the tax regulators, but denies any wrongdoing.

As have the field hockey and weightlifting coaches, at the centre of controversies involving allegations relating to young, female athletes.

India’s Sports Minister M.S. Gill said his ministry would investigate the allegations against the hockey and weightlifting coaches in a “professional and impartial way.”

The ministry confirmed it was investigating allegations against M.K. Kaushik, who resigned as India’s women’s coach after player Ranjita Devi complained to Hockey India that he’d sexually harassed her during the recent Canada and China tours.

Hockey India had already referred the case to Delhi Police. Kaushik has threatened legal action against the national federation for holding the complaints against him as credible without verifying them.

The Sports Ministry also announced it was withdrawing weightlifting coach Ramesh Malhotra from a national training camp after Olympic bronze medallist Karnam Malleswari alleged that Malhotra had been sexually harassing athletes for a decade.

The weightlifting federation suspended Malhotra on the weekend pending an investigation led by IWF vice president Kumbasi Subramanya.

Malhotra denied he’d ever “misbehaved” with women weightlifters, telling the Press Trust of India that Malleswari’s allegations were “false” and aimed at tarnishing his reputation.

The problems involving the coaches haven’t kept Kalmadi out of the spotlight. The leading figure in the fight against a recent government move to impose age and term limits on national sports administrators, Kalmadi has reportedly been described as the “dirty face of Indian sports” by a candidate running for the Hockey India presidency.

Former India captain Pargat Singh, who will be contesting the hockey vote on Wednesday, accused Kalmadi of meddling in the running of national sports federations by promoting candidates who would follow his instructions or getting administrators bogged down in court.

Kalmadi has spent the last year defending New Delhi’s preparations for the Commonwealth Games – the first major multi-sport event to be staged in India since the Asian Games in 1982 – insisting that the event will be a major success. Some of the leading athletes, including Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, have already indicated they won’t be competing in Delhi, taking some gloss off the event.

Kalmadi’s image took another hit at the R.K. Khanna Tennis Complex on Monday, when he found himself alone and confronted by a media pack trying to get his reaction to the comments from Pargat and news that the sports ministry had announced it was opening investigations into the hockey and weightlifting cases.

After offering no comment – “Nothing to say, please ... please ...” PTI reported that Kalmadi had to approach Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and ask for an escort out of the venue, explaining that the media was hounding him over Pargat’s comments.

She made space in the official vehicle, and Kalmadi reportedly smiled at journalists and photographers as he left the stadium.

Pargat’s allegations that Kalmadi was trying to manipulate the administration of hockey by endorsing an 83-year-old candidate as president came 48 hours before the election.

“He is a destroyer,” Pargat was quoted as saying by PTI. “He talks of the Olympic movement but he has destroyed the Olympic institution. Such dirty people should be thrown out of sports.”