‘Sports culture is waning… there were times when I wanted to quit’

“The sports culture in India is waning,” he says while two gentlemen — actor Irrfan Khan and former boxer Dharmendra Singh Yadav — sitting next to him nod in unison. Three different people with different interests met in Chandigarh on Monday. The conversation that ensued between them showed how much they had in common despite the generational gap separating them.

Irfan,who recently essayed the role of Paan Singh Tomar in the biopic on an athlete-turned-dacoit,once ran away from home so that he could somehow ‘earn’ Rs 550 that he needed to submit as fee to play in a cricket team. “But I was away from home just for a day,” he joked,praising Brian Lara’s flawless batting and Zinedine Zidane’s majestic football skills.

Hakeem,though he was well-off because of his father S A Rahim,the greatest Indian coach,felt the pain when his Rome Olympics teammates could not marry off their granddaughters due to financial constraints. “After my father expired in 1961 while I was in the Air Force,there were times when I wanted to quit the game because the salary was not coming. But there was a junoon,a burning desire that kept me going. Most of my teammates are living in poverty and those who have died,their families are facing lots of hardships. The situation has improved now but the quality has gone down,” he laments.

Yadav had to look to foreign shores when money did not come in boxing. “There was a time when I did not have Rs 23 to buy a boxing kit. So,I became a professional boxer. Ghar ka chulha to jalana tha (I had to keep kitchen fire burning). I was ridiculed for being diminutive (he is 5’4”). I am glad I followed my instinct keeping in mind my interest,built and got success,” said Dharmendra,who competed in the flyweight category in the Barcelona Olympics.

Their stories interwoven into one,all are looking for an answer to the long-impending queries: how India as a nation takes care of its sportspersons,whether sportspersons other than cricketers get their due in terms of fame and money?

“We have so much talent at the grassroots level but there is no system to tap their talent. Talent is shakti,power. When it is not tapped,then you lose the power. Haryana is perhaps the only state in the country which takes care of sports the best. Also,the government should not discriminate between sportspersons. It should not matter to them whether the sportsperson is a cricketer or from some other discipline. Sportspersons also desire to be respected,” Irfaan said.

On the London Olympics,Hakeem said,“Apart from the three disciplines in which we have had success in the past — shooting,boxing and wrestling — I am hopeful Indian archers would also come back with medals this time.”