Top 10 scandals in Indian sports

The recent suspension and subsequent reinstatement of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was an embarrassing and disgraceful episode, but it was nothing new for the average Indian sports fan. Sport in India has seen more than its fair share of scandals and controversies over the years. Here’s our pick of the top 10 biggest scandals that have hit Indian sport:

10. The Pinki Pramanik scandal

Pinki Pramanik

In what was to be a first-of-its-kind scandal in Indian sports, in June 2012, police in India arrested a woman athlete on allegations of rape and charges that she is actually male. Pinki Pramanik, a middle distance runner and an Asian Games gold medallist, was arrested on June 14 on a rape and assault complaint by her live-in partner. Pinki was charged under sections 376 (rape), 417 (impersonation), 420 (cheating), 325 (assault) and 506 (intimidation), 493 (cohabitation caused by a man deceitfully inducing a belief of a lawful marriage).

Pinki’s live-in partner complained to the authorities that Pinki was a male and that she was sexually assaulted by Pinki, which led to the latter’s arrest. On being asked to be tested for further investigations, The Times of India quoted her as saying, “I have undergone numerous tests in my career as an athlete. Why should I agree to more ridiculous tests?”

Pinki, who won the 4×400 m relay gold in 2006 Doha Asian Games, was arrested on 4th June 2012.

The athlete’s arrest and imprisonment sparked an outcry over gender discrimination and the manner in which gender tests were conducted. Quoting the test report, additional public prosecutor Shantamoy Bose said Pinki was “capable of having intercourse as a normal male and had all the facets required for sexual activities.”

Experts said they were not surprised by the findings of the chromosome (DNA) test. Pinki’s aggression and a tendency to lapse into a fit of rage suggested she suffered from a condition known as Congenital Adrenal Hyperplacia (CAH), they said. The condition is classified as a form of Disorder of Sexual Differentiation (DSD) and leads females to develop male physical attributes and behaviour. CAH patients were also likely to suffer from depression or euphoria.

DSD is genetic and the first symptoms could be evident in a child as early as three years to four years. Psychological repercussions follow soon since a child needs to have a sexual identity by the time he or she is five years old.

Pinki was released on bail on July 11 pending disposal of all cases.

9. The hockey sex scandal

M K Kaushik

Hockey in India has had many a turbulent phase over issues as wide-ranging as non-payment of dues and incentives, mistreatment of players and bribery, but the incident that shamed the entire country was the sex scandal that rocked Indian women’s hockey in July 2010. The incident came to light after a senior hockey player wrote a complaint to the authorities alleging that one of the coaching staff had asked for sexual favours and used vulgar language during a tour to Canada and China.

“A woman team member has mailed me a written complaint of sexual harassment, usage of vulgar language, and asking for sexual favours against a coaching staff,” Hockey India (HI) general secretary Narendra Batra said.

The anonymous mail also accused the videographer of the Indian team of indulging in a sexual orgy with prostitutes during the foreign tour, Batra informed, adding that five photographs of the videographer with the prostitutes had also been mailed to him. The main accused was the coach of the Indian women’s hockey team, M. K. Kaushik, who was also a part of the 1980 Indian team that won an Olympic gold.

The matter gained more attention as the issuer of the complaint was revealed to be TS Ranjitha, and several other players came forward and complained against Mr. Kaushik. He soon resigned from the coach’s position. The case is still ongoing in courts. Why am I not surprised?

8. The Santhi Soundarajan gender controversy

Santhi Soundarajan

The issue of transgender athletes and their participation in sports has been a bone of contention for a very long time now. One such case was that of Santhi Soundarajan, an Indian athlete who won the silver medal in the women’s 800 metres at the Asian Games held in Doha, Qatar in 2006. Santhi, aged 25 then, took the gender test at Doha. The test was administered by a medical commission set up by the games’ organizers. The test reports sent to the Indian Olympic Association on Sunday said Soundarajan “does not possess the sexual characteristics of a woman.” Following this report, she was stripped of her medal, which came as a shock to the entire country.

While such sex tests are not compulsory for competitors, the International Association of Athletics Federations can request that contenders take one at any time, and include intensive evaluation by a gynaecologist, a geneticist, an endocrinologist, a psychologist, and an internal medicine specialist. According to her coach P. Nagarajan, her upbringing in impoverished rural India, where she reportedly only started eating proper meals in 2004, could be a reason behind the test result.

In January 2007, The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi awarded Santhi a television set and a cash prize of Rs. 15 lakhs for her Doha Games effort, despite the news of Santhi failing the gender test. In September 2007, Soundarajan was reported to have attempted suicide, reportedly by consuming a veterinary drug at her residence. The attempt was blamed on gender, economic, and sports pressure in India.

Two months later, Soundarajan took up coaching, starting a training academy at her home district of Pudukkottai, and became an athletics coach with the regional government. By 2009, her academy had 68 students and her students had won the first and third positions in the Chennai marathon. As per reports, Santhi Soundarajan was so impoverished after her ordeal that she had to work as a daily-wager in a brick kiln, earning Rs. 200 per day. Things have improved now, however; she is currently undergoing a diploma course in athletics from the National Institute of Sports (NIS).

