In Olympic year,Didi not really game

Mitra’s work,however,has failed to receive wide acclaim,especially in the Olympic year with four players from the state — Ankita Das,Soumyajit Ghosh,Jaydeep Karmakar and Bharat Chettri — all set to London to participate in the quadrennial show piece. Das and Ghosh are table tennis players,Karmakar is the first shooter from the state to qualify for the Olympics after Soma Dutta,and Chettri is the goalkeeper of the Indian hockey team.

In 2000 it was Poulami Ghatak,four years later it was Mouma Das,both were paddlers. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics,hopes rested on archer Dola Banerjee.

Unlike other states,the Bengal Olympians have hardly ever received anything as government help. So,two years ago,when Poulami asked the then sports minister Kanti Ganguly about the level of achievement needed to get government help,her frustration was evident.

The Trinamool government,however,promised ‘poribartan’ and with a big Olympic contingent from the state this time,expectations are higher.

“The state government has a little role for the Olympic participants. Das and Ghosh are now attending a camp in Patiala,thereafter they will play some international ranking tournaments before the Olympics. All expenses will be paid by the Sports Authority of India,a central government organisation,” said former national champion table tennis player and coach Mantu Ghosh.

Mantu said this government has taken some positive steps. “They have promised us a table tennis academy in Siliguri and for the first time this place is going to host a Junior World Circuit Meet in October. They have shown intent.”

General secretary,Archery Association of India Pareshnath Mukherjee concurs. “The Olympic participants are Indian Olympic Association’s responsibility. Every player is training abroad and the Centre is footing the expense.”

Kanti Ganguly differs. “Agreed Bengal never had a policy for Olympic participants,but before every big international event we used to offer monetary help to the players.

“I had introduced a sports policy that included help for Olympic participants. Our policy to give pension to players has been sent into cold storage by this government. Only big stars were felicitated and the IPL was promoted. We spent Rs 4 crore to renovate the club house of Jadavpur Stadium,this government has turned that into a police barrack.”

His claims notwithstanding,the government help for the sportspersons in Bengal was always insufficient. “I will not comment on what happened during the late Subhas Chakraborty’s time but after I became the minister we spent about Rs 100 crore on sports,” Ganguly said. The new government has increased the Rs 100 crore budget by 0.64 per cent.