Sporting a New Look

Five years ago,Madras was in the backwaters of Indian sport. Sure, it had provided the nationwith great players across the sporting spectrum. But as far as playingfacilities were concerned, the city could not boast much beyond the venerableChepauk cricket stadium and a few other run-down edifices.

All that haschanged. And changed dramatically. Today, as it prepares to host the seventhSouth Asian Federation (SAF) Games from December 18 to 27, the southernmetropolis is all set to take its place as India’s premier sporting city.

Thetransformation has not come cheap. The state government has poured vast fundsinto the game’s kitty with Chief Minister J Jayalalitha taking a personalinterest. Estimated budget, a large chunk of which has gone into refurbishingthe city’s run-down stadia: a staggering Rs 240 crore.

The showpieceof the meet is the fabulous Nehru stadium, venue for cricket Test matches in the‘50s and home of the Tamil Nadu Football Association. Now a FIFA (the worldfootball body) approved stadium, it staged the international Nehru Gold Cup twoyears after the capacity was tripled to 75,000 and ultra-modern floodlightsinstalled.

With India’smedals tally drying up at the Asian Games – our athletes failed to win asingle gold at Hiroshima last year – the biennial regional meet for the SouthAssociation for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations provides some crumbs ofcomfort.

India hasalways comfortably topped the medals tally since the Games were first held atKathmandu in 1984. Weightlifting (for men) a traditional Indian strength, isback after being excluded from the last meet at Dhaka. And even though ourworld-class women lifters will not be seen in action, "we will still beat thepants off Pakistan and the others," says Wing Commander P.K. Mahanand, anational selector with the Indian Weightlifting Federation.

A total of1,242 participants from seven countries will compete in 14 disciplines. But themajor focus will be on athletics and hockey, the latter included for the firsttime. The India-Pakistan hockey final group clash on December 26 at therefurbished Mayor Radhakrishnan stadium will surely be the climax. The inclusionof former captain Jude Felix bolsters the team in the mid-field, thanks to hisextra pace, feels V. Bhaskaran, captain of the 1980 Moscow Olympics team andcoach at the recent Azlan Shah Cup in Kuala Lumpur.

Anotherbig-name comeback being staged is by former sprint queen P.T. Usha. Once thegolden girl of Indian athletics, the Payyoli Express is being given anotherchance to prove she still retains some of the magic that made her one ofAsia’s greatest in the 1980s.

While the SriLankans have made rapid progress on the track since Colombo staged the Games in1991, India remains the best in South Asia and they will remain on top, feelsEric Prabhakar. "The same cannot be said for our position in Asian athleticsin general, but we should once again dominate at the SAF level," says thesprinter who ran in the 1948 London Olympics.

Last minutehiccups continue to plague the final preparations. But while the Capital’sstadia, built with much fanfare and cost for the 1982 Asian Games show signs ofcrumbling. Madras is all spruced up for a grand show that could see it make abid for bigger things when the curtain comes down at the Nehru stadium onDecember 27. Next: The Asian or the Commonwealth Games?