And the Organising Committee was not going to give you a single extra room," he added. "People from IOA said why are you putting your head so much to it, just aise chhabi de do, baant denge. Had I just left it to the team and told them to divide, there would have been chaos," Raja said. "So with the tennis team, I had to ensure two sets of rooms in which one could go to Mahesh and other to Leander. Paes had demanded that she be his mixed doubles partner at the Games. Sania had famously lambasted the duo as well as the national federation, saying that she had been used as a bait to placate Paes. Eventually, none of them could fetch a medal but there was enough drama before departure to put a soap opera to shame.
"I couldn't have allowed a situation where Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi ended up in the same room," Raja laughed referring to the infamous feud between the two reigning superstars of Indian tennis surrounding who would partner Sania Mirza at the Games. And the most challenging aspect of his job was to allot accommodation at the Games Village. As it turned out, Ajit Pal was too unwell to make the trip to London, leaving Raja in charge. I was an executive committee member at that time, comparatively junior," he revealed. Because chef-de-missions were usually people higher up in the hierarchy, like vice presidents or higher. "One reason why they didn't announce my name as chef de mission was that there would have been an uproar in the IOA. So I was told that officially 'we are making you deputy chef-de-mission but in all probability you will have to take over as chef-de-mission'," the 65-year-old Raja said. He always had a back ache and lot of other issues. At the same time I was also told that Mr Ajit Pal is not too well. "(Hockey great) Ajit Pal Singh was to be the chef-de-mission. V K Malhotra was at the helm of affairs for the national olympic body. That was also the time when Indian sport was reeling under the after-effects of the 2010 Commonwealth Games corruption scandal which had led to IOA President Suresh Kalmadi's removal and subsequent jailing along with some other IOA functionaries. "The IOA secretary general Randhir Singh asked me a year before the Olympics, 'Brig Raja, how are you placed to be India's deputy chef-de-mission?' I said I am quite fine for it," Raja recalled. The 2012 London edition was India's most successful Olympic outing with half a dozen medals and the contingent's chef-de-mission, Brig (Retd) P K Muralidharan Raja, spoke to PTI about the many back-room challenges he encountered in the job, for which he wasn't even the original choice, at least on record. NEW DELHI: Tackling egos, managing resources, enforcing discipline - sounds difficult? Well, that's the life of a chef-de-mission at the Olympic Games.