The Hindu : Anand, Anjali named best

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Friday, May 02, 2003

Sport

Sport - Sports : General

Anand, Anjali named best

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 1. Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand and rifle-shooter Anjali Vedpathak were chosen the best sportsman and sportswoman for the year 2002 in the inaugural Hero Indian Sports Academy Awards nite at the Indira Gandhi Stadium here on Wednesday.

Anjali, winner of three gold medals in the Manchester Commonwealth Games and a team silver in the Busan Asian Games, was also voted the best shooter. Anjali was present to receive the honour but not Anand.

The former World champion, who enjoyed a splendid 2002 including the triumph over reigning World champion Ruslan Ponomariov in an eight-match series at Mainz (Germany), was also named as the best achiever in chess for the year.

Anjali, after receiving the trophy from Sourav Ganguly, took the opportunity to highlight the fact that despite facing constraints of facilities and funds, the sportspersons were bringing glory and laurels to the country.

Each winner received a well-sculpted trophy, quite similar to the one presented at the prestigeous Laureus Sports Awards in Monte Carlo every year.

The ceremony was attended among others, by legendary hurdler Edwin Moses, Sunil Gavaskar and former England all-rounder Ian Botham. To add glitter and glamour, some of the popular names from showbiz like Salman Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Shilpa Shetty, Archana Puran Singh, Shekhar Suman, Dino Morea, former beauty queens Diya Mizra and Neha Dhupia were among those who made an appearance on the stage. The show was hosted by Siddharth Basu and Mandira Bedi.

The Indian women's hockey team, which won the Commonwealth Games gold, was adjudged the best team.

The best young male achiever was golfer Asiad gold winner Shiv Kapur. The best young female achiever award went to Grandmaster Koneru Humpy. Kapur and Humpy were among the absentees. The other absentees included Rahul Dravid, voted as the best cricketer, and weightlifter Kunjarani Devi.

Bula Chaudhary, former National swimmer who now holds several records in channel swimming, was chosen for Special Appreciation.

In a fine gesture, the Academy handed over cheques of undisclosed amounts to families of ailing Wilson Jones, who became the country's first world champion in any sport, by winning the World amateur billiards crown, and the late Vilas Menon, former table tennis player of repute.

Kapil Dev, who is also the Academy chairman, was chosen for the Lifetime Achievement Award by the sports journalists.

All the selections were on the basis of the votes received by each nominee from the sports journalists. These were then forwarded to the Academy members, who in turn voted electronically.

Organisationally, it was not the best one could have come up with. For a first-of-its-kind function which attempted to bring together the country's performing sportspersons, it fell far below expectations. The presence of just a couple of thousand spectators at a venue that could have accommodated over 15,000 was the result of poor publicity for the event.

Right from the arrival of the nominees at the arrival desk of the hotel, to a delayed start and eventually,the shabby treatment of some of the awardees was indeed deplorable.

The job of welcoming the nominees and invitees arriving at the hotel was handled by those who recognised none other than film stars, a couple of models and cricketers, not necessarily in that order.

From Shiny Wilson, to Anjali Vedpathak, to Gopi Chand to P. Hari Krishna all were asked their names more than once at the arrival desk and were made to wait for varying duration before being handed over their room keys.

Though the event was due to start at 6 p.m., it was delayed by an hour to record the views of the members of the Academy on the nominees of their field of specialisation.

Once inside the arena, there was no respite. With the air-conditioner switched off, the inadequate supply of drinking water, further added to the woes of the nominees and VVIPs, seated in the dark. The thirsty ones included Gopi Chand and table tennis champion S. Raman.

The shabby treatment of most nominees, except cricketers like Sourav Ganguly, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh and Parthiv Patel, all seated close to the stage, defeated the entire purpose of an initiative that otherwise should have given a boost to Olympic sport in the country.

The list of awardees:

Best Sportsman of the Year: Viswanathan Anand (chess). Best Sportswoman of the Year: Anjali Vedpathak (shooting). Best young male achiever of the Year: Shiv Kapur (golf). Best young female achiever of the Year: Koneru Humpy (chess). Best team of the Year: Indian Women hockey team. Best achievers: Athletics: Neelam J. Singh; Badminton: P. Gopi Chand; Chess: Viswanathan Anand; Cricket: Rahul Dravid; Cue sports: Geet Sethi; Foootball: Bhaichung Bhutia; Golf: Jyoti Randhawa; Hockey: Dhanraj Pillay; Kabaddi: B. C. Ramesh; Tennis: Mahesh Bhupathi; Shooting: Anjali Vedpathak; Weightlifting: Kunjarani Devi. Best achievement in other sports: Palwinder Singh Cheema. Special Appreciation: Bula Chaudhary (channel swimming). Lifetime achievement award: Kapil Dev .