Spotlight back on boxers as effort is being made to revive boxing in India

It’s hard to miss the excitement in 17-year-old Jyoti Gulia’s voice. The young boxer from Haryana’s Rohtak district has just won a series of medals for the country in her weight category. Gulia has been competing for the past five years but just the last one year, she says, has seen dramatic changes. She trained for two weeks in Kazakhstan prior to a tournament in Serbia, where she won a gold medal. After that she went to Istanbul for a competition, where she won a bronze medal. Later in the year, she participated in the World Youth Championship at Guwahati and won a gold. She has also qualified for the Summer Youth Olympics to be held in October 2018 in Argentina. The energy in her tone is evident in her performance.

Another youth boxer, 18-year-old Shashi Chopra, says that the best thing that has happened for them over the last year is that they are being sent for a series of international competitions. Unlike in the past, almost all boxers in the fray are being given a chance. “Earlier it was often restricted to only the top players — the stars, so to speak. The same players would be chosen to go again and again. Now everyone is being given a chance to go,” she says. Chopra herself has travelled to Istanbul, Bulgaria and Jakarta in the last one year. In India, she has taken part in the youth championship in Guwahati as well as the nationals and won a clutch of medals. She’s looking forward to a host of competitions in the remaining months of 2018 and 2019, and breathlessly reels off a long list.

THEY’VE GOT THE POWER: Jyoti Gulia from Rohtak and Shashi Chopra from Hisar | Photos courtesy: Boxing Federation of India

 It may not seem like rocket science but Indian politicians, bureaucrats and sports federation heads have been slow to figure this one out: How do you get a sport that has lost its glory to make a comeback? Commonsensically, the answer is simple: By focusing on the players and what they need to perform.

Ajay Singh seems to understand this. The chief of the airline SpiceJet has decided to focus on precisely this requirement as he tries to turn things around at the Boxing Federation of India (BFI), of which he became president in 2016. When he took charge at the BFI, India’s position in the boxing world had slipped drastically. “A country of 1.3 billion people was producing two medal winners and the officials were rejoicing over it! It was absurd. The country was losing a whole generation of boxers,” says Singh. The federation was barely functional and that familiar bane of Indian officialdom — apathy — had set in.

The decline owed to the fact that those in charge were focused on everything but the players. Coaches had no clear schedule for training and were often unclear on who they needed to train; the coaches themselves could have used training; infrastructure for the players was non-existent; and player’s needs were the last factor under consideration. “Essentially, no thought was going into what the players needed or the running of the federation. The results spoke for the state of affairs,” says Singh.

When contingents travelled for competitions, officials reportedly put themselves up at luxury hotels while boxers stayed at dharamshalas or run-down guest houses. Often, nobody assessed what players needed when they were sent for international competitions. A team of young female boxers leaving to compete in Serbia last year, for instance, were given thin track suits — of a quality which wouldn’t suffice for a Delhi winter, let alone Serbian temperatures. “A lot of these girls come from very modest backgrounds and have never had the opportunity to travel before — let alone have the required clothing. Somebody needs to look into these aspects,” argues Singh. Since then, players were bought warm down jackets and other gear.

Singh started holding regular open houses with the boxers so he could hear them directly. The boxers say they are seeing a focus on the players and their needs for the first time in years. Gulia says that players are constantly being asked what they need and, more often than not, their needs are fulfilled. “Our voices are being heard and this is a big change,” she explains. She says she feels very motivated when she sees the response and support she gets.

THEY’VE GOT THE POWER: Jyoti Gulia from Rohtak and Shashi Chopra from Hisar | Photos courtesy: Boxing Federation of India

Singh has also roped in the Sports Authority of India and started using their infrastructure wherever possible. Coaching camps were started for the top 40 boxers. New coaches, equipment and infrastructure have been provided in the last year or so. Several coaches have been brought in from abroad, and have introduced new techniques. Budgets for the sport have also been increased; the federation is now being given Rs 350 million by the sports ministry, a handsome increase from the previous Rs 50 million a year. With sponsorships (including from SpiceJet), the BFI now has a corpus of Rs 500 million annually to spend. The money will directly help the 3,500 boxers who participate in the national championships.

Singh says that, as usual, the availability of government money is not the problem but it has typically been “scattered all over the place”. He argues that the funds need to be focused on sports like boxing that typically don’t need massive budgets and where India has had a natural advantage.

States like Haryana have also chipped in. The National Boxing Academy was inaugurated in January 2017 in Rohtak in Haryana, a state that produces a high percentage of national boxers.

Competitors are being sent to as many international championships and the national championships are being revived. At the recently World Youth Championship for women held in Guwahati, Indian boxers won five golds — typical medal tallies in the past didn’t rise above a bronze medal or two. In November, a senior women’s championship is on the charts.

Going against everyone’s opinion that she was “too old” and no longer at her peak, Olympic boxer, Mary Kom, has been pulled back into the fold. Kom will help impart training to the young boxers. “My point was that most of these girls join hoping someday to become a Mary Kom. Who better to inspire them than the lady herself?” says Singh. Far being from over the hill, Kom herself won India a gold at the recent Asian Boxing Championships.

One year of concentrated work has already begun to show results. India is back in the top five nations on the boxing charts and medals are pouring in from both national and international tournaments, in both youth and senior categories, men and women. In one year alone, there have been 33 tournaments that boxers have participated in, most of them overseas.

Bringing SpiceJet back from the brink of closure was a considerable feat. But Singh’s contribution to Indian boxing over his four-year term as president could well be his bigger and more lasting achievement. The excitement in the ring and outside of it is palpable.