CHENNAI: The poor show of Indian boxers, especially men, continued at the Olympic Qualifiers that concluded in Italy a few days ago. One of the highest paid foreign coaches in the Indian set-up (Olympics), Irish coach Bernard Dunne who joined as High Performance Director in the latter half of 2022, seems to be the fall guy. Though the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) secretary is saying that he has resigned, the BFI is divided over accepting his resignation.
As expected, and nothing new in Indian sports administration, there is confusion over Dunne's status. Even he was surprised by the news and said that he has not been informed of any decision taken by the BFI or SAI at this point. He also said he was surprised by the secretary's (Hemanta Kalita) comments and did not reflect on what transpired between them.
The BFI seems to be hit by another failure and controversy after the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021. Whatever it is, the malaise runs deep within the system. Foreign coach for women Dmitry Dmitruk too would be under the scanner. Sacking HPDs and foreign or Indian coaches, however, is the easiest thing to do. Previous HPD Santiago Nieva left under mysterious circumstances after the Tokyo Olympics.
Instead of looking for flaws in the system, it’s just another reaction to an insipid show that could not be addressed earlier. If at all, it is a collective failure of all stakeholders including BFI and Sports Authority India and all are answerable. There was a meeting between the sports ministry, SAI and BFI on Wednesday.
Boxing is not alone which is reacting like this. There were quite a few HPD exits in sports like athletics, weightlifting and hockey. The recent example of high-profile exits was in women’s hockey, where instead of improving on their fourth finish at the Tokyo Olympics in 2022, they failed to qualify. The women's head coach and later HI Chief Executive Officer quit.
Some of the senior BFI members have written to its president and the secretary about who should take responsibility for the dismal performance in Italy. Under pressure, the BFI is set to accept Dunne's resignation but if insiders are to be believed, he was keen on staying until the Olympics. The BFI has called for an executive committee meeting on Friday to decide on quite a few things including changes in coaches and support staff.
Though there is pressure, the BFI would want to focus on the next assignment – the last World Olympic Games qualifiers in Thailand. This too would be tough because all boxers who have not qualified will compete here.
The BFI had gone rudderless after the demise of its last executive director (RK Sacheti) during the pandemic. It seemed to have affected the functioning of the BFI until a new executive director (Arun Malik) joined in the second half of 2022 just when Nieva was leaving. Irishman Dunne joined in October 2022 at about $15,000 per month salary. He immediately abolished selection policy and instead he fixed certain parameters through which the boxers would be evaluated.
Though some of the senior coaches and officials resisted the move, Dunne continued with it. Pool of boxers who would come for selection trials stopped. Selecting good sparring partners became difficult. Senior nationals where boxers from national camps started dominating showed the widening gap between the best and the rest. Since the focus also had been on a select few boxers in the Olympic category, only a few benefitted.
The men’s and women’s camps were merged and shifted to the National Centre of Excellence in Patiala. Though this was designed to have more coherence and focus, it somehow did not go down well with all.
Transition from junior to senior had been a big problem area. The BFI is expected to focus on this. Without bench strength, the current boxers will never have competition. The BFI apparently is planning to focus more on the under 22 training and competition so that the transition is smooth.
Another area that needs to be addressed is the pool of international referees and judges, which sometimes seem to play a role in close fights.
This time there was only one and judging at the Italy event apparently did not go India’s way. Yet it is no excuse for not doing well. The BFI might not go for a wholesale change before the Thailand qualifiers between May 23 to June 3 and will continue with men’s head coach CA Kuttappa, it needs to be seen if his supporting cast will change. The BFI must look into the immediate future. Perhaps, it's also time for BFI and SAI to introspect about their own failures as well.