KOCHI: The much hyped Indian outing in the World Wrestling Championship in Paris has finally ended in a whimper. The team consisting of 24 wrestlers managed to win zero medals. The only positive way to describe a disastrous outing!
This was not the first time that Indian wrestlers have returned empty handed from the World Championships. It happened last year also. The last Indian medal came in the 2015 Las Vegas edition, through Narsingh Yadav. But this time around, what is shocking is the way the Indian wrestlers went down to their opponents. None of the grapplers could win two consecutive bouts.
Even the famed Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, who were considered to be serious medal prospects, went down rather tamely. This debacle has now invited criticisms about the way the game is being handled by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). Is the game being properly managed? Or is this fiasco just an one-off episode?
One of the former men’s national coach, who sought anonymity, felt the game and the grapplers deserves better management. “There has been a stagnancy in the development of the sport. After Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt, our system has not been able to produce any wrestlers of their stature. Someone should own up the responsibility. The coaches or the administrators. There has been a decadence in the quality of wrestlers over the time though the pool has become stronger,” he said before adding that in the World Cup held in Iran earlier this year, Indian grapplers had lost 29 out of their 32 bouts.
Just before the World Championship, the wrestlers were planning to spend some time in Spain where they will undergo training as well as attend a competition. But the plan got scrapped due to delay in getting visa. The WFI official, when asked for a response, put the blame on some wrestlers. “Some of them failed to submit their income tax returns. We were planning to send them as a group and when it was clear that some of them won’t be able to make it, we cancelled the trip,” said the WFI official.
Apart from these logistics, the team has been suffering from lack of quality training as well. The WFI has been miffed with the performance of all three foreign coaches — Vladimir Mestvirishvili (men’s free style), Roin Doborjginidze (women’s freestyle) and Emzar Makharadze (Greco-Roman) — and are yet to find a proper replacement for them. The inordinate delay in finding coaches has been affecting the team’s preperation, revealed sources. However, WFI said they are looking out for qualified foreign hands. “We are awaiting proper hands. We don’t want to spend lakhs on people who are not proficient enough. We have held talks with Iranian officials and are awaiting suggestions from them. If we don’t get Iranian coaches, we will hire Georgian coaches,” said WFI secretary VN Prasood.
shan.as@newindianexpress.com