Dr. Karni Singh, media and the shooting range

''For my good friend Mr. Sriman, with a million thanks for what you and the Times of India did for clay pigeon''. --- Karni Singh, Asiad 1982.

Dr. Karni Singh of Bikaner, and the great R. Sriman, the Sports Editor of Times of India, have left behind a rich legacy.

The World Championship silver medallist in trap in Cairo in 1962, Karni Singh wrote that nice note in his book, ''From Rome to Moscow, the memoirs of an Olympic trap shooter'', while presenting it to Sriman.

For some of us who feel proud to have done our bit for the sport, it is a humbling presentation.

In his preface, Karni Singh thanks a whole lot of people in the media, at a time when the Indian media had not exploded into this big a form as we find it today.

''I would also like to take this opportunity to convey my appreciation to all those very fine men of the sports pages of Indian newspapers, as also the All India Radio and T.V., who helped to build up the Clay Pigeon sport in our country, and but for whose help Clay Pigeon shooting would have remained unknown. I would like to mention names of kind friends who as sports editors of our major newspapers and magazines, helped to encourage this sport. Noteworthy amongst them are Mr. R. Sriman, Mr. Prabhu, the late Mr. Jadav, Mr. Bikram Singh, Mr. Daniels, Mr. Ron Hendricks, Mr. Wadhwani, Mr. Vernon Ram and Mr. Vijay Kaura amongst many others who showed special interest in this sport. The author expresses his appreciation to Mr. Melville de Mello, Mr. Surjit Sen, Mr. Jasdev Singh, Mr. Laxman Tandan and Mr. Sanyal of All India Radio who were also responsible to catapult this sport to its present position by educating the people through Radio and TV in our country''.

Continuing further with his appreciation of the Indian media, Karni Singh praises the sports magazines for their contribution.

''India's sports magazines deserve special thanks for the wide coverage given to Clay Pigeon shooting and the prominent amongst them are Sports and Pastime, Sports Week, Sports World and the famous Illustrated Weekly of India, and Dharmayug (Hindi). The author wishes to express his appreciation to the editors of these famous magazines, prominent amongst whom are Mr. Khalid Ansari, Mr. Sharad Kotnis, the Nawab of Pataudi and Mr. Raju Bharatan for the encouragement given by them to this sport''.

It is indeed a privilege to have the book presented to Sriman, thanks mainly to his daughter Radhica and my colleague in The Hindu, Vijay Lokapally. Of course, it was a morale-booster to be told by Sriman, way back in 1990, during a football tournament at the Ambedkar Stadium that one had a brilliant career ahead! It was an education listening to Sriman, even though everyone feared his acerbic tongue. He could praise and curse with equal felicity.

While he was sparse with his praise, few could tolerate the sting of his tongue.

Even Sriman would have sympathised at the plight of the sports journalists today, and sought the ears of the administrator for special treatment. Never mind the fact that Sriman had maintained that the profession had gone to the dogs because dogs had come into the profession !

For, it has become a gigantic task just to gain entry into the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in Tughlakabad, if you are a person from the media.

My friend Vinayak Padmadeo of the Hindustan Times had to wait nearly for 40 minutes outside the gates on Wednesday, the first day of Olympic trials, before he was allowed inside. I had to wait a few minutes. But four security guards came to us at the 10-metre range while we were watching the Olympic trials, featuring the cream of Indian talent.

They were apologetic and said that we had no permission to be in the premises.

Frantic calls to the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) did not lead to a solution as the Administrator of the shooting range was not willing to take phone calls. Eventually, we had to leave the shooting and reach the administrator who offered tea and said that he was not informed about the individual media persons.

Digvijay Singh Deo, the Sports Editor of CNN-IBN had taken permission to conduct interviews at the range. It was understandable. The print journalists merely made entries on the register at the gate, which has been a common practice for everyone.

In fact, an earlier administrator had been officially hauled up by the Director General of SAI for not letting media do its work. Yet, things don't change. You are forced to stare at the gate every time and the helpless security personnel.

Vinayak had left his home in Ghaziabad at 7.30 a.m. for the trials scheduled to start at 9.30, because he had to keep a margin for heavy peak hour traffic while driving through for about 45 kilometres to the range in Tughlakabad. His head start, by about 30 minutes to mine, we being neighbours with him being farther from the range, proved of little value as Vinayak was stopped at the gate for long. Eventually, both of us could watch little as Abhinav Bindra and company kept puncturing the black paper on the electronic targets.

Perhaps, there is a lot to hide at the shooting range, revamped at phenomenal cost for the Commonwealth Games in 2010. The electronic targets present a poor picture. Only 14 function, out of 80 lanes at the 50-metre range. Only 10 are operational at the 25-metre range, which is only one fourth of the capacity.

The 10-metre range is being repaired for the forthcoming Asian Air Gun Championship for a few crore of rupees. The national campers are not even allowed to shoot after 1.30 p.m. even at the 25m and 50m ranges despite them being occupied for Olympic trials, and not being part of the forthcoming Asian event.

