Let us not be afraid to face the truth. We are a one-sport nation, writes Nirmal Shekar
As a professional sportswriter, I am sick of hearing the question over and over and over again. I find it almost nauseating. If there are tens of millions posing the question, then, over the four decades that I have spent in the profession, there have been tens of hundreds of answers, from serious commentators and sports critics down to lay persons.
Why does a nation of over 1.2 billion people end up with just a few pieces of bronze and silver every four years in the most celebrated event in sport?
Psychologists often talk of something called paralysis through analysis in life. When you think too much about something and ratchet up your anxiety levels, the performance is bound to dip. When it comes to this clichéd question, this very much seems to be true.
Confused
While, some might believe they have the right answers/solutions, we have been left in such a confused state that there is no single ‘right’ prescription for the malaise.
But if you chose to leave aside all serious analysis as to why Indian track and field athletes, swimmers, gymnasts, hockey players and other Olympic participants fail to live up to our — and sometimes their own — expectations and came around to zeroing in on a rather reductionist, and surely controversial, viewpoint, the answer might be simple.
For, this question raises its ugly head for only about two weeks every four years. The rest of the time — for three full years and eleven and a half months — we are obsessed with, worship and shamelessly pay obeisance to a sport played with any degree of seriousness by eight-and-a-half nations.
Let us, then, accept the truth. We are a one-sport nation. And even a toddler would tell you what that sport is.
So, let us forget the London Games. In a few weeks, the Indian cricket team will be playing in the Twenty20 World Cup in Sri Lanka where the conditions will suit Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his boys to the hilt.
Another wild parade
Let’s look forward to another wild parade through the streets of Mumbai with the boys peacocking from an open-top bus. Let’s unabashedly hail their heroics, throw fresh flowers and encomiums at them even as my fellow professionals try to pull out every adjective in their vocabulary to celebrate the great achievement.
Meanwhile, Mary Kom would probably be running from pillar to post to find a cooking gas cylinder in Manipur, Yogeshwar Dutt would be walking to the nearest tea stall in his hometown, unmolested, his stellar achievement long forgotten.
The peerless Viswanathan Anand’s fifth world chess title would be a distant memory and he would be preparing for yet another tournament that nobody cares about even as Jeev Milka Singh tees off somewhere that nobody has heard of. Birdie and eagles…well, we haven’t been to a bird sanctuary in a while; should make it a point to visit one.
That’s who we are. That is what we are. That is India. Say all you want about how mediocre Indian sportspersons — cricket is advisedly left out of the description of sport because it is no longer a sport and hasn’t been in quite a while as it is on a par with things religious — are but we simply do no care for them for the most part.
We let them down
And when the Olympics come around, we are saddened, angry and aghast that we are not able to revel in reflected glory. We are ashamed that countries with one millionth of our population pick up gold medals. These guys have done us in, we say. We believed so much in them and they have let us down.
But the truth is, it is we who let them down. For, we don’t care about them for three years and eleven-and-a-half months. We don’t care about their impecunious circumstances, their heroic struggles, their fight against-the-odds and battles with cynical, self-serving sports administrators heading often corrupt sports bodies.
Instead, we spend sleepless nights over whether Chennai Super Kings would make it to the final of the IPL or whether a mediocre also-ran cricketer really did take recreational drugs at some rave party in Mumbai; or whether Yuvraj Singh is dating the latest Miss India or some other starlet whose only claim to fame is that she was seen with a cricketing superstar on a night out.
My dear readers, let us get real. We have failed the Koms and the Yogeshwars and the rest as much as we seem to believe that many Indian athletes have failed us. They don’t owe us as much as we owe them.
We need to follow their careers, cheer them from grassroots up, care about how they are treated by the administrators, worry about how they are ignored by the big corporate giants who would readily part with $10m for a 15-second TV ad campaign featuring a Sachin Tendulkar or a Gautam Gambhir. But we don’t.
We simply don’t give a damn most of the time and then bemoan their lack of success at the Olympics once every four years.
Believe me, it is not easy being an Indian and trying to achieve world-class feats in most sports, barring cricket, with its superb infrastructure public and corporate support and unmatched financial clout.
This is not to belittle what the Gavaskars, Kapils and the Tendulkars have achieved. But, tell me this: why is nobody canvassing for a seat in the upper house for Anand, why isn’t anyone talking about a Bharat Ratna for the genius of the 64-square game?
The world chess champion is an Indian — chess, my friend, chess, where the grey matter matters more than in any other game — and that should make us prouder than any other achievement by any Indian sportsman or team.
But forget it. By the way, when is India’s first match in the Twenty20 World Cup in Sri Lanka? I bet Harbhajan will be back with a bang. What a fighter the man is!
Nothing reflects our unity in diversity — and is a greater tribute to it — than our national obsession with cricket.
Sorry Mary, we forgot about your gas cylinder and the constant problems with power failures in your little house. But that is who we are.
Keywords: 2012 London Olympics, India in London, Nirmal Shekar
I would say if media thinks and cares for other sports i believe people
will start noticing other sports as well.
A somewhat overwrought piece with a little too much pointless introduction, but mostly true in its sentiment. Even in other large countries, however, the athletes that are watched and adored throughout the four years are generally not Olympians, but the ones who play on major sports teams, no different from other well-known athletes. For 3 years and 10 months, wrestlers, boxers, divers, and even swimmers and gymnasts are mainly watched by those who play the same sport. This phenomenon is not limited to India.
Nirmal, I have read many of your articles, even this, I liked all the
words, its worded well, made to believe in this article, but a country
which stood 1st this year in London Olympics biggest sport for them is
baseball, basketball and their own American soccer but have they
stopped from being No 1, or beating the chinese to get back to where
they used to belong ? Its all in the attitude, like Yogeshwar, Sushil,
Mary, Saina, Gagan had in this olympics, to win the medal with the
right preparation, yes its important to have the right infra to
achieve but we can't blame one sport alone when we failed as a nation
to groom sports in the blood, rather adding sugar n fat to our body
from young n parent's want their children to be a Dr/IAS/IIT/IIM/CA's
of the world rather than getting in to sports...and there is a solid
reason for that, this country doesn't offer a bright future like US if
u involve in sports, also not everyone suceeds there too, 1 who puts
his heart wins
Hello Nirmal, you nailed it! Brilliantly written and point blank.
You just answered all my questions and I feel ashamed.
Hats off to you and hope the sports ministers and other sports beaureucratics are reading this.
A truly reflective article about the state of affairs of the sports
fraternity of India (barring cricket). Politicians should really try
to think a little above the personal gains that the lush cricketing
cirlce in India brings. The emergence of sports like boxing,
badminton, wrestling etc. should be supported by giving proper
financial and structural assistance to the bodies responsible towards
these sports and also leveraging the success of stars like MaryKom,
Sushil Kumar, Saina Nehwal to name a few, by helping them achieve
further successes in the years to come, thereby inspiring the future
generations towards creating a sporting revolution for India, beyond
cricket. Let's remember, where there's a will, there's a way!
Unbelievably horrible article. If this is the line of thinking of
Indians, be prepared to go through the next Olympics and coming up with
the same excuses. A cricketer's struggles are much greater or atleast at
par with the Kom's and the Yogeshwar's. I hope the readers don't buy
into the pity of gas cylinders. Every successful person has gone through
deep struggles, perhaps even greater than the metaphorical "gas
cylinder".
Dear Nirmal
I have been living in London for the past 13 years and have seen first hand how this country has invested in sports where they did not have a leading position, stay true to the investment by backing it with coaching and strategic infrastructure and reap the rewards. I have been to every game at the Lords since I arrived here. This country loves and adores its cricket too but it knows how to respect its equestrians, paddlers, rowers, track cyclists, athletes, swimmers, divers and a whole host of sportsmen of other disciplines for the dint of their hard work, perseverence, talent and toil. Growing up in chennai, I remember vivdly the trials and tribulations of the local hockey team when faced with the remorseless popularity if cricket and the total apathy to what was once a gold medal winning sport. P Gopichand's badminton academy after only a few years of existence has already produced talent that can lock horns with the best in their sport.Why cant we emulate that?
Mr Nirmal Sekhar, why we should always blame cricket and cricketers for our performance in other sports and games ?? Like any other sportsmen, a cricketer also has to work hard and sacrifice several things in life to reach the international level. Firstly, govt should be blamed and then media should be blamed. At least print media should keep all the sports in light. What you people are doing, writing columns before and after the Olympics and then forgetting about it. Print media starts printing Olympics history before one month of Olympic opening ceremony and columns like this will appear after the Olympics..that's it. No one knew about Vijay Kumar, Yogeshwer till they won medals, is that people's fault ?? Media should be blamed for this which is completely obsessed with Cricket and Bollywood. Period.
First of all We should be happy that we are a cricket crazy nation.
There is nothing wrong with it. Every country has a sport that it
loves beyond limits and so we also have our own. Olympics is about
many other sporting events where Indians are not really up there
compared to the world's best. We are improving for sure and we will
definitely get better from here. I dont see any reason to be shameful
for following cricket madly. Passion is important, sport does not
matter. Only way to have more followers for games like swimming and
running is that encourage our own children to take it up as career,
and not force them to extra classes and IIT prep when they should be
out playing some sport. As for Chess - its never been a big sport in
any country barring may be Russia. Its not a spectacle to watch (even
if its the final) for many who do not understand it. Logically big
field games which are simple to understand get the biggest following.
Even in US biggest draw is NBA and not swimming.
Cricket is popular because people want to watch a sport where their team can win. How may football and hockey defeats can a person watch? What corporate sponsorship without success? After all, they are trying to sell something using that endorsement. What can corporates sell without the player being popular? The onus lies not with the government, but with the sports associations and schools. Our culture is one of getting educated just enough to get a job, marry, and produce children -- and induce our children to do the same.
What we need is to inculcate a pursuit of excellence and the enthusiasm to explore areas and avenues hitherto unexplored. We will not achieve that with the current system of education which nudges students to learning just enough to scale the test, maybe without even understanding what it is that they are learning.
A very good article that addresses the chronic issues of this great country. India is not known to be a sporting nation outside of cricket. Change your attitudes and expose your sons and daughters all the available sporting options. The truth hurts here but most parents concentrate only on academia in India and with sport only in cricket. The country needs a paradigm shift for things to change. I for one refuse to indulge in cricket and idolise some of the 'Gods' that are worshipped by millions. Let's face it, if money wasn't involved, cricket would be as popular as tennis, wrestling, hockey or chess. Good work Nirmal!
I agree with Nirmal shekar and we need to change our attitude towards
the sports and stars in first place. I remember how I started to
follow cricket because my father was great fan of Indian cricket and
to impress him with my cricket knowledge and get permission to see the
movie or late night (7pm maximum was late night those days), we have
to keep him involved in conversation and in the middle insert my
request. you were looked down in college canteens if you didn't know
the latest score.. but soon I started hating cricket and match
fixing..its not sport anymore. we have to change and make our
children understand dedication and hardships going through and then
achieving like Mary Kom. hats off to her and her dedication. but
saying so my appreciations doesn't end here but should start from Here
and I am volunteering my self to help need sports people in achieving
their goals.
Totally agree with you sir, India indeed is a one-sport nation. I can
absolutely relate to this because i too was once in the cricket league,
that is, thought that cricket was the only branded sports played in
India.
Olympic sports was never heard of for the whole 3 years and 11 month's.
it was only during the Olympic week that one would actually get
introduced to the Indian representatives in the international arena.
But even after these adversities that the "low profile" sport persons
go through, a 6 six medal tally is a laudable feat. Medal tally has no
relation with the 1.2 billion population, it is more related to
sponsorship, support and encouragement from the 1.2 billion people.
Hope this would be an eye-opener for the forthcoming international
sports events.
BCCI should be converted to BCAI (board of control for atheletics in
india) I will squarely blame our masters gavaskars sachins dhonis like
cricketers
and the board for all this mess.Bharat Ratna for sachin who never
objected to nude cheer leaders . sob se bada rupaiya .Who is going to
bell the cat?
dear sir,
i did read your article and found it to be pretty interesting about
how have you put across your point and anger to the general public and
may be a lot of people share the same view as you do.
but i have a simple question you have raised a question that we don't
care about the Olympics and the Indian contingent who participate in
the world event..who is at fault is it we the people or the people
like you who provide us the news.
who is at fault?
i have to agree there is a part which is played by the general public
but that knowledge which is provided but the print media and the television is mostly about cricket an not about sports like wrestling
boxing.
its like when the news which you people publish on the sports page is
more of cricket and less of boxing badminton golf snooker.
now who's fault is it.
still the fault of the general public agreed..
when it comes to games like Olympics why are we so obsessed with it
when we have not cared for so long why now..
I completely agree with him, I have been saying this for years to anyone who would
listen but I would always gets surrounded by people who start taking offence to the
fact that I belittle Cricket. It is just a bad sport. If it is so great why do only about 10-
12 nations play it. Any sports in the olympics is played by more countries. How can
you respect a sport where most of its players are overweight (at least in our team).
When you think of sports you think of the fittest guys on the planet and here we have
yuvraj singh, dhoni, sehwag etc all unfit. Look at golf, that sport is not very
physically demanding but everyone who plays it is amazing fit. You are in awe of
them because they take their sport seriously and have to fight every year to stay in
the major tournaments, they have life coaches, fitness coaches, swing coaches and
mental coaches because that is what is required to be the best and they all aspire to
be the best. Cricket is bad for the country. In every way.
The truth is cricket is a sport which has captured the imagination of billions due to its
simplicity &capacity to generate wealth.It has attained the status of a religion not by
manipulation but by being the best escape/enterainment &now a profession for many
Do you really think olympic sports suffer because there aren't enough
fans? Do you think canoe-ing is nearly as popular in Netherlands as
football? But still they win medeals in that event. Same goes for
Argentina as well. The bottom line is, a lot of countries have a game
that is highly popular and is revered throughout. But that doesnt stop
them from being good at others.
I am from Kerala and all through high school, we were all made to play
football and volleyball. Never cricket. There was athletics, medals
were awarded, people appreciated skill and talent. The only thing
missing was that these medals didn't mean anything in terms of earning a
survival. It did not guarantee you a job or admission in a higher
education program. Therefore people rarely trained themselves as they
could and purely relied on natural talent. It is very easy to support
athletics and other sports in India even with cricket being the fan
favorite.
Yes. Our people did it inspite of jokers like Kalmadi dominating the
scene for decades.
I agree that the other sports are a neglect in this country. why??? The first thing that can change is from media, not from the readers like us. If other sports are highlighted in the front page by the media , there is no problem in the readers following the other sports. Just because money rakes in for cricket either in newspaper or in news channels, they cover it and we are forced to watch it. Cover other sports equally & of course support from politicians are required to other ailing sports...
Thank you Nirmal Shekhar for this insight!
Indeed we are responsible for our country... We are here to show what we
can rather what we should... Not what somebody could. We need to have
compassion for these, like we deal with issues in our family. I shall do
my bit.
"Instead, we spend sleepless nights over whether Chennai Super Kings would make it to the final of the IPL or whether a mediocre also-ran cricketer ..."?
No we don't Mr Shekar. An over-keyed media focusing exclusively on cricket does not mean we are watching. And perhaps you know all about the TRPs being rigged. They can beam all they want, but a lot of people don't care.
As a Indian what is your plan to improve condition of sports other
than Cricket. Did any one watched Olympics Live or at-least highlights
in you-tube ??? Cricket highlights views will be in 100,000... but not
Olympics. Instead of blaming society why don't you watch Olympics,
encourage people to play other games, increase awareness among your
group of friends. Change should start from within. Humble request to
everyone please watch these men and women who sacrifice their life for
sports. Media, politics, companies want to show what you want most and
if you start enjoying other games then slowly we can see the change.
A good article showing the sad truth of our country.
Very well written!
The winners are super heroes, they embody grit and determination. They made it despite all odds. They epitomize individuality!
And that that girl who gate crashed into the opening Ceremony, represents the rest of (corrupt) India. How despicable and disgusting.
i will accept to this article, however there is also a major contribution media to that...From what I understand 90 % of people are educated by various forms of media with their articles and gossips, if media can highlight the various games and the individuals in question, definitely things will change for good
You deserve a Gold Medal with the National Anthem singing in the back ground for
this article. Well said Nirmal. Almost 500 comments! I am impressed at the interest
of people to make India perform better in the future Olympics. The disaster called
common wealth games and all the finger pointing by corrupt organisers is still
fresh on every Indian mind. The only way forward is to bring all the National
sports body directly under the President of India. No more sports portfolio for
politicians! Create a national fund and charge 10% from every advertisement or
contract any sports person signs. Let the President collect and disperse the funds
equally to all sports like he does for all branches of the armed forces.
Nothing but a sarcastic article to get claps from same minded people... cricket is not a obstacle for any other sports in India.. but we need people to do miracle against tough guess.. Like Kapil & co did in london..! Vijender got gud attention from people.. but lost his focus.. Sania Mirza also same.. Even Deepika Kumari also now in hot list.. but the question is do they justify it when the nation expects them..? many watched each and every match of Indian hockey team.. but........
Very good article .I just loved it!.. Its a wake-up call for all
indians to come out of cricket-obsession for rest of the 3 yrs &eleven
and half months, stop praying the god (sachin) of religion called
'cricket'....
I really hope and wish that Govt / NGO (Mittal Champions Trust) take
over the Sport board in India, and use the cash-ridden BCCI's funds to
encourage & improve other sports. But for that, people should be come
out of that obsession with cricket.
I just laughed aloud reading the second sentence "But forget it. By
the way, when is India’s first match in the Twenty20 World Cup in Sri
Lanka? ."
Nirmal Sekhar, I completely diasgree. Brazil everone knows football,
but their medal tally is good. England everyone knows football, but
they were third. Does that mean all the medal winning athletes were
flocked by common man in USA, China (In Particular)? Don't blame
people for lack of visionary and ambitious leaders. Blame people for
choosing stupid leaders to the parliament.
Will you agree China won the medals because they are not corrupt and
their people cheered them? Please re-look at your article.
The basic problem is the lack of importance given by the government
for such event. Classic example is Vijay Kumar. Will he be promoted?
Is there a national policy on Olympics winners' compensation? What are
we crying about cricket? Cricket has infra on its own. Otherwise it
might have also died long back.
Get your reasoning right when you right for Hindu. Lot of ignorants do
read and get misguided. Social attitude towards sports need a big
change and the govt shld take d 1st step.
Sarcasm and anguish .. at its best.. well said.. and it indeed is an
inconvenient truth...
It is a pathetic article, who probably doesnt why Indian sports is so poor. It is not "we" who have failed our atheletes. It is not our government "alone" who have failed our atheletes. It is "we" who have failed to understand what our children want and what they deserve. As parents of old India and modern India, for us education, education more education ... and competition, competition, more competetion (at education) is all what we have been taught at home and at school.
Look at US, do you think every sportsman/woman who have won gold, silver, bronze enjoys the same level of attention/endorsements as Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, or the other superstar basketball players? and what about those other US sportmen/women who participated in the olympics and won nothing?
Look at some of the poorest countries in Africa. They don't have such sports facilities as we have in India, still they can win gold in long distance running.
"The problem lies in our upbringing of our children"
Sir,
what to say. I am speechless.
I realized my mistake when I cursed Vikas Gowda for not performing well
in the final.
I realized my mistake when I turned off my computer when Swarn Singh
lost his match.
Thank you so much for the eye opening article Sir,
Fantastic article by Mr Shekar. Hits you right in the solar plexus!
I am a big cricket fan but agree completely with what Nirmalji says about how only one sport rules our beloved country. If anything, it would make more sense to get Bharat Ratna for Vishwanathan Anand (4 time consecutive World Chess Champion)rather than Sachin Tendulkar since cricket is played by a dozen countries while Chess originated in India and is played by all nations and is a true symbol of brainpower and pride for us. We also need to emulate the Chinese and the Americans and get the best swimming coach from USA, the best track and field coach from Jamaica, the best diving coach from China etc. You need top of the line trainers and teachers like Dronacharya to develop the Arjuns and Mary Koms of this great country of ours.
Thanks a lot for this article!
I am a mediocre sports buff you might be talking about. What u have
written is all true and I agree to that. You say we are more
interested in cricket than any other sport, and so it is! We see so
much cricket, like every other day, talk so much about it, read so
many articles about it, know so much about the players, their wives,
their friends, their lives, i feel i am part of the happening! I can
say it increases my interest about the sport.. does that happen with
any other sport? Can I find any article on the Koms or the Yogeshwars
of how they are putting up after an yr or a month ??? I am not sure.
Epic article! My respect for this article, the author, & the hindu daily has gone beyonds bounds. The sad reality of truth is what we people want to hear. Not the stories on politicians, bollywood celebrities, or even the cricket. This article has gone one step beyond endless perceptions & should be conveyed virally. I request everyone reading this article to please take a time to share this on your FB,Twitter, & other networking pages. Splendidly Amazing is this article! Hands down.
The good side of all this winning is that people today are much more enthusiastic and informed about sports like Badminton, shooting, Boxing, Wrestling and archery simply because we.......i mean the players have achieved a lot at a global level and people recognise their efforts and see them as a legitimate carrier option. The whole article seems pointless and overtly emotional which i guess was deliberate, but just like sports, the Indian reader is today well informed and aware of, facts to be emotionally guilt ridden about these magnificent heroes of the sports. And as far as the Bharat Ratna for Sachin is concerned, check your facts about WHO is asking for it, Political parties and persons with populist moves or the common man, don't mix the two. On a personal note i would like to see Sachin get it because of his achievements in a particular sports and more so because he is a great ambassador for our country who has brought Global recognition for us and same goes for Vishwanathan.
Bordering on cynicism and a bit low on clear purpose. People started and still "worship" cricket because we are good at it. Popularity of cricket went up only after the 1983 world cup win along with the decline in popularity of Hockey because of low success rate. All the 'winners' from the olympics, asian games and world championships get fame, money from corporates and govt. and recognition but i guess Mr. Nirmal Shekhar wants mass popularity and 'fans' for these players just like cricket players enjoy. Does he want these sport persons to become what cricket players have become, and not on their own they did not become that. More involvement from the govt. in other sports is obviously needed but the problems plaguing the Indian sports is certainly much more diverse. The very fact that no parent wants their children involved in sports and simply follow the academic life is where i put the fault on , as far as, the masses like you and me are concerned.
Sir, I really enjoyed reading this article and I really do not know if I have read such a good article in my whole life.I accept that we have to also support the non cricket games ,but it is the media who are the trend setters, i.e., it is you who post the non cricket article briefly in the corner and the cricket article long writtenin the centre with colour pictures.I do not blame the media for this but please do consider my suggetion.
No doubts,our sportsmen are neglected.You will find quite a large number of them are not getting a chance to perform.please do not blame the center.State government should come forward and help them.Swami Ramdev ji shouts a lot. Why cannot he sponsor our hockey team?
Some real nice words n discription of who v really are... YEs dats true
dats d way things work wid us v dnt giv a damn to nybody untill n unless
dey bring us something... We jst need gold silver n broze widout havin
any concern 4 our real jewels....
i agree with the things you say but you as well as i am are part of
those you have criticized instead of you blaming cricket and me criticizing you we all should work together only then we can prove some
thing at rio.........its your duty to inspire your readers with all the
mary's,yogesh's and sushil's we have we only got 4 more years mam go
come on start your work with your writing our athletes will take care of
themselves
Excellent article, Nirmal.. Very well-written..
