Pit Stop Hyderabad

The big question is this: In a city where change appears constant, where IT has yielded place to BT and then PT biotech, and pharmaceuticals, in local geek-talk, is sport just another passing fad for Naidu or is there a big picture in all of this? In other words, what is Naidu8217;s Sporting Gameplan?

To understand why the question is being raised, it8217;s necessary to look at Naidu8217;s position in Andhra Pradesh. On the face of it, for all his revolutionary, pioneering work in hi-tech, the TDP chief is on a politically sticky wicket. He faces elections next year. There are very real issues to hit him with 8212; lack of irrigation facilities, ignoring the hinterland, doing nothing for traditional industries.

Local dailies fill their state news pages with reports of farmers8217; agitations over lack of water; on Thursday, September 26, the state secretary of the Bharatiya Kisan Union committed suicide over the plight of farmers.

Suddenly, the roar of Michael Schumacher8217;s Ferrari seems a long way away, the exoticity of powerboat racing a folly on Titanic scales. How can you sell car-racing and Tiger Woods to your farmers when they don8217;t have water to irrigate their crops? And don8217;t even mention the 5 lakh gallons of water consumed by the swimming pool at the Games complex every day.

But it8217;s real, it8217;s happening and, say top officials of the state government, will be good for the state. It8217;s not a piecemeal plan but a part of Naidu8217;s Vision 2020. 8216;8216;It8217;s a long-term plan8217;8217;, says LV Subrahmanyam, Sports Commissioner and MD of the AP Sports Authority. 8216;8216;Unfortunately, we have no examples to follow in this country. But one has to be optimistic.8217;8217;

One of those optimistic is current local favourite Sania Mirza 8212; indeed, it8217;s tough to say who is whose fan. 8216;8216;Mr Naidu is always updated on who is doing what and where. The best example of this is when I won the Wimbledon. One of the first phone calls my father received was from the CM8217;s office.8217;8217;

If there is a plan, it was born two years ago when Hyderabad tasted a glut of sporting success. First, the double-whammy: VVS Laxman scored his famous 281 against Australia at Eden Gardens and Pulella Gopichand won the All-England badminton championship on successive days. A few months later, Karnam Malleswari returned home from Sydney with an Olympic bronze. Naidu noticed the adulation 8212; one eye firmly on the widespread coverage 8212; and realised that, as sport made its way to the front pages of the mainstream press, here was a horse worth backing.

Next stop was last year8217;s National Games which, though later overshadowed by a doping scandal, will be remembered by athletes for the manner in which they were pampered. Naidu8217;s eye for detail saw to it that the food was good and plentiful 8212; and that journalists were kept happy.

Call it coincidence or the luck of the devil but his growing interest in sport mirrored achievements by locals. The chess wizkids Humpy and Harikrishna, batting prodigy Ambati Rayudu and, most recently and spectacularly, tennis teen Sania Mirza. Each was embraced as a son or daughter of the soil and each was given 15 minutes of fame, including the motorcade from Begumpet airport to the CM8217;s house.

Once there, tea and niceties was followed by intense grilling on the facilities available at top sporting venues across the world . 8216;8216;He debriefs you on the minutest details8217;8217;, says Olympian hockey-player Mukesh Kumar. 8216;8216;He wants to know everything, and immediately. And he doesn8217;t do it to make you feel good.8217;8217;

THE result of these intense sessions can be seen at the Gachibowli complex, where the Afro-Asian Games will be staged. Mostly built a year ago for the National Games, they form the best set of sporting arenas anywhere in the country. And offer proof that where there8217;s a will, there8217;s a way; work on the two hockey arenas 8212; located in the same rocky, forested area as the rest of the complex 8212; began in August and is expected to be completed in a fortnight. Even in e-city, that8217;s superfast.

That8217;s what comes when you have a single-window clearance system. Naidu is famously quick in taking decisions 8212; he expects his people to be equally speedy in implementing them 8212; and in making deals as simple as possible. Sania gives her own example. 8216;8216;As soon as I arrived at Hyderabad after winning at Wimbledon, Mr Naidu hosted a civic reception for me at the airport. That very day I went to his residence and he came to the point quickly: 8216;Where would you like you go and train.8217; I was surprised, I said the US, working under coach Bob Brett. He said OK, there and then.8217;8217;

8216;8216;That8217;s why Jeetendra came to Hyderabad8217;8217;, says a smiling PNV Prasad, who combines his role as chairman of the AP Sports Authority with heading the Telugu Desam8217;s Technology Committee. 8216;8216;We work faster, we are more professional here. That8217;s why businessmen like to deal with us.8217;8217;

The latest to do so are the moneymen of IMG, the pioneering international sports and leisure management group that signed a Rs 700-crore deal with the AP government last month. It8217;s a deal that offers more than money: it8217;s the key to Naidu8217;s sporting vision.

