Karnataka’s image takes a nosedive

Elsewhere, at the Bangalore District Football Association Stadium, three volleyball players first took a beating from some Karnataka supporters and then from a clutch of overzealous policemen.

The reason for the near-riot at the athletics venue was the disqualification of Karnataka women’s 4×100 metres relay team for two false starts and at the BDFA Stadium, it was the defeat of Karnataka at the hands of Kerala in the football semi-final, that the crowds could not stomach.

After minor rumblings during the World Cup quarter-final between India and Pakistan, the first discernible signs of intolerance cropped up during the Titan Cup league match between the hosts and Australia last year. Then, it took an appeal from the then India skipper, Mohammed Azharuddin, before the crowd allowed the game to resume.

Today, the crowd erupted after Karnakata’s lead relay leg runner Sumana was given marching orders after two false starts. Possibly, the first was due to a flashlight from a lensman. But rules are rules, and the referee had little option but to scratch the side. The inexperienced Sumana walked out, as did her colleagues, Vasanthi, MK Asha and EB Shyla. A few mischevious elements, some of them in the stand adjoining the Press Box, started shouting “Down, down…” and the trouble began. Plastic chairs came in torrents from the upper stands, and the crowd in the stands right below, including the media, had to scurry for cover.

The police wearing helmets came late, as usual, and a little later the officials decided to go ahead with the event. But then, another stand erupted and a couple of more chairs came onto the track. A stick flung from there just missed one of the runners.

After that, it took nearly an hour for the event to be held. An appeal, in Kannadiga, from Arjun Devaiah, former international and vice-president of the Karnataka Amateur Athletic Association, helped soothe matters before the event was finally held. By then, the arena resembled a riot zone, with policemen all around. But, at least, the event was gone through.

A couple of hours earlier, at the football venue, Jo Paul Ancheri’s second goal a minute from the end, had Kerala supporters, including some volleyball players from that state, clapping in glee. It was something the Karnataka supporters were obviously unable to appreciate, and a brawl resulted.

Fortunately, the two warring segments were separated, but before anyone could breathe peacefully, the police pulled the three Kerala spikers to the Police Aid Post, below the stairs in the stadium itself.

On the way, the police, in full view, slapped them. Despite the trio showing their accreditation cards, they were further roughed up inside the Aid Post. Only after P Balachandran, the chef-de-mission of the Kerala contingent, came onto the scene were the players released and taken to the Games village under escort.

In the months leading up to the mega-event, the National Games Organising Committee seemed to have done little worthy of credit. The stadia were still incomplete and the organisation was in a shambles; and even after the Games had begun, most schedules were not available, the living conditions in the Village abysmal and many of the playing surfaces including the athletics track below standard. And now, as the Games near their end, comes this crowd trouble.

Amidst all this, the Karnataka sportspersons — even in their hour of disappointment, the relay squad kept its cool and did nothing to incite the crowd — alone seemed to have redeemed the image of the stage, by turning in excellent performances, majority of them on the track and at the pool. But for them, the State’s sagging sports image would have done irreparable damage.