Indian Boxing : From Obscurity to Silver Lining : Amit Panghal is the “ Silver “ Boy of the Indian pugilist
It was not before the Independence that India had anything
to do with the boxing in the International stage It was such that the British
Army would have the boxing comptetition amongst the Army unit here at Inia and
there would be al All India British army Inter Unit Boxing tournament aand
thatwas the only event that boxing had to do in India
It was only after the independence that India first
participated in the Olympics and tere were as many as eight Indians who
participated in that event and two Rabin Bhatta to name one and another went
till the second round The others were the first round casualty
Rabin Bhatta who actually was Rabin Bhattacharjee but as his
name was registered as Rabin Bhatta in
the British Army participated in that name He received a bye in the first round but he
lost in the second round to a Boxer from USA That is how the boxing started at
India
Stage of Flourish
Well there were two
who took this game in their heart and made all effort to encourage the sports
and spread it all over India The first was ofcourse Col Divine Jones who was
the member of the Indian team to the Olympics at London The second one was a
Bengali whose name unfortunately I do not know and it would not be possible for
me to write his name over here
Colonel Devine Jones was a military officer posted at
Jabalpur He had passed his Senior School Secondary examination from the
infamous Christ Church Boys’ Higher Secondary School at Jabalpur. His family
had a military lineage and they pushed him into the Indian Army and he had a
fascination for this game It was he who through the permission of the Army unit
at Jabalpur poured everything that he possessed into the game
The other gentleman was a Bengali who was employed in
the B N Railways at Bengal It was he who took to this event and the game
and arranged everything for the one’s to approach boxing and he prepared a
Railway team and a Bengal team to participate in the National boxing
championship
SERVICES: All Time
Record For Winning The All-India Boxing National Title For 23 years
The first ever National Boxing championship was hld in the
year 1950 as far as my knowledge and my memories goes It was the Services team
that won it The weight categories were according to the norms of the
International Boxing Association which was controlled by the Intrernational
Olympic Asoociation . There were 12 weight categories then There use to be the
pin-wieght and the light fly weight during those time Now I think the
pin-weight and the light fly weight does not exists if I’m correct I may be
wrong for the second category of the weight here that I have mentioned but I’m
very sure that the first one that I have mentioned here does not exist now at
this era of modern boxing
Services it was which won the inaugural national boxing championship
and they won it for 23 years in succession from 1950 to 1972 They might have
won it on consecuitive oacasion from 1972 till the end onwards but I do not
have any records with me to prove it or asseret my statement . They would have
won it thereafter also but I’m sure of my statement from the 1950 when they won
it first and till 1972 when I saw the All India Inter Boxing Services Unit
Championship at Jabalpur in 1972 where
for the first time in my life I saw the three Olympians who participated in the
1972 Munich Olympic championship. I was
only 12 years of age then and was a BOARDER in the CCBHSS at Jabalpur That is
how BOXING came to me in my life Those boxers were Munnuswany Venu, Chandra Narayan and Mehtab Singh It was Munnuswamy
Venu in the 1972 Olympics who made it to the quarter finalds over there before
losing to a very bad decision to a Kenyan boxer in the quarters The other two
Chandra Narayan and Mehtab lost in the pre quarters there It was Colonel Devine Jones who was the
Manager of that Indian Boxing squad and it was he who was responsible to stage
this show at Jabalpur and we saw that being a hostellers Boxing since then had been a part of my SPORTS- ADORABLE entity and Sony Liston has been my all time
favourite boxer though the folklore of Mohammed
Ali-alias- Cassius Clay was ruling the HYMS
of the boxing in the world as everybody would sing that hym
My body weight then at that age was 44 kilograms and within two months I was in the Boxing probable of
the School in the Pin Weight
division then .Within one year the training that was imparted to me by Mr Omprakash who was a member of the 1964 Indian Olympic squad at Tokyo
added four kilos of the weight in my
body and I was shifted to the fly weight
division then However these events were a part of the school to engage the
guys to be associated with the games Boxing
was never a School games during that period at Jabalpur and so we did not have
the Inter-School Boxing tournament at Jabalpur . We only drilled ourself as
