The Hindu : Sport : Cyrus Poonawalla's vision for the future

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 20, 2005

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Sport

Cyrus Poonawalla's vision for the future

S. N. Harish

FILE PHOTO

Cyrus Poonawalla

Dr. Cyrus S. Poonawalla took over the reigns of the Royal Western India Turf Club as its Chairman after a bitter battle in the recent elections. He has lost none of his freshness of thought and expression after being in a sabbatical for over five years. Cyrus during his earlier tenure as Chairman had led from the front when racing in Mumbai was at an all time high. But now the RWITC's coffers are empty and its morale sagging.

However Cyrus has a purpose and a mission to bring in accountability and transparency in the running of the races. In a candid interview to The Hindu he spelt out his priorities and agenda for the coming months.

Cyrus reiterates that he will not go witch hunting and find faults with the previous set of office-bearers. He sincerely wants to bring in a qualitative change and create a feel good atmosphere.

In order to do so he has appealed to the owners, trainers, jockeys and the entire racing community to wholeheartedly support him and his committee to raise the standards.

He firmly believes that for a Race Club to succeed it has got to have a clean image.

Cyrus asserted that a brand has to be established at RWITC. "We have to market horse racing to corporate companies for sponsorship, as racing presents an ideal platform to showcase the brand on both print and electronic media, with people from diversified background coming to racing".

He further added that more handicap races need support, which will help the small owners. Getting more small owners will automatically help Indian racing to thrive. He quoted that if soundness and brilliance are any good — each require the other — the time has come to push the pendulum.

Question: In your election campaign you had promised fair and clean racing. What are the steps you will take?

Consistency in the running of racing. We will not go by the reputation of how big and small the individuals may be.

Take a look at the fines and suspensions of erring professionals, which are totally disproportionate to the enormity of the offence. We will maintain a strict vigilance. The message is loud and clear — we will not spare anyone indulging in such practices and we will enforce discipline.

What are the other areas of improvement you have in mind?

The tote betting will be strengthened. If Hong Kong is a shining example, we will emulate it to attract people. We would be talking to the Government of Maharashtra to reduce the taxes and this should be a shot in the arm. Apart from opening up more windows, off-course betting outlets right across the state of Maharashtra will be another important thing to be done.

What are the other amenities you would like to provide to the racing public?

The audio system is obsolete and with the state of the art technology available, we would revamp the entire system as communication is vital.

What do you mean by the feel good atmosphere?

Well, the people coming into the racecourse should relish the ambience, relax and enjoy the sport. For this, we have to create the right kind of infrastructure, giving value for the money as this would put racing in the right perspective.

Certain unorthodox measures such as the French authorities allowing people below 22 free entrance can be tried. I would talk to my committee if we can work out ways and means to draw more crowd.

Cyrus chalks out his vision for the future that for any venture to succeed, there has to be a big idea.

And it is also important how you position and finally deliver, otherwise the whole gamut will pass like a `ship in the night' drifting away into oblivion.

Summing up, Cyrus is already giving quality time to shape up the contours of RWITC. It would be interesting to wait and watch for the aces up his sleeve.

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