Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi: Time For One Last Hurrah

On the ATP tour, India has been probably best represented by its two stalwarts in the doubles game—Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi. Leander was already a hero in India because of his Olympic Bronze medal winning effort at Atalanta in 1996 before the two of them decided to come together to play doubles in 1997.

This was, what started the rise of these two stars on the world doubles stage. They had a very successful partnership, and started to have comparisons with the legendary Aussie pair, the Woodies.

Dubbed the "Indian Express," their on-court camaraderie was something that the world took notice of. Their amazing chemistry led to them having their most successful year in 1999 when they created the record of reaching the finals of all four grand slams, the first time that happened in the Open Era, and managed to win the French Open and Wimbledon.

By the end of the year, they were ranked No. 1 in the world and the world predicted a long era of dominance by the Indian pair.

But that was not to be, in 2001, what started as a slight disagreement escalated into such a big conflict between the two players that they eventually decided against playing with each other. At the centre of the controversy seemed to be Bhupathi's coach, Enrico Piperno, though no one knows the exact reason for sure.

Ever since then, they have played with different partners, both becoming multiple Grand Slam champions with Leander having 12 Grand Slam titles and Bhupathi not being far behind with 11 titles. However, they have not been able to reach the heights and consistency of the "Indian Express" days.

To the credit of both the players, they have left their egos behind when it came down to playing for the country. They have a great 25-2 record in Davis Cup matches. Even in the Olympics they have come close to winning a medal twice.

In Athens 2004, they lost in the bronze medal playoff in a marathon match to the Croatian pair 6-7, 6-4, 14-16. In Beijing Olympics, they lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual champions Federer and Wawrinka.

Amidst all this, there have also been unfortunate instances of public outbursts against each other, most notably by Leander in Doha Asian games when Leander publically questioned Bhupathi's attitude in playing for the country and Bhupathi leading the player's revolt against Leander's captaincy of the Indian Davis cup team in 2009.

However, lately, they seem to have talked to each other and made efforts to resolve their differences. They remain tight-lipped as to who took the initiative, but both of them seem to have put the past behind them now to team up for the ATP tour for the first time in many years. Both of them want to win the only Grand Slam doubles title missing from their resumes and who better to do it with than each other.

Although, they have decided to try out the arrangement till the Australian Open, the hopeful signal for the Indian fans is that they have not ruled out playing together even after the Australian Open is over. In the last eight years, they have only played a couple of ATP tournaments together just before the Olympics as practice.

But the getting back together of the "Indian Express" for a extended period might also help them win a Olympic Medal at London in 2012, a thing that has been expected of them for the last three Olympics, but unfortunately, they have fallen short each time. London would, in all probability be the last Olympics for the long careers of these two stalwarts. There is no doubt that they would like to go out on an absolute high.

Boxing : The Rise Of 'Little Cuba' in Bhiwani,India

Cuba is famous for a large number of things including the Cuban Cigars and one of the most controversial leaders in history - Fidel Castro. But, on the sports front it is famous for producing the most fierce boxers in Olympic history.

Cuba has performed exceptionally on the world stage in amateur boxing, and sits at the second position in all time medal winners list in the Olympics with 32 Gold medals for a total of 63 medals.

India has never been the powerhouse in boxing at the world stage but in the last decade, India has started producing some world-class pugilists. A large portion of that credit can be claimed by Bhiwani - a small town in Haryana that has started treading on the same path as Cuba.

Set up by the double Asian Games gold medallist Hawa Singh, the Bhiwani Boxing Club or 'BBC' as it is called has transformed from being the brainchild of a passionate boxer to being the hotbed of boxing talent in the country.

The credit for the success of BBC, a small town club is generally given to the Dronacharya award winning coach Jagdish Singh. His coaching methods, believed to be hard and uncompromising, are believed to be the reasons behind the success of the pugilists from this club.

The club had been quite successful since the beginning of the decade, with three of the four boxers who qualified from India for the Athens Olympics being from this club. However, the real recognition for the club came with the success of the boxers at the Beijing Olympics when two boxers, Akhil and Jitender reached the Quarter-finals and Vijender Kumar went one better to win the bronze medal.

Akhil, a former commonwealth games gold medallist, one of the senior boxers at the club is considered by many to be the inspiration for many of the trainees at 'BBC'. The success of Vijender at the Olympics coupled with him being ranked No. 1 in the world currently has provided the town with a second rush of youngsters wanting to take up boxing at the club.

This is quite evident from the fact that, along with the supposed old guard (although most of them are still quite young) of Akhil, Vijender, Jitender and Dinesh, a number of teenagers have started making their mark at the national and international level already. Vikas Krishan Yadav, a 18-year old and the reigning world youth champion, recently won the gold in the recently concluded Asian Games at Guangzhou. This just proves that the success of the club is built on a strong foundation and it was not just a lucky break to get some good boxers at the same time.

