FORMER CRICKETER UNVEILS DREAM PROJECT
Bhaskar eager for Indian glory
Eager to see Indian athletes on the Olympic podium, C K Bhaskar, former first class cricketer and team physician of the US junior athletic team, will be roping in nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis and his coach Tom Tellez for spotting talent and providing them sophisticated training at the Carl Lewis Elite Coaching Centre in Los Angeles and Houston.
Bhaskar’s Mission Gold Sports Agency will bring Lewis and Tellez to India in December for selecting talented athletes for his mission of at least one gold for India at the 2012 London Olympics.
“I had talks with the Indian Olympic Association President Suresh Kalmadi and the project has his support. I also met Athletics Federation of India Secretary Lalit Bhanot and other senior officials and they have assured full support for the programme,” Bhaskar, who is a faculty member of the US Sports Academy in Alabama and Houston, told Deccan Herald on Friday.
Asked what prompted him to take up such a challenge, the 65-year-old said, “Each time the Olympic Games comes around, I look forward to a gold medallist from India . But nothing is happening except my eagerness to see a gold medal winner from my country of birth. So I decided let’s put an end to it and told Carl and Tom about my mission. Both of them assured to help me by giving training to the selected athletes at his (Carl’s) centre in US.”
Bhaskar and members of his training committee have drawn up a list of 47 probables for his project, with the list to be pruned after a one-day trial in December. A maximum of four current athletes will be selected for short-term coaching, aimed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics while athletes selected from the 16-17 age group will get six-year training till the 2012 Olympic Games. The date and venue for the trials are yet to be decided, said Bhaskar, who was the chief guest at the prize-distribution function at the AITA Talent Series tennis tournament at the KIMS academy here.
Bhaskar, who played first class cricket for Kerala (1960-66) and Madras (1967-68) besides representing India in an unofficial test match against Ceylon, felt India had a lot of talent. “I have watched several Indian athletes. What I noticed was that there is plenty of talent. There is no difference between people here and the rest of world. The difference is in training, nutrition and knowledge in sports medicine. Sports medicine is an important field in sports. Indians ignore that but countries equipped with that knowledge succeed.”