Boxers get empty envelopes now, fat cheques later

Felicitation goof-up means embarrassed Chautala could double the reward, says official

It was a straight punch delivered on their face which the three boxers 8212; Akhil Kumar, Jitender Kumar and Vijender 8212; could have handled better on other occasions. But this time they couldn8217;t and were simply knocked out by the efforts of certain over enthusiastic officials. The three boxers who brought glory to the country in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games were invited to a felicitation function organised by the Table Tennis Federation of India TTFI in New Delhi. The function, chaired by TTFI president Ajay Singh Chautala, was to honour the table tennis players who won medals at the Games with cash awards.

Taking this opportunity, Chautala also wanted to honour the boxers from Bhiwani in his personal capacity as the Lok Sabha member from the constituency. A good thought, one would imagine but the pugilists were handed over empty envelopes. 8216;8216;It was a goof-up. Mr Chautala did not know that the envelopes were blank,8217;8217; said Rakesh Thakran, coordinator with the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation IABF. 8216;8216;Later when he discovered the fact, he promised to send the amount to the IABF by Monday,8217;8217; he said.

But how can such a blunder happen? TTFI secretary MC Chowhan explains: 8216;8216;Actually, the IABF president Abhay Singh Chautala, brother of Ajay Chautala, was also supposed to be present at the function. Unfortunately, he couldn8217;t make it. So our president Ajay Chautala, who wanted to give the amount from his own pocket, could not decide on the amount without discussing it with his brother. And hence the confusion.8217;8217;

But IABF secretary Col Muralidharan Raja, who was present at the felicitation, said Ajay Chautala was not slated to come for the function.

8216;8216;We IABF were not even aware of the decision to honour the boxers because it was purely a TTFI function. So, really I can8217;t say how this confusion happened. We will have our function two weeks later.8217;8217; Meanwhile, Chowhan said the confusion could be a blessing in disguise for the pugilists. If Chowhan is to be believed, 8216;8216;the TTFI president will give the boxers more amount now. I think each will get a cheque of Rs 50,000.8217;8217; Incidentally, when it came to giving away the cash awards to paddlers there was no confusion. Sharath Kamal, who won men8217;s singles gold and the team gold, received a cheque of Rs 1 lakh with a gold coin, while three paddlers received Rs 25,000 each.