Michael Ferreira

Former world billiards champion

“There is no doubt that due to the inherent grit that women possess, women sportspersons have certainly found a place in world sports. They have a legitimate place in sports and should be given due encouragement. Having said that I feel in physical ability they can’t compete with men. That’s why when Martina Navratilova said she can compete with and beat top male players on the tour, her chief rival Chris Evert said she would not be able to compete even with a player ranked 1000th. Because they are too strong and too fast. But, I am not trying to degrade women sportspersons. They certainly deserve respect. I have seen many fine women athletes in India who have trained hard and made a name internationally — Ashwini Nachappa, Anjali Vedpathak, P.T. Usha, Shiny Wilson and so on. But I feel women’s rightful place is on a women’s tour. In sports like snooker and billiards where it is the hand-to-eye coordination that matters, too, I find women players cannot compete with men.

Ashok kumar

Former coach of Indian women’s hockey team

nI think the Korean coach has a point. You can’t treat women like you’d treat your men players. I think the difficulty in coaching women lies in their upbringing. You can yell at and abuse a male player and he won't take it amiss. In fact, he may even yell back at you. But for women, we have to really measure our words. And the women themselves never shout or even say anything back to you. So if they are angry, they just swallow their anger — and that reflects in their game. Men let their anger out, and can really therefore perform without a care. And the other problem is that unlike a men’s team, where you can single out a star player and really groom him well, you can’t do that in a women’s team. If you think somebody is good and want to give her special treatment, it can be read as something else — which is a real big problem for a coach. I don’t know if women coaches face similar problems with women players. To an extent, it’s bound to happen, for the women players — because of their upbringing — will always react differently from men.