What Ails Indian Sports?

India’s performance in the recently concluded millennium Olympics was pathetic to say the least. Not that we were expecting a big haul of medals but because of the fact that a country with more than 1 billion population could manage a single bronze medal only. India’s position in the medal tally is a poor 74 out of 81 medal winning countries. The fact that barring few exceptions majority of our competitors could not advance beyond the preliminary stage adds insult to injury, where as many tiny countries with few lacs of population figure in the medal tally much ahead of us. The following table speaks volumes about India’s poor performance. (This is only indicative and not exhaustive).
Sl. No

Particulars
India’s Position
No. of Contestants

Remarks
1
4 x 100 Mtrs relay heats for Men
7
8
Britain reached last due to some fauxpas in baton change
2
4 x 100 Mtrs relay heats for women
6
6
Overall position 23 out of 24
3
4 x 400 Mtrs relay heats for Men
5
6
Due to disqualification of Algeria
4
4 x 400 Mtrs relay heats for women
5
6
Reached 5th place due to some brilliant running by Beenamol
5
Javelin throw for women
(Gurmeet Kaur)
32
35


According to a comprehensive statistical study conducted by Australian Statistical Bureau taking all parameters into account Viz.; size of the country, population, number of participants etc etc, Bahamas will be at the top and India’s position is at the rock bottom ie; 199 out of 199 participants. Can there be a greater humiliation than this?. China which has started taking part in International sports barely 2-3 decades ago, have emerged as a leading sports nation of the world. It is not a matter of a few medals but the goodwill and prestige of the country which is at stake. Indians with their dismal performance has become a laughing stock at international arena. Inspite of such pathetic performance by the Indian contingent, majority of the IOC Governing body was re-elected unanimously. A classic example of rewarding inefficiency and incompetence. Can this happen in any other country, other than India?. Let us make an introspection of the maladies afflicting Indian sports.

While Indian sportsmen are physically weak compared to their foreign counterparts, their mental faculty is also far below par. It is the mental faculty, which becomes the crucial factor between the winner and loser. This is amply demonstrated by the fact that while we defeat formidable teams in inconsequential matches, we struggle even against mediocre teams in crucial matches. In football or hockey if our team trails by two or three goals our defeat is almost certain. Similarly in cricket if two or three top order batsman are out for paltry score, we normally see a parade of the remaining batsmen. Only on very few occasions we saw a resurgence of Indian team against all odds.

Our sports administrators and organistions often lament about the lack of funds and facilities for the poor standard of sports in the country. It is not the lack of funds or facilities, which stands in the way of our progress but the lack of dedication, sincerity, killer instinct and team spirit. Delhi which is having one of the best sports facilities in the country has not produced any sports person of international standard for the last several years where as African countries ridden in poverty has produced sportsmen of world standard. Countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Cameroon, Bahamas etc performed creditably well in the Olympics. Even in India many sports persons belong to poor families and they come from remote villages of the country where there are absolutely no sports facilities. P.T.Usha, I.M.Vijayan, Harikrishna and Bula Choudhary were born in poor families.

After the independence barring few exceptions whatever little progress India has made, are all due to individual efforts whether it is Ramanathan Krishnan, Leander Paes, Milkha Singh, Vijay Amritraj, Ramesh Krishnan, Michel Ferriera, Geet Sethi, Viswanathan Anand, P.T.Usha or Harikrishna. This clearly shows that no tangible results have been achieved by the large amount of money spent by the Government and other allied organisation for the development of sports in the country. Even the criteria of development is ridiculous as Associations’ annual report indicates the amount spent on sports compared to previous year instead of Indicating the achievement in physical terms. It appears that our achievement in sports is inversely proportional to the amount spent on sports.

Indians were pioneers in many sports like Hockey Archery etc. We were the undisputed champions in Hockey for many years. In Archery, even today no other country has produced archers of the stature of Dronacharya, Arjuna Karna, Ekalavya etc. We were also a force to reckon with in many sports like Volleyball, Basketball etc. at least in the Asian circuit. We were the undisputed kings of Hockey for several years. In spite of the fact that Hockey is our National game, Government and people’s interest in this once popular sport is dwindling. On many occasions national level hockey matches are played in front of empty galleries despite the fact that admission is free. TV mania and our continued failure have made many games unpopular.

One of the rarest things seen in India is national pride. When the government owned and controlled agencies do not avail the rare opportunities of awakening national pride what to talk of the common man? In the Junior world hockey championship tournament held at Milton Keynes (England) During October 1997 Indian team reached upto the final. On the way to the final we dethroned defending champions Germany. Even in the final we lost the medal by a whisker mainly due to some bad umpiring decisions. However, millions of hockey fans all over the country were denied the excitement of the glorious, thrilling and pulsating moments of the game thanks to the apathy and callous attitude of the Doordarshan authorities. It was after long time India played in the final of a world championship. Our 1980 Olympic Hockey Gold medal triumph is worth only 12 carat because Hockey giants like Pakistan, Germany, Australia, Holland England etc did not participate in the Olympics. Watching the national team playing in the final of a world championship will at least momentarily help to create a sense of patriotism and feeling of Indianness in a country otherwise divided over caste, creed, region, religion, language etc. This is not an isolated event and there are instances galore.