I think the biggest factor is the Media.. If you browse through Sports channels, most of them have now transformed into Cricket channels, there are some which show only Cricket.. If only we could view more sports during the 3 years and eleven and half months, we would be more aware of the rules of the games, appreciate the nuances of the 'other sports', understand what 'winning' in those sports really means! And like you rightly said, the Olympic medal winners owe none of us anything.. they are heroes for who they are 'without the support of the nation'..
a very good article.it is not correct to say that india is obsessed with
one game cricket, there are millions of people in the country following
soccer.i dont think a ranjitrophy cricket match even attract a 25
poeple to the ground .all ahat we need is awearness from school level
and good infrastructure.
I think we need to popularize other sports first. This can be done by
promotion, sponsoring and some big names behind the sports and games. If
the population of the country don't connect and enjoy the sports,
getting talent in those sports would be difficult. It's difficult to
find too many Koms and Dutts who sweat for their dreams on the path of
which there are too many points of no returns and dead-ends. Once the
young blood gets confidence that even a failure in this path will not
darken their future, a revolution will indeed be fructified.
Most performers emerge from lower middle class who depend on public
utilities for sports practice which in turn are sub standard. For
instance, the governent swimming pools are not olympics sized
(50meters), they don't have heating systems to function year round and
they are over crowded in summers. This is discouraging for serious
sports work-out. The well maintained private pools are for the rich, who
see swimming as a leisure not career.
Same goes for the infrastructure for other sports.
I am not in complete agreement with the author. Cricket really wasn't
what it is today way back in the 70s. It was Hockey that ruled the
roost. Cricket began to gain a cult status only when we lifted the
first world cup in 1983. We are a nation that is hungry for heroes. We
would like to see our sports persons excel and win at the
international level irrespective of the sport. Golf is definitely not
a sport for the masses but I believe Indians have come forth and
supported and championed our champions from any sport. Saina Nehwal,
Sania, Vishwanathan Anand, Sushil Kumar, Rajyavardhan Rathore,
Vijender Singh- all got their due attention on good performance.
Cricket is a simple spectator game and interesting to watch and hence,
gets its audience. How many other sports fit into the same category?
While the hockey team lost its status due to poor performance.
PT Usha, Milkha Singh, Bindra and others thrived under the same
system. We are simply not into sports at least not the tough ones
India has to share it's wealth from Cricket in all other sports items.
Nirmal,i agree with you,but with out government of "india's"
support it's highly impossible to occupy atleast 20th place in
olympics,IOC needed to work effectively and should bring out the
talent from the youngsters..
Its so unfortunate that a country of 1 billion population is obsessed with a single game called "Cricket". I do not know when was the last time it was played in a true spirit of sport. What I want to urge people of India,lets just start thinking beyond cricket.
Superb Article Mr. Shekhar !!
I would like to add one thing that we in India had and have tremendous potential ,we just need to recognize it.Lets start with a small village, have you ever seen a farmer's body its firm and though lean but tough they are good runners,jumpers,throwers etc ,Indian peninsula is a country of rivers, the villagers nearby rivers or coastal region doesn't need pay for swimming still they are good one e.g. in my village there's a swimmer who can swim across the stream for miles when all the gates of canal are open.
If every village panchayat,tehsil and district starts recognizing these talents ,support them morally and financially so as to compete in the next level, champions will be created.In the beginning we need a minimal infrastructure to and gradually increase at the higher level as wrestling is still done over sand in rural India but as they compete for district level they are taught to fight on cushions.
we dreams for 25 medals at 2020 Olympics without putting our head for 2016; the fact remains we have only representation in 13 Games compare to 36 played at #London2012 ; I think instead of blaming each other our minister must put his head to build decentralized Olympics Village throughout the county having facilities of all games that is schedule to be play at #Rio2016 along with India must get itself ready to bid for hosting Olympics between 2024-2032; u may hate them but learn what our neighbor China did in 24 years time; let every Indian get access to play the game in proper infrastructure & not necessarily one has to be an Olympian; many Medalists of Olympics r belong to University or Medical Doctor or Police or Psychologists etc & not necessarily a Sports person; its time Govt. invest in infrastructure so that we qualify for all games, Medals will come automatically; If we don't wake up now perhaps after two week we will again wake up in 2016 !
Well in my opinion the media has failed these great Indian athletes
more than a lay man. Its not that we don't like following their career
but please tell me that how many times has The Hindu or some other
newspaper covered these athletes during the 3 years and 11.5 months?
Please tell me who publishes articles about Yuvraj's new girlfriend or
Kholi's new car? It is not us. It is the media. Had there been
frequent articles about the deplorable state of these athletes I'm
sure a few people would have raised their voices to help them out just
like what Anna Hazare is doing. Its not just us who are sleeping for 3 years
and 11.5 months. Its also the media. You cant blame corrupt
government officials when you are not doing your job diligently.
After reading this article I see us (Indians) including myself as bunch of Baboons who could know only one sport, cricket. That too which ANGREZs left us with.
We are no more people at par with people in other parts of world who use to learn and excel in sports.
We are sitting on what was given to us. Not only we failed to bring recognition to our own sports, we could not excel in sports other than what was left to us by Angrez.
Not saying loving Cricket is not Good. Just brooding on our lack to develop new interests and excel in those.
bang on, except to put down cricket. We must be thankful to our cricketers for putting us on the international map as otherwise, we have nothing much to shout for. Totally agreed on all the other points, though it needlessly highlights chess as the only cerebral game around - well done Anand who deserves all the plaudits but to become a champion in anything requires multiple talents including a sharp brain.
A very good article. Well said.
But again I am asking Y to blame only Cricket for all this.
I appreciate ur comment of not to belittle the achievements of cricketers, but its sad that u r blaming only cricket for the downfall of all the games.
I know, as being a citizen of India; we must appreciate the efforts of our Olympians.
But being a sports writer, u should also have some responsibilities.
Consider it as the case of sport, we will blame only cricket, if its the case of a riot, we will blame religion. We are having an excuse of all these things.
But tell me how many of us will like to send our kids in AKHADA, in which sport we got two medals. If we are not showing any interest, its very easy to blame government policies. I know sometime it is really tough in Indian scenario to do well in sports because of Government policies.. But if we want we can overcome this. But I am requesting all of you, don't blame cricket and government policies for every downfall in major sporting events
I totally agree with your view points, in fact I have the same feeling that except CRICKET no sport is treated as a sport. Considering why people in other countries are good at sport is simple, kids develop interest in multiple activities like studies, sport, workout etc and they are made to think more practical but in India, right now hardly any schools encourage any sport. Thanks to my school, we at least had sports grounds to play and a compulsory PT (Physical Training) hour every day to keep us fit and make our brains De-clutter unnecessary stuff! the awareness should be right from the beginning and more over sports should be left free from our GREEDY POLITICIANS who no matter what become parasites ir-respective of what they already have in their pockets :( it is such a shame!!!
Over all a very well written article, will share this with all my beloved fres and hope to develop some awareness in them!!! THANK YOU!
This article makes me go ''wth did i just read?''
you open with a seemingly sulky tone of how much other sports aren't
appreciated in India then you end with your disregard for what you
said?
This article is very commercial.. I wouldn't have expected more from a
cricket-fan. In fact, I wouldn't have bothered to read it if you had
declared that you were one. You sir have wasted a 5 minutes of my
precious evening leisure time, and for that karma will get you.. Be
sure.. be very sure of that my friend.. and that's the way the cookie
crumbles ( on an related note.. navjot singh sidhu is a rip off of
celebrated American Newscasters..) and cricket isn't even a sport!!
get your references right.. cricket is a sham in a country ruled by
fanaticism.. it's a curse..
Right on Target.
All the athletes who qualified for the Olympics should be given the "STAR" treatment by the Govt. as well as the Corporates. They have made it BIG not because of the system but inspite of it.
Vishy Anand if offered any seat should outrightly reject it. He can achieve nothing (even if he wants to) when surrounded by those selfcentered underachievers.
On the Sarlet front, I feel that Saina and Mary are the most beatiful women of our times, and all those plastic dolls in showbiz pale into insignificance. They can never match the Sainas and Marys since they have never been in REALBIZ.
Fantastic article. I felt my anguish and anger in this article from Nirmal. Other sports do require moral attentions and recognitions in this country. Having said that, these pieces of bronzes are more than the gold ones in Olympics, amidst such a poor and unethical support.
Very well said by Nirmal Shekhar. Cricket is the only sport which people
worry about. There is no encouragement for these sports/sportsmen who
struggle for getting sponsors. And ultimately when they win medals for
our country, we complain about not getting the gold instead of lauding
them for their efforts. Very sad state!!!
Nirmal Shekhar has said it. And I will change myself from now on.
Dear author,
The article is worth reading. This one is a slap on Indian face. When I think about why this is happening? Two questions arise in my mind which I want to know the answers,
1. Before 1983 World cup, did cricket had same fan following as like now provided adjusting the part of Media development in recent years?
2. How cricket achieved this status, if we can find that, can we emulate it for others too?
Another fantastic article about the character of Indian sports. Cricket is not only popular in India but also in Australia and UK but still they manage to get more medals in other sports too. How are they able to do it? Why are we not able to do it? Corruption is there everywhere in the world so that cannot be the only reason. What else ??
Spot-On ! Absolutely true. I would go a little further and say that all the other sports in India have suffered because of this obsession of Indians with cricket. We Indians cannot think beyond Tendulkars and Dhonis.Lets get real and not be a hypocrite.
One of the major reason for failure in India is the food habits among Indians.We say we are 1.2 billion people,how much of among all get at least 2000 Calories of food every day.How much red meat everyone can afford to eat every day?How many parents think that they need to involve there children in active sports and afford to send there children at the age 3?
I don't live in India but mentality of the Indian parents remains same even after moving abroad.Until we find a solution to the problems mentioned,India can never rise in any sport .
There would be less social unrest if there was more sport.
But where are the spaces in a city? Where are the fields, parks and gardens where
children can play when young? Where can a child run in urban India? How will he
learn to fall or dive with no space and only rough pavements around? Where can he
climb trees? How can a girl-child become a sprinter when coaching is so
expensive? Where can she go for training? How far by bus through the traffic?
Where is the space for a football field?
In rural India where there are fields there is no infrastructure, training or exposure
to any other sport available, so how will a child ever become a champ?
All they can do is switch from 'gulli-danda' to cricket on their own.
Very nice article. Article rightly highlights the callous attitude of
our government towards the sports other than cricket. It's not only
the administration but Media, Attitude of general public towards
other sports are responsible for our poor record in other sports.
Media will highlight the issue when the topic is on going and the
public interest is piqued. Similar articles will discuss the issue
and even highlight the remedial measures but for the next 3 years and
11 months media will do nothing to highlight the status of the
remedial measures undertaken, if any, or any thing related to it. I
think one solution to this problem can be - giving exorbitantly high
amount of money as a reward to the medal winners in the current
Olympic games.
How very true! As far back as even twenty years ago, my Beloved Late Mum said that India will shine in other sports only when cricket is banned as a sport. The glamour and wealth associated with cricket in recent years has given a wrong impression of sports altogether. Cricket that is being played now bears hardly any resemblance to the true nature of cricket.It is a sport to be played leisurely on a Summer's day in a relaxed environment,with no pressure to win because of the financial rewards awaiting the winners.The present day matches have turned the players into commodities with price tags on their heads!When will other sports be given encouragement and investment so that we will not have to hang our heads in shame when even the smallest of nations go home with gold medals?The new generation should be trained and encouraged to become gold medal material so that we too can stand tall on the podium and hear our National Anthem played.Nirmal Shekar has done sports a favour by this.
Excellent article.I do support it we are more inclined to cricket than anything else and here media play a majore role.In TV while Olympic was being broadcasted live they used to show cricket in between.Its not at all acceptable.While our state Govt. has given a land for free to an well known Cricketer for his Cricket academy.I just want to ask what the cricketers has done for our society to get a land in such a place where they could have used it for industrialization.And again Vijay Kumar is nomimated for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna whith cricketer Rahul Dravid and many other sportsman from different sports.Why Rahul Dravid?What he has done?Does he have bought any Olympic Gold for india?
The real problem is the absence of a sports culture. Cricket is a lazy man's game - just compare the average athleticism of a cricketer with a footballer or a basketball player and my previous statement will be clear. Having said that, I think the main problem is the cultural bias we have against pursuing a sporting career (excluding cricket of course). This dissuades children from pursuing sports from a young age, focusing instead of following the herd...in many ways we are a nation of conformists. The only radicalism, unfortunately, is manifested in religious and regional issues. There is no individual in India, just a group - be it family, workplace etc. This contributes to fewer people taking the radical route of pursuing a sports career. The small pool of people that actually make it face so many difficulties (funding, facilities, training) that ultimately limits their ability on the international arena.
Sadly, I don't think there is a short term solution for this.
Yes. We all Indians need serious introspection..... better late than never.
Well, the anguish is understood and FULLY justified, but what about quality of Indian Players? Why we failed in archery - where Tata has spend a lot? Does tennis players also lack facilities? At last do we want to say Jamaica provide better facilities to thier sprinters than India can afford? System fault is ofcourse supreme, but it is our social/individual fault as well.
I may not be the right person to comment on the brilliance of this article, but i feel our media has a big hand in letting those athletes down. People don't start following any sports overnight, although during Olympics there is a growth of interest but media should bring out all news with appropriate space in newspaper and time on television and not only during Olympics but in other events like Asian Games, World Champioships. I can recollect when Mary Kom won her 4th or even 5th world championship not a great deal was written about her or shown on television.(I can claim because I was working with her that time and tracking all news as part of the process) How will the general population know if events and moments like these are not covered?
and as to why so less medals that is a different ball game all together..
Yes, the article do tell the truth. However, I wish to dwell a futher into the truth with this biological question : Do the Indian gene structure have the ability to match the Western genes in terms of power, stamina, endurance ? Theoritically sometime in future, is it possible to have an Indian winning a 100 metre race in Olympics, an Indian flexing his body to match the Chineses/Russian gymnasts, an Indian Phelps swimming super fast ??? I believe the answer is "NO" even though we practise as they do, just because our gene structure cannot match them - Correct me, my dear fellow readers if you feel I am wrong.
A very good write-up I am reading after a very very long time. I like
the way he has called a spade a spade.
Nirmal, first of congratulations, a well written and thought provoking article. However, blaming the Indian public is not the answer. Let me ask you (by you I mean the media), when would you write next about this topic. I won't blame you if the answer is "in four years". After all, you have a job to do. So, bottom line we need to create interest. In the US, the swimmers are treated as rockstars - well they win so many medals. Something similar is starting to happen in the UK after the fantastic results. Not a co-incidence - notice the jump in funding (2000: £60m; 2004: £75m; 2008: £235m; 2012: £264m). Now, we don't have the same resources per se, but we can be creative about solving our problems. Mittal Champions Trust is a good example but alas there has hardly been any press coverage about it. May be to start of if we we highlight such examples, it interests others and may be we can create a sustainable way of delivering what India deserves - world class athletes and Olympic medals.
Nirmal,
Why not get Cricket in to Olympics? We can have few days T20 blitz type matches and of course India should win and we could bring back gold medals. How about that? At last one good suggestion!
This is so true! We feel let down when they don't get us gold. With
silver and bronze - we don't give them enough credit, for after all,
it isn't gold. But do we ever ask them what drills they go through for
those three-years and 11 months? Do we want to know? Why is there no
story on following the life of a sportsperson preparing for the
Olympics? How do they train? How does it compare to the training in
different geographies? What's their diet like? What about general
health reports? Do they have professionals - real professionals
guiding them?
We have no clue about how much blood and sweat goes in or should go
in, but yes, we have a perfect idea about what we should expect! Do we
ever think of the hardships - the physical and psychological turmoil
our sports people go through just to represent the country at this
level - leave alone win? May be - we should take a closer look at the
3-years, 11-months preceding the event!
We have to accept the fact that we are academics oriented society.
Cricket is where the money is. That's the reason Why we have so many
players, clubs and great marketing for that sport.
As the country grows economically I think we would see promising young
talent in sports other than cricket. But its a big question whether
the process would take off significant enough, to bring in more medals
to our country without a clear policy direction from the
government/private investments in building the right infrastructure
and awareness.
Very good article, Niramal. In this context I would like to high light my observation; recently I happened to be in local school at lunch hour were kids were playing all around. Ground, trees, windows and the like, being a sports person I was very much impressed with the happiness prevailed on their faces. But one thing caught my mind was that, more than ninety percent of the kids who were seriously running around was flat footed (running with heals touching the ground). So there is no wonder why we are excelling on flat footed games, unfortunately all the sports were speed is the key factor happens with human beings on toes. We had to correct/teach things from the grass root level here; since all the basics had been forgotten or neglected in due course of time by doing this the bureaucracy will also get corrected automatically.
The main problem in our country is that sports is looked upon as a means for a career and not as a past time or leisure. It is only now that even the Hindu has started publishing photos of boys and girls excelling in different sports at the school level and other private tournaments,other than cricket. Otherwise, all these days, sports news about other games used to get published in an obscure corner only.There is no proper sponsorship for our Hockey team. Even when they get one, they lose their interest after such a pathetic display. Individuals like leander, mahesh consider them superior or develop an ego that prevents them from sorting their differences by talking to each other. Compare this to Roger Federer walking alongside another fellow sportsman leading with country's flag.
I agree with everything written in the article apart from Cricket though. Winning the World Cup 2011 was a big achievement. Efforts have been taken to revive Cricket. I don't see the same efforts taken for other sports, not even Football that has so many fans in India now. Instead I see that India gets plummeted to 168th place in the World Football Rankings.
People will say Vijender disappointed us at Olympics but they will not know that he was World no. 1 at some point. The level of competition rises in Olympics. So we see the Indian boxers who win at World Championships falter in the Olympics.
All I can say is this time Olympics medal tally should inspire all of us to look into other sports as well.
I also need to make one more point that if the media tracks our sportsmen and their achievements in all other competitions apart from Olympics and giving the necessary highlight to their achievements it would help us in making an individual into a possible title contender at Olympics.
Wonderful article.. how can we from a corporate responsibility point of view help the cause of Rio 2016? I would love to see track, pool and other sport personnel taking part in the games atleast at a world class stage.
The media including The Hindu sells cricket almost 365 days a year. Then it goes to town with Formula 1, even Go Kart gets better coverage than Mary Kom or Yogeshwar Dutt in a non-Olympic year. Then there are English Premier League, Serie A etc. Do not forget Tiger Woods and Roger Federer and Sharapova. Poor Sushil Kumar, Saina Nehwal, Mary Kom get a few paras in The Hindu. Now comes Nirmal Shekhar trying to tell us we are a one-sport nation. Who made us like that? The media. Almost throughout the non-Olympic year The Hindu is full of news other than Indian sports, except cricket and tennis. Unless media changes its attitude our Olympic sports will not come up. Writing one such article once in four years will be no help. Let the writer say, okay I won't cover SRT speech or Sehwag's restaurant opening or Ganguly's book launch or Dravid's academy activities or Harbhajan's new spin yarn. If he can do it then we, the fans, are with him.
The real issue is that these sports don't have popularity. Channels don't really broadcast these cuz of TRPs. So people don't pay attention. This contributes to corruption in the individual sports organisations cuz media doesn't care but these athletes suffer a lot as the money granted to the game goes who knows where . How could you perform well if you are fighting the common issues like not having gas cylinder/ electricity/ blah blah..same issue hockey is suffering thru..same with football..do we have no good footballers? we do but who do we select ?? who offers more offerings in return.
Awake India Awake before its too late.
Tell me how many people can afford the kind of training or facilites
needed for a track and field athlete or any other sport for that
matter in our country.
I think the onus is on government and private organizations to take
initiative and start training children early in their age, give
appropriate facilities, make sports mandatory in schools for marks,
give perks for children who are champions in there sport, e.g.
scholarships, sports quota.
Don't blame cricket loving people or administators for that, BCCI is a
private organization and does everything it can to promote cricket in
all parts of country.
Tell me what the hockey federation is doing other than playing petty
politics or for that matter what Indian Olympic Association is doing
to promote Olympic sport in this country? NOTHING!!!
There is lot more problems in our country to worry about rather than
why athletes are not getting medals in Olymoics which is not the case
say in US,China or even UK.
What an article ! Corporate India should spend more on advertisemnet of our sport persons, maybe it will help.
Brilliantly written piece with which I and any other Indian worth his salt would agree.Agree to hang his head in shame! For having being born in a country where only Suresh Kalmadis and their likes "succeed" in sports! All expenses, billions of rupees down the drain in the name of Asiads, mostly pocketed by our worthy politicians to swell their bank-balances in Swiss and other tax haven banks. And a totally corrupt, arrogant and venal political system headed by the UPA Government!! No long term vision for future of sports or anything else for that matter; only short term gains, immediate fire-fighting, extremely narrow vision which cant see beyond survival of this Govt for the next 2 weeks, keeping fractious allies happy by sharing the loot with them and yielding to all their short term impossible demands,letting them have their pound of flesh to keep them happy for the moment - thats about all. Who will think of long term sport-plans in this mayhem being inflicted on us by the Govt.
This is the craziest article I have ever read!!! Just because cricket is a popular game and because there is a lot of money involved it does not make it any easier when compared to the other sports.Nor the cricketers become trivial. From 1983 world cup till the last world cup Indian cricket succeeded in demanding the attention of the Indians. True that other sports need a huge support from the government.So it is the responsibility of the government to provide proper funding to the other sports.Sure the government would have realized the potential of the Indian athletes and hope it believes and invests on them. And by the way we come across this kind of articles only once in 4 years for a duration of 2 weeks, seems like you guys are not concerned about the Indian athletes for the rest of 3 years 11 months and 2 weeks!!! Stop criticizing cricket for what it is and try to encourage all the sports including cricket..
If we look into the reasons for cricket's overwhleming popularity:
One reason is because we see so much of it on TV. We are exposed to it when we are young , grow up watching it, and playing it.
India has respectable presence in this sport. The team brings in cups to cheer about from time to time.
Cricket boards are corporate entities , not dependent on Govt's support. Whatever thire flaws, they are functional and thriving and not crippled or dead like govt sport entities.
We can blame media for neglecting coverage of other sports.
Corportise or free sports bodies from govt to make them funcational in real sense and professional.
In recent times infact, sports like chess, badminton, tennis which have seen private intiatives have increased their popularity and has also thrown up winners of international calibre.
I don’t know how THE HINDU publishes this kind of one sided articles,
this article clearly states that the Author cannot digest the
adulation surrounds with Cricket. As for the ‘gas cylinder’ concept I
think the author should be transported to the African countries, where
most athletes are poverty stricken. The reason behind this present
state is that we consider participating in Olympics itself is a great
achievement. As once Shane Warne said “Every time you walk into the
field, try to emulate your personal best, then success will follow you
automatically”. As per Warne, we should be satisfied that most of our
athletes have gone to break their personal records and national
records. One more thing cricket got this kind of adulation only after
Sachin started playing. So we have to start performing instead of
crying attention.
A beautiful article ! I'm also really fed up to see/hear about that only
sport which is highly promoted by all kind of medias. Such a Outstanding columns are pulling me to read The Hindu regularly.
Cricket should be banned in our country, we need to encourage other sports like, Wrestling, Gymnastics, Volley ball, Hockey,Football and so on.We don't have the infrastructure for these sports but only for Cricket.It's a shame on us.
Beg to differ with the writer
1) When the parents are fighting the children to become engineers and doctors...and so on..what do you expect
2) How many of us preferred safe job over sports as a profession, 99.99%?
