CRICKET ON ICE - SWITZERLAND'S UNIQUE CONTRIBUTION TO CRICKET

Cricket match in progress - Cricket on Ice 2014 

On 15th August 2009, on the occasion of India's independence day I happened to be in Lausanne. To mark this occasion, the Jungfrau railways in Switzerland had staged a unique and some might say crazy event - Cricket on Snow. I missed the event but it managed to generate a lot of interest among the local crowd. Till date, if you talk about cricket with the locals, a good sizable crowd recall this 'match' which was played on the high altitude of Bernese Alps.

For a lot of them including the locals, cricket is an 'alien' sport - a game which is 'alive' and played in Switzerland mainly through the efforts of the expat community. Switzerland might have contributed only a handful of players representing the national squad - but there is no denying of the fact that a lot of support has been received over the years to make this game co-exist among other popular games of this land.

It is worth mentioning the oldest reference to cricket in Switzerland dates back to early 19^th century -courtesy of a painting by Giovanni Salucci of a cricket match in progress at 'Plaine de Plainpalais' in Geneva. Since that time, cricket never really became a household name and it was cast aside as a 'foreign sport'. The official cricket association took its birth only in 1980 and achieved ICC 'Affiliate status' in 1985. 

"Vue de la Ville de Genève et de Plein-Palais (Florence 1769-1845)" from 1817 by Giovanni Salucci

It was during this time in the 1980's the IMG's then head and top honcho Mark McCormack made frequent trips to St. Moritz - a canton in Switzerland. St. Moritz, a place also known as 'Top of the World' - a positioning slogan created by the International Management Group (IMG) in 1987.

A city which has hosted Winter Olympics twice (1928 and 1948) and currently home to the annual White Turf horse racing events along with skijoring (dates back to 1907) is a popular spot for Swiss and international tourists during winter. Add to this, Cricket on Ice - an annual event which is now part of St. Moritz's legacy. 

The uniqueness of these three events are that they take place in February each year on the frozen lake of St. Moritz. Mark McCormack in one of his many visits had plans to introduce a lot of sporting activities packaged as 'events' in this part of the region. In one of his conversations with Martin Berthod, who now is the Director of Sports and Events for St. Moritz recalled - "Mark expressed his desire to bring cricket and be played on ice. Thus 'Cricket on Ice' took its birth in 1987. Except for one year (owing to bad weather) the annual festival of snow and cricket has been a regular event annually coinciding with the 'White Turf'". 

Cricket on Ice logo

A Swiss local, Martin visits the site when the cricket is in progress to ensure there is smooth functioning of the event. He is responsible for preparing the ice turf, the outfield (with the aid of equipments and his team) and for any other aid required. He might not be too interested in playing this sport but remains the only constant person since its inception. He is friendly and he is just a call away if you ever need him.

The tournament began with a bang. Trans World International (TWI) - an arm of IMG produced and recorded a lot of footage of this event in the wee years of this tournament. It attracted a lot of cricketers from the international arena - mainly from England to take part in this 'unparalleled' cricket event.

David Gower, one of the talented English batsman was once part of this event. He would remember the event for a different reason. His car parked at the parking area caved in and went into the lake in what otherwise was a rock solid ice turf. Every event has its set of 'tales' and this particular incident gets recycled each year.

Over the years the commercial sheen has been lost with a reduction in number of sponsors and IMG not being a part at this event. And yet the sole organiser, the St. Moritz Cricket Club attracts team on an invitation basis each year and continues to run the event with same passion and interest that brought this event in the first place. 

Back from Isolation - Indian Olympic Story

It was in 2012 when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to take that drastic step - a decision which was necessary from administration point of view specifically at the conduct of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) post Commonwealth Games 2010.

There were huge cries, issues of false pride and other theatrics from Indian officials. The news of Indian Olympic Association being banned dominated the sports news segment for a day, or a two or if persisted a week and nothing more apart from the periodic cameos. It was usual business from then on. The corruption charges of the CWG 2010 went back to being a political matter than a sporting matter.

If CWG 2010 and various accusations are one hand; it is the manner in which the postmortem was conducted that irked many followers of Indian Olympics. Clearly, this was an administrative issue(s) and the so-called 'God fathers' of Indian Olympic movement ignored the media scrutiny and the threat from the IOC. They took that one extra step and elected candidates who were either charge sheeted or being prosecuted by Indian judiciary or on bail. Which era are they living in?

I believe the ban was justified. It tempered down the egos and the softened the temerarious officials - the tainted ones who put in their names without shame or consideration. Something had to happen and IOC made a bold move and banned the entire association till the time the internal crisis were resolved. A cut-off from the Olympic tree.

It took some time for the news to sink in, analyse, react and then formulate a game plan to get back into the Olympic fold. There were several mails exchanged and the pressure was less considering 2013 was a non-Olympic year. When the decision was finally taken, it was little late. The IOA as a organisation missed the Olympic train. 

Indian contingent classified as Independent Athletes marched into the Opening Ceremony under Olympic flag. These three athletes - a five time Olympian Shiv Keshavan, Himanshu Thakur and Nadeem Iqbal were the only ones to be 'independent' and without a national flag at the Sochi Winter Olympics. 

Indian Athletes under Olympic Flag at Sochi 2014 - Getty Images

One can script a drama surrounding these episodes and echoing various sentiments of many people involved in this. A new scene was shot two days ago when the new IOA officials were elected, ably observed by an IOC delegation headed by IOC member Robin Mitchell.

