Great day for Indian sports & athletes. But why carry a grudge for cricket or cricketers? Whose fault is it if after being Olympic champs 8 times the people who ran hockey did nothing much for the game? Why did they never give India’s ‘national game’ anything more than lip service?
Like everything the governments of the past should have done for sports but it never did except mouth platitudes after every win. Hockey players did not even have shoes to play with.
Cricket admin too until the 1980s was not much to write home about. Test players were paid ₹50 per day for a five-day Test and if the match got over in four days, ₹50 less! After the watershed moment in 1983, the World Cup winners were paid ₹1 lakh each.
Thankfully, cricket had men of vision like Jagmohan Dalmiya, Inderjit Singh Bindra and others who saw the opportunity and grabbed it. Not just Indian cricket but the ICC owes a debt of gratitude to men like Dalmiya who showed the stuffed shirts in the MCC that cricket could be a money-spinner if they played smart. And to think they did their best to keep him out of the body!
A small state like Andhra built 14 cricket grounds and five cricket academies, including one for women in the mid2000s. Children were coached and educated here and went on to play for their state and country because there were men with vision. Why did a cricketer like MSK Prasad and an official like Dr. Ganga Raju drive around Andhra and look for places where they could build these cricket grounds and academies?
One wonders where Indian hockey and other sports would have been if it had some men of vision. If Indian sports has to become popular again start from the grassroots. Launch sports academies and stadia in every state. Spot talent from school, fund training and education.
Yes, it needs money and it needs a will and the vision to see the future and where Indian sports can reach. Hockey, for example, doesn’t need people with small mindsets. The game has moved on and so should Indian hockey if they expect the next medal at the 2024 Olympics to be a gold. The exact system needs to be replicated with women’s hockey.
Organise matches at Under-14, -18, -22 and then senior levels regularly. Have tie-ups with clubs abroad for player exchanges. Send your players to play there and bring their players here and watch how the game improves. It’s not rocket science.
A Bollywood movie is not the answer to problems in Indian sports whatever some in the media might think. And thank God we have a govt that is actively promoting disciplines besides cricket since 2014. Prime Minister Narendra Modi just announced a committee for future of Indian sports. Champions are not born overnight. Neeraj Chopra didn’t land from Mars. He slogged his way to a Gold.
Golfers like Aditi Ashok need to be encouraged even after coming 4th. Pay for her to play with the best. Don’t let the Indian men’s relay team waste away in frustration. Send them to race abroad for international meets. Secure their future.
Every single Indian athlete who took part in the Olympics reached there because he or she had talent, so nurture it. Don’t moan about how cricket is getting more prominence. It doesn’t help.
Been There Done That 