Indian Sports Trusts Thread ...

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Re: Mittal Champions Trust Thread ...

Post by Sandeep »

With all the hoopla around olympics we completely forgot about the trust which brought cheers to us at Beijing 2008. 

Four athletes from Mittal's trust have performed exceedingly well in this olympics.

1. Abinav Bindra
2. Saina Nehwal
3. Akhil kumar
4. Veerdhawal Khade (he bettered his personal best though was not in the semifinals/finals)

Kudos to Mittal  :notworthy: for starting this trust and helping India win its first individual gold medal in the history of modern olympics.

We have Saina and Veerdhawal Khade from the trust who has it in them to win medals in 2012 olympics  woohoo

I would like to see him signing more athletes and aiming for more golds at 2012 olympics. They have only 12 athletes right now in their camp. 
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Re: Mittal Champions Trust Thread ...

Post by jayakris »

We didn't forget MTC.  We had a discussion about 3-4 days back on them in one of the threads (we were discussing if they have any athletes in their list - they actually don't - they probably know that there is hardly anybody in the current bunch who are a prospect for anything great even with support). 

I even sent a congratulatory note to our friend Manisha Malhotra who administers the trust.  In fact 6 of the first 8 who finished with a top-8 standing (including Mansher Singh, Archery team, etc) had some support by them - one of the other two were LP/MB but Mahesh is also part of running MTC though not supported by them.

Add Vijendar also.  He specifically mentioned how physio Heath Matthews was one of the biggets reasons for boxing's good results.  Now, if we had just got that guy in for the Olympics it would not have had the same effect.  He has been with them for a while, and actually been part of the inner "think tank" on strategy too.  I remember talking to Imran Mirza at the Indian Wells - he said "it would have been great to have Heath Mathews with Sania, but he is expensive and we cannot compete with Manisha!" (jokingly).  In fact, out hallowed sports authorities tried not to clear Heath Matthews in the end for Olympics ..

Thank you Mittal Trust!

Jay
Last edited by jayakris on Thu Aug 21, 2008 3:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mittal Champions Trust Thread ...

Post by prasen9 »

Since it is my nature, ... Do you really think Khade will get an Olympics medal?  I think he will possibly get some Asian Games medals and maybe that is why MTC is funding him.  When you have limited money, you should invest it where the chance of returns are higher.  Shooting, archery, boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, tennis are the best bets, and money should go there.  If we are not talking Olympics but Asian Games, then it is a different story.  When we argue against someone, people take the side of the person, but, let us say, Khade versus Jitender, the boxer.  Who has a better chance in the next Olympics?
Last edited by prasen9 on Fri Aug 22, 2008 6:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mittal Champions Trust Thread ...

Post by jayakris »

Well, if Khade is within the top-5 or top-10 in his age range (which he is, though he is not exactly #1 in his age range like some poeople hype) he should be picked up and supported for next Olympics.   From what I understand, MTC is not really picking one over the other because of lack of money either.

India does not have a money problem.  We have a passion problem from administrators in sports, and we have a deficiency of "clue" in the same administrators.   MTC has so far showed that they have a clue, and that they do have some passion for doing the right things.

The next group of youngsters I want MTC to pick up are actually our volleyball players (some of the current bunch in the juniors and perhaps even bringing back a couple from the 2003 world youth runner-up team who have fallen by the wayside already).   Mandeep Singh is one of the very best volleyball players in the world to emerge in the junior levels in the last 2-3 years.  Our men's volleyball team HAS a medal chance in the next Olympics if we plan properly.

Jay
Last edited by jayakris on Thu Aug 21, 2008 3:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mittal Champions Trust Thread ...

Post by shaili »

Here is a question for Sports India members-

Who do you think should be supported by MTC (or another private institution) for the next 4 years till 2012 London Olympics?

Please list max. 12 names.

:D lets see if we think like the MTC guys - though we will know only after some time when they take more sportspersons under their wing.
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Re: Mittal Champions Trust Thread ...

Post by arjun2761 »

How about our hockey team and its coaching staff?  However, I suspect they may not have the stomach for funding large teams but this could work as a public-private partnership with the private sector running the show with government funds (for a finite time and with finite result targets).
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Re: Mittal Champions Trust Thread ...