Under the deal, IMG will maintain the AAG stadium complex; will bring international events to Hyderabad; will set up and run academies; and will not enter into any similar deal in India8217;s neighbourhood. Also, IMG will build 8216;8216;residential accommodation for an Olympic-style event8217;8217;.

The money is good; Rs 500 crore to be invested in 30 months, in the form of academies, the rest over five years. In return, IMG gets 450 acres to set up their entertainment/leisure/ lifestyle activities and make their bottomline.

As much as the money, it8217;s the spinoffs from this that Naidu is eyeing keenly. Imagine, for example, Tiger Woods 8212; one of IMG8217;s clients 8212; coming here for even one day a year. That alone will bring Hyderabad all the front-page headlines Naidu seeks.

At a deeper level, it8217;s expected that IMG8217;s professional expertise in sports training will percolate down to district and mandal levels. The one string Naidu has attached is that 50 Andhra children will get seats in the different academies at discounted fees. Where will these children come from? The government has already set in motion a scheme tapping children from classes 8-12..

So it8217;s sport for the sake of sport, then. Or is it?

8216;8216;It8217;s sport for the sake of investment8217;8217;, says K Ramachandran, professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy at the high-profile Indian School of Business next door to the Gachibowli stadium. 8216;8216;Traditional industries are dying out, Naidu doesn8217;t think much of agriculture. He8217;s seen the trickle-down effect of IT and he8217;s thinking, 8216;Why can8217;t sports do the same for me?8217; 8217;8217;

So the government sees this as a form of tourism, with the potential to draw people here. 8216;8216;Imagine if you have Formula 1 here; think of the crowds who will come here, even if it8217;s just for a week. These are the super-rich, potential investors. Impress them with what Hyderabad and its vicinity has to offer 8212; and the government is giving the traditional temple tourism industry a complete overhaul.8217;8217;

Ramachandran, who calls himself a socialist, is nevertheless bullish on the prospects. 8216;8216;I grew up in Hyderabad but ran away8217;8217;, he says. 8216;8216;But when I saw this change, I gave up my job at IIM, Ahmedabad, to work here. And what I see happening now, with IMG, the AAG and possibly Formula 1, are all stepping stones to investment.8217;8217;

Well, if Naidu8217;s losing interest in farming, what about the farmers? That brings forth the cynical explanation of Naidu8217;s plan: it8217;s all aimed at employment generation. It seems plausible, if only in part. While figures for the number of labourers 8212; typically drawn from the Telengana region 8212; involved in building the AAG complex aren8217;t available, L038;T officials at the site of the hockey stadium said 2,500 people have been involved in that venture. For the big picture, it8217;s safe to multiply that tenfold.

And this is just the AAG complex 8212; the perpetual cycle of construction and building can be maintained for several years to come it helps that the government owns thousands of acres of land surrounding Hyderabad that can be sold at concessional rates.

There8217;s an international airport being built at Shamshahbad, near the IT enclave, which will allow visitors to go the new city without having to pass through the old.

It8217;s debatable whether much of this, if any, impresses Naidu8217;s voters. Indeed, to see just how localised the glitz and glamour is, you don8217;t need to go to Warangal. Take an auto-rickshaw to the Old City, walk around the Charminar and you8217;ll find yourself transported to another age. All the ills that have been removed from the rest of Hyderabad remain here.

At Farasha, the dhaba overlooking the ancient monument, over cups of excellent tea which somewhat made up for the sorely disappointing Hyderabadi biryani 8212; even at the restaurant where fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar once ate five plates, Taiyyeb says he8217;s heard of Formula 1. Asked what it would do for him and his family, the dhaba-owner reflects for a while before saying: 8216;8216;I have patience, I have faith. I am confident that things will improve.8217;8217;

He then takes on, unwittingly, Ramachandran8217;s theme 8212; that tourism begets investment. 8216;8216;The Falaknuma palace was in a shambles a few years ago. Now it8217;s been restored and lots of people visit; some of them come here, a few to my shop. They have plans to clean up the Charminar, so that will be good for me too.8217;8217;

On the way back, Mansur the auto-driver shatters the illusion. 8216;8216;What racing? How can we have racing when back home my family doesn8217;t have water for the crops? This government is mad. And it will lose the elections.8217;8217;

Perhaps. And perhaps not. In his room at the ISB, which resembles a very plush corporate office, Ramachandran looks at the pouring rain outside. And then says, with a gesture of his hand to indicate that any argument was finished, 8216;8216;He won8217;t lose. Not with this monsoon.8217;8217;

For all Naidu8217;s high-tech and wizardry, for all his Formula 1 and fantasy-selling, this simple, atavistic truism says it all. There8217;s nothing like a good rain. Not even Michael Schumacher.