The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
New federation, new hope for Indian boxing
From punchline to punches: Airline head and BJP’S backroom boy Ajay Singh elected as the president of Boxing Federation of India
WHILE PITCHING to be the new Boxing Federation of India chief, the chairman of the low-cost airline Spicejet, Ajay Singh, an IIT graduate, had promised to revive the sport that was witnessing a free fall after the high of two back-to-back medals at Beijing and London Olympics. The man responsible for Spicejet's turnaround seemed to have convinced the BFI'S voting members. On Sunday, Singh won by KO, 49-15 being the scoreline.
Jay Kowli, elected Secretary General, recalled how he’d dipped into the story of that resurrection to persuade voters.
“He spoke to us about his experience of reviving a dead entity and making it profitable in 9 months. He said he wanted to share his knowledge and apply it to boxing which can start afresh. He also insisted that the success story of his airline is a success story of the ground staff, so it will be team work in boxing too.”
Singh was incidentally part of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's backroom before the 2014 General Elections and coined the original abki baar refrain, though not its future silly spinoffs. It was one of many options, he’d suggested, he recalls. “Yeah it was during the process before the elections. We had an opinion poll in which Modi was far ahead of Gandhi, so we thought we should use it in the slogan. It’s just something that came up and while I’d suggested many options, the election committee chose this. I didn’t understand why it became such a big thing, but it caught on, and then people came up with their own rhymes,” he remembers.
From punchline to punches, it’s been two busy years with revival of an airline thrown in between.
In days to come, Indian boxing, which has had no parent body for most part of the last few years, no domestic tournaments, no international exposure and a chaotic relationship with the international federation, will need much the same of shepherding from the entrepreneur to get back on track.
Singh, at the outset, believes attention needs to be urgently redirected to boxers rather than administrators. “What we need is transparency in how it’s run. We need to stop politics of the federation from overshadowing our boxers. People need to talk about the sportsman, not about administrators,” he said, adding he wanted to put “boxing first.”
Singh adds he is keen to quell the strong arm tactics that have prevailed in the sport for the last few years. “I’m confident we can overcome the trauma of last four years,” he said.
After Vijender Singh’s medal in 2008, men’s boxing has nosedived with promising talent like Shiva Thapa, Vikas Krishan, Devendro Singh, Suranjay and Nanao Singh failing to see their careers take off and woefully ill-prepared for changes in rules that’ve completely altered the nature of boxing from its one-point straight-punch nature eight years ago. Women’s boxing after the legendary MC Marykom failed to qualify for the Games, has looked in dire straits with very few replacements on the horizon.
‘Zero vested interest’
“I have zero vested interest in this position, but I do believe boxing should be run on merit and needs professionalism,” Singh said.
Sport has been either side of his much storied co-founding of Spicejet in 2005, his exit and then return over the last decade. Studying at Delhi’s St Columba’s, he was a middle-order bat and captain, and believes cricket’s World Cup win in 1983 gave a sudden injection of confidence to Indian sport. “I was always interested in sport and played cricket, football, hockey and TT. I continued playing sport at IIT Delhi,” he recalls, adding that his two year stint at Cornell University further exposed him to a sporting culture – “how it ought to be.”
As an officer on special duty to former BJP I&B minister Pramod Mahajan, Singh had also helped launch DD Sports in 1998. “When I worked in I&B one of our tasks was to refurbish DD, repackage the channel. We wanted to target a larger, younger audience so we introduced DD Sports and News. DD Sports started extremely well when we had the five year rights to cricket from BCCI. It was a wonderful opportunity though the channel couldn’t take it forward,” he says.
While Marykom’s five World Championship wins have had a major impact on Singh, ensuring he was open to enter boxing after talking to Uttarakhand doyen – coach Nirvan Mukherjee and IOA’S Rajeev Mehta. Under Singh, the airline over the course of last few years has sponsored the Delhi Dynamos ISL team and recently got behind Vijender’s pro bout in Delhi.
In fact indications of Singh’s entry into administration were evident ever since he travelled to Rio for the Olympics and was courtside for PV Sindhu’s match (an experience he describes as “phenomenal” for what Indians can achieve) as well as catching some boxing, tennis and swimming.
“There was lot of support for Indian athletes too, but it’s not enough. We need to correct the system,” he added. “There’s no earthly reason why we shouldn’t win more medals,” he reiterated.