MAMALLAPURAM: Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) is peeved with the way certain non-governmental organisations entered into a contract with its players. WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has been quite vocal in his criticism. On Tuesday, when grapplers take to the mat for selection trials for the World Championships, they have to declare their sponsorship deals to the federation. If it violates or clashes with any of WFI's primary sponsorship, the body wants the player to nullify the contract. The WFI, if required, is willing to compensate the players with the same remuneration if not more so that they don't suffer. The WFI chief revealed this, the fate of wrestling league and much more during an interaction with this daily in the resort of Mamallapuram. Excerpts...
Wrestling has been one sport that had won medals since 2008 in every Olympics. The reason?
In 2008 we won one medal. In 2012 we won two. In 2016 we won one. But that was because of the controversy involving Sushil (Kumar) and Narsingh Yadav. The entire team was affected. Wrestlers could not go out and even training was affected. Narsingh finally could not participate and we ended up with one medal.
And this time we came back with two medals. I am happy but not satisfied with these two medals. It was a big surprise that Vinesh Phogat couldn’t win a medal and we were expecting one medal from her. And we were expecting another one from either Deepak Punia or Anshu Malik. Then we would have won four out of seven participants. It was an honest assessment based on their performance, training and ranking. That's why said I was not satisfied.
It was not just an aspiration but we worked towards it. Players, the federation, the support staff everyone worked towards it. The government, too, had made an immense contribution. No player can say that we did not get this or that. The sports ministry, the Sports Authority of India's Target Olympic Podium scheme spent a lot on the athletes. Today the amount of assistance the Indian government is giving not too many countries are giving. People are happy with seven medals but I am not happy with seven medals. The assistance we are giving to the athletes, the recognition the country is giving… After so much help from all stakeholders, we have won only seven medals is a bit surprising. Wrestling could have contributed two more medals and the tally would have gone up to nine.
There are a few reasons for wrestling's consistency at Olympics. First of all, the credit goes to the wrestlers and their parents and guardian. Secondly, after Sushil, Yogeshwar Dutt, Sakshi’s medals, our wrestlers are more confident. They believe that they can bring medals at Olympics.
Another reason was the wrestling league that we used to conduct. There were suggestions that we should not have a strong field so that Indians perform better, but I thought we should call all the top wrestlers from the world to participate. When they train against them and saw them perform from close range, their anxiety of facing top wrestlers too vanished. Our wrestlers now have the belief of winning a medal at the Olympics.
Changes made over the years…
When I came into the sport I changed the way referees and judges conduct bouts. We started conducting camps for referees, sometimes twice a year. Despite conducting so many meets now, we don't get too many protests. And refereeing has become more transparent. Ended favouritism for states like Haryana or Uttar Pradesh. Ensured fair trial for the wrestlers no matter from which state the players belong to no one can question or fairness. Because of this fair trial we have Ravi (Dahiya), Deepak (Punia). Fair trial was missing earlier.
I tried to improve coaching. We brought coaches from abroad to train our coaches. I want to point out one more thing; the course at NIS Patiala, we should start bringing coaches from abroad to train them. Until when will we hire coaches from abroad? It should be in all sport.
No one wrestler can say he or she is dominating, there is a long queue. Anyone can challenge anyone. Someone would be trying to topple Ravi or Bajrang. Not just one wrestler, but there are quite a few. If the Olympic or World Championships medallists want to dominate they have to keep working hard.
The concept of support staff too has changed since 2008 when there was hardly any physio or masseur with the team.
Because of Covid, we had difficulty in choosing support staff but while training we ensure that all wrestlers get whatever support they require. Wrestling is the first federation to support wrestlers on the basis of ranking. A class player gets Rs 30 lakh, B class gets Rs 25 lakh out of pocket allowance. Along with this, we provide them coaches, physios and masseurs. We give such allowance up to the cadet wrestlers who win medals in international competitions. No national player can say that we have not been provided with support.
About your ACTC programme and whether it's binding on the athlete to participate in the tournaments you choose?
Nothing is binding on players. We ask players who is the coach he would like to train with. Should we select the coach or you would? Same with physio. If he/she is happy with a physio, we will bring him in and pay his salary. We don't disturb the players.
Yes, I have certain objections and that was evident during Vinesh's episode during and after the Olympics. You must have heard about her training in Hungary. I spoke against JSW and OGQ quite a lot. That's because I think they spoil our administration. Whenever they see good players emerging especially after they win medals at World Championships, then they realise that they would be going to the Olympics. They go to them and sign papers. Our players sign without knowing what's there on the contract.
Strong ACTC programme.
All big championships like Worlds, Asian or Commonwealth, everything is covered under ACTC. Even ranking series is covered under ACTC. Even the employment of foreign coaches. However, if a wrestler wants to compete in a tournament that's not under ACTC, we send it to the TOPS for approval. The wrestling federation was among a few that managed to send athletes abroad for competitions. The first team to go abroad was wrestling team to Serbia. We conducted all nationals.
What about wrestling league?
We are hoping to host it this year. We have entered into an agreement with those who were handling the wrestling league and I have taken that product from them. I also felt the wrestling league could have been hosted better. There were some problems. We reached a settlement and now we have the league with us.
We are in talks with quite a few people. If we don't find anyone, then the federation will host it. We are keeping an eye on the pandemic and the moment we think we can host, we will do it. We benefit a lot from the league, so we want to host the league. Our next-gen wrestlers will benefit.
Elaborate on your grassroots programmes.
The wrestlers decide where they want to play. What we do is we host one cadet, U-15, then junior and U-23 before seniors. So we have five categories of tournaments. We have a team that keeps a close watch on these wrestlers. We have formed a committee and start scouting from U-15. When they go for Asian championships and come back with a medal, we start identifying and supporting them. We start from U-15.
I want to request NGOs like OGQ and JSW that you support the youngsters too. You only support the top athletes. And on top of that, you don't tell the federation what you are providing. And you don't show agreement.
Will the federation be part of the agreement now on?
Why not? We should know what kind of agreement they are entering with the wrestlers. It should be a tripartite agreement — NGOs, federation and the player. Take for example, our primary sponsor is TATA. Now Uttar Pradesh government has adopted wrestling. We should know that the players’ sponsor agreement should not clash with TATA or the UP govt. I have no problem if the wrestlers are getting money. But it should not clash with our primary sponsors. We have to consider their interest first. I want to reiterate that because of these NGOs, wrestling has suffered and we could have won four medals.
Sponsorship in wrestling.
We don't have to rely on anybody. We have Uttar Pradesh government, TATA and sports ministry's schemes like TOPS. We don't want anybody. If someone needs a coach, TATA is ready to sponsor. Even for physio, we don't need any support from NGOs. Let them concentrate on other sports.
Are you going to release any directive to wrestlers on signing agreements?
We are hosting World Championships trials on August 31. We have asked all wrestlers to declare if they have entered into any kind of sponsorship agreement with anyone. And hand over a copy to us. They have to declare with whom they have an agreement and what kind. The sponsors should not clash with ours. If there is any clash, then the federation would request the player to cancel it. We will ensure he doesn't get affected. If someone is giving them say Rs 1 lakh, we will give him/her Rs 1.25 lakh or more. I am not joking.