7. The Vijender Singh heroin scandal

Vijender Singh

The star Indian boxer and Olympic medallist Vijender Singh became an overnight media sensation for all the wrong reasons after his alleged involvement with a drug dealer, Anup Singh Kahlon, whose phone records proved Vijendra’s links with the peddler. The drug racket came to light after police arrested Kahlon and Kulwinder Singh for possession of 540 grams of heroin on 3 March 2013. Vijender, who is also a DSP with Harayan Police, refused to give blood and hair samples for further investigations. But the Haryana police claims that he used drugs 12 times between December 2012 and Februray 2013.

In May 2013, Vijender Singh received a little breathing room when the judge of the special court in Fatehgarh Sahib district of Punjab rejected the petition by the State police seeking directions to procure his hair, fingernails and blood samples to confirm his heroin consumption. Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports later cleared his name from the drug haul case.

“Vijender Singh, boxer, along with four others, was subjected to an out of competition test for banned substances. A full menu test was conducted which included testing for psychotropic substances. Tests were only carried out on blood and urine samples,” said the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in a statement.

Vijender later agreed to cooperate with the investigations and when the reports came out, he was a relieved man. The report stated, “The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports is glad to announce that on the basis of these tests none of the boxers were found to have used any banned substances in the recent past.”

6. IPL 2013 spot-fixing scandal

S Sreesanth

The incident that rocked the 2013 IPL was the spot-fixing case involving 3 Rajastan Royals players – S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandalia. The players had reportedly agreed to give away a predetermined number of runs in their overs using “articulate” signals for the bookies during the match, who would in turn make a fortune out of just six balls bowled by these players. The players were to receive a whopping 60-lakh rupees for the shameful performance. Thankfully, however, justice prevailed.

On 6th May 2013 Sunil Bhatia, a bookie arrested by Delhi Police, along with the other miscreants, said that he was involved in fixing in Indian Cricket League and Bangladesh Premier League besides the IPL, leading to speculations that the entire fixing scandal runs even deeper. Later, Vindu Dara Singh was arrested for alleged links to bookies in the affair. He was later released on bail on 3 June 2013 by a Mumbai court. The call records of Vindu Dara Singh in connection with the spot-fixing scandal showed that he was in frequent contact with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Team Principal and BCCI President N. Sreenivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan.

While the investigations into the entire scandal are still going on in the courts, Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan have been handed life-bans by the BCCI. Siddharth Trivedi, meanwhile, was suspended for a year for not reporting being approached by bookies among other things. There has been no ruling as yet on off-spinner Ajit Chandila, the third Royals player who was arrested last May.

5. The athletics doping scandal

To maintain a competent physique in the world of international sports, athletes are administered all kinds of supplements to serve various purposes. Generally, they blindly follow the instructions given by their coaches and physicians. And very often, either lack of knowledge about the supplements or the unfortunate willingness to indulge in steroid use causes them to fail one or more of the ubiquitous drug tests administered by the governing bodies.

One such incident took place in the year 2011, which saw the biggest scandal in Indian athletics history as six top Indian women athletes, including three Asian and Commonwealth Games gold medallists, failed their drug tests. The reason for the positive test results was found to be the food supplements being used by the players. As the court found their involvement to be due to lack of knowledge of the presence of banned substances, the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland announced a two-year ban on the six athletes which killed their chances of appearing in the 2012 Olympics held in London, UK.

“All competitive results obtained by Ms Mandeep Kaur from 25 May 2011, by Ms Jauna Murmu from 26 May 2011, by Ms Ashwini and Ms Panwar from 27 June 2011 and by Ms Thomas and Ms Jose from 12 June 2011 until the commencement of their previous period of ineligibility shall be disqualified, with all resulting consequences, in accordance with IAAF Rule 40.8,” the CAS said.

Although the sports authority launched a formal investigation into the matter, it only brought to light glaring shortcomings in the entire sports system. The outcome of the investigation said that the banned substances entered the athletes bodies “accidentally”; the reason for that was the ingestion of supplements administered by their Ukrainian coach Yuri Ogorodnik, who fled the country immediately after the unveiling of the scandal and was later sacked by the sports authority.

4. The public verbal brawls of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi in happier times

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati are undoubtedly the best doubles pair in tennis India has ever produced. As a pair they have had many ups and downs, both on the professional front and the personal front. Between 1997 and 2002, the duo won as many as 22 titles including 3 Grand Slams in men’s doubles. They also emerged victorious in the Wimbledon and French Open tournaments.

Rumour has it that the pinnacle of their differences was reached during the 2001 Gold Flake Open, when both the tennis stars were at a party and a few drinks down. The two players unfortunately eyed the same dazzling damsel who no doubt would’ve been flattered by the attention of the two Indian tennis greats. But the duo didn’t share the same feeling and it soon came down to crushing collars and mighty blows.

