A sportin' shame

Amid all the fanfare over Abhinav Bindra winning India's first Individual Gold ever, I was wondering if the officials of Indian sport would dare take any credit for it. But i think even they would realise here, that they really have no reason to. Abhinav may have been talented, but because of his affluent background, he was able to command himself the best facilities around. He could train in Germany, and even have a shooting range constructed at his home, by his wealthy dad. It seems that his personal range was much better than the national facility available to our shooters. And there lies the basis of India's sad show at sporting events such as the Olympics. There may be many others who could reach the heights, but because of the gross national negligence we afford them, they fade away. I remember when Jaspal Rana shot his way to a world record once. However, lack of funds and sponshorship resulted in him fading away. There was even the embarassing situation, where, at a major championship, the gun provided by our sports body, was defective. He left the field in tears.

But then again, whose fault is this sorry state of affairs in Indian sports? I've come across a lot of people blaming cricket and cricketers for the neglect bestowed on other sports in India. This, i feel, is a very feeble and shallow excuse. Cricket is in the position it is today because the people running the game knew how to preserve it for the future and popularise it. There was a time when India ruled the roost in Hockey. Winning a Gold in the Olympics in Hockey seemed always a foregone conclusion. Until, one day it snapped. What happened? Similar to what happened to the West Indies and cricket, the wise men in charge just did not plan ahead. They figured the golden goose will keep laying eggs, when, in reality, the game moved forward and India got left behind. Astro turf became the norm, and India just did not seem to know how to cope.

India was not too bad at football either, atleast on an Asian level. They had even managed to qualify for the World Cup held in Brazil in 1950, where they had to decline, because, as always, of a lack of funds. Again, today, football in India is in a sorry state. A sad thing when you consider that India, with its billion people, and millions under the poverty line, would be an ideal place where the simplest and most beautiful game can take hold, if really given a push.

If you look at cricket, last year, after the 50 over world cup debacle, when India were disgraced, there was a fear that cricket would go hockey's way, with many saying that the Indians will not be able to cope with the new kind of power play that teams like Australia were plying. Well, thankfully, that fear has proved unfounded atleast uptil now. The selectors put together a brilliant and young new team with a charismatic captain (M.S Dhoni) and sent the team to the T20 world cup, where hardly anyone gave them a chance. And we all know what happened next.

My point being that, you can hardly blame cricket and cricketers for hogging the limelight. They have toiled and planned for it, and probably deserve their success.

But what about the other sports? Well, probably the whole system would need an overhaul. We would definitely need some fresh faces at the top of the boards, and some strict timelines set for their stints and re elections, so that they would be forced to think out of the box and improve the state of affairs. Lets face it. Given a chance, this country and its teeming millions can definitely throw up atleast a couple of world champions with some regularity.

By the way, isn't hockey supposed to be our national game? Funny how I've never played it or even seen it being played in any school... And that, i guess, is where it all starts...