The town has now become obsessed with boxing with all the parents now wanting their children to have successful boxing careers. It is now estimated that around 10% of all teenagers in the town are enrolled in boxing clubs. Since, the intake of the club is very limited and the number of aspirants greater, a number of private clubs have also cropped up in the area which has led to the creation of quite a competitive boxing scenario in the town.

Although now boxing has started receiving a lot greater attention, there is still a long way to go. The facilities at the centre, being funded by the Sports Authority of India, are far from world class and one would cringe if one sees the condition of the room where potential world champions stay in. Although, the expenditure on coaches has improved many-fold, a small fraction of that on the facilities might go a long way. Many organisations like the Olympic Gold Quest have come forward to sponsor the top athletes, but more investment is needed at the ground level if we really want to make a difference.

Boxing is now considered by many to be one of the best bets for a medal at the Olympics along with Shooting. The pugilists have already set sight on the winning the Olympic medals with Akhil Kumar, Dinesh Kumar, Vikas Krishan and Vijender Kumar being the main hopes but it would be foolish to ignore the emergence of a unknown name from the Bhiwani stable and surprise us in London 2012.

If India wins a bagful of medals at London 2012, it should be thankful to people like Hawa Singh, Jagdish Singh and everyone at BBC who has contributed in producing world-class boxers.

Are CWG and Asiad performances fair pointers for the Olympics ?

The last two months saw the conclusion of the second and third largest multi-sports events in the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games. The media hailed has hailed the performance of the Indian athletes in these two events. Considering the media's habit of exaggeration, it is bound to absolutely slam the athletes if they fail to do as well in the Olympics.

One should, therefore, consider the performance of the sports persons in these two events and make a fair judgement with regard to the prospects in the Olympics where the competition is a lot tougher.

Let us look at some disciplines where India did pretty well in CWG and Asiad and judge whether the performances can lead to a medal in Olympics or not:

1. Shooting : Shooting is one of the disciplines that India can be optimistic about. A great show in the CWG followed by a decent haul of 8 medals in world-class competition at the Asian games gives a lot of hope about shooting at the Olympics. Results in shooting depend a lot upon the form of the shooter on the day of the event and India with a fair number of shooters in the top 10 in various disciplines can hope for a realistic 3-4 medals in shooting.
Medal Prospects : Gagan Narang, Abhinav Bindra, Tejaswini Sawant, Ronjan Sodhi, Vijay Kumar, Manavjit Singh Sandhu

2. Boxing : The recent emergence of boxers from India on the world stage has suddenly uplifted this sport from oblivion to one of the most keenly followed Olympic sports in India with a number of boxers receiving their due recognition. A decent showing at both the CWG and Asian games raises hopes of a good show in the Olympics where there would be some additional competition from Cuba and the East-European nations. Still, a haul of 3-4 medals is quite realistic.
Medal Prospects : Vijender Singh, Mary Kom, Suranjoy Singh, Other Bhiwani factory boxers

3. Archery : More than the performance in the CWG, the performance in the Asian Games is a reason to cheer as the performances were achieved against the top nations in Archery like South Korea, China and Taipei. With the current progress, India should manage a couple of medals in archery.

4. Wrestling : India performed exceptionally in the CWG but could manage only three bronze medals through the Repechage rounds. With Sushil Kumar coming back for the Olympics, India should be expecting a medal from him.

5. Tennis : India's great performance in both CWG and Asian games should not lead to great expectations for tennis at the Olympics. India benefitted from a greatly depleted field at the CWG and India has alwasy been a tennis powerhouse in Asia. The only medal hope still remains the pair of Leander and Bhupati who lost the bronze medal play-off in Athens and in the Quarters in Beijing. Hope they do one better in their last Olympics at London.

6. Badminton : It should be quite clear that Saina Nehwal would be the only realistic hope for a medal in Badminton. With the progress she is making on the international scene, it might be a possibility. It would all boil down to her ability to win under pressure as she sure does have the talent.

7. Athletics : India did manage to get a decent haul of medals but replicating the success at the Olympics would be a very bleak possibility as India has always managed medals in these two events but compares rather poorly when competing with the Track and Field powerhouses in the Olympics. The IOA still believes that Tintu Luka (800m runner and PT Usha Prodigy) is a medal prospect but she would require extensive training and a better running strategy if she wants to be in the finals leave alone win a medal.

Winning medals in sports such as Weightlifting, Table Tennis,Squash etc. would be near impossible task at the Olympics and Indian Hockey team needs to improve a lot to compete with the best in the world.

The medals in Aquatics and Gymnastics should be seen more as a stepping stone towards development of the respective sports rather than as medal prospects for the 2012 Olympics.

Hence my prediction for India's medal haul at Olympics 2012 would be close to 7-9 medals hoping that at least of third of them are the yellow metal medals. It would be a great improvement on the previous editions but still too little for a country of India's size.

So, it can be agreed upon that Indian Sports is definitely looking up and moving the the right direction with the government stepping in to help the sports persons and the formation of organisations such as Olympic Gold Quest. Hope these steps continue and we see India as a sports powerhouse in our lifetimes.