LUDHIANA, Dec 25: ``If you give peanuts, you can only get monkeys around you and if you give incentives and appropriate money you get good coaches. And once you get some high-calibred coaches, your medal-count would not only be restricted to bronze and silver. You will have a bagful of gold medals,'' feels Major Amolakjit Singh, a bronze-medalist in equestrian at the recent Bangkok Asian Games.Disappointed over the Indian coaching standards and poor sports infrastrucre available to them in the country, the young army officer from Ludhiana asserted that had they been provided with thorough-bred horses, they would have won a gold instead. ``However, demanding such things from officials who failed to provide even adequate sports kits to the players in time is a big ask. Isn't it?''``Rather than wasting my time in running after the officials to get a sanction to buy a horse I decided to compete on my horse - `Smart,'' said Amolakjit.In the city to attend a function organised by Tagore Vidya Mandir School to honour him, he also held the government equally responsible for the poor performance of India at international sports meet. ``Red tapisim on the part of government is a major cause for it as even the teams are selected merely a month before sports meet,'' he said. ``We (equestrian team) were informed on October 22 that we are going to represent our country in the Asiads,'' he added.``If we just compare the Indian coaching standards with those in China, our coaches stand nowhere. That's why we must have foreign coaches, if needed''.
