Looking Back In Anger

Thirty years after he clinched three gold medals in the Asian Games and a silver at the 1971 Olympic Athletic Championship,the only Asian to win it for India,Gill shares his disappointments. The collective corrupt consortium of babus had left him frustrated,forcing him to accept a scholarship and migrate to the US. “Sports is the last thing on this country’s agenda,or,for that matter,on anyone’s agenda. Parents are not interested,schools are lackadiasical in their approach,sports infrastructure is nowhere to be seen,and sportsmen are yet to earn any respect or,at least,be aware of their rights,” said Gill.

He recounts the events that had led him to leave the country. In the 1960s,when Gill threatened to expose the corrupt officials,and also take up the challenge to break the triple jump record set by Germans by two feet,“the event was cancelled overnight and after that,I left the country.” At the International Track Meet in Athens in 1968-69,he went on to win the title of Himalayan jumper. “They used to introduce players with such colourful titles and,when my turn came,they said here comes the athlete from the Himalayas. When it came to the title of my biography,I didn’t look beyond The Himalayan Jumper ,” he says. He is keeping the name of the author under wraps for the moment but Gill promises that the book will be explosive.

Gill along with friends is also planning to set up an organisation for aspiring Olympians. “In India,a sportsperson,other than a cricketer,is treated like a nobody. I remember how we were given third class railway tickets and had to sometimes sleep on the floor while,at the same time,the US was handing out Adidas and Puma gear and first class airfare to its sports people,” he says.

He is not hopeful about the Commonwealth Games either. “Commonwealth Games used to be about camaraderie,about values,it had a homely touch with the whole town pitching in and a hundred bagpipers presenting a grand welcome. Look at it now,India got one opportunity to make a mark internationally,and the only mark they’ve left is a big black one.”