With the government taking care of sports by pumping the tax payers money, the national federations and the SAI view media as an unnecessary evil, except when they require publicity.

It is a pain to endure traffic for two hours and then be denied entry, when only a handful follow the sport and try to be honest with their work.

It is a mere reflection of the times that we live. It may strike a discordant note at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, mainly because the great man held the media in such high esteem, as he understood its key role.

Maybe, the authorities would try to solve the problem efficiently, by changing the name of the shooting range!

Sports Ministry springs the best name for Khel Ratna, but who will give Arjuna award to Nirupama Sanjeev

The Union Sports Ministry has been spontaneous in recommending women's World No.1 doubles star Sania Mirza for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.

The credentials of the 28-year-old Sania, a rare phenomenon in Indian women's tennis, are just too good. She will enhance the stature of the award the way some of the earlier awardees, starting from Viswanathan Anand, Leander Paes, Sachin Tendulkar apart from a host of other stars had accomplished.

She has the maximum number of eight tennis medals from the Asian Games for an Indian player, as she started early with a bronze in mixed doubles with Paes in the Busan Games in 2002, when she was 15. Sania went on to win two gold medals in mixed doubles, with Paes (2006) and Saketh Myneni (2014) apart from a silver with Vishnu Vardhan (2010). She helped Prarthana Thombare to the women's doubles bronze medal in the last edition in Incheon. Another first for Indian women's tennis.

She was the first Indian tennis player, man or woman, to make the final of singles in the Asian Games, when she finished runner-up to Zheng Jie of China, after having outclassed future Grand Slam champion, Li Na 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals, in Doha in 2006. She added the individual bronze in 2010. Sania, along with Shikha Uberoi, helped the Indian team to the silver medal in Doha.

In the Commonwealth Games at home in 2010, she won the singles silver and doubles bronze. In Hyderabad, in the Afro-Asian Games, Sania had swept four gold medals in 2003.

On the professional circuit, in which she reached a career-best rank of 27 in singles, before focusing on doubles, following a series of injury break-downs, that demanded surgery, her achievements have all been very well documented, with the recent women's doubles title with Martina Hingis in Wimbledon, and three mixed doubles titles, at the Australian, French and US Open, the first two with Mahesh Bhupathi.

It is another matter that Mahesh, the man who won the first Grand Slam title for the country, the mixed doubles title with Rika Hiraki of Japan at the French Open in 1997; became the first Indian to be world No.1 even before his partner Leande Paes, made all the four Grand Slam finals in 1999, winning French Open and Wimbledon, won a few Davis Cup ties on his own strength, was not deemed fit for the Khel Ratna award. He has 12 Grand Slam doubles titles, including eight in mixed doubles.

Equally, the panel of eminent sports persons did not validate the candidature of Somdev Devvarman who has won the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games gold, apart from staring in many Davis Cup triumphs. He reached the best singles rank of 62, the best for an Indian man, since 23 of Ramesh Krishnan in 1985. Nobody was presented the Khel Ratna award last year, and that may have provoked the government to spring an unmatched candidate, easily recognised by everyone.

It is equally glaring that Nirupama Sanjeev who was the first Indian woman tennis player to make an impact globally, not just by reaching the second round of Australian Open in 1998, but with a courageous run in the professional circuit, around the world on her own steam, when she threatened to break into the top-100 even before Paes could do so, has not been given Arjuna award. Nirupama still has the best Fed Cup record for the country at 29-14 for most total wins, and 20-8 for most singles wins.

Of course, the other Nirupama of Indian tennis, mother of Davis Cupper Harsh Mankad, and wife of cricketer Ashok Mankad, Nirupama Mankad, had been conferred the Arjuna award (1978-79), for winning the national championship seven times.

There has been no Arjuna award for Indian tennis after Sania was presented the honour in 2004, except for Somdev in 2011, when he was actually over-qualified for it! Equally, there is not a single Dronacharya in Indian tennis. Quite ironically, Akhtar Ali, who had been coaching Indian tennis teams from the time when Ramanathan Krishnan was part of them, was not presented the Dronacharya award, but the Arjuna award in 2000.

Akhtar's son, Zeeshan Ali, who last played for India in Davis Cup against the US in 1994, was presented the Dhyanchand Award for life time achievement last year.

Coaches like Nandan Bal and Enrico Piperno have contributed to dozens of medals and the performance of top players like Paes, Bhupathi and Sania over the years, but have not been given the Dronacharya award. Or for that matter, the former Davis Cup captain Jaidip Mukerjea who was with Paes as the coach in the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, did not get the coach's honour.

Much in contrast, Sushil Kumar and Mary Kom have been able to produce many Dronacharyas in recent years.

The government had been proactive once earlier, and played the trump card in nominating badminton ace Saina Nehwal for the Khel Ratna award in 2010. While it has sprung to life now for one of the best sports stars of the country, the question is what stops it from attempting to set the record straight in so many other cases, and render certain credibility to the awards.