After that incident, the two decided to split and mutually agreed to never play together as a team again. Although they did come together again in the Busan Asian Games, where they ended up with he gold medal, they never really reconciled their differences. Those differences came to a head ahead of the 2012 London Olympics, when the two engaged in several public spats and put the AITA in a quandary as to which players to field in the men’s doubles competition. Ultimately, Paes was paired with Vishnu Vardhan and Bhupathi got his wish of partnering Rohan Bopanna, and in the midst of all this India’s medal chances completely evaporated.

The two tried to pair up with other Indian and non-Indian tennis players but to little success. To some, reaching great heights in their careers might not be as valuable as personal pride, but who am I to judge?

3. The IOA’s suspension by the IOC

The Indian contingent marching under the Olympic flag at the Sochi Winter Olympics opening ceremony because of the IOA’s suspension

December 4th, 2012 – after an Executive Board meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland, they decided to suspend the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for ignoring their warning against allowing tainted officials to contest elections. The national body was directed by a Delhi High Court to hold its elections according to the National Sports Code (which allowed such officials to contest elections) laid down by the government but the IOC, to which it is affiliated, opposed the move saying polls can be held only under the global Olympic charter so that the autonomy of the national Olympic bodies remained intact.

The suspension meant that IOA would not receive IOC funding and its officials would not be allowed to attend any of the formal meetings organised by IOC. A result of the suspension was also that Indian athletes could not participate under the national flag in any Olympic event.

Finally, on 11th February 2014, much to the IOA’s relief, India returned to the Olympic fold. The IOC revoked the suspension after an ad-hoc meeting of IOC’s executive board in Sochi decided that the IOA elections, which took place on 9th February 2014, were held in “full respect of the recently passed NOC constitution, which complies with all IOC requirements”.

Sense prevailed in the end, but not before India became a subject of global embarrassment and mockery.

2. Bribery in Indian hockey

The infamous former Indian Hockey Fedration General Secretary Kandaswamy Jothikumaran was caught on camera in a sting operation by journalists from the Aaj Tak television channel, allegedly accepting a bribe from undercover reporters to select a certain player for a forthcoming tournament in Malaysia. He was filmed receiving a payment of 5 lakh rupees from the journalists.

After suspending the general secretary, the then President of IOA, Suresh Kalmadi, was quoted as saying, “It is a painful, but necessary step to ensure Indian hockey gets back on track. We are committed to the autonomy of sports federations but we could also not keep silent over the falling standards and allegations of corruption.”

Jothikumaran denied the allegations, claiming that he thought the money was to be used for the preparation of an international hockey tournament in India. “I was genuinely under the impression that a proposal for conducting a big tournament on the lines of Azlan Shah Cup was being debated with me by the reporters. At no point of time did I mention anything about selection,” Jothikumaran said in a statement.

Until the Beijing Olympics, which was just around the corner, the Indian Hockey team had never failed to qualify for the Olympics in its 80-year history, during which it had won eight gold medals. But in 2008 the team failed to make the cut, which many claim was because of bribery, corruption and indifference in the Indian Hockey Federation. Kanwar Pal Singh Gill, a former top policeman, sat at the head of the IHF then, and received his fair share of public agitation following the incident.

The IHF has since been disbanded, and Hockey India now acts as the governing national federation for hockey in India. Judging by this incident, it was just as well.

1. The big fat Indian match-fixing

Mohammad Azharuddin

In what turned out to be the biggest match-fixing scandal the cricketing world had ever seen, four Indian players were named in the aftermath of the 2000 episode starring Hansie Cronje. Mohammad Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Manoj Prabhakar, Ajay Sharma and former Indian team physio Ali Irani were found guilty of having links with bookies.

A CBI probe into the matter was launched immediately after Cronje testified in court that Azharuddin, the then captain of the Indian team, was the one who introduced him to a bookie during South Africa’s 1996 Test against India. Following the incident, many homes of Indian players were raided by the income tax officials.

After rubbishing the allegations, on 31st October 2000, Azharuddin confessed to accepting money from bookies with the help of teammates Ajay Jadeja and Nayan Mongia. On 27th November 2000, Azhar was found guilty of match-fixing, while Jadeja, Prabhakar, Ajay Sharma and physio Ali Irani were found guilty of having links with bookies. Mongia, however, came out clean.

“Mohammad Azharuddin has fixed matches/performance for a bookie ‘M.K. Gupta’ alias ‘M.K.’ alias ‘John’ and big-time punters Ajay Gupta and Associates, with the help of Ajay Jadeja and Nayan Mongia,” the Central Bureau of Investigation said in its 162-page report.

Soon after the investigation, BCCI banned Azharuddin for life and imposed a five-year ban from international cricket on Jadeja. The Delhi High Court, however, revoked Jadeja’s ban in 2003, allowing him to play domestic cricket.

This incident to this day has been the biggest scandal the world of cricket has ever seen, with the involvement of players from South Africa, Australia, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India.