So… the 29th Olympics in People’s Republic of China finally came to an end… the two Asian powerhouses are celebrating the outcome of the Olympics… though, both of them have different magnitudes of achievements from these games, the celebrations are no doubt, of the sam magnitude…
When Chinese officials are celebrating the successful hosting of the games, the Indian officials are celebrating the fact that they successfully took their families on a trip to China without spending a pie.
While the Chinese politicians were basking in the glory of the Olympics, the Indo-Italian first lady of Indian politics had her own plans of showing up at the Olympics as the head of State of India.
When the Chinese people and media are celebrating the topping of the medal chart, the Indian people and media are celebrating their Best Olympics outing ever. For an uninitiated person, this line would lead him to think that India figured in the top 5 of the medal tally… but the reality is that the best Olympics outing for the Indian contingent consists of 1 Gold and 2 Bronze medals
When the Chinese Hurdler, Liu Xang knew that he was injured, he still trained and trained, hoping that his injury would not affect him but it finally did get better of him, leading him to retirement. But when 2 of our best female athletes were on the verge of losing, they attributed it to injuries. Sania Mirza, the poster girl of Indian tennis unceremoniously pulled out of a Tennis match because she couldnt go any further. Anju Bobby George took 3 full attempts at long jump and all 3 attempts were false attempts. Finally, she attributed it to her injury.
While i’m very happy that we’ve won a gold and 2 bronze medals, I think its pathetic that this is the best that we’ve been able to do in almost a century of participating in the olympics. India is a country of 1 Billion people, and a single Gold individual medal in this many years? Of course, we’ve done very well in hockey but what about other sports? Rather what about hockey now?
Don’t we have the talent? Don’t we have the money to do well? Don’t we have the determination?
Well, the answer to all 3 is yes…
Lets take them one at a time…
Talent : Of course we have talent. Lots of it… Didn’t we produce great hockey players like Dhyan Chand, Dhanraj Pillai, etc? Didn’t we have great runners like Milkha Singh, P.T.Usha who almost made it at a time when there was hardly any encouragement or money to their sports? Can’t these great athletes’ training produce even a handful of atletes who can compete with the best in the world? Why the hell do we go around searching for coaches/trainers from other countries and then say that we can’t afford them?
Money : Everyone goes around saying “India is a poor country. Most of India is made up of poor people who can hardly afford a square meal a day”. But how many people realise that the amount spent on Education per person per year in India is Rs.4 where as the amount spent on defence research and war is Rs.1000/person/year. Coming to money in sports… the BCCI in India is currently the richest cricketing body in the world… but what has the cricket team done? 1 World Cup and 1 T20 championship in almost a century of playing this game? Many state governments in the country promised money to the medalists… 10 Lakhs, 15 Lakhs, etc… but where was all this money before the the olympics? The only reason is this… when they reward the winners with money they get recognition in the National and International media… but when the same money is spent on developing facilities, it just goes into developing the facilities… no publicity. In reality, everyone wants to be associated with someone who’s already a winner… nobody wants to take the responsibility of creating one. This applies to everyone from the corporate industry to the politicians. If 50% of the money spent on rewarding the cricketers was spent on developing the facilities for training and coaching, India could be way ahead.
Determination : In spite of not getting enough facilities, Bindra’s father spent money on him to train for his achievement. That is determination. Sushil Kumar, from a small village in Haryana, the son of a bus driver was able to win a medal at the olympics. That is the power of determination. But, this is just a flash in the pan… its definitely not enough if 3 athletes show the determination.
It is not the poverty that leads to lack of money in sports. Definitely not. It is the lack of discipline and the lack of intent from the officials to push the development of sports. When everyone wants to be associated with winners, why are they not ready to create the winners?
If anybody has seen the state of most of the sporting facilities in this country, the picture will be absolutely clear.
Let’s take cricket… the most talked about sport in the country… we have the richest cricket board in the world… have you seen the condition of the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore? Except for the pieces of the stadium around Gate 1 (which is the officials’ and players’ entrance) and the KSCA club (a premium club in the city), the rest of the stadium is in a sorry condition. The toilets look like they’ve not been cleaned from the day they were constructed… the food stalls in general stands are worse than those in 3rd rate theatres… there’s no permanent seating in most parts of the stadium. And this is the condition of one of the best stadiums in the country.
Then there’s the football stadium in Bangalore… the lesser said about this, the better… the majority of the stands have no roof cover and there’s a huge open drain running adjacent to the stadium… I’ve never been there for a match, but from what i’ve seen it from outside, the number of blades of grass on the entire ptich can be counted by a person in about 10 minutes.
If these are the conditions, how in the world can anybody ever do well? Where will the athletes train and practice?
The solution?
* Introduce compulsory sports at school level and make sure there’s a healthy competition starting from grassroot levels… there’s no use making kids play a sport all day just for the heck of it… they’re bound to lose interest unless there’re good competitions that encompass children from all levels.
* Make it compulsory that majority of the administrators of sports bodies are past sportspeople and reward them well in terms of salaries.
* Have regular talent scouts at school competitions and other competitions and pick out talented players to be trained in the best conditions
* Reward people of all sports on par with Cricket and at all levels… not only at international level
* Make it affordable for people to be able to play sports in neighbourhood sports clubs by developing well equipped sports clubs at various locations close to the people.
If the authorities meticulously carry out the tasks that they’re paid to do, i’m quite sure that India does not need to call 3 medal haul the best achievement in olympics ever.
So, finally, am i proud of the achievement in Olympics? Yes. I’m proud that Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar and Vijender Kumar are of the same nationality that I am… but I’m definitely not proud of the achievement of India as a whole in sports… not of cricket, not of hockey, not of tennis. And definitely not of the media that makes these 3 medals look like we beat China or USA in the medals tally
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