we wanted to be associated with the game and this is how this game became an
integral part of “ LOVE “ that we
could do with anybody during those age at the school. That gave me an idea of
what Boxing as s sports was all about and how the rules apply to the game as
well as ahow are the points garnered That in itself was an education and since
then I have been a TERRIFIC boxing “
buff “
Olympic and saga of Indian boxing : Vijendra Singh breaks the “ hoodoo “ to win 1st medal in 2008
From 1948 to 2008 for sixty long years India did not achieve
anything worth in boxing The Indian boxers were considered to be a bag of a
punch for the other to try out polishing their knacks and the punch in the
competition However the 1952 Olympics at Helsinki saw an Indian making it to
the quarter finals of the event
Rex Norris : Packs
Solid Punches To make the quarter – finals
Have you ever heard of Norris
the GREAT Goalkeeper of Hockey
that India produced Mr Norris who had participated in the 1928 Olympics and in the 1932 Olympics was an Army personnel
Educated at the famous Christ Church Boys” Higher Secondary School at Jabalpur
those days and inspired by Major Dhyanchand he took to Hockey. Dhyanchand was
very impressed by his work out and the way he shaped himself as a hockey
goalkeeper This gentleman was then an INTEGRAL
part of Dhyanchand and his idea to
have a goalkeeper and Mr Norris represenred India in two Olympics to win two
Gold Medal for India in 1928 and in 1932
This gentleman had four sons and a daughter Three of them along with the
daughter had represented India in the different Olympics event from 1952
to about 1964 The only hitch was his eldest
son who was a renowned cyclist
but during those days the CYCLE BASED
events were not held at the Olympics Else
we would have had a family where the father the daughter and the sons were all
Olympians and if that would have been the case it would have been a JEWEL
in the crown of India and it’s sports lore
Olympics 1952 : Rex
Norris makes it to the quarter finals of Boxing event at Helsinki
Nobody ever damned to give India any hoot in boxing and the
draws were made in such a manner that the Indians were made to play against
their mighty opponent only to prove themselves as a “ soilinin-bag” The fun would be to see the faces of the Indians
battered while in play and beg for mercy in terms of throwing the towels .Against
this background Rex Norris shook the entire fraternity of boxing when he scored
two important wins for India in two different rounds of bouts to move into the quarters where he ultimately
lost That was the start of Indian boxing
1972 : Munuswany Venu “ shakes “ the world by his display
From 1952 to 1972 we did not have anything to prove our
worth in the Olympics . Infact a boxer by the name of padam Bahadur Mall who
had won the FIRST ever Medal for
India in the 1951 inaugural Asian games
qualified for the 1964 Olympics in
the pre-Olympics Boxing championship where he won a “ SILVER “ medal losing to an Japanese by 3-5 in an scintillating encounter Looking him “ box “ that
manner the IOA and the Japanese Olympic authorities gave him the position of
being seeded number 2 for the 1964
Tokyo Olympics in that event that he was to compete but – “ LO ! “ , the
Indian Government did not send him as they could not afford to bear the expense
of his boxing shoes This really had
DISTRACTED the world as this man Padam Bahadur Mall was expected to win a medal in that
event in any cost Such was his command and the display that he had but to the WISDOM of the Indian Government and
the BRILLIANT
words that were put into the ears of Pandit Jawaharlal Nenru by the Finance
Minister of India Mr Krishnamachari
then
However it was Munnuswamy Venu in 1972 when he caused
flutters after flutters from the moment the quota qualification and it’s
competition started taking place in the Asian level to qualify for the 1972
Olympics The entire nation was hoping
that three Indian boxers by the name of Chandra
Narayan, Mehtab Singh and Munnusamy Venu would make the cut and they did it
in style In the qualifying the other two made it as they finished in the third
spot in the Pre-Olympics qualifiers but Venu finished as a Runners-up and qualified He lost very narrowly to a Japanese boxer
then but he really showed what the SCIENCE
of BOXING was to the entire world He was very correctly awarded the BEST SCIENTIFIC BOXER in that tourney
Came the tourney proper he outclassed a British boxer by
making him to withdraw in terms of throwing the towel by his coach to the ring
He was rightly in the quarters But then in the quarters there happened an
incident where the entire world was lost In his quarters against a Kenyan boxer
he “ boxed “ in an manner that the
Kenyan had his nose bruised beside his
face “ jabbed “ into a “ double-roti” as we might call it. However the
judges gave the verdict in the favour
of the Kenyans
