Beijing Games bronze medallist, Vijender Singh, echoed the same. “The coach has to know what the boxer wants and who he wants to train with,” he told this daily. “For example, when I was in the national camp before the Olympics, I had about three-four different sparring partners with me. This helps because you are not alone all the time in the camp. And also, this helps you in training.”
Vijender said that no one from BFI approaches him for any help or suggestion but would love to share what he has learnt about boxing over the years. He is even willing to join the BFI if need be.
Akhil, in fact, felt that players like Vijender and MC Mary Kom should be part of BFI and its think-tank. “They have all the top medals in the world and what better way than to share their experience,” he said. “They should be part of BFI.”
He also felt that Indian coaches should be encouraged more. “There are about 100 coaches who qualify every year through different courses, why not try them? I am saying this because the current system is not giving results,” he said.
Manisha Malhotra, sports excellence and scouting JSW Sports, has seen the sport from close quarters. She has been working closely with boxers even before the Beijing Olympics, when she was part of Mittal Champions Trust. She also said that BFI needs a complete overhaul in the system. Lack of national competitions is one of the major drawbacks. “One boxer from each state is allowed to participate and there is only one senior nationals to select a boxer; the national camp restricts choices,” she said. “We need to come up with a ranking system and be a feeder so that the best boxers are in the nationals.”
Manisha said that the idea is to have many national camps so that BFI has more experienced boxers. She said, as of now, the experienced pugilists are those who go to tournaments on their own through JSW or OGQ.
Akhil felt that coaching staff should also be held accountable. He said that CA Kutappa, who had been part of Vijender’s coaching team during Beijing Olympics, is good because he produced results. “But something would have gone wrong here,” he said. “Even DP Yadav is a very good boxer. They should be asked as to what went wrong. They are all experienced enough to know and report.”
“Our batch — Vijender, Dinesh (Kumar), Jai Bhagwan, Jitender (Kumar), Suranjoy (Singh), Suresh (Singh), Ali Qamar (Mohammed), Manpreet (Singh), there were very good boxers,” said Akhil. “And their outcome/performance was dependent on individual training.
