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Journalism of Courage
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This is an archive article published on June 10, 1997
Teammates at war
Mysore, June 9: Rivalry in sport is nothing new. In Indian table tennis, face-offs like those between Kamlesh Mehta and S Sriram; Kamlesh a...
Mysore, June 9: Rivalry in sport is nothing new. In Indian table tennis, face-offs like those between Kamlesh Mehta and S Sriram; Kamlesh and Sujay Ghorpade; and Indu Puri and Monalisa Barua-Mehta have only enhanced interest in the game.
Yet, in recent times, a new, and ugly, kind of rivalry has emerged between the two paddlers from Petroleum Sports Control Board PSCB 8212; Chetan Baboor and Arup Basak. So the Baboor-Basak clash at the Games was to be the highpoint of the table tennis competition.
The two duly reached the final, but it was hardly the kind of a match anybody would have wanted.
Basak, India No 2, was keyed up from the word go. Very early in the match, he showed dissent by disputing a line call. In the fourth game, Basak8217;s argumentative abilities came to the fore once again. He vociferously disputed a serve by Baboor and complicated matter by refusing to resume the game.
After he lost the match, resorting to mindless acrobatics while serving, Basak8217;s anger turned towards the chief referee as he began shouting: 8220;You want him to win every match.8221; When the scribes approached him all that they got was 8220;No comments8221;.
Still it left a bad taste, coming as it did from the No. 2 player in the country.
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