MUMBAI: In order to test the Talkatora Indoor Stadium ahead of the Commonwealth Games, the Indian Boxing Federation will be conducting the Commonwealth Boxing Championship from 10-18 March at the venue in the capital.

CBC is a boxing championship of all Commonwealth nations and the federation has invited all Commonwealth nations to participate. However, the IBF is expecting participation only from 10-15 countries, including England, South Africa, Pakistan and Malaysia.

“First we are the doing the Commonwealth championship in March, after that we will be participating in a few internationals between the championship and the Commonwealth Games (in October) and immediately one month after the Games we have the Asian Games. So it is back-to-back actually. So we have to plan because the timing is so close that performance is always a problem,” IBF secretary general P K Muralidharan Raja told SportzPower, while detailing the federation’s plans for 2010.

“Last time also we had a bad experience in 2002. While in 2006 we managed well, but 2002 was a washout as far as the Asian Games are concerned, so we are planning and working on that (Asian Games),” Raja pointed out.

Super Cup
According to Raja, the preparations for all major upcoming competitions are going well. He also informed that all major Indian boxers will be participating in the upcoming Super Cup inter-zonal boxing competition in Mumbai except Vijender Singh, Jitender Singh and Akhil Kumar.

“The preparations are going well and we are coming to Mumbai for Super Cup, where all my core probables are participating except Vijender, Jitender and Akhil. They will not be participating. Plus, in the Super Cup maybe some new guys may come in and some existing guys may lose out from the core group.”

Queried about funds sanctioned by the government for the preparation of Indian boxers, Raja said that all these things are only on paper and the federation has not received a single paisa except for the money that Sports Ministry is spending on exposure tours and through SAI.

“All that is only on paper or with the government, as far as the federation is concerned we have not received a single paisa till now. This thing happened last time also during Commonwealth Youth Games (Pune). The ministry is doing on their own and all the money that you are talking is being spent by the ministry on exposure tours or what they have given for sports campus through Sports Authority of India (SAI),” Raja disclosed.