``We had just announced that the IOA would be paying awards of Rs 20,000 for gold, Rs 15,000 for silver and Rs 10,000 for bronze,'' said the IOA chief a day after the awards for India's medallists were given out.

It is not that Kalmadi has any objection to sportspersons making money, it is just the timing and the fact that controversy about cricket has been simmering for the last few weeks. ``It seemed insensitive. On one hand, you have shooters, lifters, badminton players and boxers, who had won medals.

Even the hockey sides reached semis in both sections. And the cricketers seemed to be getting Rs one lakh for merely standing on thefield?

``Naturally, some of the medallists raised the point. I wish the Board had at least waited for some time before making an announcement or I wonder whether they were making a point,'' wondered Kalmadi.

On the question of Sachin Tendulkar saying IOA's allegations against cricketers that they did not put their hearts into the matches were baseless, Kalmadi said, ``At no point have I criticised the players. I am only angry with the Board. In the weeks before the Games we wrote so many letters but got no replies and not even one call. They knew about the dates and they could certainly have done something. Maybe, they didn't want to shift the Sahara Cup dates because they had other tours coming up. I would even have been happy if they had declined to send a team. The only reason we didn't want to stop a team was because it was the first time the sport was being played at the Games.''

Taking his own federation, the Amateur Athletics Federation, as a case in point he added, ``Why, my federation, theAAFI, did not send a team. We felt we had no chance of medals and our athletes were preparing for the Asian Games. It is the half-hearted approach of the Board and not the team that is disappointing.''

His final deliverance on cricket: ``I can assure you whether or not Manchester in 2002 has cricket on the programme, we (the IOA) will not send a team in cricket. That's final.''

Away from cricket, Kalmadi, euphoric about the team's success at the Commonwealth Games, wants the government to help out the federations and associations. ``The sports budget is about Rs 70 crores, but most of that goes into merely maintaining staff, their salaries. There is no money left for development. If there is no money, fine. But at least let there be tax exemption for sports sponsorships and building of sports infrastructure by private houses.

``Then there is the issue of coaches that bothers him. ``In KL, I saw that most countries have specialised coaches for various disciplines. The results showed with their best everperformance of 10 gold and a fourth place on the medals tally,'' he says.

``I am going to propose to the government, that we would like to work with them in identifying good coaches, who will be accountable. They may be expensive, but we, at the IOA, will be willing to share the burden of the cost. After a meeting within the IOA next week, we will be approaching the government,'' says Kalmadi, who wants to see his plans fructify in time for results to show as early as the Bangkok Asian Games in December.