Suresh Kalmadi, Janus man of Indian sports

PUNE: As one of India’s most prominent and long-serving sports administrators through the 1990s till the 2010s, Suresh Kalmadi was an everpresent feature in the once slow and stodgy world of Indian Olympic sports. He could be credited with being ambitious enough to build sporting infrastructure, attempt to bring international sports events to Indian shores when nobody had even thought about it and much before it became the norm today, a man of all seasons who knew how to get things done.

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Mostly though, with him being the face of Indian Olympic Association and athletics, Kalmadi would also be the person to whom much of the blame for Indian failures would be apportioned, and in the ’90s, failures and controversy in Indian sport were common. In the end, as chief of the Organising Committee, he would be remembered more as the person behind the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, the costliest and alleged to be the most corrupt of all time.

The allegations in the conduct of the CWG played catalyst in sparking the massive anti-corruption movement in the Capital in the subsequent years, and even if the Enforcement Directorate finally gave him a clean chit as late as last April, the image stuck with former airman and exCongress Member of Parliament, with him even spending 10 months in prison.

With his passing away at 81 on Tuesday, Kalmadi was, once again, polarising opinion. But the sporting fraternity chose to remember him for his services to Indian sport.

“A great deal of credit for taking Indian sport and the Olympic movement forward must go to Suresh Kalmadi,” former athlete-turned-administrator, Adille Sumariwalla said, “He did things long before others could even imagine them. The Permit Leagues he introduced, which brought legends like Carl Lewis to India in the 1990s, were unthinkable at the time.”

Indian hockey legend Dhanraj Pillay, a fellow Punekar like Kalmadi, said he cared for athletes.

“He did a lot for everybody who played during his time. I remember, when the Indian hockey team went on strike for payment related issues in Pune in 2009, he called me at 2.30 am. He asked me to talk to the players and mediate the negotiation. He gave me a freehand and fulfilled the promises that were made and break the strike ahead of the World Cup and 2010 CWG,” Pillay remembered.

Olympic shooter Anjali Bhagwat said the majority of sports infrastructure across the country in the 1990s were built due to Kalmadi’s efforts.

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