3) Don't tell me financial status of a person has anything to do with what he choose, most of the Olympians are from poor background, while upper middle class and rich safely followed the safe (rather greedy?) path
4) And finally do we have sport culture....NO....look at the we live....while most of the parents in many countries take their child to grounds and parks to play...we take them to malls and ice cream parlors...
5)...go on go on....find the reality...cricket has nothing to do here, Olympics exists for donkey years even when cricket was a no man's game in India......was there any different scenario.......
Good article without appropriate comparison. If you continue
comparing other Indian sports with Cricket you will be loosing an
opportunity to think about improvement and restricting is required for
sports in India.
Cricket is not managed by any govt authority but it has got its own
autonomous body with excellent business sense (Money Making).
lets have right people in the sports body with blend of sports &
administration and let sports ministry and corporate fund them.
Please DO NOT dilute the London Olympics achievement by initiating
inappropriate and wrong thread.
I hope your writing makes a difference in terms of slumber out inactive government. And our sports ministry does take it seriously and take tangible steps to promote other games and corporate social responsibility comes out of the shadow of cricket.No offense but other sports should also be given level playing field.Thinking positive.
An excellent article from Nirmal. The very first thing that needs to be done to revive sports in
India is to get these dirty politicians out. They have stolen the country blind, and we need to
re-take the government from them. Sports should be administered by sportsmen, and not
thieves!!
Secondly, India has to revive its national pride, and restore civic sense, as well as its sense
of collective and individual responsibility in doing any job well. Chalta Hai as a national motto
should be confined to the dustbin, along with corrupt and self-serving politicians.
A query for 'The Hindu', how many negative responses for this article
have been published? Stop being a bad sport. In the forum,
everyone's voices must be heard.
Finally again, this article is absolutely rubbish simply because he
has made Cricket the scapegoat for the current situation. Sick!
Hi Nirmal
what do you do for 3years and 11 months .... people speak for 4 weeks and you write for 1 week.
Wow! Wow! Wow!
Up-lifting article! Beautifully & thoughtfully written!
a very good introspection...but solution you gave about caring about our
sportsmen,i feel was quiet hollow. I believe media both print and
electronic has a greater role to play.the news we get about our
sportsmen plight is only within that two weeks!!.(as in this case).
A BETTER SOLUTION is to popularize national games ,so that we come know
our sportsmen better...as the articles about national games in papers as
same size as that of obituary and news channels don't even mention it.
Our school mate was allrounder, you name it he is to play that game
and win it. A very good athelete. But to choose a game for his sports career he has to go with Cricket. It is so obvious and unfortunate that he has to do this. Today he has not made that big in Cricket, but I believe that if he happened to choose a game what is good at, I would have been proud today.
Completely unnecessary anguish and sarcasm! Not what you expect from a
seasoned writer. This piece sounds like it is written by an idealistic
hormone raging 19yr old.
Good article. However, I agree with many reviews above which mention
that cricket is not at fault. With a nation where people are striving
to get a 2000 calorie diet for themselves, who would think of playing
any kind of game let apart expensive games like badminton and tennis.
We do not even have clean drinking water and basic sanitation in most
cities and villages,our farmers commit suicide for no water and you
guys are thinking of playing water polo ? I feel it very funny and sad
at same time..I am of opinion that we should even stop sending people
to Olympics just for sake of taking part in it and concentrate on
developing basic infrastructure first.
I would discourage use of words "a billion population nation" since
hardly 5 % of them are capable and willing to do any kind of work for
the country. Rest 95 % of them are just living in our country because
they do not have any option and do not want to act and think.
To expect medals from mere 50 million population is a lot to ask.
i guess this is one of the most comment fetching article.
but the ground reality is that we don't value sport. its not part of school's curriculum. sports period is used as extra class for science and math classes or for just time pass. neither we have the infrastructure nor the will. i think railways is doing good job there providing sport grounds and courts in every railways colony. till we don't have marks for sports and parents/society valuing sports and a serious mission to get golds, we can just enjoy sports of Tendulkars ....and of course the wonderful Saina and Sania!
Agreed with what Aparna pointed out. I am amazed that the columnist suggests that
the non-cricketing sportsperson don't go for gold coz they wont be as popular as
cricketers? Or that because people wont give a damn about their achievement they
should stop achieving? I think this kind of attitude is what India needs to get rid of.
Bang on article!!!!
The indifferent attitude shown by government, media and public towards
'other sports' leads to no change in the condition of sports governing
bodies.
The only solution lies with government taking initiatives with the help
of private enterprise.
well.. its the most brilliant article i read in recent times.. i quit the sport for the reasons which is true even today also. in country where intelligence is judged by how much percentage one earns in exams and thinks that this is the only intelligence exist. these people who earned the medals are true heroes. they fought with their family first, administration and finally against top class opponents. whatever is the color of medals, it glitters more as they came with a cost none of us can imagine.
I hang my head in shame as i am also part of this system I also made the comment of so few medals for a country of billion plus people its not that I did not know that the system rots but was insensitive enough and stupid to have even thought like that, my congratulations to the medal winners and also to all the athletes who competed in various disciplines I Sincerely hope people who make decisions and the corporates join hand in developing the infrastructure so that at least we will have a bigger qualified contingent of athletes in the next olympics if not medals
Outstanding article.. As the author rightly said, we need to follow their careers, cheer them for their achievements and get the big corporate giants go for them. And at the grassroot level, why shouldnt we think of making sports a compulsory subject (with marks) from school level. Lets aim to build fine sports proffessionals for the nation..
Brilliant Piece Mr Shekar!
Let all the sport in India get equally exalted/weighed by the Indian Government & its Media, thereby motivating our sportsmen/women to take the first step towards the "glory" that we all crave for at the Olympics.. Then let us watch what happens in the next 10 or 20 years.. Blaming isn't gonna lead to any solution.. In fact it is gonna bolster this issue with no point of return!
Here, I take time to salute all the Indian Champions who did their very best and won 6 medals in total for our nation at the 2012 Olympics! Kudos!
I have been trying to find a swimming pool. I did find one,an overcrowded, poorly maintined one. If common people have no/little access to sports facilities in general, how do we expect to spot and nurture olympians? Cricket is like blood in the veins of our cities, everywhere around us, on our streets, in the parks, on the fields. Is this country ready to adopt boxing, wrestling, athletics, badminton, football like we have embraced cricket? We take pride in the achievements of our chess players, an intelligent game it is. But countries like Russia have time and again marked their strong presence in not just chess, but many others. It is hard not to wonder can't a country of 1.4 Billion produce one gold medal? Aren't our policy makers watching these games where we are constantly underperforming our own expectations? Is our 'Five year plan' system to blame for this? Olympic medals need long term commitment. Is this country ready for this? Do we even have a plan?
Absolutly true.But i dont feel any sportsperson needs crowds attention
to get motivated.
.Its the basic facilities,training and recognition an remuneration
they deserve from the part of authorities. cheers dont add anything
but help can.
what are our heros from london going to get a reward? i can't wait to
know.
but i don't agree with going hard on cricket, at least its the only team
game where indian produced quality output, we have talented player of
international standard.
When the day comes where indian hockey and football team get that
standard we can cheer for them ,till then no one will cheer
great article! don't go by what others are saying. You are absolutely
spot on in what every Indian is doing. This country will never improve.
We are too many to bring in a change.
Its time to introspect (even though it is late).
Very true...I guess the media (any TV, News Paper etc) play a big role in creating awareness and all the blah blah...
we seldom see Hockey, athletics & some other sports` schedules on news papers but will always see cricket schedules, analysis, forecasts etc even 6 months before the tournament.
Earlier in my college days we used to play football when ever there was world cups or Euro cups or some other football tounaments probably because of the football fever created by the media, which atleast made us get a feel of the beautiful game. I dont see this thing happening with other sports.I am not blaming media here, but obviously they are also into business. India has 16% of worlds population & probably higher share of intellectuals than any other country but why not in sports. What is needed is a little bit of focus. I feel its a collective effort of People, Government, Corporates and Media (in a big way.
Though I agree with Nirmal, the same does not hold good and is no excuse
for the state of our so called National game. As a kid I remember I used
to like hockey as much as cricket and tennis. I would cheer a Dhanraj
Pillai as much as Mohd. Azharuddin. But politics and poor administration
have let hockey down more than the fans, imho.
This has more to do with our educational system where the obsession was to get the children to get into Universities first, then good courses in universities and now trending good courses @ good universities. Our school syllabi is tuned to studying and memorizing books in search of a better future, whilst sports and other extra-curricular activities were ignored. These activities are unproductive because at best only one kid who does well will be eligible for a university place and jobs as a result of his performance .. whereas the others put i their best will have wasted their time .... we have to change our educational system ... what we learn in Years 11 & 12 of school, American kids learn only @ the College level ... we should tone done our syllabi, less the academic workload yet retain the quality, change our exam system to a more objective one, reform our public exam system and put onus of college entry into a holistic evaluation and free our children to play & follow sports ....
Thank you Nirmal your article is an example of What Inidans are really good at!
First things First.. There is absolutely no debate on the kind of support other sports enjoy v/s Cricket... But I'd like to point out that the support by the viewers/supporters cannot be the primary reason or justification for the state of other sports in the country. Have tried to enumerate certain relevant points here
1) The support for cricket is not without reason. Its probably the only sport that has consistently over the years produced good results prompting a reason for celebration in an otherwise sporting results deprived country. Even the rise of Cricket in India coincided with the fall of Indian Hockey, the most popular sport in the country at one point in time.
2) The reason cricket has been so successful and profitable for all the stakeholders is that its governed by a private body as opposed to the government aided/funded sports. The article does not take into account the government role and apathy towards other sports.
I am disappointed with the article in the sense that the theme
selected by the author is "SELF LOATHING" rather than highlighting
what we are not doing right. Also, what should be done right.
It is not that Indians hate other sports or sports personalities. At
least, for me, I completely understand why India doesn't win so many
medals in Olympics. The author completely overlooked the fact that
sites like Twitter and Facebook was overwhelmed by the traffic when
our heroes like Saina Nehwal, Sushil Kumar, Mary Kom (most of us heard
the name for the first time), Vijender Singh etc where taking on their
opponents. The support was immense. And this is what we Indians are.
I would also ask one question: Why doesn't media cover rest of the
events? Why doesn't newspapers (including HINDU) publicize these
events in its newspaper and get these heroes some support? The same
newspapers will fill volumes on IPL. It's business - plain and simple!!!
I am not saying that points made in this article are totally wrong.
Lets see - which game has brought in more success and praise for India
in say last decade- 2 decades or so?
Like you said even a toddler can answer that -its cricket.
Once we started winning in boxing,badminton,wrestling we got notice
and so did the players - so no point complaining - other games and
players need more wins to generate interest - like Premjit pointed out
above we need heroes in every sport and that would generate interest -
blaming cricket is as lame as repeating the question "Why does a
nation of over 1.2 billion people end up with just a few".
Its not fair to blame cricket, How can a country with billion people cannot win more than dozen medals in Olympics.If 11 people can win world cup , cant billion people with hundreds of events win single gold. Why cant we...? everyone has one question , who will fund me.ifanyone sponsor we will compete.even today there is not a single stadium in India well equipped with all facilities like US or UK. Sports Autority of India will be appearing like some schools shut for summer holidays after any sports event. we indians do not have something called sporting culture. we play for money.we will only play if my house is happy and my children wife are comfortable. Society will not accept your family roaming on roads waiting Auto or bus. Cricket is game played for Fun in our country.So many billionaires want cricketers be their ambassdors.
As someone who loves sports and hates cricket I so agree with your piece. Regrettably, in India professional sports is not a 'profession' - this is the reason many parents discourage their kids from taking up sports for anything more than a hobby. I know exceptional sports people who ended up with poorly paying jobs becoming teachers or trainers because after years of sports training they were not qualified to do anything else. For every Mary Kom there will many who will try and fail, and we as a nation, have to ready to encourage and support those who win and also those who don't make it but try equally hard. The only thing on their mind should be their sport, they shouldn't have to worry about where the next meal for their family comes from or like you said their 'gas connections'
Hats off Sir. An excellent article. Sadly, even this shall pass. For a day, we garner 100+ comments and tomorrow, people will not even remember this article. (( SIGH ))
Agreed, I love your post
The most important challenge as a Father of 3 years old kid I see is,
I don't have an infrastructure for all sports in India. I don't have a
Rink in reachable distance to start any alternate sports for him. We
putting our kids in a skating rink and looking at the danger it has
due to poor infrastructure, we are taking him Off from that in few
months.
As myself a passionate cyclist and cycle to office everyday, I feel
very bad to see when people drive car to office which is 5 min away.
We don't have infrastructure for cycles, then where the interest would
come for the kids.
How many professional swimming pools we have, apart from the fun pools
in apartments and recreational centers which is used good only to have
relaxed swimming.
I agree with Aparna. As in US and Europe, There should be a passion
and infrastructure developed for major sports like Swimming,
Badminton, Hockey, Skate, Gymnastic, Cycling.. other athletic sports
would naturally get interest.
This is definitely a masterpiece of an article. Time and time again, we promote, devote and worship cricket as a religion. Never once do we consider the little things that go through in supporting other sports. We have never been able to produce world beaters like Phelps or Mohd Ali in our sports.
If only we spend 10% of the time and money spent on cricket on other sports....
Lazy article - Don't blame cricket
The primary reason for our failure is that we do not have a sports culture. Many can't afford to take up sports and the middle class who can afford, do not let or encourage their children to do so. Reputed schools in cities do not even have decent grounds. I am sure 80% can’t even swim properly in this country with mighty rivers.
Unless the society has a sports culture and a positive attitude toward physical fitness, we will continue to scrape the bottom of the barrel. Don’t blame cricket.
our indian people are very flexible and sport lovers, cricket is the
most popular sport in india why? b-cos it creeped into the souls of
every indian from a long time,in the same way we have to induce the
taste of other sports in them,it should then dissolve in their blood,but
to blame people for not loving other sports is foolishness, unless you
do something for that ,you cant make the people to love something!!!
Cricket I beleive suits the indian psyche and personality coming to think about it. Probably the British played it over hill and valley and this guy standing at deep long leg quite possibly enjoys the warm after noon sun, the gentle breeze. Indians were after all playing this kind of cricket for decades -who can forget the 5 day dead draw test -the result of which was written in big bold letters on day 1!!
Indians never could care about the amount of time wasted on this stupid game all these years and now getting all excited about T20 etc where the pure beauty of the original game called cricket is lost for ever. I think it is time to tone down cricket before it brings the economy down!!!
Agree but to add to this ....recently heard an interview with Carl Lewis where he was
asked about cricket's domination in India and whether he thought that it posed a
hindrance to the development of Olympic sports here. He threw light on the fact that
even in the US, Baseball and American Football were super popular consuming a lot
of the ‘fan energy’, however that still doesn’t mean that the Olympic sports suffer. In
his opinion, and I agree completely, all one needs is ‘heroes’ in every sport that
people in the country can look up to and the children can idolize and ‘want to be
like’. Over time the sport will pick up steam…. He said for India, given a choice, more
medals (any colour) in a variety of sports was a better thing that 1 gold. So every
Mary Kom can inspire thousands …and a ‘wildfire spread’ is sure to happen……
Need more role models in other sports mainly team sports like
hockey/football.How do you do that considering Indian scenario ?
Prepare a team say in football which actually does well at Asian level
first.Show the matches live on DD and provide maximum exposure.Fans
like to follow teams which are doing good at international
level.Cricket has been doing well since 1983 ,so more fans follow the
game.Imagine a scenario if India qualifies in World cup finals for
football.The fans will line up as in cricket.Even in cricket,how may
of us watch Ranji games ?So its not the game itself,but your team's
consistent performance against the best.Individual sports dont attract
much crowd due to space restrictions and that translates into fan
following as well.
Exclude hockey. We are ready to be fans if the team will let us. Despite
such poor performance, people actually wait for a miracle every time the
team plays. Nobody has forgotten Major Dhyanchand and his exploits.
I have been living in the US for the a little over 4 years now. Not
one of my friends were familiar with the names of Gabby Douglas or
Ryan Lochte or Missy Franklin until before this Olympics. During the
remaining 3 years and 11 months, people here are busy supporting their
favorite teams in NFL, NBA and MLB. But still USA won the most gold
medals. I don't think supporting cricket for 3 years and 11 months is
the problem that we face in our country. People like the teams or
individuals they root for to perform well. If they do well, they get
more support and more viewership. More kids will start playing that
game/sport. Right now it's just a blame game that is going on.
Someone's got to break that cycle. And that someone most likely has to
be the gifted athletes. Also some help from the media by covering
these athletes not just once in 3 years and 11 months will also help!
Big time!
Nirmal,
We truly admire the way you are projecting things for people of india
who have lack of interest in the backing up of the only people who
strive their best to reach at the ultimate glory in olympics. But
don't you think that the media (once again) here is needed to be
blamed on that.
Why does Media(whenever I surf through any tv channel) is cribbing
about yuvraaj going behind some model or the controversies between
harbhajan and sreesanth. Those being their personal matter, can't we
just focus it on the issues faced at administration level and the mess
created by the sports authorities in India.
If media presents in front of india the truth(which they are suppose
to do), every well being will one day give up this bloody red tape and
some steps will be taken towards eliminating this red tape on any
grounds.
That day won't be far where a sportsperson doesn't waste their efforts
and time on handling such issues and concentrate on bigger part of the
game!!! - UV
How many times have I talked in FB when INDIAN TEAM was given a lot of gifts for life time when they reached just the finals of the WC 2003? Their Life time travel in Indian Railways with spouse? (for winning world cup)Their Flight travel in some airways with spouse? (for winning world cup)What have they done for India? Did they give India the much needed freedom?
Someone asked me "how a less known nation is winning gold in Olympics?" I told We need to concentrate on all sports and ensure we practice a lot (other than cricket).
We dont recognise other sportspeople other than cricketers.
Even during a transmission just before the Sushil's finals some one was saying, let's not talk about cricket(it is a religion...what nonsense)
(we can get a gold here provided we identify talents in these areas. see below) We dont concentrate on the boat racers of Kerala for a Gold in Kayaking. We dont concentrate road performers for a gold in Gymnastics. Fencing? Archery?(Indian sports)
Nirmal sir,
I can understamd the emotional outburst, The feeling is palpable.
But I am afraid you have missed a point. To begin with India is not a sporting nation, let alone being a one sport nation.
There are thousands and thousands to people who like Volleyball, basket ball, whole lot of other sports (the list is quite lengthy and healthy). Just because Cricket hangs in the lime light with all glitz and glamour it doesn't mean the general populace loves just that one sport. Its a shame that the common public has no access to other sports and appreciate it naunces. Everyone is at fault and the media more so.
Infact the basic reasons for India's failure in sports is very much the same for all the plights India as a country is ailing from. The problems are very fundamental at the root level.
Just because people start worshipping a sport star or follow a sport whole heartedly doesnt mean it going to rain GOLD medals.
India didnt top the test ranking list overnight.Thats a fact.
Looks like Nirmal Sekar is canvassing a Rajya Sabha seat for Anand, though however much
Anand deserves it! Chess needs concentration, thinking out of the box -lateral thinking, fore-
knowledge of the opponent's future moves... But the grey matter attributed will come to the
player's rescue only while playing chess. It's not necessary the player will be a genius in all
other fields as well. May be Viswanathan Anand is an exception to this rule. I definitely do
not know.
Basically parents are too protective.They want their wards to be
academic with a goal to land on a job with regular monthly
(fat)income.They do not encourage their kids to pursue sports as an
avocation rather they are the impediments.(me including) If this trend
reverses we may expect better show.In US baseball/american football are
money spinning sports like cricket in India.,but that is not a deterrent
to winning highest no of medals in Olympics.
Yes, to an extend your point is right. But, in a vast nation like India where the population is 1.2B and evidently changes are possible by strong leadership, the Govt, the media and the private sector giants should start investing in all sports except Cricket. Cricket has BCCI and the people behind it, but for other sports, no one is betting on as investing in it doesnt make financial sense at the moment. Let some of the private sector giants start adopting some of the sports / games by investing in it for future without looking for short term monetory returns. Let the Media start covering other sports events without focusing on sponsorships or TRPs. Let the young generation in India feel that their talents are backed by someone.If China can become a power house of sports talents in a relatively short span of one or two decades, India too can do the same, but first thing to stop is to blame the citizens on not following, and start to invest for a New Future for Indian Sports.
R.I.P for sports in India , were bureaucrats & administrator having a field day in filling their coffers, at cost of nation health !It's shame their is no serious business on having a strategy,stringent checks & accountability in this business.Those who default get away lightly !We need to place a tree system of training & providing basic infrastructure along with provision of expert in this field , including sport doctor & qualified intentional/domestic coaches from district level to national level, under control of a single autonomous body,were selection should be purely on basis of expertise in sport field for the governing body.If such type of remedial measure & not taken, then SORRY for saying R.I.P for sport in this country.
Dear Mr Nirmal Shekar,
I think there is no need to overdo this analysis. The reason for 1.2 billion people not playing any game other than cricket is quite simple - the media. Please tell me why all the sports magazines all these years could only have the photo of cricketers on their cover page -sometimes the cricketer could be quite unknown to the vast population but never mind make it sell and sell more is what the media has been doing.
Nirmal points out the obvious. The problem is not just that new-India has taken to cricket to the exclusion of all others but one that far broader and deeper. Critics bemoan India’s results or lack thereof at major world events – but how many of them complain about the lower priority afforded to playtime or sports in our schools? No one complains when buildings are constructed on school playgrounds depriving future olympians a nursery to cultivate their talent. Success in the Olympics is the result of talent that is discovered early, nurtured and encouraged in incubators free from corruption, politicking or other forms of interference. It is the culmination of life long effort and desire to excel. Instead of criticizing our athletes, if every parent, every policy maker, every person insists that schools make adequate time and room for sports it won`t be long before more Indian athletes reach the podium.
If we just blame Cricket for India's misfortune in Olympic, it is not the right. American Football ( NFL ) and Baseball ( MLB) is big in US, much crazier than our cricket and they are not part of Olympics. Yet US could able to diversify thier metal tally with different sports. We also need our school system to encourage sports. Since we lag this long, stronger encouragement in schools wont be just enough. Like China we need a national push. BTW., hats of to all our atheletes and congrats to our medal winners.
It is the cash flow that matters. The popularity of the sport only
depends on the amount of cash that is flowing thru the game.
Create an efficient, steady and reliable source of income for our
sportsmen then see how our country flourishes. If our sportsmen can do
so well under such dire circumstances in India then once we have good
facilities, world class trainers and steady income our players will be
able to focus more on there games.
Also, what this article is suggesting we Indians need a serious perspective overhaul.
Well said . Regrettably, the Indian cricketers are hardly true champions, seeing that they thrive under specific conditions. Perhaps the country should learn from the oil rich countries of the middle east and tempt athletes from other countries to participate under the Indian flag. Far easier than grooming talent and nursing them along.
Nobody in India is seriuos about excelling in sports,as they are concentrating on passing on excam,graduate and go in for a good employement.which employer or corporate companies go on recruiting sportperson who is normally a Honnary person,doing nothing for the company except their HON emblem rep at vaious important appearances only.More so, whenever anybody heads any sports meet, viz Kalmadifor commonwealth game, gotinot problem and lost in transit.
At least now onwards, whether Indian govt iskeen on the next Olmpic to be held in 2016 and prepare their young ones to a systamatic training for ultimate success.Govt is also no keen about performance, as they have their own internal problem of power division, money division and politicalising any development issue that comes in their administrative affair.what they can do?U find hardly any true Indian
wanted to do good for the country.this is the present situation.
