Can IOA N Ramachandran and his team delete deficit entrenched confidence among athletes?

"We want to work for the benefit of athletes. They should be the beneficiaries"- Newly elected Indian Olympic Association chief N Ramachandran. Words- so easy to say, so hard to abide by. As three forlorn men marched as 'Independent Participants' at the opening ceremony of the

Winter Olympics at Sochi, Indian sport hit a nadir. The association Ramachandran has now been mandated to lead was singularly responsible for that distressing image. Squabbling ferociously to protect turf and worse to protect the blatantly tainted among them. India's Olympic bosses will need more than shallow words to instill any faith. 

A chapter titled "Mr. Indian official, thanks for nothing" in India's only individual Olympic athlete Abhinav Bindra's autobiographywas a grim reminder of a bitter truth. The Athlete- meant to be the Centre point of all sporting endeavour is consigned to the bottom of the food chain. Merely a tool in an exercise meant to build fiefdoms. For years, as Indian sport languished in mediocrity, the men who ran federations merrily functioned with little scrutiny. But as determined young men and women broke the glass ceiling and started to win medals, they won adulation and an audience for their awful back-stories. Ironically, within a few months after an unprecedented six-medal haul at the London Olympics, the Indian Olympic Association was suspended from the international movement. 

The refusal to dispense with tainted officials was the final straw. The IOA's squalid attempts at revoking the suspension have been well documented. "We have come a long way", says BVP Rao, convener of Clean Sports India, a pressure group operating for the last few years to cleanse the system, "People like Suresh Kalmadi, Lalit Bhanot & Abhay Chautala can no longer contest polls.