'Three-star' Gurbaksh Singh Sandhu lends a helping hand to India's neighbours

Don't be surprised if you see Gurbaksh Singh Sandhu, India's chief boxing coach, guiding pugilists from other countries from the ringside. That's because he has been approached by at least three of India's neighbours — Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan — to help out their boxers. And Sandhu has acceded to their requests. His only condition is that he will not leave his own wards in the lurch.

With the International Boxing Federation (AIBA) making it mandatory that every boxer be accompanied by three coaches, including one AIBA-qualified 'three-star coach' sitting ringside, many subcontinent teams are in a fix. After all, most don't have three-star or even two-star coaches.

For the record, this rule has been in operation since the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow where the organisers did away with headgear in amateur boxing.

"I was requested by not just Bhutan but also by Nepal and Afghanistan to sit ringside. But I told them it won't be possible today (Wednesday) because our women boxers are also fighting in the evening and I need to be with them," Sandhu told dna.

When asked if it's ethical for a country's coach to help other teams, Sandhu laughed out loud. "There is no question of ethics here. There are very few three-star coaches in the subcontinent. And it is under AIBA's directions that a team can hire a three-star coach for a particular bout. So qualified coaches have been helping these teams."

Apart from Sandhu, two-star coach Ramanand sat ringside at a Bhutanese boxer's bout. A three-star coach from South Korea also helped out. dna has learnt that Sandhu had helped out some boxers during the Commonwealth Games too.

The Indian boxing community has suffered immensely since December 2012, after AIBA banned the Indian Boxing Federation for not holding fair elections. And hence, Indian coaches, like boxers, had to take part in workshops abroad in order to get the mandatory three-star certificate.

In his youth, Sandhu was a state boxer when he studied in Sainik School Jamnagar. But his rise as a coach coincided with his National Institute of Sport (Patiala) certification. He then went to Germany.

In the meanwhile, AIBA has also decided to not show display live scores on the giant screen in the arena. This is being done to make the bouts more aggressive.

DID YOU KNOW?
According to AIBA rules, every boxer must be accompanied by three coaches ringside. One of these has to be a AIBA-qualified three-star coach. Given that most subcontinent coaches don't have three-star — or, for that matter, two-star — coaches, Sandhu has received requests from many quarters