Narayna Ramachandran, President of the World Squash Federation and the brother of BCCI supremo N. Srinivasan, was elected as the new President; Rajeev Mehta and Anil Khanna chosen as the new Secretary General and Treasurer respectively.

"The IOC observers told the EB members of the IOC about the IOA elections being held in full respect of the recently passed NOC constitution, and this new constitution complies with all IOC requirements, including the main clause that no person convicted or charge-framed can run for a position within the organisation."

History was made at Sochi today - for the first time in Olympic chronicles that a suspension of an NOC has been lifted during the Olympic Games and with immediate effect.

What does this mean? The three independent athletes at the Sochi Games can now compete under Indian flag, can walk behind their national flag at the Closing ceremony and as a symbolic way of depicting the recognition of three Indian athletes - Indian flag will be raised at the Games village.

IOC officials have authored a perfect ending to this year old saga which will bring cheers to millions of sports fans in India and more so for the three athletes who are relieved to have seen this positive development.

Redemption is one thing, it is the next set of steps that are crucial. How different will the current set of administrators be from the previous incumbents?

Coming back from isolation is a small victory for Indian Olympic movement and there are many miles to cover before we can actually rejoice. For now, we are back and I only wish - it is to move forward.

ALONE WITH THE SKIS - AN INDIAN AND HIS TALE AT THE WINTER OLYMPICS

Jerry Bujakowski in action

At the 1964 Winter Olympics edition held at Innsbruck, Austria, India had a representation. It was the first time an athlete from India was participating in such a event - Jeremy Bujakowski, known by his nickname 'Jerry'. He was born to a Polish father in Lithuania before acquiring citizenship of India, courtesy of his father's involvement in building of oil refineries in India and subsequently becoming its naturalised citizen.

  

Jerry was sent to United States for higher education after his preliminary education at St. Joseph's North Point, Darjeeling and St.Xavier's College, Kolkata. Language barriers coupled with occasional cultural jolts - did not deter his love for skiing. He started out skiing in Boise, Idaho and very soon he was offered a full scholarship at the University of Denver.

Apart from mere representation at the 1964 Olympics, he had his share of his injuries which threatened to shorten his career in skiing. At the Olympics downhill event he suffered a broken back and concussions.  Damaged internal haemorrhages along with badly fractured leg ended his maiden Olympics. It was an uphill battle to complete recovery.

At an interval of every six months since that dreadful accident, Jerry went through four operations in that period - each time surgeons re-tied the nerves in order to prevent bleeding. He was eager in spite of this set back and resumed training at the Mammoth Mountains with one ski and his left leg under a cast! All these efforts - in order to regain fitness and participate in the next edition at Grenoble, France.

By the time he became fit enough to compete (though not completely healed) he had met Janet Evans; popped the question and was married to her. At this juncture, Jerry also had the opportunity to meet Dave McCoy, former coach of the US ski team and also the owner of a resort at the Mammoth Mountains. Dave took a keen interest in Jerry which resulted in him being the mentor/coach at the Grenoble Olympics.

On the day of parade of nations,  Janet accompanied her husband Jerry - who held the Indian flag proudly. He was the 'sole' representative of India once again at the Olympics in the capacity of an 'athlete'.

Apart from being the athlete, he was also India's 'Chef de Mission' ( head of the delegation) and aptly appointed his American wife Janet Evans as 'Chef d'Equipe' - to coordinate in matters related to technical aspects of the sport. I am not sure what her credentials were apart from the fact that her father, a real estate broker comes from a skiing family and her first meeting of Jerry happened on the mountains.

In total, Jerry participated in three of the skiing events - Downhill, Giant Slalom and Slalom. He finished with a rank of 53 at the downhill event, 65 at the giant slalom event and did not advance further at the slalom event.

I am not sure how many in India remembered when he went into race that day in Grenoble. A family from San Diego woke up early that morning (4 am) in order to catch his friend Jerry on his downhill run. ABC cut to commercial at the time of Jerry's run. A furious lady, mother of Jerry's friends called up the local ABC station; endlessly she tried to catch hold of the responsible person who made the call to show commercials. She did manage to get hold of somebody at New York city and by the time she returned to her children to the living room, the sportscasters on the mountainside of Grenoble were making an announcement about them replaying the run of the 'Indian' skier, Jerry Bujakowski for his fans in San Diego, California!

India had to wait a good twenty years before there were to be any athletes at the Winter Olympics. Since 1988 with the exception of 1994 Lillehammer Games, there has been consistency even though the numbers never swelled beyond four for a single edition.

Sochi Olympics 2014 would have been an occasion to celebrate for the Indian contingent. The event would have coincided perfectly with the fifty years celebration of an Indian athlete participating at the Winter Olympics. There is one problem though - no visibility of India flag during the event.

The four athletes who have qualified for the event from India has a four-time Winter Olympic participant by the name of Shiv Keshvan, who incidentally will be participating for a fifth time at the event.

The decision to hold the IOA general elections on February 9^th and not before the start of the event (7th Feb is the deadline set by IOC) is appalling to say the least. No doubt, the four athletes will participate but with the generic flag - under the Olympic flag.

It would have been interesting how Jerry would have reacted (he passed away in 2010) for the current state of mess Indian Olympic Association is in and for the incumbent officials failing to look at the bigger picture of the athletes.

Nevertheless, I will celebrate the occasion and writing this article is one such way to acknowledge the man, Jerry Bujakowski and the painstaking efforts he took to make India become a Winter Olympic nation.