Sport | Other Sports
Fighting on
Although boxing has scant support in India one backstreet Mumbai club is battling to keep the sport alive.
- By Duane Fonseca, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:30 November 21, 2008
Mumbai: Boxing has never been considered an outdoor sport, but in Mumbai, India's bustling financial capital, fighters of a certain club spill out onto the street.
Engaged in combat, their bodies weave from side to side, their feet shuffle beneath them and their hands cut through the air with a tenacity that can be conveyed only through the phase 'seeing is believing'.
The venue is the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) Labour Department Club, located in a shanty little part of the otherwise upmarket suburb of Tardeo. Tracking down the club is an adventure in itself as one is forced to trek through the mucky, pothole-lined streets that lead to it.
Dodging traffic is a form of art in Mumbai and if you're not careful in this lane you could get hit by anything between a two-wheeler or one of the many huge lorries that speed down this bumpy road.
Still, despite all the brow-raising uncertainty surrounding the BMC club, entering the inner courtyard of the chawl, (a cluster of many basic one room tenements), which houses the club, gives you goose pimples. It's like entering the inner sanctuary of a sacred place. Boxing has truly been worshipped here for most of the 60 years that the club has called this place home.
The BMC club was founded around the time India gained its independence, but the facilities provided by it are still as basic as the room it occupies. Omnipresent is the stench of dampness that emanates from the walls whose cheap pink paint peels off constantly revealing the previous coat of green. The club's only punching bag hangs from the ceiling in the centre of the room and brings down large chunks of paint and plaster every time it is struck.
To call this place dilapidated is a vast understatement, but it's business as usual for Rajendra Sakpal, who has kept the club running for over two decades, sometimes using part of his savings to purchase even basic equipment like gloves, vests, shorts and shoes, which are shared by those who train here. Sakpal is a one-man show, but he refrains from taking too much credit for the institution, in which he has served as fighter, trainer, sponsor and much more.
The 40-year-old has numerous complaints, but his biggest grievance is not having a platform to air his views.
No one backs boxing in India. In Mumbai, we've got a handful of clubs dedicated to boxing, but there's not one single association dedicated to the clubs, so what do you do? Where do you go?" he asks.
"I have been pumping money into this club and sometimes we are forced to play cricket and football matches to raise funds for equipment so that boxing can go on. I learned how to fight at this club, that's why I feel I need to give something back so that our youngsters can also learn something here. I do what I can to try and keep things going."
The club has clearly been neglected over the years, but Sakpal has had his share of fame and his 15 minutes arrived at the turn of the millennium when he disposed of Dingko Singh, the then reigning Asian champion, at a tournament in Mumbai.
Some of Sakpal's fighters have been called up for trials at national selection camps for major tournaments like the Asian Games and the Olympics as well, but have missed the cut by the narrowest of margins; sometimes due to sheer bad luck.
Despite the misfortunes that have plagued the club, the one thing that exists within the club's walls in abundance is hope. And India's recent good show in the Olympics' boxing ring has strengthened the resolve of Sakpal's fighters to train harder and hope for the best. For the seasoned Sakpal though, seeing is believing and nothing will be achieved until the bodies governing the sport start building quickly on the momentum gained in Beijing.
"Boxing is in a sad state of affairs, despite India proving at the Olympics that it has the potential to win at major international tournaments," says Sakpal.
"We have to build upon what our boxers have achieved in Beijing and we'll only be able to say we are successful if we're able to sustain boxing through clubs like ours for a long time.
"I do believe we have the talent to do well on the international stage, but right now India lacks the platforms on which it can get its fighters ready and everyone knows if you don't throw all the ingredients into the mix it's not going to happen."
Maybe it will, maybe it won't.
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