There have been so many flip-flops on the front of infrastructure for Commonwealth Games. But what a common man really wants to know is about the players, their training, preparations and preparedness about winning medals.Chandan Sharma of fachcha.com talked in detail with ‘Mahabali’ Satpal, one of the best known sports administrators in the country and Additional Director & Chief Sports Co-ordinator in Delhi Government. Satpal himself has won gold medal in Asiad and other awards and his dispel Sushil Kumar won bronze medal in 2008 Olympic. In ‘Talk of the Week’ he revealed many things about sports, sportspersons, Indian condition and CWG. Reads on:

Q: How many students are participating in CWG from Delhi?
Satpal: There are about 6000 students are participating in CWG. They will work as volunteers during the games. These students, most of them from Delhi University, will provide their services in different fields like Games awareness, seating arrangements, hospitality services, venue arrangement, traffic and many more areas.

Q: In how many games Delhi’s participants will participate as a part of national team?

Satpal: There are 17 games. We are participating in various games including Wrestling, Boxing, Tennis, Athletics, Boxing, Swimming, Table Tennis and many others. We are expecting participation of about 60 sportspersons in the Games from Delhi. Selection process and trail camps are already been going on at various places including Jaipur, Patiala, Delhi and other cities. I personally believe that at least 30-35 people will be from Delhi in the national team.

Q: What about the preparations for the games?
Satpal: For last two years we have been working for it. There has been no break for the sportspersons and teachers in this period. Delhi has emerged as the number one state in national school games in this period. Central government has allotted rupees 700 crore for the training and other facilities for the games in this period alone. Players have got ample time and opportunities to prove themselves.

Q: But the performance of Indian players in Youth Olympics, recently held at Singapore, was very poor. Not a single gold could be bagged by Indian team while China bagged 30 Gold medals in it. Indian team could bag only eight medals- six silver and two bronze. This does not encourage us anyway.
Satpal: I agree. The fact is that we were not prepared for such kind of games. I personally believe that there is a need to make proper structure for games. There should be three categories – Senior, Junior and Sub-junior. Candidates should be trained accordingly. Apart from it there is also need to make separate camps for individual games like Badminton, Swimming etc and team games like hockey, volleyball etc. This will change a lot in the present situation.

Q: But a lot of changes have already been made in this regard but not much noticeable change has been noticed in the performance?
Satpal: Changes are there in the performance too. But there is need to change in the psyche too. There is a large number of sportsperson in the country play or participate in the games just to get a government job. This psyche is need to be changed. ‘Roti ke liye khelne se medal nahi mil sakta hai. Jab ham desh ke liye aur medal ke liye khelenge tabhi medal milega’. (medal can not be bagged it games are played for livelihood. Medals can be achieved only when you play for country and for medals) I myself participated in 3000 wrestling matches, not for roti, but for medals only, form countryside matches to Asiad and Olympic too.

Q: Since Commonwealth is near so everybody is talking about games but when the Games will be over everybody will be on the same track.
Satpal: It is not so. It is a continuous and ongoing process Delhi govt. has three stadiums we have already prepared programmes for next one year’s plan. In Thyagraja stadium, which is one of the best stadium in the country, we have prepared a plan for 210 days training and tournaments. As far as fund is concerned we have enough funds to run our progarmmes. Moreover, I personally go to the training centres everyday in the morning, workout with the trainers and new players for over four hours everyday. That is my routine.

Q: What are the recent changes you find in the field of sports?
Satpal: See, what I have personally faced in last few decades during my tenure I tried my best that new players should not face that kind of difficulty or problems in terms of facilities. We provide them world quality equipments, select and train prospective players from the lower strata without any partisan. Apart from it, we try to make them sure parents’ co-operation too because in many cases parents ask that what will they or their ward get in lieu of games. Even, I personally meet them if it is needed. Apart from it participation in the games has been made mandatory in the government schools. All these are now yielding results.

Q: How many medals will be there in the Commonwealth Games for Delhi?
Satpal: See, the medal tally will be for the nation and not for the state but I feel 30-35 medals we can expect from CWG this time from Delhi’s players.