Post by Atithee »

Shaili - I would think if MTC's stated goal is to produce Olympic medalists, they should choose 12 sports and ask their respective national associations to "recommend" three names in each sport.  The MTC can then choose one (or more) based on their internal (hopefully objective) criteria without being bound by the submissions.  I don't see how this can work for a team sport as hockey.  I would not recommend a blanket donation to IHF or whatever it is called now as they will just use the funds to take trips around the world and recommend methods to rejeuvenate Indian hockey while the no-brainer solution has been at our disposal for many years.

My choice for the 12 sports (in random order) is:

1. Shooting
2. Table-tennis
3. Tennis
4. Weight-lifting
5. Archery
6. Swimming (could have two)
7. Equestrain
8. Rowing/Sailing
9. Wrestling
10. Boxing (only because some consider it a sport)
11. Track and Field (could have two)
12. Badminton

I would also encourage them to fund not only men, but also a significant number of women.
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Re: Mittal Champions Trust Thread ...

Post by sameerph »

jayakris wrote: Our men's volleyball team HAS a medal chance in the next Olympics if we plan properly.

Jay
Wow, Jay that is a huge prediction for a team which did not qualify for this olympics or does not have an Asian games medal in the last few years.

I too feel Khade should continue to be supported by MTC. Even if he does not win a medal but reaches the final or say wins an Asiad gold that will be a huge boost for a sport where we stand nowhere even at Asian levels & which has a big medal haul.
Already there is  a lot of buzz in Indian press/ print media in last few days about olympics sports . Perhaps for the first time yesterday India had won a ODI & the news was totally sidelined in front of Suhil/Vijender show. Time to cash in now for olympic sports to buld on this momentum.
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Re: Mittal Champions Trust Thread ...

Post by shaili »

Here is something from the MCT website:

Aug 12th, 2008
Sushma Singh is the latest athlete to be signed on by the Mittal Champions Trust.

Sushma is an up and coming pistol shooter who missed out a qualification spot to Beijing by a whisker.

We feel that there needs to be a push made for our Indian Pistol shooters who have been on the periphery for a long time now but have never been able to break through to the Olympic level.

The Mittal Champions Trust feels like there is a huge potential for shooters like Sushma and we are now looking forward to London 2012.


Some more about the number of athletes under MCT sponsorship
MCT was set up in November 2005 to deliver results, especially at the Beijing and London Games. The Trust is spearheaded by Mittal�s son-in-law Amit Bhatia who is involved in providing facilities to the athletes. Bindra is one of them.Bhatia, meanwhile, informed that at present over 40 athletes were registered with the trust. "Out of them, 14 are participating in Beijing." He said most of the athletes would be in their prime during the 2012 Olympics.
Last edited by shaili on Thu Aug 21, 2008 5:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mittal Champions Trust Thread ...

Post by jayakris »

Wow, Jay that is a huge prediction for a team which did not qualify for this olympics or does not have an Asian games medal in the last few years.
Oh, don't remind me.  How the men's volleyball team was set up by China (who control Asian Volleyball Confederation) to miss the Olympics was the biggest scandal last year.  I had written a front page article here, and if you read the volleyball thread you will remember the story .. They might say that it all happened by chance only, but the fact is that they knew that the format they selected will cause India not to be seeded last year ..

To cut the story short, it all came down to ONE match, the very first one on the first day of the asian senior volleyball championships last september (that's it, one match only - nothing else mattered) and it was set up to be against the new Asian entry Australia, the biggest upcoming volleyball power in Asia.   We lost a close one (in a close 5th set if I remember correctly), and were out of reckoning for a top-8 spot in Asia immediately on the first day! .. Mindboggling, indeed.  We beat everybody else by laugher matches, but could finish only 9th while teams like Indonesia and Taiwan (IIRC) who had no business being in Asian top-8 made it in thanks to the ridiculous draw they made.  India was legitimately among the top-6 teams in Asia, quite possibly third or 4th.

The Olympic qualifying, world championship qualifying, entry to this year's first Asian Men's Cup - everything depended on a top-8 finish in last year's Asian senior championships and we missed everything - really for no fault of ours.