Britain spent about 125 million on its olympic athletes - and is so
much football crazy that this money would be less than the turnover of
a many English football clubs.To attribute the failure of Indian
athletes to cricket is not right. Many Ranji players before 90s are
still in penury. India has not planned well and did not nurture the
talents in swimming, gymnastics, cycling and athletics - where there
are many medals. If we select the right candidates and groom them with
proper coaching India can also become sporting super power. It is
wrong to blame another sport for our ill planning.
In my view, the government should be squarely blamed. If they privatize
all the other sports bodies and allowed them to grow without any
interference like BCCI then there will be abundant talent and during the
initial period they should support them financially. In fact BCCI with
its abundant wealth can start looking into other sports activities in
all districts.
Excllent article. Unless until Indian public and media come out of stupid game of Cricket, which is only popular among few underdeveloped countries, we can not grow in any other field also. Leander Paes has won 50 double titles, com'on 50 titles in Tennis, the sport which is played all over the world and you have to compete with all the developed nations, the sports which requires maximum physical stamina among all the sports and he is playing for past more than 20 years but who cares for him. People care for Dhoni's and Sachin's hairstyles in India who play that sport in which half of the time is spent just by sitting in the pavilion and clapping and when you are on the field then occasionaly you move.
Our writers are either optimistic or pessimist. The sports success should be taken
in context with society and people aspiration, and we must appreciate the fact that
we take pride in being Indian. Apparently, we are worst critic of our own and some
feel bad if we go overboard with happiness. That what makes us Indian. Aint we
celebrate everything to extreme? Let people build up expectation from other
games (no matter how stupid or nonsensical or euphoric) that is very imp to
celebrate other Indian success, also to aspire and motivate next gen & parents to
pursue sports. Those who doubt themselves, fear of failure and don't believe that
nothing gonna change in India can find several excuse to defend and say we are
getting overboard with our feeling and getting nonsensically stupid euphoric.
Don't put governance failure on society and mask their aspiration to justify your
pessimism. One person can inspire millions and bring change. We need crazy
media hype for sports in India.
Obsession with one sports never lead to downfall of other sports.
Australians follow multiple sports. So does English. Two sports can
co-exist. Just accept that we are not good enough. Even if you spend
gazillion of dollars you are not going to find a gymanst or swimmer
coming out of our country. Nobody cares about olympic gold medal
winners in any country except select sport. Fact that Mary was 5 times
world champion without even getting the same attention you are talking
about. But with country's entire attention she failed. How do you
infer lack of attention caused her downfall? It is stereotypical.
NFL, Basket ball and base ball are famous in USA, but still they stood first in medal tally and soccer is the craziest game in UK but it had its share in the table. So i dont think blaming cricket for all this is little childish, in fact sports, games and track events should be discussed as different issues, they should not be intermingled and confused. No other game in USA can be as crazy as NFL and no other event may it be olympics cannot get bigger than cricket in India. Making a mark in medal tally is a national committment, we were not committed for any thing so far as i know, my country and sports are not an exception. Taking on life and existing are different and our culture taught us to exist, not to take on life. So blame culture and not cricket....but i can understand what you are trying to say here.
I disagree with being one sport nation is the reason. Track, Swimming etc are never a mass sport events. I live in America now and even though its not a one nation sport but certainly a 3 nation sport. People watch and crave for Football, Baseball and Basketball and support and watch events during world events. Till Olympics I never even heard of many gold winning swimmers apart from the popular ones like Phelps.
I don't think its the people but rather our system doesn't encourage and provide ample opportunity for many sports to propel. Conducting race event only during 15 august and 26 jan is not encouraging. I know its cliche to blame system but that's major part of problem. Don't blame people for not supporting something in which they don't see opportunity. If people know there is a choice other than just getting a degree no matter how good you are at sports we will initiate the transition towards being all round sports nation.
Every culture, every community and every nation has a destination and we almost acheived ours, it may be truth but its not sick at least for people who can analyse with out any bias. Show me a thing in which we are good, then come to sports. Another fantastic article from Nirmal Sekhar, but this can be reprinted after every olympics, as long as the game exists. A nation with consistency, and i really cannot stop admiring some people who considered even winning 5 or 6 medals also as acheivement of nation.
For Indian sports to go international standards, following things will definitely create a good baseline.
1) Every Indian kid should go to school.
2) Every Indian kid should get enough nutrition.
3) (Most importantly), every kid in school should be involved in at least an hour of rigorous physical activity (soccer, running, kabadi, field hockey, swimming, etc. etc.) every day in school. Basically this should be part of the school curriculum and part of national standard. This is a need of the hour not mainly for winning Olympic medals, but for raising healthy kids. After all, what is the use of "success" (ie. in terms of career and money) if an average kid develops diabetes and heart related diseases in his/her 30s and 40s? Physical health contributes to mental health and health is the undoubtedly the most important physical aspect of one's quality of life.
Once a physically fit generation comes up, Olympic medals will be one of the side benefits.
Good article to read! But what is new? What is that we have to do? Any
suggestions? Any actions? This type of open ended articles have brought
the truth out but what is the solution? Is that not important instead
reading the article which we know already.
I do not think that Cricket can be held responsible for the poor
growth of other sports. The real problem is that our country is still
poor for the most part.Most of these athletes come from a poor
background and they do not get enough support to pursue their careers.
Moreover, a majority of parents hesitate to accept if their children
want to pursue a career in sports. Many times talented young people
are forced to change their decision to opt sports as their career. How
many parents will be willing to spend few lakhs to train their
children in swimming when they are really young and take them to
international meets? Lack of infrastructure and willingness of people
to allow their children to pursue a career in sports are the biggest
impediments in my view. I think Government should start lucrative
scholarship programs at the school level (God knows if that will stay
away from corruption) and develop training centers in rural areas
throughout the nation.
Problem is not just with cricket or something ... its the basic mentality of every household that needs to change ... every parent today wants their son to do well in studies ... they dont allow them to even exercise ... leave alone talking about other sports ...
Cricket is a spoilsport ... i agree ... but if you close cricket in india, will that fix this problem? Lets hit the real root cause .. mentality of an indian parent to see his person do well in what he/she likes ... rather than saying cricket/engineer/medicine ...
as always ... change should start inside out.
I don't see any point in blaming cricket here, even though i agree with author that we have to begin at grass root level. American Footbal and Baseball are the biggest sports in the US and their players probably makes more money than cricket players by playing and through advertisements. These 2 events are not part of Olympics. The difference here is about the education system in those big countries compared to India. There the teacher and the parents discuss about their ability outside their books. They finds out what a kid capable in sports/arts. After that colleges finds out best talents from school and they continue to improve. How many parents/teachers in India is ready make his/her kid to think about anything other than their studies and to get a job? Its time to stop blaming Cricket and start blaming ourselves. At least the new generation making a lot of noise about a 1.2billion mass country cannot bring in a gold should make sure their kids are supported to think about sports
I always read the above comment above before posting, but im just going to ignore the one above. Learn instead of blaming. You would, if you knew a tad more about the author.
As an ex-agency employee, Brilliantly written. And yes, so true.
We are getting better, i guess the slight increase in medals is showing for it. And that is because, hopefully, we as a nation are slowly, ever so slowly opening our eyes.
Awesome article! Totally agree! But...
are'nt all these true because of you media people who bring to our desk (on home page) Sachin's BMW instead of Mary's world championship?
Who other than you can change this condition in our country????
Excellent article.....The solution I believe, in order of priority is
media (public) attention, money (sponsors), infrastructure......its not
a one day or a one year thing, I believe if we can get it started today,
we will see the results in 20 years.
Why is the entire country after the cricketers? Why should we hold it against Tendulkar if he makes 10 million $ and Mary Kom dosent? A sprinter from UK isnt going to get the same money at Beckam or a beach volleyball player isnt going to get the same money as Kaka. Its MARKETING. Hold the govt responsible because the govt runs these respective sports. Also most countries are one sport countries. Most European countries only play football. They are good at other sports and govt has been spending money on infrastructure hence they have athletes in other sports. Like the author talks abt the IPL in Europe people follow the EPL, La Liga and Seria A irrespective of what other games are being played at that point of time. They were hosting an ICC tournament in UK and people didnt knw about it cause it wasn't football. Its always that the most glamorous and widely marketed sport catches the attention of the people. Its nice to keep pointing fingers at the cricketers but fact is winners SELL
for the last 3 years 11 months what support the media including
freelance writers have provided for nurturing sports other than
cricket..even our prestige sport hockey also did not find due
recognition...now suddenly lamenting about the nation is a tragedy and
perverse...charity begins at home ......let the press start actively recognizing all sports.........lend support to those who rigorously
pursue sport as an avocation ......may lead 6 to 16 if not 60
I don't understand why people make so much of fuss about Cricket’s success.
Cricket was not the most popular game in India. Hockey was. Cricketers have fought hard to make their mark and that’s why this sport gets so much of recognition. BCCI was never the richest body it is what it is just because of their management/marketing skills and good performances by the cricketers. Cricketers achieved fame only after 1983 victory else it was only Mumbai which appreciated true cricket now it’s at grass root level.
Please stop crying that we do not have money, there are much poorer countries than ours who have won medals. Stop blaming that we do not watch other sports. Do you really mean to say that sports are played only for the audiences?
I have never understood why sport journalist achieves moksha only after comparing Cricket with other sports.
Very good article. I am disappointed how many apologists are amongst the
commenters. In the UK, our footballers are the same as Indian cricketers - paid 2
crore/wk and idolised as gods. Yet team GB has come third in the medal table with a
population of 60 million. There is nothing wrong with a national obsession, as long
as other sports do not suffer. At present in India only one sport enjoys national and
substantial support. This should not be accepted.
Shanke, team GB doctor
really a heart moving statement.. is ne1 listening
Said truth,
I dont know why cant the corporate giants and big so called cricketers (getting advertisement income in billions) sponcer 5 each sports star from any division(boxing, athletics etc etc). and why cant the governing body (olympic association) have a stearn stand about the players taking personal decisions.
Nirmal Shekar has definitely written an excellent article which throws light on the truth about the plight of other forms of sports apart from cricket in India and it is true that the government has to identify, encourage and fund talented sportspersons, and similarly there are graver areas for the our government to address, like the 40% of malnourished children in India....which is just one of the many issues.
there is only one tv hall in our university hostel. in four years, i hardly get chance to watch other sports or stories as the rest of the hostelers are obsessed with criket. i can't imagine why they're so devoted to such a tediously long game.
Couldn't agree more!
I believe this is the exact point Nirmal Shekar has made. You cannot favor one sport at the cost of others, just because it is the most
glamorized sport in here, just because can fetch adverts every 4 minutes
than any other sport, just because it is more of a business than a
sport!
Fans can be made for anything that is fed into their minds constantly..
and it can be anything..
Salute' for saying it like it is! All Indians need to read
this...there's no better time than now to learn from our past mistakes
and fix them...Our Olympians are Heroes for having made it Despite the
system!
Absolutely rubbish. To blame the debacle of any sport on Cricket is a
fashion in India.
Cricket has not become a sensation overnight. WC83 and clever
marketing has made cricket what it is now. BCCI is not a Govt
organization and hence is not obligated to anybody.
Yes, the nation has failed the athletes and in a big way but who is
responsible. The sports ministers are members from public with zilch
knowledge of sports and who are way past their shelf life. Kalmadi
goes in and out of jail only to be reinstated as head of IOC. Why
cannot the public hold dharnas and shout slogans against such
bureaucracy and unjust and unfair treatment of the athletes. Where is
media when it comes to promoting sports during 3 years and 11 months
before Olympics? So much attention of the media goes into covering who
the next rubber-stamp of India is going to be is enough said about its
primary function. I salute the Indian athletes for having done so much
without any support from the Govt and media.
For 3.5years, USA is obsessed with Basketball, football and
Baseball. Great Britain is obsessed with Cricket and Football. Same
with Australia. Yet all these countries win Dozens of gold medals
in various disciplines.
Please stop blaming cricket for the shortcomings of others. If we
were bad in cricket, then we would have been good for nothing in
any sport.
I don't think i have any right to comment on this article as i myself
am an ardent cricket fan.. but i do understand the anguish in the
writer's sentences.. I suppose the only way things can improve is if
corruption is culled at the grass root level. The talented ones get
left behind and the affluent ones march ahead. Such is the status at
the moment that u can spot corruption and politics even at club
levels. As for the Hockey Team, it is now that these guys need our
complete support. I think with the best of facilities and
infrastructure along with proper funding, our athletes can do wonders.
All the best guys for 2016!!!
I would like to scream in your ears that you and your media are part of the same Hypocrisy!
Prove me wrong by posting the total number of writings in "The Hindu" about cricket vs rest of
the sports, in the last 4 years. If the number of the latter is more, I will stand corrected! If not,
"follow before you preach" is all I have to stay. Let me keep track of how many more columns
you write about "rest of the sports" in the next 1400+ days!
From my childhood Olympic coverage, I still remember the names like P T Usha,
Limba Ram, Jyothirmayee Sikhdar etc. to name a few and only my memory reminds
me of them even now, yet they were never mentioned even rarely in media, yet they
blame me for not know each of the 81-member Olympic squad by name... and their
domestic problems... Why should I be blamed for not having interest in someone
whose name I don't even know except mentioned suddenly in newspaper articles for
2 weeks every 4 years... I'm an Indian, I'm proud of all the Olympians, but first tell
me which Olympians I should be proud of...
Its senseless to blame cricket. Every country is obsessed some sport.
If India has cricket, south America and Europe have football, US has
baseball, basketball and AF, Canada has Ice Hockey, Australia has
Aussie rules and rugby. That doesn't prevent them from winning medal.
By, talking about Anand the writer negates his own argument. Anand had
no mass support yet he excelled. Ofcourse infrastructure matters, but
it's not cricket fault that certain sports lack facility in India.
Sports like athletics, gymnastics, swimming etc can never attain mass
popularity. They need to be excelled in by state support and funding
and proper amenities in schools n colleges.Who do u think the average
american idolises Michael Phelps or Michael Jordan, yet that doesn't
stop him from winning. Do u think cricket was always so rewarding in
India? The earliest cricketers had to play for pennies right upto
1983, but their spirit didnt dwindle and today their successors and
reaping it's benefits.
India is a big market, Cricket has lots of opportunities for ad's in
between the bowls and overs and the out's and in's. Market drives
things here, and it drives cricket.
When we completely move out of feudal agrarian malnourished state, we
will be better at other games because then people will have time to
spend on games.
When I cycle in places like karnataka, when we go beyond 100 km's
outside of metro's, we see that the villages have no electricity and
the people are farmers who are not healthy and most of them are below
the poverty line(that stupid line).
It is good that the time for wars are over, as long as there are no
wars.. our intellectuals can sit in air conditioned tv rooms and chat
about the mightly preparedness. Like in competitive sports, if there
is a test of this preparedness.. then god help us all.. and since god
is non existent, we will be doomed.
There's not a fundamental change. But am happy that some brave souls
won medals, cheers to the human spirit.
I fully agree with Nirmal Shekar. We have learnt to turn away from
other sports and are totally indulged in only cricket.Not only the
Govt., even the Corporate giants can also help improve the
infrastructure for the other games and to improve the life style of
the athletes. We worship the cricketers even if the lose the entire
series. But very readily start criticising the athletes for not
getting a gold or a silver or a bronze medal. Why this partiality? In
fact, the cricketers should be paid their salary only if they perform.
As such they have grown rich with their ads.
Sensational article Mr Shekar , this really tell us the bias in the
indian sports . Not to take anything away from cricket its the sport
we are best in and WE are proud of it. But this does not give us the
right to blame the other sports on loosing. The gold medal in a
olympics is a struggle of an athelete as well the system see china
they won their 1st gold in 1984, inside 20 years they have 200 golds.
The system of Development of Olympians has to change. rather than
blaming cricket we should learn from it. Learn how small town people ,
with proper motivation and training be champions. if we can give 5
crores to single player we can give 1 crore to the trainig facility
cant we? thats what our govt shold understand . If the school is good
Champions will BE PRODUCED.
I have nothing against you or against any sport in fact I am a person who will lay my life down for any committed sportsman.
On the whole I find this whole debate stupid people like watching cricket whether India wins or lose they will keep watching.
USA are the Olympic winners but they don't qualify for FIFA world cup mostly. Am not sure what can be done by the people but the government should surely encourage them.
Viswanath anand is a genius and am proud of him but I dont know how to move a knight on the squares. How do you expect me to watch that game?
What am saying is everyone will be saying they did not get the praise or laurels that the Indian team get. Will any of the other sportsmen be ready to bear the similar brunt of cricketers when they lost 2007 world cup??
The focus should not be on laurels, instead it should be on improving infrastructure of games. When all you want is your kids to call you on skype saying India have not won gold from USA . these people wont win
I read your article which is well written.poeple follow the spotrs, as and when the media highlights a particular ones to the benefit of it where in they get more viewership and make lots of momey.they are not interested to encourage and highlight othersports.added to the problem the poeple who r controlling does not know anything about it.all top post of the individual sports organisation are holding by the politician just to make money.this every one knows.media knowe which sports gets more money so they encourage it. only god has to save other sports.
Excellent article. Cricket is a game of convenience for Asians. India,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are zero in olympics but great
cricketing nation. It is basically a matter of timing and technique.It
does not require stamina, speed or fitness like hockey, soccer or
track and field.Also a game of town bred soft skinned people (Role
Models).It does not require the devotion or dedication of olympic
sports. One is seen dancing whole night, dating, but perform other day
and media hails them as world beaters. If infrastructure is an issue
why Asians do not play soccer in England and Europe. Even in England,
Indians are seen playing cricket. England team is never complete
without Indians. It is a matter of attitude. Caribbean West Indies is
zero in Olympics, Jamaica a commonwealth, considers track and field as
national sport is dominant in track and field. All can be said is
cricketing mad nation can never be a sporting nation. My religion is
cricket and demi-gods our Gods.
Great article, but I have question for this news paper. How many other sports articles or
whats the coverage any news paper did for last one year?
Probably the easiest article that Nirmal Shekhar has ever had to write.
Its true. Its time to make a change.
The author is no different from the rest of us. He complains about the state of
affairs. But at this hour we need more than criticism. We need reforms to even have
the smallest chance of doing better at the next olympics.
It would benefit the author and the nation greatly if we try and be constructive
instead of merely accusing Indians for being interested in cricket.
Thanks so much for voicing this concern on behalf of the so little
population of India that does care about the need to highlight sports
beyond cricket. I think the country also needs a reminder that Hockey is
THE national game.
Very nice article. For the first time, I see an article that has no blame but to the gut
admittance of our own mistake. Great one!!
A very true reality... we thwart our own definitions... of unity and
diversity and other CRAP... yes I will call it all crap because we
like any free loader... never stand to what we say about ourselves..
and that is why it is all crap.
I feel morbid after reading this, at the sad status we live in, where
a match between India and Pak, becomes a reason for Muslim and Hindu
kids to fight and brawl.. yes it is a reality and face THAT at least
with your chins up...
I have not seen how many people have commented here... But I am sure..
Most of them will forget the article tomorrow or at most day after
tomorrow and get back at the normal stretch of things.
Well as for me...I don't wish to say it.. but I am saving this
article, to read again and even show it to some of my friends who are
not the general crappy types..
Thank you for the article
To pick a nit: "Countries with a millionth of our population..." translates to countries with a population under ~1500. Could Mr. Shekar provide an example of such a country winning an Olympic Gold Medal? Did Niue or the Falkland Islands or The Vatican win a Gold Medal un-noticed by anyone?
well i must say dont agree with the article. Things have drastically
changed in india now we can see documentaries made of Mary kom , sushil
kumar vijender sing our good athletes are followed not only in Olympica
but other events as well throught the one year and we are on the track
of losing our one sport nation tag. Now is the time to not let go the
momentum
I somehow dont buy the article at all. Such articles have always come
after the Olympics games are over. At the time of Malleshwari, someone
wrote, "A Nation with population of one billion, and just one medal".
Years have passed by and similar articles have been floated,
especially after the Olympics are over. Like the article says, even
the author himself will forget to keep on updating everyone and
himself about current happenings in other sports. The other sports
really need to market themselves well to gain any attention from
viewers or enthusiasts or followers.
Remember, hockey was much talked about than cricket before. It was
cricket lovers who took the Indian cricket to a whole new level. So if
they could succeed in marketing themselves well, why can others not.
Saina and Gopichand are doing it right. So are Leander and Mahesh
Bhupati. People really do need stars and achievements followed by good
marketing strategies in order to be able to grab everyone's attention.
PERIOD!!
the article is well written.......but we have known there are many
other problems also like it more than 4 yrs to conduct national games
in our country , no one cares about national games but actually it
serves as a starting point for state level sportsperson.Actually there
is no proper state level organisation of sports meet and also no
recognition given to a sports person till he/she win a medal in an
international. so no one can pursue sports by taking so much risks
that he will be able to win a medal in future. this is the most
important reason why most of the parents do not support in India. but
be optimistic things are changing....but this changing can be better
if marks should be given for sports in school level and encouraging
the people from the grassroots.
Cricket is just a pastime meant for the lazy rich men of medieval
England to get warmth. If G.B.Shaw were alive he would have said "A game
played by eleven fool-makers and watched by eleven million fools".
We easily forget the fact that wasting 3 to 8 hours just only to get an
occasional thrill of 10 minutes is sheer foolishness. The so called nail
biting moments in cricket can never match the experience we get in
watching 2-minutes-long wrestling.
Sisir, folks like you mislead people and the nation. Looks at the totality of the matter and understand what the author is trying to convey.
Completed disagree with some of the arguments here - Agreed Cricket
Enjoys a 'Super-King' treatment in our nation where 'Real-Heroes' are
hard to find by - but is the Game to blamed for it? or the Constituents
who build up the nation? To create a passion for a sport or game it
takes time - and yes years !!! May be the last two Olympics are the
starting point & next generation would take these sports seriously to
win medals ! Though agree to Nirmal's title for the article - 'One sport
Nation' similar to as we are 'One party Country'.
It would be good to see how many times The Hindu writes about Mary Kom or Yogeshwar Dutt over the next 4 years and how many times they write about MSD and SRT. How many square inches of The Hindu are devoted to cricket and how any are devoted to boxing and wrestling. The media is as responsible for influencing public opinion and behaviour. Its amusing when they suddenly start off preaching / writing such condescending stuff when they themselves have as much to blame for the state of affairs
I have a idea. We can raise funds and train and support the best
sportsperson in India in various games and give them the assurance that
they will be benefited throughout their life, give them all the
facilities which the top sportsperson requires. If all of us come forward and make this, India does not have to wait for 25 years to
compete with top countries.
A nice article... and yes it is true majority is with cricket and good
it is not a part of olympics..!! All other sports & games needs a big
push from people, in terms of federation support, finances and most of
all popularity.
I somehow feel its not that Indians cannot do well in olympics it is
just it not "popular" and here media can play an important role. In
little words Olympics or any other sports apart from Cricket needs
publicity. A good powerful marketing strategy for all games will work
wonders..! :)
A lovely Socialism article. I am poor because you are rich. Why not say that because we watch a Rajni movie we do not have time for sports? We cannot raise money for any sport, so cricket should be killed, please reduce cricket to the lowest levels of other sports, then we can all feel equally poor. Not blaming Hindu, but this article looks like it was written before the book 'Creation of Wealth' was written.
No mention of Indians playing in other desciplines at the Olympics who ended up without medals. A man called Ram Singh Yadav ran a fifty kilometer marathon the very same time Sushil Yadav was wrestling for gold. The second ever Indian(after Shivnath Singh, 1976 Summer Olympics, Montreal) to run the Olympic marathon. He is my hero this time.