India has no dearth of sports talents. There are innumerable examples to prove this point. During October 1996 a small boy from a remote Andhra village Harikrishna won the world sub junior (under 10) chess championship. Tata Football Academy a team of teenagers from Jamshedpur whose average age is around 18 years coached by Habib, a veteran footballer of yesteryears always pose a big challenge to other big clubs of the country. TFA boys were a bunch of enterprising, energetic and enthusiastic youngsters. Their speed, ball control, dribbling etc are superb. The fact that a top football club like Mohun Bagan had to sweat it out for the entire duration of the 1997 DCM Football Final is an eloquent testimony of the caliber of TFA boys. During February 1998 Rourkela Municipal College team comprising mostly adivasi boys from Orissa won the Nehru SAIL champion’s hockey tournament defeating Australian University in the final. Australia is a formidable power in the world hockey and they are having an enviable record of achievements in the international hockey. Therefore, a victory over an Australian team is not a mean achievement. All the above instances and many more conclusively prove that there is no dearth of sports talent in the country. A pertinent point to be noted in the above examples is that in all the three cases players involved are teenagers. While our junior players are more sincere and dedicated, senior players play more politics in and out of the field.

We are having good football coaches like Habib, P.K.Banerji, Chattunni, Nayeemuddin, Sukhvinder Singh etc. However, inspite of having good coaches in the country, we engage foreign coaches who are themselves failures in their own country by paying fabulous fees, which is many times more than the fees paid to their Indian counterparts. Indian football reached its nadir during the stewardship of Rustom Akramov, a Russian coach. He committed the biggest blunder by asking Joe Paul Anchery to play in the defence. Anchery is a lethal striker and even now he has the temptation to overlap and assume the role of a forward. However, for us Indians, foreigner’s words are like priest’s sermons and we meekly accepted the blunder.

Lacks of recognition, ingratitude, humiliation, insult, insinuation etc are not new to Indian sports. P.T.Usha one of India’s foremost athlete and one of the best athletes of Asia used to stay in the Nehru stadium hutment during her training/ competition in Delhi. Daily allowance of our national hockey players who are expected to uphold the prestige of the country in the International competition is a paltry sum which is not even sufficient for two square meals, what to talk of nutritious meals. Harikrishna’s winning of the world sub-junior chess championship did not attract much media attention. While we eulogise some sports persons , treat them as demigods , shower them with awards, rewards, medals and money it was rather unfortunate that a child prodigy could not get his due. He could participate in the world championship with the money donated by his well wishers and villagers. India’s veteran goalkeeper Subbaiah was not included for the 1998 world hockey championship. A person who was selected “Man of the match” twice less than two months ago in our test series with Pakistan was suddenly found to be out of form- a novel discovery by IHF selectors. Though the ostensible reason for sidelining Subbaiah was ‘out of form’ the actual reason appears to be his taking up the legitimate demands of players with the IHF authorities. Similarly some senior players who played a stellar role in regaining the Hockey Gold medal at 1998 Asian Games were unceremoniously removed immediately after the games. Do the federation expect that our players should behave like cowards and slaves? How can we expect giant killers and world beaters from meek and coward sports persons?

Our selection and training procedure also leave much to be desired. It is the connection, which is the main hidden criterion for selection relegating quality and merit to the background. Regionalism and group factors also play and important role in the selection process. It is alleged that even our veteran players pull strings to include their favourites in the Indian eleven with utter disregards to quality or merit. No wonder, we induct local lads in predominant positions while playing at Bangalore, Mumbai or Mohali and they turned out to be superflops. We should realise that our ultimate aim is to win the match and medal and not to give a chance to the son of the soil.

We select our team just few days prior to the start of the International event, where as advanced sports countries announce their teams months ahead of the competition and give them much needed combined match practice. In team games team sprit and rapport between the players are of paramount importance, more than individual brilliance. Due to the absence or inadequacy of the combined match practice, we find the maximum mispasses from the Indian team and often they make a mockery of the game. We hire and fire coaches like casual labour. We should learn from the great epic Mahabharat as to how great coaches (Gurus) like Dronacharya were revered and respected even by their adversaries. Frequent change of coaches and consequent change of strategies makes our players a confused lot.

The fundamental difference between India and other sports powers is that while they create formidable team with ordinary players, India makes mediocre team with talented players. There is abundance of sports talent in the country. Our sports administrators should come out of their air-conditioned rooms in big cities and search for hidden talent. Our adivasi boys are excellent archers and our fishermen can bring medals in swimming if they are trained and guided properly. A martial art form of Kerala –Kalaripayattu is similar to fencing and exponents of this art can bring medals in fencing. Our corporate giants who spend crores of rupees for advertisement can adopt few sports persons in selected disciplines and give them intensive training. Let us make a concerted effort to win few medals at least in the next Olympics at Athens. Few years ago, India was to force to reckon with in Wrestling. That was primarily due to the untiring and dedicated efforts of a single individual, the grand old man of Indian wrestling-Guru Hanuman. Most of our wrestling stalwarts and medal winners were his disciples. Indian wrestling standard gradually declined after his death. If one individual can make so much impact on sports, our jumbo-sized organisations and giant companies can do much more. Indian Olympic association should concentrate on a few disciplines where we have a fair chance of winning medal instead of sending a huge contingent like a package tour. A country, which represents 1/6th of the world population or the biggest populated country in the world (by that time we may overtake China in terms of population) should not continuously face the humiliation and ignominy for our poor performance in international sports.

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