Chak de
Ramesh Kumar winning the bronze in World Wrestling, Vijender Singh winning the bronze in World Boxing, Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes playing against each other in the US Open final (Men’s Doubles), Pankaj Adwani winning the World Billiards Championship. This is the present India. Indian shooters winning the medals in Olympics, Indian swimmers creating history at world championships, Indian Cricket team winning successive World Cups and much more. This is the future India and I am pretty much sure we all have dreamt of a similar scenario. In an earlier article, I had written that monetary hindrances post the biggest challenge in the development of many sports in India. And this is a fact quoted by many not-so-famous sports personalities (citations are out of scope of this context!!). One might reasonably argue that talent is the primary factor and not the finances. Well, I believe that in a nation of more than 1.2 billion people, finding talent would not at all be a herculean effort. I agree that in India, people love to play Cricket more than any other sport and the talent pool in Cricket surpasses the number of talented or upcoming players in any sport, however still, just amble around any stadium in an Indian city (where there is one!) and you would find an amazing number of young lads and teenagers playing Volleyball, Table Tennis, Football. Badminton, Hockey, etc. Whenever I pass by the K D Singh Babu stadium in Lucknow, the only bewildering thought that crosses my mind is Why is it that India can manage just a couple or a couple extra medals in Olympics? Why is it that India has not been able to set footprints in World level Cycling even after having 8 cycling circuits in India with international standards? Why is that Indians cannot enter even the 2nd round of World TT Championship? Questions are many but answers few, and these few answers can make India create history in many sporting events. This is atleast what I believe. As I said earlier, money is a major factor which curtails the growth of many sports in India. Money is required to hire qualitative as well as quantitative coaches – coaches of the caliber of Kabir Khan of Chak de India. Money is required to augment the basic facilities to a higher end version. Money is required to provide more space and land for players to play. Money is required to provide basic sporting equipments to those who cannot afford to buy it and are still enthusiastic enough to play for India one day. Money is required to provide atleast basic athletic, aerobic and gymnasium facilities. Its not that the money is not available in India. Its just that it is being spent to construct gigantic statues of living politicians, its spent to fulfill materialistic needs of corrupt officials and to throw lavish parties by millionaires and to produce farcical TV reality shows. We have seen talent hunt for singing and dancing in the form of TV shows like Indian Idol, etc. Even if 1 producer comes up with an idea of making a TV show for talent hunt for any sport say Table Tennis, Hockey, etc., just imagine what seminal ramifications it would have on Indian Sports. Even if a handful of rich cricketers and other rich sports personalities or industrialists invest an iota of their wealth in development and growth of any sport then is not it that it will have a colossal positive impact on Indian sports. I believe that a true sports person is not just the one who excels in a particular sport, but the one who also helps others to excel in that or any other sport, if there is a need to do so. And I think the need of the hour is to promote the growth of those sports which will slowly pale into oblivion if the interest to play those sports is lost.
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