The spectators
witnessing the bouts held the game for over two hours and the boxing arena wher
the bout was held saw as many as 50 chairs been broken into the pieces Two
night before there were as many as 11 Israelis
who were killed by the Palestine Guerillas Then this was the event To make
the matter serene and even the Indian De
Mission to the games just did not
enforce any complaint to be held Another reason was – where would the money come from to protest and lodge a complaint
The Indian contingent during those days were paid a dialy
allowance of ½ a dollors as out of the
pocket expense ie Rs 3=75/days when they would play for India abroad in
these games and their daily diet allowance was Rs 10=00/day Wher would the
mpney in terms of the dollors come from to lodge the complaints ? The matter
was like BLOW IT WITH THE WIND
To what an extent that Kenyan boxer had to digest the fist of the fury of Munnuswamy Venu
could be gauged by the fact that he gave a walkover to the Polish opponent whom
he was to face him in the semis That gap got him the time to recuperate and he
fought as a losing semi-finalist for the Bronze which he won That BRONZE justifiably could have been
Venu if the GOD WAS WITH VENU and
that and there was a MEDAL that way
which India lost Add to the pain was the Indian Hockey team losing to Pakistan
by 0-2 in the semis of the Hockey event . However a goal each by Mukhbain Singh and B P Govinda saw
India winning a Bronze in the Hockey
event at the Munich Olympics and that was the only medal we won at Munich
2000 : Again a BAD decision cost India a medal in Olympics 2000 at Melbourne , Gurcharan the casualty
In the Melbourne 2000 it was again a case of so very near
and so very far . In the 81 Kilograms of contest in the Light Heavy Weight category India’s Gurcharan Singh made it to the quarter-finals Ukranian Fredchouk,
Gurcharan was leading 12-11 till eight seconds before the end of the bout. The
last second saw the Ukranian garner a point and the bout ended in a 12-12
draw.
2008 : Vijendra Kumar finally wins a Bronze for India in the Olympics in Boxing
It was 2008 and it
was BEIJING. Three Indians made it to the books where they would be the first
to do that in terms of their achievements
It was first A Bindra ie Abhinav Bindra who became the 1st
ever GOLD MEDDSALION for India in the Olympics in the shooting event
Next it was Sushil Kumar who won a BRONZE in the wrestling event for India Thus it was after 56 years that India again managed to
win a Bronze in wrestling. Way back in 1952
it ws Kasaba D Jadhav who won that first for India. Last but NOT the least it was Vijender Kumar who won a BRONZE in the Boxing event for India
This was the FIRST ever boxing medal
for India in the Olympics Participating for the FIRST time in 1948 it took 60 years for us to win
that Bronze in BOXING
India in the Asian
Games Boxing : Padam Bahadur Mall did it in 1951 as a “ teen “
In the inaugural Asian games which was held at New Delhi it
was Padam Bahadur Mall who at the age of 17 years as a teen won that Boxing Gold for India That job
ultimately of winning the GOLD
started giving some importance to this sports as at that time nobody would ever
think of taking boxing as a game or sports by the youngsters of India. Padam Bahadur was a RAW but a electrifying Gorkha
from Dehradoon He was in the Gorkha
Regiment and he took this game only to get a Army Job then He was recruited
as a Naib Subedar in the Army
especially as a BOXER to
represent the Army in National Boxing. . The Army drills made him a electric off and on the field for everything
that he would want to become He was a footballer of a repute and he had played
football with ONE OF THE GREATEST MIDFIELDER
OF INDIA. That was Ram Bahadur
Chettri. Ram Bahadur remained a footballer for Gorkha PPBrigade first and then for East Bengal. Padam Bahadur took onto the boxing and
he won the FIRST ever INTERNATIONAL boxing GOLD for India in the inaugural Asian Games
In between he just represented the Army unit in the national
Boxing but his moment of glory came in 1962 when he won the national title
again with style and qualified for the Pre-Olympics He was by then 29 years of
age and was at his peak of his boxing career. He qualified for the
Tokyo Olympics with a stud by winning a
SILVER in the Pre-Olympics but was not send to participate in the Olympics
proper That was a SHOCK to the entire Boxing world as he was expected to win atleast one of the three medals that were in the offing
HAWA SINGH : The
FIRST ever Boxer to win TWO back to back Gold for India in the Asian games
Padam bahadur was the one who set the tone for India in the
Asaian Games and in the International games for boxing for India However a HEAVY WEIGHT boxer from the Indian Army
Subedar TWO
–BACK-TO-BACK-GOLD-MEDAL for India in the boxing This man from Bhiwani at Haryana won the 1966 and the 1970 Boxing
Gold in the Asian Games.
