India hails its own Ali after Games triumph
Kamil Zaheer
He is young and hungry and he has even got the right name -- Ali.
After clinching a historic first boxing gold for India at the recent Commonwealth Games, 22-year-old Mohammad Ali Qamar has won the hearts of thousands of fans in his cricket-mad country.
But unlike his legendary namesake, former three-time world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, India's new hero is only a light flyweight weighing less than 50 kg.
Gushing fans chanting "Ali, Ali" took him in a victory procession to his house last week in the poor Calcutta neighbourhood of Ekbalpore, a Muslim-dominated, working class area where knowing how to use your fists can come in handy.
"He has done something great. He fights like Muhammad Ali. After his win, my four-year-old son now wants to become a boxer," said Alam, a 28-year-old ward assistant at a city hospital.
It is not every day that a boxer commands such respect in this cricket and soccer-mad eastern metropolis and Ali Qamar's rise to stardom is a hallmark of his tenacity.
Now he is aiming for an Asian Games gold and then for success at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
"I would love to get an Olympic medal. Right now, I am looking at an Asiad gold," Ali told Reuters.
TOUGHER COMPETITION
The Asian Games, to be held in South Korea in September, are expected to throw up tougher competition from Thailand, Philippines and the hosts, who are particularly strong in the lighter weight divisions.
"I have to concentrate on developing more skills. South Korea will be the toughest," said the quick counter-attacking Ali.
But right now it's time for him to soak in the adulation after winning the most surprising of India's unprecedented 32 golds at Manchester with a win over Englishman Darren Langley.
"When we heard he had won, everyone in the neighbourhood danced and distributed sweets," said Mohammad Sajjid, also a boxer and one of Ali's six brothers.
"After our father died two years ago, we faced a lot of hardship," said another brother Khalid Qamar.
In India, most sports people live in the deep shadows of cricketers and seldom find quality training facilities.
The plan now is to spruce up a ramshackle ring at a local club where Ali trained since he was 12 and name it after him.
WORRYING MOM
Ali's father, a lowly-paid typist, encouraged his son to take up boxing when he found him not too keen on studies.
But mother Shahnaz Akhtar, never a boxing enthusiast, still cannot bear to watch her son's bouts.
"I cannot see any of his matches on television," the 49-year-old said sitting before a shelf full of cups won by Ali.
"I can't bear to see him get hurt."
Ali's boxing abilities were hardly known outside his immediate neighbourhood till the Manchester Games and the promise he showed by reaching the quarter-finals of the last world championships hardly received any media attention.
He got a job through a sports quota with the Indian Railways, the country's largest employer, but that was all.
"We always told Ali to follow his dream while the rest of us looked after the family. He has done us and India proud," his brother Omar said.
India has had only a few boxing successes at major international meets, with athletes viewing the sport only as an escape from poverty to jobs and recognition.
Bantamweight Dingko Singh became a national hero four years ago after he ended a 16-year drought for India by claiming gold at the last Asian Games in Bangkok.
Heavyweight Gurcharan Singh was so disconsolate after missing a historic first Olympic boxing medal for India in Sydney that he quit the sport and disappeared in the United States.
