Salaam Sportsmen!

Of late, I have been observing blogs ridiculing the celebrations of Indians for winning medals at Beijing Olympics. When our neighbor China has almost got 50 odd Gold medals silently, we are going over-board for a single Gold medal won. Why can’t India get more medals in such sporting events? Is this something to do with the race? If so, how can Chinese, who do not differ much from our race, can get more Gold medals and display the world that they are the real emerging Super Power?

I do agree that we are going overboard in celebrating the wins at Olympics, but we should not forget the efforts put in by our sportsmen in these events. Remember India who ranked second in the 1951 Asian Games, slipped to 4th rank in 1982 Asian Games. This again slipped to 8th slot in the previous 2 Asian Games. It does not mean that Indian sports arena is deteriorating. We remained stagnant while others improved.

While we ridicule the celebrations on winning these medals, we should throw light on the following that remains the causes of such a plight.

¨ How many of us would prefer our kids to choose a career in Sports apart from cricket?
¨ How many of us accept Sports as a curriculum of education?
¨ Which corporate company sponsors a sport other than cricket?
¨ Indian sportsmen (excluding cricketers and tennis players) are generally given a raw deal in terms of amenities provided. Usually, 20 are lodged in a room and 2 have to share a bed. The less we said about the facilities is better
¨ India is participating in 13 events only out of 34 Olympic events
¨ Our medal prospect is limited to six events namely shooting, archery, tennis, badminton, boxing and wrestling. Out of this six, we were sure that we will not get medal in tennis and badminton

Still, today, we have won 3 medals. I hope Virendar brings us a Silver or Gold. If not for the sake of nation, for the sake of dating Bipasha, Virendar has to win Gold. This is the ironical status of sports in our country!

Our sports authorities are busy playing politics than improving the sports quality in India. Courtesy, personal animosity, blaming false allegations, our authorities ensured no ticket to Monika for Beijing. All her hard-work just for this moment had gone waste. Truth prevailed but late. She lost the opportunity. Whether she would have won is another question but her hard work was not respected. The authorities who slammed false allegations on her are roaming scot-free! With such incidents happening, how can we expect our sportsmen to get motivated?

Sania’s mother can be a part of the team to Beijing but a genuine sportsperson is denied of that opportunity. Our sportsperson brought India medals from time and again despite these officials and authorities and not because of them. We had many a source of inspirations in form of Milkha Singh, Dhyan Chand, PT Usha, Shiny Wilson, Malleswari, Paes, Rathod etc., however, we failed to produce the likes of them.

To win a world cup starting from scratch in 3 hours is possible only on silver screen. If at all we dream of hosting Olympics by 2020 (I don’t know what magic lies in 2020), we have to start working from now. Every country that hosted Olympics found a place in the top 5 rankings. Prior to decide on hosting Olympics, we should work on improving the quality of our sports and sportsperson. At the least, we need 10 years to form a qualitative team. That should start from now. If we started that now, we can expect more medals in 2020!

Schools & Universities can play a pivotal role in this. Unfortunately, we lack the infra-structure. We are neither rich nor poor. We spend more on the security of our ministers and their kith & kin. Even if we spend 50% of what we spend on the fringe benefits of our so-called leaders and their security, we can build a decent infrastructure for sports! It is the high time we focused our efforts on improving the quality of sports and think beyond politics!