Therafter in the 1982 Asian Games at New Delhi we saw kaur
Singh winning the GOLD medal in the Heavy Weight category.
THE 1st COMBO OF A COMMONWEALTH & A ASIAD GOLD IN BOXING : KAUR SINGH DOES THAT FOR INDIA
It was Kaur Singh as a boxer from India to have won the GOLD
both at the Commonwealth Games Boxing
and at the Asian Games at New Delhi
The main Commonwealth games that were held in 1982 . To maintain and
preserve the Indian athlete from getting injured the Indian Olympic Association
did not send many a number of athlete to participatein the main Commonwealth
games. However the Indian contingent in terms of the boxers were send to participate in the Commonwealth Boxing Games. It was only to sharpen their skills and to
attain the maximum of their fitness in the event so that India did well in the
Asian games ’82 at New Delhi. It was Kaur
Singh who won a GOLD medal for
India in those Boxing event at those games and no sooner that he won the Gold
at the Asian Games at New Delhi he became the FIRST ever BOXER in the annals of
India to win a YELLOW MEDAL within
the continent and outside that for India in two BACK-TO-BACK International
boxing events within a calendar year None other than Amitabh Bachchan was called upon to hand that GOLD to Kaur Singh When Amitabh handed him the GOLD he POSED with a FIST
attached to Kaur in the CHEEK then
to pose with that photo A six footer
Kaur and a Six FEET three inches
Amitabh was the HEADLINES that cried
in the newspapers then the GOLDEN
man of Indian cinema and the GOLDEN boy
of Indian boxing
1998 : Dingko Singh wins a GOLD for India in the Asian Games at Bangkok , World Champion beaten
India was doing well in the international arena in boxing.
Here and there the boxing medal would come to India However the world was just
making a hole out of the loop that they would make in reference
to the Indian pugilist about NOT
winning any medals by beating the WORLD
CHAMPIONS of either the Olympics or the champions of the World that
participated in the World Championship
This they did it because Pakistan in the 1984 Olympics held at Los Angeles had won a BRONZE and that Pakistani a six footer and a FANTASTIC boxer had scaled two world champions in the process of
winning the FIRST ever BOXING BRONZE
for Pakistan
Dingko provided that answer in 1998 when he won that Boxing
Gold for India in the 1998 Asian games at Bangkok when he defeated the ultimate
World Champion from Uzbekistan or maybe Kazakistan to win that Gold Medal That laid all the
answer for the entire world to see and feel
Dingko is in the WORST
of his LIFE He is down with a LUNG CANCER and he has SOLD all his wealth to cure himself
even his house that he built for his family at Manipur It would be BETTER if the present Hon’ble “PM”
looks into the matter with the Sports Minister who himself is a Manipurian A
petrol pump was promised to Dingko by then the Prime Minister Mr Atal Behari
Vajapayee which DID NOT COME AT ALL Dingko is expecting the Indian Government
to help him out PLEASE- The Indian
Government listen to him and take care of him
He is the FIRST
indian boxer to BEAT a WORLD Champion in the finals of any International Boxing
Championship and that he did it in 1998 to win that GOLD for India
Vikas Krishnan and
Vijendra Kumar win Golds for India in the Asian Games
It was thereafter that Vikas Krishnan and then
Vijendra Kumar in that manner won the Gold medal for India in the Asian Games
then
Vijender Kumar thereafter won two more Bronze medal in
the World Boxing Championship for India But when he won that Bronze in the
Olympics at Beijing he NOT ONLY became the FIRST
ever Indian boxer to win that medal in boxing for India , he went onto the
process of becoming the FIRST Indian
to win a medal in all the THREE
formats of BOXING to have won a BRONZE in the OLYMPICS a BRONZE in the WORLD BOXING and a GOLD
in the Asian games He also won a BRONZE
in the Commonwealth Games in the
2010 edition which was held at New Delhi and he thus is the ONLY “ boxer
“ from India to win a MEDAL
in all the four ie the World Boxing Champinship, the Olympics, the Asian Games
and the Commonwealth games events of the
international boxing
Shivaji Bhosle : The
“ first “ Indian to bring home a boxing medal from outside the Asian Continent
This man is NOT heard
