Former international boxer Venkatesan Devarajan, first Indian boxer to win a World Cup medal on foreign soil, has shown interest in taking up the coaching of the Indian boxing team. The team’s High Performance director Bernard Dunne resigned from his post after the disastrous show of the team in the Olympic qualifiers in Italy recently.
India’s boxers failed to win a single Paris Olympics quota from the world qualifiers and so far, only four Indian women boxers have won Paris quota places from the Asian Games. With just two months to go for the last Olympic qualifiers in Thailand from May 23, India boxing is staring at a crisis.
While Dunne’s resignation has been accepted, foreign coach Dmitry Dmitruk, who was brought by Dunne, is also likely to be relieved of his duties. With four months to go for the Paris Olympics, BFI is likely to fall upon Indian coaches to steer the team through patchy waters. A BFI executive committee meeting has been called on Friday to discuss the matter.
“I would like to share my knowledge and experience with the team. If BFI gives me an opportunity, I would like to help the team. I will talk to the BFI,” said Devarajan, who won bronze in 1994 world cup in Thailand. Devarajan has competed for India at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics (bantamweight) and was part of BFI’s selection panel for a long time.
“Boxing is not only a physical sport but at the top level it is also a mind game. Strategy, planning, and mental strength play a very crucial role in boxing. When you are participating at the Olympic level, a boxer needs to control his emotions in the ring,” says Arjuna Awardee Devarajan, who coached the World Boxing Series team Mumbai Fighters team which had several international boxers.
At his peak, Chennai-based Devarajan won two medals at Cuba International Boxing Meet, Kings Cup, and President’s Cup. He defeated Mongolian professional boxer Lakva Sim, a world champion in two weight classes, three times.
“I have trained with the world’s best Cuban team in 1991 in Bangalore and later I went to Cuba to train. I have the experience of competing at the top level and also preparing boxers for top level competitions. I am aware of the strengths and weaknesses of our boxers. In the last few years our boxers have been using the same style with every opponent. Depending on opponents, we need to employ different strategies and techniques,” says Devarajan who feels selection trials are very important to test form and fitness.