We can all sit and debate for next 3 & half years up until Rio de
janeiro and nothing would have changed. Go visit the state sports
bodies, the sate olympic associations and look at the welcome you receive from those hoodlums. Take your kids out for a run or enroll
them into some sport, demand for more playing fields in your locality
or school. One doesn't get the right picture unless they are involved
in it. Be the change!!
I played pro-football at 14 - was a product of SAI scholarship
programme , turned an Athelele and finally ended up playing rugby for
India -bet nobody has heard of Indian Rugby -thank you media!!. So
I've been at the receiving end of Indian sports system.
This is a really amateur perspective of the whole scenario. Don't start blaming cricket for everything. In every country people are going to watch what they like, not the other way round. It's up to the government to look after the athletes. Go after the government instead of going after cricket. If there is so much money involved in cricket, ask the government why it is giving tax cuts to the cricketers, but don't ever blame cricket as the reason for the failure of other sports. By doing so, we are just looking for one easy scapegoat instead of digging the real reason for the lack of medals. Do you think in USA any other sport other than American Football, Basketball and baseball has a big presence. The answer is a big NO. It's the same case in almost every country. They have few games which is most popular and the others ones will be viewed probably every 4 years once. Blame the lacks of funds or infrastructure and definitely NOT cricket.
Hats off to Nirmal Shekar for his frank opinion and also to "The Hindu"
for publishing that article.
Why the Govt of India should not think of instituting some life time
pension scheme, for those participating in International games - be it
hockey, chess, ....... so that at least Govt does not forget them. As
per the latest RTI information, hockey is NOT our national game and NO
ONE in the govt knows about our National Game.
You've hit the nail on the head. But, I wish to bring up one point.
Indian parents would always discourage their kids to get into
sport.....whichever be it, however talented they be. But of late, with
the money cricketers make, cricket has become an exception. People
should be made aware there's a career in sports. The government should
provide the platform for the private sector to invest and also provide
exposure for the sportspersons. The National Games should be focused on.
What an article! It's a slap in the face for so many patriotic Indian sports fans.What Nirmal Shekar revealed in this article is the reality of Indian sports. Every individual fan should blame himself for our nations failiure at the olympics.It's not the fault of the participants but the fault of us.By failing to recognisze and encourage the sports other than cricket we have collectivly let down not only the sportsperson who practice those sports but also our Nation.
I lived for about 40 years in India and about 30 in the US. School is the first learning centre for any activity - academics, sports, arts, music, etc. The facilities sports in Indian schools is woefully inadequate. When I was in the high school in the fifties in Madras, we had to walk more than a mile to reach the corporation playground shared by one and all. I am not sure how many of the hundreds of schools in Chennai have their own playground? But I am sure it is not many. On the other hand, even an elementary school here in the US has a decent playground. I think providing basic facilities in schools and colleges is very important for nurturing sportsmen. If students are good in sports, they may be given an exemption from an academic course. Also India must concentrate on a few sports like archery, shooting, boxing, wrestling and swimming instead of field games wherein our standards are very poor. Talent must also be searched in rural areas. Regards! -
Sad to hear but its the truth.We want to encourage those athletes and support them from the beginning in order to get atleast one gold medal next time.Hope India can make more if they had been encouraged.All iz well. Let's hope for the best in the next olympics.
I don't agree at all. All I can say is that such articles keep
cropping up every 3 years and eleven & a half months. It has kind of
become a fashion to write such articles after every Olympics- not
because the authors believe that the article will have any impact, but
just for the sake of writing. The same authors and the same media in
which such articles have appeared will spend the rest of the time
glorifying the "one sport" which is being referred to here.If they
care so much about other sports, why don't we see print space and air
time being dedicated for those? Essentially, cricket has made a mark
because there are models and legends which the masses can idolise and
follow. Hockey tries to sleepily wake up whenever there is a string of
failures by the Indian cricket team and then gets mired in some random
controversy or the other. And you have to accept it- Chess is too
boring a game to garner any mass support. Other sports never reveal
themselves. So why is cricket to blame?
Just another article blaming cricket for everything that is wrong with other sports in India! I don't think the celebrity status enjoyed by the cricket players is the cause for our bad performance in olympics. Even in the US, the celebrity status of football and baseball players is way higher than the olympic medalist, and you hear about the olympic medalists only in the few weeks before and after the olympics. And I believe that is true in most countries. You cannot compare the entertainment value (and hence popularity) of group sports like cricket or football to that of individual sports.
To summarize, I think the performance in olympics is more correlated with the infrastructure and emphasis on sports at school and youth level. As these improve, we will see improvement in our performance as well.
I've just completed my PhD in information processing models affecting
sports performance, and I can certainly say that as the author suggested
the initially in the article about athletes having a tendency to 'choke
under pressure' is a universal phenomenon and not just with Indian
athletes...yes this has been scientifically tested and that makes your
argument even stronger, the obsession with cricket is appalling. I'm
glad people are talking about this...it's about time...
here s a fact.. India s national sport is hockey and we were the
unbeatables in the world... no 1 could come anywhere near the Indian
team then... now... its all coz of cricket.. its the only game millions
of ppl play in india.. there is no importance given to anythin else.. if
not cricket then Bollywood... there is no infrastructure for other
sports... sad state...
As long as merit is preceded by money power, endemic
corruption,politics,caste, religion, region, language etc there is
no way for the country to make a mark not only in sports but in any endeavor. Without appreciating the root of the problem many critics
here are whistling in the dark hoping that some how India will make
great strides in future Olympics.The country need to go on war
footing to reduce corruption, imbibe scientific temper, attack
superstitious beliefs masquerading as traditions, if at all it
desire to make a mark in the international sports.
pls understand one thing!! it is natural for human
beings to associate themselves with sports or games that bring a level
of self-esteem and pride and wherein common folks have access to
playing and enjoying it day in a day out. cricket fortunately or
unfortunately fits into all these parameters. the fact of the matter
is that we do not have world class athletes or sportsmen barring a
few. in cricket atleast 50% of our players are world class or have
potential to be world class. crux of the problem is we have stupid and
irresponsible people who run our sports structures and businesses. for
exampl nobody knows whether ihf or hockey india calls the shot. if not
for individual efforts of determined persons like sushil kumar, saina
nehwal etc even this bit of sporting glory we have attained would
remain a pipe dream.we need mechanism to identify good sportsmen and
women and then provide them the tools to develop. so let us stop
whining.time to step out of the cocoon and try.
Athletes perform physical activity at a level that the human body is not evolved for.
As such, they need a support staff consisting of sports coaches, nurses, and sports
scientists, who understand how to put the body through extreme amounts of
physical stress (for competing in world class events and breaking records), and
how to ensure that the athlete remains in good health for the rest of his/her life.
Today, if some youngsters tell their parents they are going to pursue a BS degree
in nursing and and MS degree in sports medicine, will the parents be okay with
that? These are the very same parents, by the way, who criticize 'India, the
government, the people' etc. for not being supportive of the athletes. We need to
stop blaming the government. We need to change our perspective at the individual
level, and let our children pursue careers in such areas as sports medicine or
sports science that ultimately help our athletes and our country pursue competitive
sporting events.
There are talented youngsters who can win medals. Today they are all
suppressed by politicians and mainly officials. Officals are
promoting , influencing and favouring whom they need.
Today not only sports industry, we are facing lot of hurdels in
education too. My son got admission in M.Tech , but struggling to join
as the univeristy where he did the B.Tech still not yet released the
Mark sheets from 6'th semester. Even the college is not ready to give
TC as it expects the mark sheets from university.
Our system has become more corruptive, no system, every where hurdles
as the organisations has failed to act on their work.
We are getting medals only becasue of individual talent.
God only save India and its' sons and daughters.
India can not become a super power or a strong economy till we face
hurdles for small things
Sad but brutal truth in this article.
Let be truthful to ourselves we care only two things in India.
One is our actor hero (Bollywood movies) and another is Cricket.
If you got to any tea stall or restaurant these are the two things we
always see.
Now if you go to US. You will always see sports or news in bar or on
any public places and that’s the main reason.
I got your point Nirmal Shekar, but lately, some of these athletes
have also let us down. Take tennis for instance. I’ve followed Peas
all through the 90s and have even gone to a court in the United States
where Peas and Bhupathi were playing against home favorites Brian
brothers. I’ve followed Sania’s career since really early days when
the spectators were only 4 people: My friend, I, Mohammad Azaruddin
and his wife. The turn of events lately among these three, not only
let me down, but also made me feel like a personal failure!
The point is that I disagree that it is our obsession with Cricket the
only reason these athletes are not winning medals. The country that is
on top of the medals tally this Olympics is obsessed with sports not
played in Olympics so much so that there was a huge outrage over NBA
professionals being sent to Olympics rather than being rested. Yet
their 120 odd athletes have managed to bag 104 medals. We need to look
at reasons beyond crowd support.
IMHO author does not criticize cricket, but the way it has become overshadowing efforts of equivalent sports & players!! Honestly we all have supported cricket even after we had a shocking exit in one of the world cup.
The similar support for other sports, players would and could have fetched extra medals in other disciplines or least many players. I would not say our athletes have failed us, they did well but were little short of being best. So our support would have made them to close their shortcoming. I am not speaking about 3 weeks of support, but failing three years and eleven half months of encouragement!!
So giving benefit of the doubt to author,in this context I would say stop bitching cricket and start embracing other players & sports!!
Nirmal, I am an MCCian and proud to note another MCCian make a noise
about what had to be 'noised' about. Why does not the Govt. thank all
the medallists in a public meeting, take them around the country, richly
reward them and promise support for their training, atleast. That would
inspire our sportsmen to aspire. Thank you again Nirmal. YES, I loudly
endorse your view that ANAND deserves a Rajya sabha membership, the
BHARATH RATNA and more glory than anybody else as he has been truly
inspirational - our chess history will tell us that!
Each of us is blaming the 85 athletes who represented India, or the 1.3 Billion population at large - instead, we should ask ourselves why each one of us is not Olympic quality material - the answers are simple - India lacks the infrastructure to produce athletes, our physique does not warrant strenuous sports, and the economic priorities do not warrant investing time, money or effort in sports. The average high school in the US has Olympic-sized swimming pools, a large gymnasium for over 100 students at a time, indoor basketball courts, running tracks and football fields - I went to a prominent college in Chennai that has an apology of an open space for all sports. PT should be made compulsory. In my town of 14,000 in the US, we have 25+ tennis courts, 6-8 public pools, and sneakers, tennis balls cost a fraction of what they do in India - my daughters visiting India bemoan their inability to exercise there - no walking paths, smog-filled air, street dogs chasing them, etc.!
A fantastic article but one that does not tell the whole story. Is it not partly the government's fault that they decide on using the tax payer's money to just promote one sport? Is it not the media's fault which writes and talks of "other" sports only during these two weeks of Olympics? Why did not the media raise a voice when the government decided to laud the cricketers monetarily when they won the world cup? Where are the perks for these Olympians who do not play for money but represent our country instead?
Its time to do some experiments in regards to this subject too. Let the government start spending equal money on promoting just "one" other sport as on cricket. Let this sport enjoy all the benefits that our benchmark enjoys. Let the media give as much importance to this sport as it gives to Cricket. If this does not result in creating champions and popularizing the sport, a few years down the line, then let India declare Cricket as "THE GOD" of all sports.
One of the most serious article on the plight of indian sports and the sportsmen. Whoever is reading this article would want to extend their support to other sports apart from cricket. If we understand what made cricket the most popular sport of india, we would probably be able to enhance the standart of other sports. If you go to any ground in any of the metros of india, you would see a cricket coaching camp happening for kids. We need to change the perception of these young minds. The primary change should start from the schools encouraging students to take part in various sports. It may take few years, but we can win medals in years to come. Even the journalists should help the readers follow these atheletes by convincing the editorial team.
Erm,
let me state that no 1 disagree with all the points u hav raised (except if ur a religious follower of the 8 and half nation game) although we the public (atleast me) wonder how come all the national dailys have pages dedicated for the 8 and half nation game while anything else is reserved only a 'column'. Even those columns are confined to lines for the rest of 3. The degree of change between' lines to columns to pages (for 2 weeks)' is defined by Indian athelets sucess while for the rest 3 years 11 and half months its always 'columns and lines'. Untill this is change i think you will get more sick and tired of the question 'Why does a billion people nation...'
You, as sports columnist's must follow the lives of these people and talk
about them as much as you talk about cricketers. If more people get to
know them personally, more will keep supporting them every time they
perform. With more being aware of Olympians, sports ministry will
automatically provide them with better facilities. The more they become a
household name, the more donations, money and facilities they get. Its a
very natural progression. Let's look back and try to understand how
Cricketer's became so popular. I do blame the government in parts but the
media has a strong hand in glamorizing any sport or athlete.
The question is why would you? Same question is being asked inside the
govt.
Why should they? There should be a valid reason which is, when these athletes are household names, talked about a lot in the media, People are
aware of them and want them to succeed for the nation.
Guys,
I suggest reading Fareed Zakaria's article on the relationship with Olmypic medals to the GDP of the country. All the top medal winners (TOP 8) have the highest GDP per capita and China is a authoritarian regime. I think this years medal tally is by far the best, shows tha economic growth makes the population riches, nutritious and helps in prosper in all sports discipline. I think the writer misses a good point of the economic growth in relations to the medal tally.
The author is just making another cliched excuse.... cricket is not
the reason for india underacheiving... if that was the case, US would
not win all of the gold medals it did... being in the US, i can see
that ppl are obsessed with american football, ice hockey, baseball and
basketball... (only basketball is a sport in the olympics)... what it
needs is the removal of corruption and dedication of govt into the
infrastructure needed for all the olympics events... one good example
is how england were humiliated in atlanta(1996), with very few medals,
and set up a programme with a goal to increase the medal tally in 10
yrs, and look at what they have achieved....
Writing big comments here and doing nothing afterwords is exactly what
writer has mocked at.
Cricket here is not the culprit, truth is in fight of survival in a
country of 1.2 billion plus, we really dont care.
I am in consonance with you but not fully... i am , undoubtedly, a ardent cricket fan, but on the contrary, I also support every game , in which a/any player is representing india. However, you are true upto the extent that we never bother that what our athletes/players do, saving cricket.
I am certain that to bring every sport /game into limelight of public or into the knowledge of them, somebody definitely has to turn up the lantern and throw the light of it.
People in India follow and preach it like a religion because it deserves so, as they (cricketers )have performed well from last 30 years and are still bringing laurels to the country.
Before 1980's, I guess people used to like hockey and boxing more than cricket , but as the performance of such game declined , the interest of the people also paved its way to cricket , as their performance was much more satisfying.
everybody wants to win and support Victorians only, not losers . This is also a universal truth.
The cricketers also come through a pretty ardous and shambolic route and for every Yuvraj Singh, there is the unsung Harvinder Singh, who might be struggling to make ends meet too. We are all followers of excellence, there's nothing to be ashamed about it. Cricket bashing is the easy route, why berate the honest hardworking cricketer, why envy his fame and riches. There was a time when cricket paid peanuts like other sports did, cricket became big after it tasted success. In the modern age sports like hockey have not been able to match that success and neither have other sports to the same extent. T20 became popular AFTER the World Cup win. After the Beijing Olympics corporates put money into other sports, see the result. Today Bindra is a hero, London2012 notwithstanding, so is Vijender & Sushil is bigger than before. This successful run will fuel interest in other sports and soon, hopefully, we won't be a one trick pony anymore. In short, nothing succeeds like success.
Same old debate......when would these writers understand the fact that
nobody can be forced to like some sport. If I like Cricket and don't
care about chess then why should I feel guilty about it? It is not the
people, it is the government that should take care of the athletes. If
they provide facilities, more athletes will win medals. People should
just watch the sport they like. Yeah but I hate the fact that why
Cricketers get so much attention. Cricket should get the attention but
not the cricketers. They get huge money and they play, why should I be
obliged to give them respect or anything.
The sad part is that even in cricket we have not won an away Test series in Australia, England or South Africa . Is there any excuse for that ?
superb language! can be a guide for an aspiring journalist. bestest!
AMATEUR and lacks professionalism I'd say.
Nirmal tries to prove the point that India is an one-sport nation.
Fine. While other one-sport nations, Brazil for example, can come up
at least in the first 30s. Why not us?
It just seems to me that this article is written from a layman's point
of view.
The success of a sport DOES NOT ONLY DEPEND on the cheering of the
crowd!!! India needs to encourage and cultivate these kinda sports
from the school level as Narang said!! Cricket glorification of
Indians is NOT the ONLY reason for this failure..!!
And sorry Nirmal, I refuse to accept your so-called truth.
@Sethuraman- Since Mr.Sethuraman seems keen to invoke the caste
divisions/discrimination for the under performance of Indians from the
so-called "Intelligent" castes, that he so obviously belongs to, in
science as in sports, I couldn't help but notice an interesting piece
of trivia... Guess what, None of the 6 medal winners in London seem to
belong to your elite caste.... Maybe all the over-achieving, high-
flying athletes, much like their academic counterparts, belonging to
your "intelligent'" castes are stuck in some western country, having
fled India to escape the clutches of monstrous, social-justice seeking
demons :)
Sir, what you pointed out here is so true. A thought provoking one and these will be lingering in mind for a long time. A wonderful article sir and yes, sorry Mary and others, we are really sorry.
You must be laughing your way to the banks with all the page hits your
receiving.Ebay & Yatra must be pleased with your referrals.Let's
face,nobody would give a second thought if you wrote about just cricket
or just olympics.Try covering a tenth of Indian athletes preparing for
Rio'16,I'll take my words back & doff my hat at you Sire !
High time for the policy makers to differentiate between sports meant for entertainment such as cricket and sports which are part of national interest.
I am a sports fanatic and an ardent cricket fan. I would love to see
India do well at the Olympics and was honestly hoping for medals.
Coming to the article, I don't think blaming cricket is the right.
Yes, cricket is a sport played only by only a handful of nations and
that is because it's a hard game. It involves complex rules and levels
of skill which many of the other games do not require (not as simple
as 22 players kicking a ball around). Cricket gets more attention in
India because we have done well over the past decade or so. This is
not the time for blame games. Lets get realistic here, BCCI is where
it is now because compare to the other sports bodies its much more
structured in it's operations. It's time we looked at how sporting
organizations are run in our country. We can't have one person running
the organization forever. We must provide infrastructure and funding
to these athletes ake sure that this actually reaches out to the
athletes instead of the authorities.
The only phrase that makes sense in this article is Reflected Glory. Sports is all about reflected glory of one Humans achievement for the whole tribe. It appeals so much to our tribal instincts . Let us understand that it was World Cup of 1983 which changed things for ever for cricket in India. A team which was minnows defeated the mighty England and West Indies in world cup.Thats what brought us reflected glory and we die for our cricet team ever since. Tomorrow if the Indian Football Team Defeats the mighty Brazil and England in World Cup Football rest assured we will carry them on our shoulders and the crowds in Mumbai would be no less than those in Ganapati celebrations . And the hockey players should be quite happy that they are hockey players . If they were cricket players their homes would have been stoned after such a ridiculous performance in Olympics. Lets also understand that 6 medals in Olympics will do wonders and make sure we have more people opting for Olympic sports .
@those who say, dont blame cricket...Cricket monopolises the money and TV rights, so other sports barely get anything. As for viewreship, it is estimated that football is watched by roughly 50million Indians. That number is nothing. And I assure you the number of Indians watching, Indian football is below 1million. As for other nations not making a mark in cricket, thats a big joke. Most nations think cricket is plain stupid. Europeans and Americans usually say they cant understand the concept of 5day or 8hr matches. If you notice, even in 8 countries, only South Asia really counts. Because the Aussies, South Africans, New Zealand, England are far more interested in rugby and/or football. Not to mention their Olympic medal tallies are far higher than ours.
We will forever make terrible Bollywood movies (and wonder why we dont get an Oscar) and play a boring sport that no one outside of South Asia cares about because we are Indians and we are like that only.
Let's accept the fact that we prefer entertainment over sports.
We have to thank our movie stars for their interest in Cricket, else there would have been no focus and no financial support for the game.
Nevertheless, I loved your article, YOU SAID IT!
Great article sir......but I'm afraid it'll become one of the many
articles,which have been read,appreciated and forgotten....the problem
is...media also remains asleep for 3 years and only for a week after
Olympics we scrutinize.And then we return to the same Stupid game for
the rest of the three years.Articles like this,and Media attention
should be constantly given to all the sports only then,there's a
chance of some improvement.Otherwise like our politics,sports too has
it's future in dark.
Not a balanced article; India's performance this olympics have been par with the expectations. If you would have just distributed the medals based on the top 3(ranking) in each event we wouldnt have had as many medals.
Things are moving in right direction, we are concentrating on few sports doing better every passing year.
The most popular game in US is American Football [NFL], Baseball and then Basket Ball [NBA], players get paid a lot in these sports than any other sport in the world, -> regardless the US stands 1st in the medals. There are many private sport clubs in US that cater to other sports. Dedication determines results, while Results determines the money flow, Cricket management and the Cricketers have established this work flow well, there is a hell lot of determination among cricketers and cricket watching public. If other sports in India are on similar road map and as consistent as Cricket, success and money flow would be automatic. There is no point in blaming cricket or the public or the media.
6 medals. 1 medal/200millon people, sums up all there is to know about India as sporting nation!!
Neither BCCI nor the cricket
team become rich and popular overnight. They have done consistently
well for the past 20 so years. Learn instead of blaming.
It is time for Media and authors like Nirmal to take up responsibility
and show the limelight on other sports-persons while they are not
playing for major events. This is what is happening for Cricket as
people increased their appetite to watch their favorite stars in news
and other media when they are not playing also. It should be mandatory
to show all sports at state level also to improve the quality and
encourage them. Except for Doordarshan, no other channels cover these
events. Not even the cricket events such as first class matches
covered by private channels.
In my opinion, Olympic games is a big waste of money where the returns
don't match the investment. There is hardly any proof that suggests
that Olympic games increased the GDP for a country in tangible or
intangible terms. In fact, it has driven the country into deeper
recessions. So much of tax payers money going down the drain for
conducting elaborate ceremonies when the economy is suffering from
unemployment and poverty? We should ask our self, is it really
necessary? Many such games for India has been proved to be a colossal
waste of money. Sports is more than just supporting something for the
sake of supporting. It is what people desire to see. And if people of
our country don't desire athletics, so be it. Every country is
entitled to have their own tastes and preferences. We don't have to
necessarily do something just because it is being done. If an
ultimatum would be passed by the west to drop Olympics, our reaction
would be the same too. It's time to start thinking on our own!
just one thing Nirmal Shekar, If you cant appreciate the things then don't criticize it..
Just see that we are growing interest in other sports other wise how we are improving each time in Olympic.. so my humble request is to stop complaining and appreciate the athletes and support staff who are give their life for the love of game and our NATION (INDIA). and try to give suggestion how we can improve in all sports.
Outstanding article!! i mean really Out - Standing.. coz i believe Cricket is so popular that anyone bashing it will get some hits.. its ok.. however, can you please check how much cricketers were paid/match before they won 1983 WC and the kind of support system that was present for them. Let me tell you, they turned the table around by their sheer determination. Now after 20 yrs cricket is where it is. If cricket is equal to other games, then can you please list one achievement by any of other atheletes? Business invests money not on emotions but on ROI.. Government does nothing in either case (BCCI - a non government body).Also, before writing a biased article just to harp on the hype around we not winning the medals, you should get your facts right, also before ESPN entered India money was not at this level.here is a game which is now offering a full fledged career and some ppl like you who are biased against the game which has reached this level with dedication and constant efforts
Ironic to the point of being stupid. Well the most let down of all seems
to be Nirmal Shekar.
