I am not sure its just my patriotism that watching Indian Team compete in any tournament and doing good I am overwhelmed with emotions. These emotions at the moment have been triggered, when devouring the works of Indian Hockey Team wrecking yet another team in Asia Cup in Malaysia. Thanks to two sports channels forecasting the matches.
Contrast to this, the Women Trio of Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari and Rimil Buriuly have returned triumphant after winning the World Series Stage IV crown after defeating Korea in Poland. Not only the matches were not telecasted on any National Sports Channel but also there was a very mild reception at the airport. Adding to the woes, President of Archery Association of India poking the sentiments with ruthless and insulting remarks.
I personally believe, there has always been a push culture wen it comes to feeding news/thoughts to the masses. Whenever there is a twin country cricket series there is live coverage not only on Sports Channels but also on News Channels. Even the Channel owned and run by Indian government shows live coverage of the game. There is session by session analysis of performances – individual/team, strategies and impacts on News and Sports Channels. During the times, when the media and the government in unison are promoting just one sport, Cricket, then how can other sports survive in this nation?
We won the cricket world cup and each player was awarded many laurels along with monetary benefits and many government organizations offered senior positions, even Indian Army and Police to the players. No such things seem to be in picture for games played on an international level like Chess and Badminton and for dying sports like Kabaddi which is even perceived to have originated in India.
On one side, there has been an organized effort from the Chinese government to promote sports and target every sport not just athletics or soccer. China as I hear have started training athletes from a very tender age. These kids know sports and just sports, which makes them thorough professionals. And the results have been good, the whole world is witness to it.
On the other side, in Europe and America, sports are being reared along with education. One sport being compulsory for each kid to play. And none can deny the dominance of nations like US, Russia, Germany and others on a global level for a very long time.
I am not sure when are we going to learn from such good examples. It is very hard to believe that a country with a population less than no country other than China is unable to produce sportsmen and sportswomen who can pip world records and outshine other sports persons.
A paradigm change is the demand of the hour not just in intentions and on paper but also in actions. Just the government alone cannot do it. We as families and friends need to promote talent. Making studies as a mandate to be successful or being a good match for life is strangling the future of sports in our country.