BANGKOK, Dec 4: India's athletes are battling not only the rest of Asia but the shocking apathy back home from sports officials that has reduced them to second-class citizens. Karnam Malleswari goes for gold in the first ever women's weightlifting event at the Asian Games after surviving on a diet allowance of three dollars (Rs 126) a day.The men's hockey team, once the masters of the game and attempting a long-awaited comback into the world arena, spent post-training hours trying to rope in a sponsor for their kits.``It could be seven golds in Bangkok,'' said Alexander Krasilshehikov, an Ukranian specialist on training methods who has been hired by the Sports Authority of India (SAI).The athletes know that whatever success they gain at the Asiad they will remain poor cousins of the cricketers, India's most popular and wealthy sportsmen.The day the Indian Olympic Association announced a cash reward of 25,000 rupees ($ 595) for the Commonwealth Games gold medalists, the independent Indian CricketBoard decided to pay the cricketers $ 2,400 (Rs one lakh) each for merely taking part in the Games.This, when the Indian team led by Ajay Jadeja and including master batsman Sachin Tendulkar, failed to even qualify for the semi-finals.``This is just not good enough,'' says Ukranian Dmitri Riabourkha, the coach of the Indian Rowing team. ``In my country, they give $ 50,000 for an Olympic gold medal. In India, it's just around $ 2,500 for coming first in the Asian Games.''Malleswari hopes to lift a combined tally of 235 kilos to win the Asiad gold but coach Tomas Stoichev, a world champion from Bulgaria, is worried his under-fed ward may tire easily.``It's because of the good,'' he says. ``There's only chicken, no beef, no pork.'' Stoichev's request to increase the diet allowance from three dollars to 10 has been kept pending by the authorities till after the Asiad.