Speaking on the same line of argument , let us take Europe for instance,
people there do not think anything other that Football/soccer/fußball
all year long except the 2-3 weeks of Olympics. But I don't see them
coming back with a pittance. Agreed that in Europe an athlete may not go
around looking for a Gas cylinder, but who is to be blamed for this plight in India? the people of India?
Jamaicans are crazy of that sport which has a name "even a toddler could
mime", do you know what I am talking about? No!!. C'on Nirmal Shekar, it
Cricket.
I do not see myself looking at a marathon with my eyes peeled, I would
probably doze off. The real problem is the lack of commitment from the
Sports Authority of India and the many politics that play in selection.
I indeed congratulate the athletes who in-spite of the best efforts by
SAI and the Olympics committee have performed well.
Cricket - yes. But you forget the other obsession we indians have - bollywood. That is what India is reduced to - cricket and bollywood. Shame on us. Forget the rich culture we have in music, medicine, dance, etc. Corruption in politics and sports is our legacy. And please do not take away all the blame from the athletes also. Granted they have no support from the government and sports bodies, but it would appear that majority of them are not putting in their heart and soul in their sport. Going to the Olympics? Ah, a chance to go abroad and perhaps do some shopping!!
Great! Reality is really great!
For a chance to get a medal first we have to participate in all the events.We dont have enough time to watch the movies which is showing ever since satelite TV ch start operating, may be each movie might have shown 2000 times in TV.Each time people will watch also.We have to adopt a sporting culture.we should allow our children to play.Sports has to be included in the school sylubus.Only blaming cricket will not do the trick.How many people will go to the stadium or watch in TV an athletic meet.We need big stars, we need to put money on infrastr., we need more qualified coaches, we need more qualified ref/umpires, we need to find talent whle they are still young, we need to organise school compitions in a professional way with proper ground and facilities.More matches and compitions in India and outside for experience.Only bemoaning will do nothing.If there is an intresting competition every one will go and watch.Cric is big in India because at least they spent some money back on it
Who says India didn't have the world class Infra for sports.... Delhi
who hosted CWG 2010, have all the amenities which a sportsperson
require, (leave the corruption behind) "A WORLD CLASS INFRA for
SPORTS), go to Hisar, Boxing is a passion there and there is a good
Infra there. The only problem with Indian's is that they loose
confidence and focus at crucial stage...u can see that in recent
London olympics... Archery, Shooting, Boxing, Badminton, Tennis from
where we hopes for medals, cant say anything about hockey. Well In
next 4 years our athletes should learn how to concentrate... and hope
for 5-6 gold medals in RIO
Dear sir,
Dont blame the indian public,they also think about to increase the medal number in
olympic.
We want to see India in the winning side in each and every game.where ever we see
that it is going to happen we encurage that game.let us take the example of
wrestling,when we saw that we can win a medal,all of indian were watching wrestling.
Now a days,only cricket give hope that we can be in the winning side.
So,we are bound to see cricket & make cricket player a star.
Nice to see an article about the long forgotten "other sports" in
India. But please can you tell me where were you Nirmal all this while
to voice these concerns yourself . Not that I myself don't follow
cricket, on the contrary I am an avid fan, but the columns in papers
have specifically been cricket-ishque! How are only the people to
blame? Won't you take the blame too? When did you fill in these names
to the younger minds in your blogs and articles ? It was all for some
Dhonis and SRTs who people now pray and follow. Cricket has done
nothing to the Indian people except fill the pockets of the BCCI. If
so is the case, every game has got a chance to find a place in Indian
hearts. So start writing articles to reveal the reality of the polity
and the administrations and what they are doing at the grass-root
level to take these sports forward. Praise the heroes. Let the show in
Indian hockey haunt as did Indian Cricket in Eng / Aus, dont let that
die . Zeal will come back then !
When did the author write an article about olympics?? 3 years and 11 and a half months back :) :)
An apt description of the situation and very well written. The points raised in the write up are true to the core. Kudos to the writer for the point-blank and straight-forward effort.
Articles is not genuinly opposing any game and clearly not doubting
tallent needed for any game,But it focusses why we are not giving much
important for which we are suppose to.It's meaningless to categorise
Games based on popularity it gets,@ the same time keeping sports or game
as a valued component without commertialising and spoiling and adding
political dimensions to it is also very important aspect.So each and
every sentence of article is meaning full,in fact we have 2 accpt the
truth!!!!
Cricket has nothing to with fewer medals in olympics.We should keep economics of a sport and sports separate. Sports these days are more physical and requires lot of dedication. It requires infrastructure, nurturing talent, support both moral and monetory. If india really needs to do well in olympics, it needs to seriously identify the sports where it feels has serious chance of medals. I donot see any problem in training for high quality athletes. These days with so much of media coverage and advent of internet all the international events are recognised. All the medal prospects were given best possible training. Problem in india is that we do not have world class athletes with whom any young kid can associate. It is most important that our athlete reach the standard at highest level. You do not require high quality training and lots of infrastructure in athletics. One requires physical strength, stamina of highest level.
Amen! A brilliant and searing analysis of our national obsession with
cricket (myself included, I am ashamed to say) to the detriment of other
sports. I especially appreciated Mr. Shekar's point about Viswanathan
Anand and how we choose to ignore his stellar achievements while bending
over backwards to praise and adore cricketers. I hope we will pay
serious attention to improving the infrastructure of other sports and
providing consistent opportunities to people who aspire to achieve great
heights in those sports.
Wonderful article..no doubt every bit of it is true ! On the other hand I am so proud of what my country has achieved in london2012.. I truly believe the recent games have set the stage for India. I might have not known Parupalli Kashyap or Deepika Kumari three weeks back but now i do thanks to the media for covering the Olympics like never before. I will keep a track of these youngsters en route Rio2016 there they bite Gold !
PS: Major CSK fan :)
Blaming cricket and cricketers is a very easy thing to do. We are not ready to do any introspection about lives of city dwellers and the rural folks. If you consider metro cities, there are hardly any pay grounds. If you consider tire two or tier three cities situation is not any different. We have perhaps thirty some twenty to thirty crore people who are just surviving, living a sub-standard life. Therefore, if we alleviate poverty of all those below poverty line (BPL) families, then that is far more important than winning medals. If we increase living standards of all the BPL families, our nation and all sections of our people will be far more prepared to achieve excellence in not only sports but in many other fields like science, arts and what not. Let us therefore dedicate our efforts for alleviation of poverty and bring cheers to all BPL families which I believe are worth a million medals.
Why to blame cricket unnecessarily. Its not that cricketers are saying
don't follow other sports. If people love a sport they love it or else
don't.
Even in countries where Football is a bigger craze than cricket in India
have produced medals. Then it shows that the problem is else where and
not with cricket being popular.
I can never quite imagine why cricket is blamed for all the bad that is happening in other sports in India.
Would u shut shop if you earn handsomely and your neighbor is unemployed??
No,right??
So please, stop blaming Cricket!!!
If we worship Sachin and not Yogeshwar.. there is reason for that.
Sachin was a nobody 20 years ago..
He has become GOD through his hardwork and dedication.
People started following Tennis closely after Sania Mirza started to do well. She had fan following and a lot of media coverage.
But then, she fell apart. If fans and media make u popular, then u r wrong. You have to be consistently successful to be able to keep the public glued to their TV when u play. That is why Sachin is God.
And, regarding ads, people will always back wining horses. That is why they will put $10m for Team Dhoni.
I ask u.. would u ever put ur money in the stock market if u know u would lose?
I don't think so. Same with the companies. They r here for business. Loss is not an option.
A truly outstanding article! I echo every word that the writer has written here. Until & unless we get over our national obsession for cricket, which is a sport play by a handful of countries, we have no right to criticize our Olympians. It is good that at last, at long last, Indian sports (other than cricket) is looking up. In the last Olympics we had won 3 medals, this year it's 6. If we as a nation promise to follow the Olympic sports throughout the year I am sure 10 gold medals won't be a daydream for long!
Sarcasm is good ...
It might be better to feature 12-16 year old prospective medal winners
in few winnable sports and encourage them through media and public
support for 2016, 2020 and 2024 Olympics ..
Truth is written all over this article. It is exactly how we Indians
are. During the Olympics we will curse the athletes who doesn't win a
medal and say that they performed pathetic. But other than Olympics we
would never think of following their sports, watch them play and all
of a sudden we become judgmental about their performance. The athletes
who represent us in Olympics have made us proud by reaching that
level, but we think that reaching there is an easy job and anyone can
reach there, which is not correct. Government gives a lot of rewards
to medal winner (which is good and encouraging for them to perform
even better) but what about those who were not able to get medals.
Government should be contributing even more into them as giving them
better training will also improve them and make them more competitive
for the next games.
Just a point of fact .....
Mr Sekhar says "We are ashamed that countries with one millionth of
our population pick up gold medals" - well I wish he would spend time
correcting the facts that he generously puts in the mouth of indians
but seems to be his personal opinion - it is terribly wrong and I wish
he would correct them instead of adding to them - lets take the top
twenty countries by population - I find we have done better than 10 of
them on total medals - Egypt ( 2), Thailand (3), Congo(0), Turkey (
4), Indonesia ( 2), Vietnam( 0), Pakistan(0), Bangladesh( 0),
Philipines(0), Nigeria(0)..........We are very close to two of them
mexico (7), Ethiopia (7).....we are behind the other 7 .....so where
is the great misery that we are suffering from, I wish mr shekar would
examine the facts before putting them and then drawing great
conclusions....we are good sporting nation in this olympics and
fighting our weight , our athletes have done well, we need to
celebrate them
India has a huge overseas community and most of them hold the citizenship of the country that they are living in. I always wondered why Americans or British with Indian origin are underrepresented or missing amoing the national teams of the countries that they are living in.
Although Indians have access to the sport facilities as the rest of the US-American or the British it is very rare to see an "Indian" among their top athletes. Whereas if you look at the corporate/political world you do see lots of Indians among the top executives (Noori, Jindal, Jain, Tharoor, Mittal..)
My explanation is that Indians are either culturally less interested in sports or simply physically on average less capabale of reaching extreme top performances in physical sports like swimming, Track and Field, American Football, Rowing etc.
Probably we have to accept it as a fact that we have our competitive advantages in sports that are comparably less physically demanding like cricket, chess, shooting etc
Nice Article . Author failed to mention , sports in schools are taught to kids who are not good in Studies and inform them atleast good in sports to get jobs with Sports quota not to passionate with games . How many school kids have a professional Sports shoes ? we are offering freebies to sportsman instead of celebreate . Ask them to visit all schools encourage kids by showing their Olympic awards like Dr.APJ Kalam did with School kids .
Let’s not blame cricket(or cricketers) for our pitiful state in other sports. If we use that as an excuse, we will be at a loss for words in trying to explain how soccer crazy nations like Germany and Spain end up being Olympic medalists in hockey and basketball!!!
Gov should develop the sport, not the people. Please remember that popularity comes only after success (cricket or not). Tennis got popularity after Leander and Sania, boxing after Vijender etc. It's never vice versa.
I think it is the government's responsibilty to invest in infrastructure and sports facilities to get everyone, especially the youngsters involved in all these different sports. Ask yourself this question, how many swimming pools and parks and athletics tracks are available to the masses? How many Tennis courts are available to the masses? It's true that it is always Cricket, as it is so easy to play anywhere, even Football should be encouraged by the authorities..
Good article! It is very true and sad that India is a one nation
sport. I agree with one of the comments that the only way we would
come to know of the trials and tribulations of other players is
through TV channels and newspapers, but so many of these sports are
not aired or written about much. I, personally, would love to see
these sports on TV if not live. It's refreshing to see football,
boxing, wrestling, kabbadi, rowing, shooting and more instead of
cricket cricket and more cricket!
We have lots of talent, just not enough opportunities.
Also, what about the losses faced by the popular faces of other sports
such as Leander Paes and Sania Mirza, Abhinav Bindra and Vijender
Singh? They have the money and infrastrcture. What happened??
Cricket needn't be blamed for the present state of affairs of other
sports in India.
BCCI has consistently worked over the years and generated revenues for
itself.. and a phenomenal job towards promoting Cricket
.so Why complain and who stopped other sports associations to take the
same route as BCCI.
The problem lies somewhere else. The so called Sport Bodies are so
severely infested with parasites that they are there to suck all the
revenues meant for the sportsperson.
Indian Army has taken the initiative to promote sports and we see the
results. I trust that ARMY should be bestowed with the Responsibility
of preparing our atheletes for the RIO Olympics and all other sports
associations should be closed down. The Tax payers money should be
rightfully invested in sports and sportsmen and not frittered away in
scams or corrupt pratices like we have seen in CWG scam recently.
Inspite of all the odds our sportsperson could get us medals and with
proper support and political will.
The pity is that even after this excellent piece of writing on what we are lacking....people wouldn't change their ways...
Nirmal, I love your articles but in this one you haven't answered the right question. I
grew up playing volleyball and running track for my school. What we had was an
open volleyball court in red sand. Yep. For track events we used the neighboring
college's stadium. If you could call it that. We had a sand track and the high/long
jump "pit" was just a small mountain of sand. We had no foam to jump into, no
synthetic track to run on, no indoor volleyball court. I went to one of the most
prestigious engineering colleges in the country and still nothing changed. I now live
in the US and I play volleyball for fun in the local leagues. These games take place in
local high schools with indoor gyms. Let's face it. Even if we do have talent, even if
we are passionate about other sports we don't have the right facilities to help us
realize our potential.
Partly true!! But Mr. Nirmal tell me why this article right after the
London games, why was this not written when Mary Kom was struggling with
her daily chores?
I am sure cricket brings in more circulation and more moolah to you as
well when compared to other sports, so why blame cricket and BCCI?
The awareness and promotion of other games and sports have to start from
us and media should play a major role in the same and until and unless
we do that, we should be happy with what we have got.
You Sir, have hit the nail on its head. Being as we are, our
achievements, or the lack thereof, are all that we deserve.Also, I'd
like to add, that one cannot just start rooting for a boxer, a
wrestler, a swimmer of an athlete without being even moderately
passionate for the sport itself. Because these sports, along with many
others, suffer from the lack of infrastructure which leads to very few
people pursuing them in the prime of their youth. The American
university system, for instance, provides good infrastructure for a
lot of sport activities and it's logical for a youngster to be
genuinely interested in at least one of them, to an extent that he
could feel it's possible for him/her to get famous just by honestly
pursuing that sport.We don't nurture our youngsters that way, and I'm
not sure we even want, or can afford to. The game that we can play
with minimum coaching and infrastructure naturally enjoys greater
popularity, and you already know what that is.
The abysmal condition of sports other than cricket is known to all of
us.We read the articles,we do some introspection,moan a little and then
move on.No one takes the pain of going an extra mile and doing
something.It is always the blame game that goes on.It is high time that
we take cue from countries like China and give equal treatment to all
sports.Students should be encouraged to take up the sport they are best
in and authorities from school level to state level should help them
hone their skills.
Oh god enough of why Sachin and why not Anand. People have their interests and likes and passions and we can not criticize or ridicule them for having those. If Indians care for cricket, cricketers and their achievements more than any other sportsperson then lets us just accept that and move on. Let us not try to judge them for it and criticize them for not caring about other sports. However I do agree completely with the writer that for the same reasons that I just mentioned, Indians have absolutely no right to complain about the sad story of other Indian sports. Sachin-Anand comparison could have been avoided but excellent article nevertheless.
one day india and indians will change.......i am waiting
We all know the problems. Why don't we talk about solutions too?
We want feasible solutions which can be applied for such a large nation
with so many problems.
A rise of a sport rides on its success. Cricket rose from the shadows
of Hockey because of its success. Where was Cricket before that? This
article stands in poor taste.
Success drives everything, all notable performances by our athletes in
other sports have been appreciated by our public. Saina Nehwal, Sania
Mirza, Leader Paes are few of the many examples we can think of.
To put it straight, India isn't a one sport nation. Yes, Cricket has a
huge following but if it really was, we wouldn't have any
representation in the Olympics in the first place. Stop the Cricket
bashing, blaming one sport for others downfall is bizarre to say the
least.
I am from India but not a great fan for the one game the nation loves. I
am proud of the nation which delivered 100% improvement inspite of all
the issues the nation hosts, lets us not go down, let us not loose the
focus and dedication towards what you love,we will shine bright-"Ham
honge kamiyab yek din"
To be fair to the sport of Cricket (not including T20 fastfood drama)
let us stop comparing this to Olympic events. Cricket is not in The
Olympics for a very good reason and put it to rest there. But, I have
to agree on everything else that Mr.Shekar has point out.
The difference between Cricket and the "other" sports is the corporate
sponsorship and individual endorsement opportunities. No sport is
marketed to the people as well as Cricket and this is the sole reason
for us being a "One-sport" nation.
The other important factor is Indian Parenting system of the mid 80s
and 90s which emphasised only on education and sports are largely
considered as waste of time and and intrusion to education. I still
remember how my frequent requests to enroll into cricket classes was
turned down each time promptly with the reason that it will impact my
studies and thus my future as an engineer. Middle class boom was a
dream during those days which despised sports to education.
Really...a very good article by Nirmal Shekar. This is true that most
of the Indians only care for Cricket, what celebrities are doing when
they do not play, who they date, why Preeti and SRK did not come and
all. They have made Cricket "Religion". This is not bad. Atleast we
cherish something. The worst part is when we forget other sports
persons who make us feel proud. We focus only in one game and as a
result of it, we do not have our national game players in Olympics.
While other countries have players from all different fields, we have
limited few. This is the result of our disparity.
Also want to point how the G.B got their funding; they had a excellent system where the taxes from national lottery was going to the Olympic
fund. we can also similarly have a system where we have taxes from say cigarette and alcohol going to a Olympic fund for infrastructure.
All are saying that this is the perfect article and yes it is actually
the best way to describe the Indian attitude. Many got goosebumps and
felt bad about those sportsmen.
But how many of you have thought to do something different. May be
some one would have thought to something different, so have they
actually done it.
I am also one of you, but until we dont take our stand we cant make
our country move. Every single one have to perform to achive what US
has done in many fields.
people always seem to forget the infrastructure that goes on to winning
a medal it needs.
let me give a example G.B spend almost 300 Million pounds for athletes
that's almost 10 million for each one; if we start doing the same here
wouldn't there be a huge cry and outrage.
so we need just to realize the fact we are a nation of ran ins and
unless we start taking sports as a profession there is no way we will
get beyond 10 medals at all
As a true sports fan , I am sick of hearing the accusations against
Cricket over and over and over again. What wrong have the game done??
Yes, 8 and half nation play it because rest are struggling to make a
mark!Apart from Cricket, nation keenly follows Soccer,check stats EPL,
Spanish , Euro or any other Football league India tops in terms of
viewership, then why the Football team languishing?? How about
Hockey?? What went wrong?? People were glued to the TV sets following
each match, the viewership of PHL is a testimony.The same hold goods
for Lawn tennis and Badminton.Honestly, people need stars, heroics and
medals to start loving or following the game.Set examples, start
winning support would follow!!! Prior to Saina hardly anyone
considered Badminton but she along with the Gopichand foundation
changed it and now the game is thriving!!!Neither BCCI nor the cricket
team become rich and popular overnight. They have done consitently
well for the past 20 so years. Learn instead blaming.
An awesome article. The main problem is as many said above you guys believe we will win in cricket only. When susheel got to final people were talking about the silver medal and not about the gold. Sad truth is that we dont even care and dont support any one from heart, even the cricket team.
In my opinion we are not quite a "One-Sport" loving nation. We are a "No-Sport"
and severely down with "Colonial Inferiority complex" Nation. That is the only
reason we love cricket. It is the only sport in which we can compete with a few
white nations and sometimes beat them. When we used to do that in Hockey we
loved that sports too. We never go and watch a Inter State, Inter District or Inter
City game of any sport and when it comes to the International stage we are
suddenly sport lovers and expect our sports men to perform.
Nice article indeed. But can not blame the populace alone. Have been trying to
follow Indian Hockey for the past 4 years but 95% of times there are no video
coverage and In 90% of tournaments there is not even a Highlight available.
Exceptions apart,spots excellence is function of economic development.China won its first gold medal in 1984.Today,it is second in numbers.India's progress is reflected here.Definitely,as facilities improve and resources are used economically,results will improve further.
The way Nirmal Shekar has brilliantly argued of India has becoming
one sport nation, is a tour de force. I see no logic in critics
getting upset with the analysis of the game of cricket and the
gamble call T20 IPL circus and the “eight and half international
game” have managed to obliterate rest of the sports in India. He is
at his sarcastic best observing that Cricket is no long a sport but
elevated realm of divinity and the leading cricketers are like
pantheons of God. Author is spot on saying “let us get real. We
have failed the Koms and the Yogeshwars and the rest as much as we
seem to believe that many Indian athletes have failed us. They don’t
owe us as much as we owe them.” In his outstanding article, Nirmal
Shekar has beautifully summed up deeply wounded feelings of great
many Indian patriots.
This is an outstanding and timely write up to retrospect ourselves as Indian. Why we cant make them 'player for play' rather them throwing into the old basket of economic destabilization? Why we can not afford 'good' sport policies? The other day , Sport Authority of India was announcing jobs for the Olympians. Welcoming this , can we say that this is enough? Do we not possess the responsibility to give them more opportunities rather than making them idle? Why we can not announce lifetime free airfare, accommodation facilities etc like we offer to politicians ? Because they are the pride of our nation! Let them play , let them free from their liabilities, let our sport sector flourish with their inspiration.
Oh My God! Seriously got goosebumps reading this article. The author simply resonated what many of us had in our minds in that typical Nirmal Shekar style. Kudos!
There is no insight in the article. You need not hate one sport to develop another sport. Be positive.
The root cause is our contry has not invested in sports and facilities. Only if we have the facilities, we can make the maximum out of our young talents. The Americans , Chinese and British have invested millions which yielded them result. Don't blame the people. We always appreciate the talents.
Praveen there is BIG point which he is trying to Hint us, Develop the Sporting Knowledge.
Many of our fellow country men were not aware of many interesting sport..lets try to equip this country with a Beautiful sporting scene.One-sport dictator-ism is awful, you know that right..
I think that the author Nirmal Shekhar has hit the nail on its head
through this piece.But it is another thing that the appropriate people
will not take any action regarding this.
All indians here.. don't understand everyone blames cricket!! Indians like cricket because "India Wins" in cricket and not because they love the game. Simple as that. Every citizen likes to see his/her country winning. Cricket was not famous until the majestic victory of kapil's boys at lords in 1983. Not only cricket. Indians do follow tennis, hockey etc.
So the same theory applies in every sport. If Indians show they can win other sports as well, the atheletes, wrestlers, boxer will also get the same support.
Its simply giving the excitement what the spectators want..WIN.. Period.
The points raised in the article are, to put it bluntly, lame!
Why blame the Indian population for sportspeople not getting their
due, when in fact it is an infrastructural failure and only the
government is solely responsible for the sorry state of affairs in the
Indian sporting scene?
Countries like USA and China have won Gold medals in sports like Water
Polo, Mountain Bike Cycling and Trampoline- are you coming to say that
these countries have religious following and cheering for these
sports? No! Americans also parade in the street when their favourite
soccer or baseball team wins, and will not do it if their country has
win the world championship in, say, water polo!
