Sport - National Games   

Magnificently organised show

By A. Vinod

HYDERABAD Dec. 22. You may beg to disagree with the Indian Olympic Association on a host of matters. But not when the IOA president, Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, as he did it on Saturday, publicly pronounce that the 32nd National Games has been best ever Games held so far. The last ten days has been quite magnificent what with the organisers straining every sinew to make the stay for every visitor, connected with the Games that is, most comfortable.

Despite the fact that the Games were held at the fag end of a long season which had our top athletes compete and win laurels in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester and the Asian Games in Busan, besides the World and continental championships in their own selected sport, the action too have been far better than initial expectations.

Undoubtedly they being enthused to go the extra mile by the superb facilities that was on offer, particularly at the newly-built Swarnandhra Pradesh Sports Complex which is home to a state-of- the-art indoor stadium, a most modern aquatics centre and the main G.M.C.Balayogi stadium which besides serving as the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies did also host the athletics competitions (the jewel in the crown of any multi-event disciplines such as this).

For a city which could boast of such limited facilities like the Lal Bahadur stadium, the Fateh Maidan and the Begumpet Police astro-turf hockey stadium, Hyderabad, thanks to the National Games, today has such a wide range of amenities for sporting activities including three well-equipped indoor stadia within the city limits itself.

All due to the insistence of the State Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, who right at the outset itself was particular that the city should provide the best of facilities to the participants of the National Games.

Indeed, the Olympic family could not have asked for more. But then, their worry now should be to chalk out a pragmatic programme on how these facilities and equipment, built and imported at a staggering cost of Rs. 155 crores, are put to use regularly and thus give an additional boast to sporting activities in the State which in the long run could be beneficial to the country as well.

A definite road map to the future is thereby an immediate necessity as any delay in effectively utilising the readily available infrastructure could ruin the tremendous goodwill that sport as such has gained among the vast populace of this State through the last fortnight.

The need of the hour also suggests a concrete plan for the maintenance of all the new facilities that the Games have provided for this city and its sportspersons.

How best this is done is sure to be closely monitored if the city is to be given the opportunity to host more major meets in the future. For, in the long run, the hard work that the organisers came up with to make the stay of each and every participants of the 32nd National Games enjoyable, would not matter given the fact that the conduct of events even such as the Afro-Asian Games could still be a far more demanding job.

Yet, for all this, it is hard to ignore the minor irritants that affected these Games, especially those caused by the over-enthusiasm shown by the Andhra Pradesh sports officials in "importing" stars from other States on almost a whole-sale basis, by manipulating the `domicile clause' within the eligibility rules put down by the IOA for participation in the National Games. That the athletes were more than willing to don the host Andhra Pradesh colours rather than that of their own home States was only because of the high prize-money (Rs. 3 lakhs for a gold, Rs. 2 lakhs for a silver and Rs. 1 lakh for a bronze) which was on offer.

And while hardly anyone could find fault with their action, given the fact that most of our top athletes are the lowly-paid sportspersons across the world, the fact that the IOA top-brass chose to ignore this naked manipulation of the eligibility rules could not be overlooked in any manner.

Known for their appeasement policies it was another classic situation in which one found the hands of the top IOA officials, including that of Mr.Kalmadi, their Andhra brethren in such a crucial matter which in turn was to affect the fortunes of many States at the Games.

The list of those imported stars, in fact, read as a virtual who's-who of Indian sport even as the IOA chose to look the other way apparently unable to dictate terms with the host officials, who had the backing of their Chief Minister, Mr. Naidu and his entire cabinet. Or else, how was Richa Mishra, still a collegian in Delhi, allowed to participate in the Games even under the controversial `domicile' clause.

Admittedly, it was a catch-22 situation and this itself could have only prompted the IOA top-brass to announce the formation of a five-member committee, to restructure the format of the Games and its eligibility rules, on Saturday. It is only satisfactory then to note that the IOA have at long last woken from its slumber to address the crying need for a change in the eligibility rules for the participation in the National Games .

It should have been done soon after the first Games at New Delhi in 1985 when it was evident that the loopholes in these rules could provide room for rancour between different States (the case relating to swimmer Wilson C.Cherian itself being a classic example).

The only way to avoid any sort of manipulation, according to those keen observers, who have been following the Games since 1985, is to make the rules far more simple than at present and allow athletes with only the option of representing the State in which they have been registered for the calendar year.

Now that most Federations are particular about the registration of players on an annual basis, any sort of manipulation could thus well be avoided.

Another pressing need, if the Games are to survive and help States like Assam (which is the host for the 2005 Games) to match the facilities which had been on offer here in Hyderabad, is to definitely cut down on the number of disciplines

This is, of course, easier said than done given the growing clamour of more and more sports federations to have their discipline included in the Games agenda.

The number of disciplines at the now-concluded Hyderabad Games stood at 31 but it is hard to imagine that Assam, even though it has time till 2005, would be able to construct facilities for the conduct of all these disciplines.

A positive approach would be to limit the number of disciplines to somewhere around 15 and give the option of including two or three more to the host State. Or again, make a provision for the inclusion of the lesser-popular disciplines at every alternate Games. Otherwise, the growing gigantism of the Games could well spell its doom in the none too distant future.

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