A South African potion for Indian boxing

As I am writing this, Jitender Kumar and Anthresh Lakra have also made it to the semi-finals of the AIBA World Cup, assuring India of at least 4 bronze medals at this tournament – surely India’s finest hour in world boxing. In light of Vijender’s bronze at Beijing, boxing gets a little more attention in India now, and this momentous feat is sure to get noticed by at least a sizeable minority.

The government and various others will surely jostle with each other to felicitate and reward the medal-winning boxers on their return. Some of them might just end up with an advertising contract – a la Vijender. In a nutshell Indian boxers are sure to get a lot of adulation and rewards in the days to come.

Therefore, let’s talk about someone who largely remains in the shadows, other than when the Indian Olympic Association dropped him from the Olympic squad to accommodate Sania Mirza’s mom and that too as an official. Let’s give some credit to Heath Matthews - the physio recruited by the Mittals Champions Trust.

While coaches Gurbax Singh Sandhu and B I Fernandes have played an equally critical role in the emergence of Indian boxing, it’s Matthews who’s provided the finishing touches and many healing touches as well.

The South African is a special recruit of the Mittals Trust and has helped the likes of squash player Joshna Chinappa among others. But his biggest influence has been in the highly physical sport of boxing – a sport where Indians have always shown talent but missed out on glory owing quite often than not to lack of fitness and conditioning. As echoed by coach Fernandes, he has been far busier with the recovery of the boxers than their technique. Thanks to Matthews, he can totally focus on the right area now.

For the boxing team, Matthews is the physio, psychologist and nutritionist all rolled into one. He thus addresses they key areas of fitness, conditioning, mental strength, dietary balance and physical health – things which have traditionally been ignored not just in Indian boxing but overall in Indian sport. We have seen the benefits of professional support in cricket. Now Matthews is doing the same for boxing and more. The players swear by him and the coaches love him. It’s time the sports fans and the government started loving him as well.

The Olympic episode is just one example of his contribution. Akhil Kumar cried hoarse when the IOA dropped the physio – he made it very obvious that without Matthews they weren’t capable of giving their best. And Matthews then proved that their fears were not unfounded. He helped Vijender recover from a draining first-round bout and patched up Jitender to ensure that the boxer wasn’t disqualified for an open wound.

The South African harboured cricketing ambitions when he was young. South African cricket isn’t in any way worse off without him. But Indian boxing would have never scaled the heights of Beijing and Moscow had it not had Matthews in its ranks.

(Photo Courtesy: NOAH SEELAM/AFP/Getty Images)