October 19, 2002	Saturday	Sha'aban 12, 1423

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KARACHI, Oct 18: Pakistan boxing chief Prof Anwar Chowdhry Friday denounced the people at the helm of affairs for meting out step-motherly treatment to the sport and demanded at least Rs15m for better results.

“The sum we get from the government is a joke as compared to the performance of our boxers. Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) must give us one and half crore rupees if authorities want improved results,” he told a press conference.

Chowdhry lamented that the Pakistan Amateur Boxing Federation (PABF) gets mere Rs0.2m as annual grant from the PSB, while Indian boxing association receives Rs15m.

“The Indian boxers hardly win a bronze at international tournaments, while we won six medals at Busan Asian Games despite meagre aid from the PSB,” he said.

According to boxing official, PSB gets Rs65m annually of which Rs45m was being spent on PSB staff, while the remaining amount is for its 40 affiliated bodies.

Lambasting the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA), he dubbed it a “post office”, saying the body did not pay heed to PABF’s request to finance the boxers for a training tour in Russia before the Busan Games.

The Russia trip was planned to get the pugilists familiar with the European style, sparring with Central Independent States boxers. The plan, however, did not materialize owing to POA’s indifferent attitude, he said.

“It is because of POA’s lethargy we won only one gold in Busan where five of our boxers reached final as almost all the opponents were Kazakhs or Uzbeks.

“But even after grabbing one gold, four silvers, and a bronze, we did not even receive a letter of appreciation from the POA and PSB,” he added.

About the future activity, Chowdhry said Pakistan would play host to the third qualifying round for Athens Olympics sometime in May 2004. The proposal has been approved by Federation of Asian Amateur Boxing (FAAB), and AIBA would confirm at its Congress on Oct 31 and Nov 1 in Cairo, Egypt.

“The event, expected to be participated by some 30 to 35 countries, may be organized in Karachi. It will be a great opportunity for our boxers to qualify for the Olympics,” he said.

He extolled Asian Games gold medallist Meherullah saying he won despite being the shortest boxer in featherweight. “Despite being a bantamweight, Meher had to fight as a featherweight due to Haider Ali’s absence who pulled out at last moment. It was really wrong what Haider did, but we have no plans to take action against him.”

Pakistan had been verbally assured by Cuban sports minister that coach Reinaldo Alvarez Ulicia would stay with Pakistan team until Athens Olympics. But PSB has agreed to extend his contract for another year, he said.

Chowdhry, who is also the president of the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA), disclosed he had been toying with an idea of changing the name of the international body by dropping the word “amateur.”

The boxing supremo said International Olympic Committee (IOC) at its Aug 27 meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, had broken its promise of allowing AIBA to exclude the word amateur.

“(Antonio) Samaranch had given a go-ahead in this regard, but the new IOC hierarchy under Jacques Rogge is not ready to follow suit.”

He called the IOC’s attitude a hypocrisy as AIBA had changed its amateur rules which now also allows to reward US$50,000 to the winning boxers.

“I want to give AIBA a new image. So far IOC is adamant, but I can say one thing AIBA will get a new name without the word amateur,” he added.

Chowdhry, who leaves for Cairo shortly to attend AIBA Congress, would also propose that boxers should sign a legal bond they would not turn professional without the consent of their respective associations.

“If any boxer expresses his desire to turn pro, he will be required to seek permission from his association and he would give 50 per cent of the amount he gets from the sponsors,” he said.

He said Scandinavian countries like Norway had proposed that boxers who left their association to become professionals be allowed to return to amateur boxing.

“But I am totally against the idea as it will be unjust to amateur boxing because standard of professionals is entirely different,” he said.

Chowdhry, who has been AIBA chief since 1986, is set to be re-elected president unopposed at the Congress. He has already been elected president of FAAB on Oct 10 in Busan.