So why then do these countries have Gold medal winners even in games
which are not popular in the mainstream, and if I may call them,
obscure sports? It is because the government has provided excellent
infrastructure, and not because the citizens paraded the streets for
these winners!
Blaming it on India being a one-sport nation is just too easy.
Look at New Zealand, also a claimed one-sport nation with their great rugby-team All Blacks (which won the world cup last year).
With a population of less than 5 million they managed to get 13 medals in which 5 were gold-medals. And in the last World Cup in football they qualified and managed to draw against a Italy. On top of that they are not all that bad in cricket either.
And just to be clear; im not from NZ! <
A slap in face!! you nailed it
those who have won they have done a good job. but still we have lot to improve. We cannot say because we dont have food or facilities, that we are not able to win gold. if you take long running competitions much of the medals are taken by african countries(ethiopia, kenya etc), who have civil wars inside. Compared to them we are in a better shape. Still with out any of these things they are able to win the medals. we cannot compare out history and say that we have done well. we are competing with 203 countries and performance should be compared with other countries and not with our past performance. But still we have improved.
People like what they like. they watch sports for entertainment not to praise players or to give them what they deserve.
If reward in cricket is high, so is the competition. why this whining? What people like is also subjective.
Secondly all sports can not be liked by people (for eg. chess because they don't understand it and golf because its too slow for audience). Some sports are way too simple to like (eg. running) some are too short in span to be a fan of the sport(eg. Boxing)
so we are left with very few sports (hockey, football, tennis, cricket etc.) and people do like all these sports u can find a lot of federer and nadal fans in india many people watched euro cup as well. but its cricket we win at. so obviously we like cricket most. We did not love it before 1983 did we it was hockey all around. WI used to love cricket earlier now they don't.What's wrong in it?
The author is angry at us because of what we like; stupid isn't it?
The Author is Brilliant, he bought the hearts of so-many Sports people what deters the one-sport-enslaved country in the Global Sport.You got my Heart as well Nirmal Kumar.The point comes here..
Can 'WE' change the present scene of Sporting culture in India any time soon? Oh the Wait time is Pain I would say...
a wake up call...yes it is...
The article is well written, though it does not cover one important
factor: THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA. How did Cricket get to be so popular?
Not just because India started winning. Which media will state
honestly that Cricket got star rating because of its money making
capacity for all: players, administrators, media,hotels, airlines etc?
What sort of coverage does the media give to other sports? How many
media persons have exposed the unhealthy practices indulged in by
administrators, many of who are politicians? How many media persons
have carried on a crusade against politicians and civil service
personnel highjacking sports administration? Remember the problems
Dhanraj Pillai had with the then top brass in Hockey? How many people
tried to find out who was right and give support where it was due ?
Cricket flourished DESPITE flawed selection policies and regional
biases, probably because of some strong personalities. Mr. Nirmal
Sekhar, why dont you please start a crusade against this?
Because it is convenient for every one to blame the BCCI for any fault
in India from farmer suicides to lack of water to performance in other
sports.Crickets "Fairy Tale" didnot happen over night There have been
innumerable cases of Cricketers having sold their Bajaj Scooter or
pawned their wife' jewel for a Renal treatment, A G.R.Vishwanath had
to wait for 3 years to get his pension from SBI, those were the past
but it was thanks to their dedication for the sport which has got it
to where it is now.
To answer Nirmal- Thats because no other sport has given the CUSTOMERS
WHAT THEY WANT! and cricket is the only sport that has adpated to the
new order and imagination.Btw nirmal' write up and all the attention
being given to Vijay Kumars and the other 5 medallist is not because
we want to recognize their talent and appreciate the sacrifices they
and their families have made to reach where they have. We're
applauding them because as a nation we are desperate for medals and
these athletes h
You can wake up some one who is asleep but not some one who is pretending to be asleep!
We are masters in that art of pretension. You will have Gavaskars, Tendulkars, Dravids
calling these medal winning Olympians and mouth some platitudes, BCCI will announce
some rewards and the giant marketing machinery of cricket will do whatever it takes to shine
the light on these Olympians just that much so that no one truly will follow up what the author
has highlighted as the real reasons for our failure in ore sports and games. This has gone for
the last decades or so virtually killing every other game and sport.
This is a beautiful article, written in an apt manner. Well done Nirmal!!
Why such frustrations Nirmal? While blaming the junta for their
obsession over cricket, please do not neglect your media's obsession
over it too. Why does cricket monopolize the last two pages instead of
Mary Kom winning a fight or Yogeshwar winning few bouts? Even Anand
winning the world title didn't make it to the last two important Sport
pages. Why does the media goes bananas over a mediocre cricketer
getting busted in a rave party instead of focusing on other sportsmen
who actually do something positive? Why is cricket getting a multi-
billion TV deal in India while the I-League gets a donkey deal? So please lets stop blaming the poor public. And please don't argue that Indians like to watch only cricket on TV. F1, NBA, EPL, Primera Liga and now Olympics would beg to differ.
Brilliant article Nirmal Shekar!!!
Let us all realize that Cricket is not the only Sports in our Country. We also have other games. Lets support other sportsmen and women in their quest for glory.
Why blame cricket alone? Cricket has evolved on its own and slowly
gained its stature among the people. Its not proper to criticize
cricket and held responsible for the current status of other sports.
People will see what they want to see. At the same time, we shouldn't
set high expectations at the Olympics because as a nation, we've done
nothing for the athletes to expect anything back from them. The
Government is to blame for this mess. How many of us are really
informative about all the sports played at the olympics? Many of us
are not even aware of the rules of most sports. The media has failed
to highlight Mary Kom's 5 world championships.
The Government has failed to encourage any sport for the matter of
fact. All sports should be encouraged and proper infrastructure has to be developed to pursue them at the highest level. To be the Best of the Best of the Best in the world is no small feat. The Government and the Media should take steps to bring awareness on other sports.
Fine Nirmal Shekar. Do you know what was the first article in all dailies including The Hindu on Friday? It was "Selection of T20 Team for world cup and New Zealand tour finalized". When it should have been "Yogeshwar and Sunil all set to bring laurels for India" Now tell me, how can one ever blame the readers who are poor citizens when the news that hits the headlines is cricket? And do any of the dailies knew how we run a sport apart from cricket? Cricket is the best structured sport in the country. Is there a domestic season from school levels for hockey, football, volleyball or Athletics? If our sports is run like this on taxpayers money, why the hell doesnt it get privatised and professionally structured? And why do all corporates sponsor ONLY a finished product rather than a budding talent? Its becoz of the way other sports are projected or neglected in india by our beautiful rulers and media be it press or TV. Let all Accept this truth first...
We don't follow their lives ? Is not the media responsible to bring
their news to us ? Instead you focus on stolen pics of star kids. When was the last time media carried a proper story that was not influenced by cricket/politics/movies. How did Sania/Paes/Saina become heroes whereas we cannot recognize yuki/vishnu ?
India needs heroes..If the sportsperson wins consistently or beats a glamorous player he/she becomes a hero. Thats when media starts blowing their trumpet..Thats when we actually know.
Cricket is popular coz we consistently play at big stage... so is chess. Once hockey was our national sport but disimal performances make us disown it. You asked a question....I am sure this is the answer you were looking for. Ask Saina how she promised to win games and forced herself into national limelight.
i must say its not coincidence that cricket is loved in this country .. i blame media for it ... and who controls media ..ah give me a guess ... yes right the government ..after 65 years of independence we think we are free .but we are being played as puppets.. we get to vote and we call that democracy and let india ruled by fools.. they are not actually fool over the year they might be illiterate and we study to get degree but nobody realize they pull every strings ... and now getting back to the point. the reason .. we are unaware of other sports is because the govt wont spend a penny for us ..they are just busy in depositing the money in their accounts ..and when get into trouble they have crores who cares they will bail out . leeches are still sucking on our blood but we will never realize that.. want to say more but who cares .. we people of india dnt care we are busy building a shining india and i dnt know for whom..
A matter of fact article. Cricket is killing almost every other sport in India. Our sports associations are usurped by parasites who have no concern for the sports other than for the seats of power. They enjoy the comforts of life at the expense of poor sports-persons. Sports-persons sleep in dormitories while the association/federation bosses rest on five star beds.
Great article, at the outset. But can I be enlightened by someone or by
Mr. Sekhar himself as to how many times other than during Olympics or
Commonwealth games that he pens articles on sports other than cricket &
tennis ( where he will be at his poetic best) and creates interest and
awareness. Since the media is all the more powerful, it is time he
writes regularly about other sports, their infrastructure ( or the lack
of it) instead of pretending to care for them once every four years.
Bulls eye!! The best point is the one on Bharat Ratna. Leaving Sachin's
personal milestones aside, how many times has he won a world
championship for India? How many times has he made us proud? A Rajya
sabha seat is ok, but isnt nominating him for Bharat Ratna,stretching
the issue too far?
very well writen article ,but i beg to differ. There is a reason why cricket is so popular in India. single out one sport as a reason for the ill fate of other sport is a popular trend. i would like to answer few of your alligations:
firstly, before world cup win in 1983 Hockey was equaly popular or we can say more popular than cricket in India. i dnt remember a major tournament win by indian hockey team in last 30 years.correct me if i am wrong.
secondly, American football and Baseball are played only in america except few events where other nation also participate(like in few olympics). still NFL and Major leauge baseball are the money spinners in USA. So you cant blame cricket based on your eight and half nation theory.
And at last leav it to people to decide what they want to follow. Expectations will be always there. We are emotion driven country. I would never like to see a chinese kind of sport federation to bring few gold medals for feeding our Ego.
Great article! I agree with the author's feelings, well more or less.
A couple of points where I do not agree - Vishy Anand is very popular
in India and he has the love of people, ask any educated person and
he'll know. However, chess is not exactly an entertainer of a game. It
involves too much of intelligence to be called entertainment :) btw,
Milkha Singh is pretty well known too, and apparently 2016 Olympics
will include golf too.
I also disagree with the statement that we are a one sport nation. When you were in school, what did you play? I played football and table tennis, but many classmates swam and participated in athletics and played basket ball, badminton and volley ball. Cricket was usually outside of school, in the evenings. Sports day had zero cricket! We just haven't had players that delivered in sports other than cricket recently. Vijender was a household name when he went into Olympics, as was Abhinav Bindra. Deliver and people will love you. We need more competitions
This is not true. Attention or lack of it has nothing to do with
sports. You enjoy sports for the enjoyment of it, financial rewards
are just a byproduct. By the way do you know that Britain offers zilch
to its gold winning athletes. Hockey players in Australia,
Netherlands, Germany and Spain support themselves by working in banks,
postal offices, insurance companies and so on. Compared to them our
hockey players are much better treated as they have government jobs to
fall back on. Also, remember that the Brits are absolutely crazy about
football, the Americans love their Basketball and NFL.
Loved the way you wrote it nirmal.Why don't you write another article giving direction on how people can act now before we again start forgetting the importance of the role we should play?
Author.. definitely nailed it.
Firstly, hats off to the writer for a brilliant article.
Secondly, as has been pointed out by the writer and other readers: We ain't winnin', coz nobody is givin' a fig about our non-cricket sporting heroes except when they do something really grand like win a few Olympic medals. Then also, the euphoria lasts for max two days before we are back to discussing why Harbhajan is not in form.
Wake up, people. Look at sports as an extension of the human spirit's endeavour for excellence, and you will begin to see the beauty in all other sports as well.
Last I heard it costs about $ 5m in capital and revenue expenditure for a gold medal. The rich countries spend this. We do not.
And thereby hangs a tale.
Well said Nirmal.
Just one question, which has maximum followers here in India - IPL or Olympics?, as you infer from your near and dear.
The answer from me would be 'IPL'. That says it all.
I would also blame a part on media where there is inconsistency in the reporting of other sports where a very silly thing from the one-sport could make main news.
you said it very right Nirmal.
This how we are!!!
We never pay long lasting attention to the other games than Cricket.
But the reason behind it,is not only our mentality but also the kind
of support our govt. gives to Cricket than any other sport.
And over that our Sport Minister is not expecting more than 25 medals
in next 8 Years. This is how he estimates the effort of our Athletes.
This is our mistake that we give more substantial support to Cricket
but Our govt. should pitch in & give strong support of other games. If
other games are also getting the same amount of substance as Cricket
is getting, those will also grow at the same rate in terms of
Viewership & interest of the citizens towards those games and thus the
players will get what they deserve actually.
"Lets inspire a generation"
Lets hope that this Olympics truly stands up to its motto.
Let these games inspire many boxers,wrestlers,shooters and shuttlers. Being brought up in a generation when we used to win only one medal to now where we win more,I believe next time we will be reaching a double digit mark. Lets hope for the best in Rio.
Good points Mr.Nirmal. The problems are a little more complicated that they are made out. From the top, the Sports ministry has to do everything it can to professionally grow other sports. Tax everything related to cricket, give tax breaks to companies that support non-traditional sports. Have regins specialize in certain sport and religiously work on getting medals, coz every other country does. Secondly, provide the sports men with infrastructure and I mean this. Out here in the US, I have 50 tennis courts just within the 20 mile radius of my home, probably not that many in all of India. Thirdly, encourage and provide opportunities to grow sports. India has never been a sport-friendly country, so we must double the effort. As a sample, forgetting aside their failures in the recent failures, look at what diligent and a professional effort in archery, chess and boxing have led us to - we are really a power in these sports.
There are a lot more problems than apathy to sportpersons in this
country. As long as the education system does not consider sport to
be an integral part of education and support it and parents don't see
it is important for their kids to take up sports, we will eternally
be in this state. We have always ostracized kids who play sports as
dumb and lazy students. You yourself give credit only V. Anand that
that is the only sport gray matter matters. For god's sake that is so
naive of you, for in every sport gray matter matters. I hope and wish
that we Indians start respecting people of all walks of life
irrespective of their choice of profession, and especially,
sportspersons.
When I was first heard that mary Kom was a fivetime world champion. I was ashamed of my self of not knowing about her. If it was not for the inclusion of sport in olympics, I would have never heard of her. I think our Govt would neither. I was left wondering, why has I never noticed her in any news. Similar incident goes with kabbadi Team, who won the world champion, but left on streets. The hard fact is we dont care.
I think it is all about our mindset. We would always dream that our children became doctors, engineers or MBAs. Only a handful would want their children to pursue a career in sports which is why we are lagging behind the countries like China where preparation for olympics is like training at the Army for life. The picture is not all that gloomy though, we have improved our olympics record and also we excel in some sports like Cricket. It is true that excessive attention is given to cricket but that certainly does not mean that you loosen your grip on something you excel to became better in some other field. We Indians are good in everything right from childhood, it is just that we loose our sheen as we grow up and became a part of the rat race. Before we invest in sports, we should have an open mindset, come out of the herd mentality and see the world in a new light. I hope this olympics' result would mark the beginning of a new era in the history of Indian sports.
Bravo! This is what we need. A direct and unapologetic slur against a
host of people who doubt those superb people who fight at global
level, and not just at an 'international' level. I am sure the readers
are smart enough to distinguish the two. For a sports lover, it should
not deter them from what kind of sports is being played. You love a
sport because of the passion, heat and excitement involved in it. The
sense of pride in a sport helps in following. I hope that the
beginning have already been made. Football, Chess, Tennis, Badminton,
Wrestling, Boxing and many more are helping to build a dedicated fan
base as they have faith that it will bring honour for the country. I
hope someday we will love to see Sepak Takraw in the same league.
Outstanding article... we have more population than all other countries.If govt. spends more then 2% income of its budget and seeks a ppl from rural area might be more chance to win.the Question is HOW ?
Very True. Well said.
very Bad article - extremely negative in its tone -defeatist in its
writing - when india is celebrating its best ever medal haul - wake up Nirmal - which world are you in - this is a 70s and 80s article - written when India never got a medal in the Olympics and inappropriate when Indian sports should be celebrating its 6 medal haul - Lets take a company , if doubles it turnover - we have to praise it - that it is doing well - not moan ....... wake up have a chill pill and lets get out of the 70s and 80s nostalgia piece ....lets have a classy piece on the fab 6 medalists and also fabulous performance by Athletes, rowers , badminton players
Read your article today. It was packed with emotions. And, it did make my day. I have been carrying this sad feeling of 'why support only cricket?' for a long, long time. I am sure you must have opened a million eyes with this fantastic comment piece of yours. The numerous letters well explains the whole story.
I am sure constant reminders, such as this one, may well change the image of other sports, for the better, in the years to come.
Congratulations Sir once again for the great piece.
Why should cricket be held responsible for all other sports follies?.
This is a ridiculous excuse. Will not the sponsors come if other
sports bodies are ably managed. Take a look at the Hockey federation
which is split into 2 bodies unable to do anything or for that matter
any other non cricket sports body managed by politicians. What about
the Commonwealth games where Kalmadi plundered 100s of crores. Why not
question where this money for helping the athletes went? This is not
the case in Cricket. Cricket had the same situation in 1991-92 before
some able administrators marketed cricket well and people liked it.
Cricket is played in australia and football is played in England and
people dont complain like in India about these games because there is
professionalism there. In India Cricket's adminstrators know how to
manage it better than others. The BCCI gives an annual fund of 50
crores to national sports development fund. People should stop blaming
and start to look where to improve
So true! Thanks for the write up! Speaks volumes!
Also, we must understand to win medals in olympics we need to invest a lot into the sportsmen and into the sports facilities. My question is: For a country with such a big poor and educated population, is it the biggest priority to win medals. And what do these medals do to us: make us proud, make our egos even bigger without realising that just by winning more medals than many countries, we can improve our society. Enjoy the sports, play sports, stay healthy, stay happy and don't base your happiness/anger on winning medals or tournaments. When you would do that you can spread the happiness around. And it is the happiness that is to me all the people and all the nation strive for. Only that in this materialistic world, we seek our happiness through medals, money, cars, good grades and so and so. Just enjoy the process of learning, playing the sports and not worry about their results of winning a medal or getting a job.
Very good article, i agree :)
Agree,even now we are just one sport nation but things have changed slightly in the past few years
I dont think for example that our male boxers lacked any support in the past 3-4 years:monetary,media or mad followers,still we just got nothing from them this time.What about hockey? enough and many fans today,despite year on year disappointment!I also dont feel that hockey lacks money anymore..its the politics that has killed the game
It has to work both ways - macro level changes at the top and micro level at the sportmen / game / team level too
till such time,only the gifted ones like sushil,yogeshwar,saina,gagan,vijay & mary will continue to do the "favor" to the nation
Kudos to the self made champions!
When a leading news channel brought out the plight of FIVE TIME WORLD
CHAMPION, Mary Kom during the blockade days in Manipur, somewhere, in
another part of this world, another inconsequential ODI series was being
played. Just for fun, I counted the seconds both news stories got in
seconds. Mary Kom got 25 Seconds or thereabouts and the cricket match
got close to three minutes, with expert analysis and the likes thrown in. Why would Mary even owe us anything!
The best thing about this article is none of the readers including myself would remember a bit of it at least until the next olympics. The nations which win gold medal in olympics have a great deal of commitment towards sports in olympic games. We, Indians, for the majority part fail to commit and expect to win a gold in Olympics. I am sorry, I don't see why we deserve a gold medal in Olympics whilst we don't commit. Cricket is a different tale. It can be compared to a sport like American football where people sit as a family and watch during weekends. Cricket in fact is up on the throne and we see it with an almighty conscience. And, We are hit by controversies and conspiracies almost all the time during any event and exaggerated by media. In a country where society sees sports, other than Cricket, as just an extra-curricular activity, we succumb up to the pressures of critical family values and shatter any dream to be a sportsperson at an early stage. Congrats to the committed ones.
Please ask Sachin to take on some new sports/games.
People will follow him to that sport.Now Sachin is a Rajya Saba MP, he can do some goodthings for other sports.
I totally agree with the author. Superb article.
Why are you lamenting?
Why do you think you are obliged to answer this question?
People make their choices..people choose cricket.it is one of those things in life.. you will next cry that the hare brained dumb bollywood movies make crores where as the intellectually stimulating, original movies are just critically praised and barely break even at the box office.. so are u gonna make a mass appeal to people to stop watching SRK n karan johar BS and give the likes of anurag kashyap their due credit? u want people to develop an interest in following archery as a sport so that they cheer our archers next olympics?
anyways u chose a good time to get ur article some mileage playing on peoples sentiments with olympics just done..
What l personally feel is , instead of being separate comity for each game; all the team of different game can form a comity with name Indian Sport Organization.
This comity must not contain any political leader but only sport-person should be its leader.
This organization would decide media publicity, sponsorship and other kind of management in all the games very much similar to BCCI.
As ever a great write up by Nirmal! Is Cricket more popular in India because BCCI is a privately run unit with minimal Govt interference? What is the common Indian's role in these things? He cherish's a Sachin and a Mary, depending upon how often their successes are written about in newspapers, how often their events are shown on TV, how many advertisements they come in daily, and how many TV interviews they attend? When the officials of their respective bodies drive an agressive marketing plan on their sport thru media and corporates - the common indian's concious memory is treated as a product to be capitalized on. So what can the common indian do? The answers probably reside with the fact that BCCI is not a Govt owned entity in india. May be thats the answer for all other sports... who knows!
Well written Nirmal,you've poked the eyes of Indian Sport.
Well said Mr. Nirmal. Please save this article. This can be reused after
Rio as well.
I used to admire Nirmal's writing skills when I was growing up - the way he would describe the cricketers and tennis players as virtual demi-gods used to re-enforce my childhood adulation of them.
It seems that Nirmal has grown old and cynical. All HIS life he worshiped at the altar of tennis and cricket and now he realizes that he does not have the skill and patience to learn to describe the equally thrilling nuances of badminton or wrestling. So instead of trying, he blames us for HIS shortcomings. Shame on you, Nirmal. We except much better from you.
Pranab's comments "It's plain to see that things are getting better on many fronts, and as a writer in the media your role should be that of the drummer who himself does not fight but whose beats encourage others.", hits the nail on the head. Nirmal, you are abdicating YOUR duty and blaming US.
1.Start for Olympics in 2032
2.Institute talent search for individual sport
3.Stop funding team sports by government money
4.Manage the children so selected properly for twenty years especially care for those who do
not make sathe grade
5.A 400 meter track, a swimming pool and a gymnasium with weight traininZg facility for
every lac of people.
6.Do not worry about cricket. It will go its way.
This is an unfortunate rant against cricket ignoring basic facts. Until the 70's, cricketers were
also paid a paltry salary. After India won the Delhi test in four days against Australia in 1969,
the players were paid less since they were on the field for only four days! Only series wins in
the West Indies and England in 71 brought a drastic change in the status of the game.
Cricket has never looked back. Compare this with hockey. What has any hockey team
achieved after winning the world cup in 1975 except for a dubious gold in the 80 Olympics
where many strong teams did not participate? In the same period, cricket teams have won
two world cups in 1983 and 2011 besides reaching the final on another occasion. Our
hockey players are still unable to adapt to artificial turf even three decades after it was
introduced! In sport winning makes all the difference in fan support, not excuses. Every
medalist in recent Olympics has been awarded at least 1 cr. So they are hardly poor or ignored!
I totally agree with you Nirmal. Also, it is sad that newspapers give more than required importance to cricket all the time.
I was going to say something else until I realized I am as guilty as
charged along with the entire nation. I don't watch any other sport on tv besides the EPL. And it's so easy to say, yes you are right and forget that we are as much to blame. I am ashamed to say that I am a part of the nation that does not give a damn about these great athletes that sacrifice so much. Yes, for three full years and eleven and a half months I watch only football and when we failed to get medals in the Olympics, I was the biggest mouth condemning the county and the people, not realizing I am one of them. But I think things will change for me now. Thank you!
