Archery secretary-general wants to quit, blames failure on 'media hype'

Kolkata, Aug 6 (IANS):

In a fall-out of the disastrous performance of the Indian archers in the London Olympics, Archery Association of India (AAI) general secretary Paresh Nath Mukherjee has decided to quit saying it was his “personal defeat”.

Mukherjee, who was overall in-charge of the archers’ preparations and also went to London as the team manager, said a principal cause of the pathetic showing was the tremendous media hype ahead of the Games that had increased the “pressure of expectation” on the Indian competitors.

“I have decided to quit both as the AAI general secretary and also as the overall in-charge of the team’s preparations. I was the effective boss. This is my personal defeat,” Mukherjee told IANS.

He would submit his papers once the Games were over.

“The problem is we look like winners even before actually winning in the arena. The players did not have the strength to withstand the media hype,” he said.

However, days ahead of the Olympic Mukherjee had justified the media hype.

“Hype about the archery team is based on certain logic and reasons… Deepika Kumari is world No.1, while Indian women team is ranked No.2 and men’s team is 5th in the world. However, previous record has no value on the day of competition,” he had said in London a week before the Games started.

India came up with a miserable showing in London saw four of the six-member contingent, including the world No.1 woman archer Deepika Kumari fall flat in the first individual round. Both the men’s and women’s teams also fell at the opening hurdle.

Two male archers Rahul Banerjee and Tarundeep Rai were the only ones to win their individual opening battles before bowing out in the second eliminator.

Mukherjee conceded that he had no excuses to offer. “We did not click, that’s all.”

Denying that chief coach Limba Ram was sidelined in London and he called the shots, Mukherjee said: “Why should I do that? I brought Limba as chief coach in 2009. Under his coaching, we came up with lot of medals in international competitions. Our men’s and women’s teams were in the top bracket.

“He was very successful. Our archers were firm favourites ahead of the games,” he said.

On whether the team could have attained success under a foreign coach, Mukherjee said: “We had brought lot of foreign coaches in the past. But they could not produce the results. Since 2009, we had no foreign coaches. But we got fantastic results in the last three years”.