of by anybody .He was NEVER into boxing at all All of a sudden Mr Colonel
Devine Jones noticed him in a meet where there were so many who attended a session
to get enrolled in the Army at Kirkee Pune. This man for a job in the Army
coming from a VERY POOR family having no means to feed him, participated in the
Army recruitment process for the psot of a Sepoy in the Army then in 1970
His quick and electrifying movement and the speed with which
he did that attracted the notice of many and it was Mr Colonel Devine Jones who
took him under his belt. He was added to the list of the probable for the
Commonwealth Boxing contingent for the Edinborogh Games at Edmonton, Canada
He shook the WORLD in
that games when in the very FIRST
round he defeated an Olympic Bronze medallion and in the nest he knocked out a former world champion
from Britain to lose in the semis but then he went to win tyat Bronze for India
in that edition of the games That was the FIRST ever medal by any Indian
boxer in the international boxing meet which came to our country from the
outside of the Asian sub continent
The “ FIRST “ Of the
“ GOLD “ medal for India outside the Asian Sub Continent :CW Games 2002Mohammed Ali Omar
wins the FIRST ever International Gold For India
It was Mohammed Ali Omar who won the FIRST ever
international GOLD for India that came out of the Asian sub continent for India
He achieved that honour in the 2002 Comminwealth Games that
2019: Amit Panghal wins the FIRST ever “ SILVER “ for India in the World Championship
This boy has a STORY which ONE should hear to it with a proper
sence and a HEART to believe that HE WAS NEVER A SINNER AT ALL He should be
REGARDED and TREATED with all HUMILTY and DUE respect for whatever he has done
for India in BOXING and
whatever he gave India in boxing
Two years ago he first participated in the WORLD BOXING CHAMPIONSHIP and he lost
in the quarters. That was his first international experience in boxing . a RAW COOT who did not know the efficacies and anything that was
connected to the world boxing and it’s intricacies
The HARD KNOCKS that he took in his HEAD caused the MIGRAINE to HIT him and
it was HARD. He cried of the HEAD PAINS but nobody was there to
listen to him. He ran here and here for help but nobody was there to hear to
his woes failing he approached a doctor at New Delhi who gave him some
medicines which were the drugs and those were not allowed to be taken by the
international athletes
The medic gave him those medicine to ward the disasterous
pain that had developed in his head Actually he was down with MIGRAINE
Thereafter the HAKIMS and the VAIDYAS of the village that he resides gave him
some BOOTY-JAADI and the treatment of PURE GHEE a drop each to be taken in the
nose everyday to get rid of this
disastrous pain
Once over he came back to boxing but the DOPE TEST caught
him . He PLEADED with ONE-AND-SUNDRY about his innocence but to NO AVAIL He was
banned for ONE year from International boxing
In that span of a year he did not sit back doing nothing. He
trained HARD, HARDER, and HARDEST doing all the physival activities to keep
himself FIT and he was raring to go He knew that HE WAS INNOCENT. He would
visit the temple that was in his village everyday and offer prayer to Lord
Bajrangbali to give him another chance
AMIT PHANGAL : FIRST
EVER INDIAN BOXER TO WIN THREE MEDAL IN A CALENDER YEAR
He came back in the
year 2018 in the Asian Boxing Championship HE WON A GOLD Thereafter it was
the Asian Games at Indonesia at Djakarta
in 2018 and he beat the Junior world Champion of Phillipines in the Quarter,
the World Champion in the semis and the Olympic champion in the finals to win
the GOLD
Come September: Here
Comes Amit Panghal with September
“ This month in September it was
again a SILVER in the WORLD BOXING CHAMIONSHIP He lost to that Olympic
champions in the finals by a difference of 0.5 points. It was JUST a marginal
difference The score would reflect a 2-3 defeat which means that out of the
five referee two gave him the winning points and the other htrre did not give
him the point for win. However the margin of defeat was ONLY 0.5 points and
that made the difference “ . Enroute the finals he defeated the European
champion and a former world champion to be beaten by that score in the finals “
.
