The IOA chief remains confident of Commonwealth Games’ success and rubbishes the view that politicians have been at the helm for too long - sportsmen, he says, can’t organise successful sporting events.
It is the bad odour I obviously am interested in, as we settle down to an extended meal at the Spice Route in Delhi’s Imperial Hotel where the food is good but also very, very expensive. I try to be as tactful as possible. “So much temptation, money, power. Aren’t you worried that people might talk about corruption?” I ask, referring to his chairmanship of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (CWG OC).
Kalmadi does not get up and walk out. He doesn’t even bang the table. He smiles. “Money? We’re not talking about cricket. We’re talking about games no one wants to sponsor or support. I have to raise money for training; I have to set up the teams; I have to run around government offices explaining that these people are sportsmen, please send them abroad so that they can compete, so that India gets a profile as a sporting nation — money!” he says with what P G Wodehouse might call a bitter laugh.
He is caustic about those who keep suggesting helpfully that sports should be run by sportsmen. “We’re talking Olympic sport and you need an industrialist, not a sportsman, as the president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). A sportsman can be the secretary of IOA. But you have no idea how commercially competitive the sporting world is. You need a sports entrepreneur who can raise money to run Olympic sport,” he says.
We have just had a cursory look at the menu, and Kalmadi turns down the offer of a glass of beer after looking furtively over his shoulder to see if anyone heard me make the offer. He has a bad head cold and wants soup. We try a Tom Yum Koong, the Thai shrimp soup, and go for a set menu that the Spice Route is famous for. His only request? “Give me a chicken green curry, that’s my favourite,” he says.
I continue to rile the waters for the bad odour. “So, how long are you going to continue as the president of IOA (the job that makes him ex-officio chairman of the CWG OC)?” I ask.
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He is non-committal. “Let’s see. I really think the government could have said in court that this is not the time to go into issues of tenure,” he says. The background is the announcement by the sports ministry that persons heading sports bodies — many for over 20 years — would have to retire. “After the Asian Games 28 years ago, we’re having international games in India. Everything was going well. What we needed was a pat on our backs. And now this…,” he says as he attacks his sticky rice. “They (the Sports Ministry) could have told the court something. We know how these things are done...,” he says.
But, he warns, this is not a matter to be taken lightly. “International Olympic bodies don’t like their authority and autonomy being questioned. Ghana and Kuwait are recent examples. Their governments tried to interfere with the management of Olympic-related events and they were suspended from the membership of Olympic games. The sports ministry is quoting national guidelines. But changes (in tenures) can only come from internal deliberations. You can’t enforce them,” he explains.
I find myself getting indignant. “Mike Fennel can come to India, slap us around and we have to suffer him. And you’re saying national rules should be suspended for people who’ve been hanging on to their post for 30 years?”
Kalmadi is patient. “What Mike Fennel said was a wake-up call. We have expertise in organising games like cricket, football and hockey. But we don’t play rugby. What do we know about organising a rugby match? Or net ball ? We are, after all, hosting the Commonwealth Games, not some local kabaddi tournament,” he says.
He cites all the agencies from whom clearances have to be sought: “The New Delhi Municipal Council, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Delhi Urban Arts Commission, the environment ministry, the Delhi Police … the list is endless. CWG standards require a wooden flooring for the cycling event. You need to have an underground tunnel in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium … and then there is the police and security. The police can’t just go berserk. There is a sports protocol that it has to understand. it isn’t easy.” He shakes his head, but adds: “ But, by the time the games come up, you will see it will all be sorted out.”
What’s worrying him the most, I ask. “The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, which is the main venue, is delayed. The swimming venue is also running behind schedule. These should have been finished by mid-June. They will now drag on to end-June.”
Kalmadi says there are two aspects of the CWG-related budget. One is associated with running the games — stadia, roads, hotels, etc. The other relates to organising them — TV rights, sponsorships, merchandise and ticketing. This Rs 1600-crore budget is his domain and but is also watched by two secretaries to the government (the urban development secretary and the youth affairs ministry secretary are on the Finance Committee which oversees all the expenditure) — he is happy to report, this part of the games would be revenue-neutral.
“The sponsorship rights have been sold to SMAM, an Australian company. Another company, Fast Track, which has had a commercial involvement in all the Commonwealth Games since 1990, has bagged the TV rights (‘after we floated a global tender,’ he quickly adds). For the Melbourne 2006 Games, Fast Track delivered record levels of rights income and broadcast distribution not only within the 71 Commonwealth nations and territories but from the non-Commonwealth countries such as the US, the Middle East and across much of Europe,” he says. “And who owns Fast Track?” I ask as disinterestedly as possible. “I don’t know,” he says politely. He says money was pouring in. Revenue was supposed to be $30 million but it had already crossed $50 million. Australia is the biggest investor in TV rights, followed by New Zealand, South Africa and the BBC. For the first time, even Canada had spent money buying rights. The sponsorship deals amounted to between Rs 800 and Rs 900 crore. Kalmadi was negotiating with Samsung and LG for sponsorship rights. Maruti had agreed to provide buses but had backed out at the last minute, and the contest was now between the Tatas and the Mahindras.
I ask him about the opening ceremony. “It is at an advanced stage. Wizcraft is handling it. It will showcase 5,000 years of India’s heritage. I can’t tell you more than that. It will be better than Melbourne or Manchester. It will beat Beijing,” he says, referring to the Olympic Games opening ceremony.
There is much to ask him: His relations with Ajit Pawar, Sharad Pawar’s nephew who drove him out of the Pawar family into the arms of the Congress. “Blood is thicker than water,” he says. I tell him that Sharadrao had come to Pune during the Lok Sabha elections and threatened to boycott the city if Ajit Pawar’s workers did not work for Kalmadi (the two parties had an alliance). He thinks for a while. “How many people really listened to Sharadrao,” he wonders.
“Come to Wagah,” Kalmadi says, adding, “June 25 will see the Queen’s Baton being passed to India by the Pakistan Olympic Committee. This will mark 100 days to the Commonwealth Games. ” Perhaps the bad odour will yield place to the good one.