Even worse - the way the ranking system works, this would drop our world rankings, which in turn could take us out of a seeding next time, and could cause more damage if we happen to be in a bad pool thanks to the ridiculous format AVC continues to use for their tournaments.  Keeping China, Japan and Korea as the top three and trying to push India and Iran out, seems to be the mission theu are hell-bent on.

What we need to remember is that we are one of only THREE teams to finish in the top-8 for three consecutive world youth u19 championships, including a runner-up position in 2003.  Is there any doubt that we have some really talented pool of players? .. Last year's Asian senior championships was probably the first time the talent would have shown, but we got royally screwed. 

We have been continuously ranked in u19 for 4-5 years in the top-12 in the world, with roughly two groups of 12 each having kept us in that ranking range - so there is actually a pool of players who are quite talented.  Need to do something and get Mandeep Singh to lead us to a medal in the next Olympics.  No question that we will finish top-8 at least if we do not screw up.

But from what I understand, Indian Volleyball federation runs mostly on funds from one man, Padmashree Dr. Sivanth Adithyan and the sports mandarins have still not figured out that we are ready to emerge in Volleyball.  Somebody needs to get involved and give Indian men's volleyball a proper push RIGHT NOW.

Jay
Last edited by jayakris on Thu Aug 21, 2008 5:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mittal Champions Trust Thread ...

Post by kujo »

jayakris wrote: But from what I understand, Indian Volleyball federation runs mostly on funds from one man, Padmashree Dr. Sivanth Adithyan and the sports mandarins have still not figured out that we are ready to emerge in Volleyball.  Somebody needs to get involved and give Indian men's volleyball a proper push RIGHT NOW.

Jay
what??!!  on the funds of one man!  all these years?!  that is crazy
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Re: Mittal Champions Trust Thread ...

Post by jayakris »

Well, not exactly, but what I have seen is that he is the one who has been keeping them going with a lot of funds (but he is also former IOA man etc - and I assume he has his own politics too) .. I am not that well-informed on the details, so I could be wrong.  He is the Volleyball Federation of India president.

Jay
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Re: Mittal Champions Trust Thread ...

Post by prasen9 »

jayakris wrote: Well, if Khade is within the top-5 or top-10 in his age range (which he is, though he is not exactly #1 in his age range like some poeople hype) he should be picked up and supported for next Olympics.  From what I understand, MTC is not really picking one over the other because of lack of money either.

India does not have a money problem.
If money is not a problem, then I wonder why the MCT has not signed Sushil, and other boxers and wrestlers?

Khade is a watershed for Indian swimming.  I appreciate his feats and enjoy them.  However, often, Indians win age-group championships but cannot cut it later.  Is his timing among the top-5 to top-10 among (other) juniors in the last decade (including those who have graduated to seniors now)?  I do not know much about Khade, so this is a fact-finding question.

[updated this post after finding out that Gagan Narang had rejected MCT, which I did not know.]
Last edited by prasen9 on Fri Aug 22, 2008 6:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mittal Champions Trust Thread ...

Post by suresh »

MCT unilaterally decides on the people they support. Of course, they do talk to people and come up with their own assessment. While money is not an issue, I am sure that they have set goals that need to be achieved by the London Olympics -- I wouldn't be surprised if they picked up a few more boxers. I however doubt if they will support the Indian volleyball team or for that matter any other team sport. It makes financial and practical sense to look for individuals rather than teams. Look, even though Manisha Malhotra is at the helm of affairs, no tennis player has been supported. It doesn't make sense to second guess the persons that they have chosen to support -- at the end of the day, their wards have done rather well at Beijing.

Suresh
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Re: Mittal Champions Trust Thread ...

Post by prasen9 »

And Bhupathi and Rahul Dravid are also on their board.  It is always fun to second guess on these forums.  Yes, they have been very successful indeed.  Why are they not supporting more?  Unless, they think those others cannot achieve medals.  If so, I think they are supporting too few.  On an aside, with the large Indian expat groups, maybe, Indians will have a bit of a "home" advantage at the London Olympics.

-pm

[updated this after finding out that Gagan Narang did not accept funds; I thought he had refused.]
Last edited by prasen9 on Fri Aug 22, 2008 6:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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