Amit and his case
maybe dealt by Army Chief Mr Bipin Rawat and Mr V K Singh : A REQUEST
Amit is a Naib
Subedar in the Indian Army . Whenever his name is recommended by the
authorities by the Sports bodies his name is cut off the role for his
involvement with the DRUGS charges
whici I have explained above This is a
MALTREATMENT to the man who has so far given India THREE Gold in the International competition and a SILVER in the World meet of boxing competition I would sincerely advise the
former Indian Chief of Army Mr V K Singh
who is a MINISTER in the present
Indian Government and Mr Bipin Rawat who
is the SUPREMO of the Indian Army to put forward his case along with the
Boxing Association Of India for him to be conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for being
the OUTSTANDING Indian sportsman for
the year 2019-2020 What more do you want from a sportsman who has given you TWO Golds in
the Asian and a Silver in the World championship beside a GOLD in the CW Games
Mr Darker the Coach
of Amit panghal to be awarded with the Dronacharya award
Beside this I would RQUEST the Hon’ble Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi to award the Dhronacharya
Award to Mr Dharker the coach who
saw Amit at the village and who tuned him and shaped him into the kind of the
boxer that he is
Amit himself has made this appeal to the Indian Government
for this It is HIGH time that the Indian Government realizes that the MAN who
is responsible for Amit Phanghal to achieve all this in his life in BOXING
beside the medals that he has brought for the country is his coach Mr Dharker and that he should be
conferred with the Dhronacharya award
One Area Where Amit
has To take Extra Care
The only shortfall of
Amit as compared to his foreign competittors are his height He falls too short
of his competitors in terms of reach because of his height
If only he keeps his rivals far away from him during his bout
so that they do not connect him
that hard at all and if he opens out in terms of opening the gates of his rivals and punches very accurately and that HARD
at the RIGHT points and the part of
the face to garner those points he will come back with a GOLD
This is how the Cubans do when they fall short of height to
win the GOLD and the CLASSIC examples have been
Angello Correa of Cuba who won THREE
consecutive Gold in the 1972 Olympics at Munich, the 1976 Olympics at Montral
and the 1980 Olympics at Moscow
Angello Correa and Teofilo Stevenson of Cuba are the TWO
boxers from that country to have won THREE Gold Medals at the 1972 Olympics at
Munich, the 1976 Olympics at Montral and the 1980 Olympics at Moscow
If we had the DIAMOND period of East Bengal in football from 1970 to 1976 and the period of Bombay
cricket from 1958 to 1974 THE
WORLD SAW THE DIAMOND PERIOD OF THE CUBAN BOXING FROM 1968 TO 1992 IN
THE BOXING AND THAT WAS THE DIAMOND PERIOD OF CUBA IN WORLD BOXING
That is how the Cuban won their games and the contest in
boxing and that is the LESSON for
Indian boxers in general and Amit
Panghal in particular to garner the points and win the bout
Regards
Shyamal Bhattacharjee
Wish Amit is honored before it is too late. It will be better to utilize his talent and experience in scouting & coaching future generations
ReplyDeleteSo about Dinko Singh, Hope the GOI intervention would be a saving grace and timely help. 🙏🙏
Amit Panghal really ought to be honoured as he has won many a medals for india in the international boxing which ranges from the Asian Games to the World Boxing. His expertise therefater could be used by India to unearth the boxing talent and horne them into a champions. What you say is correct Regards Shyamal Bhattacharjee
DeleteAmit Panghal really ought to be honoured as he has won many a medals for india in the international boxing which ranges from the Asian Games to the World Boxing. His expertise therefater could be used by India to unearth the boxing talent and horne them into a champions. What you say is correct Regards Shyamal Bhattacharjee
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