Dear Nirmal
Having been an avid follower of your writing, you have again 'hit the nail on the head'! The Hindu has a big following of Sports! Why not we have your article on 'Sports minus cricket' every month to inspire our budding sports icons and followers. We now have one of the most able and notable Sports Minister under Ajay Maken and we must collectively drive ourselves towards 'Mission Rio'!
Can we count on 'The Hindu' and 'The Sportstar' for making the difference, as you are the 'most observable voice' for the nation which is starving about all other sports! We have been doing well individually in Sports like Chess and Badminton thanks to notable and noticeable coverage!
Our Sports Ministry must ensure that the schools inculcate sports compulsorily in the curriculum which is making the teachers and parents partnering to go only in one way ie making the children robots or mean machines of'mug pots'to make them academicians
It is time we be the change than showcase mistakes!
Lets make a simple rule: 60% of proceeds of every international crioket
match in india has to go to fund other sports until india reaches top 10
countries of olympics. hisaab baraabar
Mr Nirmal Sekhar,
Your article is more ingenious than subtle way of India and Indians saying "Sour grapes" as far as the Olympics are concerned !
Honest article. You have hit the problem in the core. Nation is too much
obsessed with one game to think of anything else. Finally it is a call
which everyone has to take, we can shut our eyes to Kom's, Anand's &
crib saying the poor show which 'India' showed or put in our first foot
in atleast watching these games (the money from corp & ads will follow)
A thought provoking column! It is true that corporate world don't mind to promote their brand
through the best faces of India. If they wish they can make a difference by considering Indian
Olympians. But it is the government of India should encourage it. How about offering tax
incentives to those companies that promote their brands with new sports faces of India? How
about giving tax incentives to cable TVs, who broadcastes track and fields from rural India?
Such independent screening mechanism should defintely helps to recognize the real talent.
Wonderful article and very well written. I feel some of us have not understood the "gas cylinder" arguement correctly. You cant compare other medal winners, be Usain Bolt of Jamaica or any other Kazakhistan or Kenya medalists with Indian medal winners. Mainly because all the sportspersons in these countries (irrespective of their sport) will face the same problems irrespective of their achievements. Whereras in India , the crickets do not face any such problems. Nirmal Shekar is trying to point at the disparity which exists in India amongst cricketers and other sportsmen.
Isn't part of the reason behind this media itself? Media gives more
coverage to Chak de India movie rather then what is happening to our
hockey players. What about the hype over India winning the world cup?
Was Vishy covered the same way? There was more negative things about
pinki pramanik then the positive things.
A collective awareness programme by media channels together would pave a
way to new breed of wannabe sports persons.
It's a pity that articles such as this come out once in four years as
well.
As an Indian, I surprise many of my fellow citizens that I hate cricket. One of the
reasons is that Cricket commands undeserved attention than any other sports. Had we been treating other sports with the same passion, we wouldn't be left with such a dismal tally of medals at every olympics. Each sports-person who fights with passion
to earn his/her goal, demands unconditional and as much adulation as the cricket players in India do.
Sentimental sarcasm, ain't it... to add another sentence to your article, 'Such sport articles also come once in 4 years, to be near accurate, right after the final medals tally of olympics'...Then what? it is business as usual for all of us.
Its good that you support the guys who have the potential but not the infrastructure to make it(All sports other than cricket),but lets not trash the guys who are doing good (Cricket).
I suppose eventually we will get better at the other sports too AND the 1.2 Bn population premise - doesnt work !!!!
Very well written, but again, this article inspires the reader for few minutes and in
the mean time there will be a notification in the cricinfo about some article
concerning cricket and we are back....
Strongly disagree.
India's medal count has been increasing over the past 3 or 4 Olympics. Saina's Bronze medal grabbed front-page headline while India's Series win over Sri Lanka was limited to the Sports section.
What had been done to support P Kunhumohammed?
I agree that cricket still rules in India but things are changing. Staunch cricket fans are admitting they are bored of cricket now. Today's youngsters are better footballers than they're cricketers.
There could have been a totally opposite article highlighting India's increasing medal count and yet include the message conveyed by this article as a conclusion.
Sorry to say that I believe writing these kind of articles is easy but they only fill up sections in the paper.
Nice article...
Instead of commenting our Nation... Let us look at us ...
Why our parents,us or next generation not opting Sports as
profession.
We take it as hobby saying Badminton,shettle,cricket etc . Most of
us use it in profile or resume for jobs.... since inception of
activity we start looking at money or something other but not love towards sports .
I have ever seen a politician or planning commission saying Mission targeting 100 medals . schemes which encourage people to send their guys towards this sports line ... Giving tax exemption if guy or gal undergoing training with checks . I feel this is necessary, as they are our national heros . If they get medal, we feel that we got it . Please encourage your children towards sports instead of commenting.
Thank you for a very fine article. I have had stirrings while reading this. Yes, sports should be made a priority in this country. But is it not too much to expect this from a country which cant provide basic health care to its people or stop farm suicides.? As a people too, we can make a difference by recognizing the heroes in OTHER games. After all, all they ask from us is encouragement and recognition.
Take government out of IOA and make it autonmous body like BCCI, I am sure things will change in the next 20 years. Cause government will be intersted in filling up their own banks and not have profits in mind. BCCI for all matter of sake whether we say IPL or anythign else has succeeded in capturing the attention of masses. Instead of gettign cricket by collar we should focus on developing other sports privately and kick out government from it. Elze even is BCCI sponsers the Olympics team nothign can happen. Thats hard reality. This article I dont think talks reality. its just aimed at blaming cricket for ll miseries of Idnian sports
"For, this question raises its ugly head for only about two weeks
every four years. The rest of the time — for three full years and
eleven and a half months — we are obsessed with, worship and
shamelessly pay obeisance to a sport played with any degree of
seriousness by eight-and-a-half nations."
Well sir,
And you write such inspiring article once in every four year.
After all you are an Indian!
Thats right! Those who dont care about other sports have nothing to do with complaining less Medals. Now, the saddest part, no body cares about read anything if it's not about cricket. When it comes to sports in india.
Hi Guys let see how China and His governement working towards olympics ...started participating since 1955 can able to excel in all the sports.Governement and sports assossciations plays a big role in mentoring the sports find from all the corners.Support our sports men in what ever way possible...parents who ever reading this column stop bribbing associations and minister to promote your kids.
that will help them to find the skilled people in our country.
Excellent article,but it will be foget tommorow and people will start waiting for 20-20.this is the reality in india.hats off man.
I think things are changing. For example football is gaining popularity and even corporates are endorsing it in India. Athletics as some one said would take time as it requires good competition within the country and it is not easy to build.
The hostility to cricket is understandable. But Is Anand among the
finest exponents of Chess ever seen? Not by a far shot. Great
definitely but hardly the among the greatest. Meanwhile, what
Tendulkar has achieved something which no man has ever done in the history of sports and looks unlikely to be emulated anytime soon.
Simply put, he is peerless in this generation and many generations
before this and has risen up through his sheer dint of hard work like
all great sportpersons.
Its is important to focus on other sports. However, this argument does
not quite make sense. Hard to compare but in terms of greatness I would pick Tendulkar over Anand hence the Bharat Ratna.
Some of the comments above make me wonder how can people accuse
others so easily when they themselves are probably good for
nothing. Someone said in a comment that sports persons from
Kazakhstan etc. live in much worse conditions. Is this how we
just ignore the acknowledgement of the fact that the athletes are
not provided adequate opportunities and they spend their entire
life in shadows of "the walls" and "the gods"? Sure, every nation
has a popular sport. But it does not mean that they let all other
sports die because of "the one". They have proper training camps
right from elementary levels to ensure participation is such
sports, unlike India. It is this denial that has denied this
nation the glory of an olympic superpower. So, if anyone says
that there are people living in much worse conditions, I have
only one answer for them - it's demeaning, for our sports persons
and our nation. It's time that we give up our denial attitude and
understand the point behind these subtle words.
A nice article that drives us into introspection. The interesting thing
was that the ad on the side in this same page read "Peek inside Sachin's
Garage, Find out which Cars he's Got!". That's who we are..!! One reaps
what he sows. And we've reaped medals to the extent we've sowed our
efforts and attention into..!!
Can't disagree more. The argument that we are a "one sport nation"
and therefore do poorly in other sports is a completely bogus one.
First, for all our obsession and our size, we are not doing that well in Cricket. And, if Cricket were to be introduced in Olympics, I guarantee that India wouldn't be able to win a medal in that sport within 8 years. So, the argument that we don't care about other sports and therefore don't win in them is nonsense.
Secondly, lack of patronage for other sports is also a false claim. Several major employers (Railways, airlines, army etc) have huge budgets that are used to hire and groom professional players. The combined budget of these entities plus the government programs exceeds the national sports budgets of a lot of smaller nations. For these administrators & sportsmen, their only concern in life
should be excelling in their sport.In my opinion, the problem is lack of accountability / sincerity at
all levels.
The article is nice...but can't be accepted.
Success of one sports can't be the reason for the failure of other sports. Even today, The crows to EPL is 100% bigger than when they conduct other sports locally. But Englad has won more than 25 Golds but not in Football.
What's the reason you say for this?
The reason is ADMINISTRATION. These Sainas, Bhupathis, Leanders, Anands, Bopannas, Even Sushil have their own coaches, dieticiants and physical trainers... And they are able to acieve moderate levels of success with this.
THis is NOT AVAILABLE for MANY of our sportsmen.Govt which is supposed to run them, are just taking money and sitting happy.
how come we'll win medals. Sir, we Poor Citizens of India watch what they show in TV and what they print in Newspaper. why can't they incerase their coverage to other sports like what they do for Cricket? You're making a fool of us sir, you've (press & admin) doing this successfully for many years and this is one more time.
Well written and in first go it did make a sensational impact. But
then if you think again it is just a part of story. We started loving
cricket when hockey could not deliver and cricket delivered even under
pressure( WC finals 2011 could there be any more pressure?)
And you know what people like performers more than sport. Just see how
popular Vijender Singh became even after one Olympic win. Only thing
we or the sponsors need is performance. Be it Sania or Saina, Tennis
or badminton, everyone will chase you if you can deliver. So question
is not about liking a sport it is about who can perform. Wrestling,
Shooting you just see next time how many sponsors and Indians will
follow.
Very true, but not a profound revelation. So why don't you do your part as a journalist to promote other sports and athletes? Refuse to write about Cricket for a year, and persuade each of your colleagues to do the same.
A brilliant article. The main reason for failure is Indian Sportsman and Authorities are not abreast with latest technologies and nuances of the sport. Hockey which was once a medal sport , got ruined completely because of failing to develop astroturf pithces . While most of Indian hockey players were continuing to play in grass pithces , many nations started playing in Astroturf and developed their skills in Astroturf, once grass was replaced by astroturf in hockey courts. Also I am at loss to understand why sports like Kabaddi , Chess and ofcourse cricket in which Indians rule the roost are not featuring in Olympics!!
I have heard Ajay Maken say that no. of medals won is proportional to
Human Development Index(HDI) of country and we are 135 in it :
(...Actually the people who can afford to play sport will be 1/4th of
1.2 billion...Even our cricket team were filled with guys from
metropolitan cities until recent years...lets hope for the best in future..
Nirmal, how do you think cricket gained popularity in India? I would
like to see an article going from today to back to its days when no one
cared about it too. Then we, along with media, can reverse engineer the
concept and apply it to Olympics, Football, Chess, Tennis and any other
sport that our 1.2 billion talent pool can provide us with.
For all the celebratory jumping around that you see on the TV channels in India, the fact is that there was not a single occasion to play the Jana Gana Mana at the London Olympics. Coming to think of it, the East South Asian population wherever it is located in the world has hardly any presence in international athletics at the top level. Lots of gold for multiracial Britain was won by migrants from the Caribbean and from the African continent. People of South Asian origin far outnumber the African origin immigrants in Britain. As far as I can remember there is only one South Asian athlete who has made it to the podium in the Olympics in recent times. That is Susanthika Jayasingha in the 200 meters for women.
As somebody pointed rightly, cricket is sport of masses.There is no rationale, why s sport should loved so much(like cricket) and why not others. It is a coincidence that cricket is loved by majority of the Indian people.For that matter, it is up to an individual that which sport he would/should be liking. You cannot force anybody to love a particular sport. Same logic applies for everybody including the Olympians as well. Pl don't take me wrong that Olympians should not be given credit. They deserve the credit very well.But at the same time, nobody has any right to crib about the most favourite sport of majority of Indians. Cricket has been loved and accepted by most people, just because of the charm and interesting incidents and characters involved(83 WC,Gavaskar, Kapil, Sachin to name a few). At the same time even the historic Olympians like Milkasingh, PT USHA etc are also remembered even today.
Well, though I am not in complete agreement with the author, I sense
truth in bits in pieces. It's true that our performance dips due to our
anxiety and we really do not think about Olympics for 3 years, 11 months
and 15 days but, it's not true that cricket is the culprit. A nation
would (without doubt and in my opinion) should be following the sport it is best at.
The article is a must read as it really makes you think.
This article surely represents the emotions of every Indian wondering about India's performance in the olympics and evokes self-analysis on evey Indian thronging only to the cricket stadiums but criticizing the other sport persons. I wish all the Indian media give equal coverage to all sports and bring the well deserved Indian sportpersons to the limelight.
I should also point out to Nirmal Shekarji that many of the newbies who
are sent to cover the Olympics have no clue about how the sport is
played since it was very clear from there new reporting.
Indian Express declared that Gagan Narang qualified for the Finals after
just looking at his standing position shooting scores in 3 Position
Rifle shooting event even before the event was over. LOL
How Naive or Stupid can that be.
I totally disagree with u. U cant blame people saying we are not encouraging other sports except cricket. many watch and enjoy cricket.that has nothing to do with other sports. people including kids here in India play cricket and that is one of the reasons y ppl like watching it too.We wont play wrestling, shooting, boxing, running, hockey in play time to have fun.not all the time atleast like cricket.this is not to under estimate other sports but i'm telling this y cricket is more popular than other sports in India.
When it comes to other sports, people do encourage them had media been telecasting them for FOUR YEARS INSTEAD OF JUST TWO WEEKS.Y ARENT THEY TELECASTING DURIN OTHER 3 years and 11 months time???!! when ever people got a chance to watch them,they encourage when it comes to INDIA in games as they did in CWG and olympics..
Media,sports governing bodies which should SUPPORT sportsmen are to be blamed.and ofcourse the sportsmen too who has to give their best like other Olympians
Bravo Nirmal. The simple fact is - we do not have a culture of physical excellence. Period. Its either the climate or lack of facilities or whatever - we just don't push ourselves or our children. Lets forget about the gym-aware upper middle class. The vast majority of India is not sports mad - and by that I mean, the striving, aggression and physicality of sport. With very few exceptions, this is true of us as a nation.
I am amazed at the negative tone of the article on a day when india has won 6 medals by far its best showing ever ...."we are saddened, angry and aghast that we are not able to revel in reflected glory" - I am not saddened , angry or aghast - I am thrilled , amazed and exultant at the indian showing .......double of the best we have ever done , 100% more than last time and the very best showing .... I am saddened that on this day you would right a litany of angst and not a paen of joy ...Mr shekhar the sadness is only in your mind not in the indian sports fan .
Brilliant article!
"Sorry Mary, we forgot about your gas cylinder!" was too good.
Wish more people can empathise/ sympathise with the sorry state of affairs of sportsmen.
Interest and 'commitment' of masses can be manipulated and shaped. Media and sport-journalists like you should do more stories on the Indian Olympians. It should not be limited to only medal winners, but also extended to include every one of them. You should also highlight any prospects which may yield a medal probably four years down the line. If the mass decides to sleep for four years and wake only for the 15 days during Olympics, your job as a sincere sport-writer is to constantly remind us of these unsung heroes more often. You cannot blame the mass and get things changed. Some body has to catalyze the change and it's you and the organized media. This, of course, cannot be expected from our Politician-turned-sports administrators.
Brilliant Mr Shekar. You said it and said it with a bang!!! But to some extent, you are also responsible. Why dont you cover the ISSF World Championships or the Boxing World Championships, the way you cover cricket? Why Ronjan Sodhi's name and photograph was not in the first page of every newspaper in this country? Why Gagan's name and photograph was not there when he touched the World Record?
Why Sushil Kumar was not covered for a continuous few days when he became World Champion? You also need to take your share of blame mr Shekar.
Well written article.It made a delicious read.However I am not that much negative about our future in other sports. This year's performance is a good omen that good things are on their way. Hopefully we will double the medal count next Olympics, if not improve our count dramatically. Though Gold has evaded us this time around. I am of full conviction that we will do better every next Olympics. The above written article is not just anguish about us being one sport nation.Concentration on cricket is because we are good at it. I find that Cricket will not die on its own, but better performance in other sports will autamatically attract attention from citizens and othersports will get their due in due course of time.
Great article..you have been bold enough to criticise BCCI which is increasing becoming the uncle sam of cricketing world ie.." i have money and dont care about anything else" approach. However this is a time to rejoice the stupenous achievement by our atheletes not only those 6 medals but some great top 10 finishes. I hope the president hosts a grand party for the indian contigent and may be Vishy gets Rajya Sabha seat to boost the morale of the non cricketing sporting icons of this country.
Nice Article...but I have a point to say. Most of the Games that we see in Olympics are only seen when there are major events like National games or Common Wealth Games in our country and most of the times, we don't get to see sports other than Cricket being telecasted often in television sports channels. The more these games are shown on Television, the more the understanding of the rules of the games and more will be the viewership.
Domestic leagues similar to IPL can be dseigned for every sport and the prominence for these sports increase.
Success followed by limelight will encourage more & more youngsters
opting for other sports than cricket.It is responsibility of
government to assist them with basic amenities.If economic security
is provided then the number of sportsman will increase so that will
proliferate the chances of getting medals for India.
Hi Nirmal,
Great work!! I totally agree with ur view point. The problem is centered in the attitutde towards sports. We are giving unnecessary hype to cricket. Ofcourse cricket is religion in our country, but something is expected out of government too.
Point taken Nirmal. Great article. But I beg to differ when it comes
to Hockey. The whole nation was with them when they staged a protest
against the IHF. When Kalmadi offered the team Rs. 1Cr as prize money.
Everyone in the nation heaps praises on the Indian Hockey team when
they win a tournament or even a single match against a weakling
opponent.
Let me give you a small insight. When did people start following cricket with earnest interest? When the team won the 1983 cricket world cup and it was telecasted in television.
Let the Hockey team win back the lost glory once. I mean just once!!!! If that happens, trust me cricket would become a foul word soon.
@ All the people blindly eulogising this article and voicing support:
1)Do you ever tune into sports channels other than ESPN/Star to watch MaryKom,
vijender, wrestlers when they perform at the asian and world championships?
2)Can you explain to a layman the points system in boxing/wrestling, with the same fluency that you explain powerplay/lbw in cricket?
3)Familiar with the terms 'left hook', barekuncle,'repechage' etc?
4)Can you name 5 people from the national hockey team?
5)Were you aware of Kashyaps ranking prior to the event I think we all know the answers!
So lets not be hypocrites and admit that cricket(and football and tennis) are FAR MORE spectator friendly and corporates have every right to invest where there are maximum eyeballs. That's the way of the world, and you need not look further than England, where canoeists and cyclists, who won tons of medals,are hardly popular and rich as their footballers?
Well written. I think we Indians yet do not enjoy watching sports in our
local school level. Unless, we are there to chear them, to encourage our
school children for various sports, we cannot have a sustainable
improvement in our sports performance in the global arena.
I agree with "spirit" of the article as such but it is too
pessimistic. Things have changed in India since last commonwealth
games in India. We might cry hoarse over corruption in commonwealth
games but the fact that India has managed to double their medal tally
proves that these games led to changing mindsets.
i) For the first time athletes had proper coaches, facilities like
ammunition in advance and they were sent abroad for practice
ii) The medal winners are not struggling now as author claims - people
like Vijemder singh, Saina Nehwal now have crores of rupees in
advertisements and endorsements - which is very essential for an athlete since their career is very small. And most importantly, by seeing their success, many people in their villages get inspired.
iii) All medal winners have got more than 2 crores each for their exploits - they don't need to hunt for gas cylinder any more. Second, many youth after seeing this will join the sports.
I disagree about the reason but agree with the questions. Its not about
getting a gas cylinder, Mary and Dutt have been paid more than 1crore of
money and therefore they can lead a better than normal life on
interests. Its more about anti-cricket , the real core issue is
different and untouched.
A rather slanted view from an understandably frustrated sports journalist. We are not a single-sport nation. We are a nation that wants to be respected, that wants to compete with other nations on level terms, in any sport. We do not like to follow a sport where we get thrashed about...it is a humiliating experience which we can do without. Unfortunately in the last three decades or so, cricket is the only sport where this has been possible with any degree of consistency. It is only certain shooting stars like Anand, Leander-Mahesh, PT Usha, Prakash Padukone, Geet Sethi who have brought some cheer to the sporting-success hungry Indian. And these people have had their fan-following. It is the media in fact that has not spent enough air-time on these stars - one of the reasons why we have not managed to follow their successes as much as the cricketers. Once we have more of such heroes, who perform with more consistency, I guarantee that they will get all the limelight they deserve.
Shame on Media! The author, part of Media, expects a layman, say in Kerala, to worry about Mary Kom in Manipur when the whole three year and whatever months, the media themselves showcase cricketers 24/7. The author, being a part of Media, should first inspire his own sect before pointing fingers at a layman. All I can do is laugh at this article - at absolute shamelessness of media... Shame on Media!!
Also, please get over your "just a few silver and bronze medals" attitude. Stop being cynical, all Indians are not like you. Some, like me, celebrated every medal. Also, every participation, unlike media which is on a campaign to deface hockey as if that helps.
Well said. It is really true that the country lets them down until the
last hour and expects much from them. For the rest of the time they have
to struggle. I salute their determination and hard work amidst all odds.
I hope you've got a good feedback on your article from the comments given above. You have
to realise that Cricket is dying a Hockey death now. Nobody's interested to find out whether
India won or loose in Sri Lanka or when is the next India tour abroad for a cricket series. On
the contrary, everyone was watching Saina, Mary Kom and Sushilji Kumar playing their
matches and winning medals. People were angry to see the tussle between Hesh and
Bhupathi, and they were disappointed when Vijendar lost. So, there's absolutely no reason to
make any assumptions that you did. Moreover, with state governments like Haryana
announcing cores in awards, Sahara group giving out prizes in kilos of gold and Army &
Railways giving honorary ranks and positions, I don't think the medal winners remain the same when they return home. And that itself becomes a motivation for other players to take up the sports more seriously.
It is a very well written article about the scenario which currently, many sports are facing in India. It is very obvious that we indians really do not even try to bother about other sports besides the Tendulkar's and Dhoni's Game. But this is what the indians are made to watch or listen or read through the eyes of media on T.V., internet or newspapers. Media reflects everything, what is all going around in the world. I think that today, media should understand that it's their responsibilty to promote any other sports in India like they have promoted Cricket so far. The thought is not meant to criticize media but only to make this point well understood that if the media wants, then any other sports in India can also enjoy the same level of freedom and encouragement as the Cricket is enjoying today.
Very well written article, perfectly describing the dark scenario of
our attitude towards other sports than Cricket.
It's apparently shameful picture how we treat our own sportsmen & more
or less disgusting how that shows up in any of the biggest sports
event.
Of course only reason we can come up with is our asocial,
disrespectful & pathetic behaviour towards the sports & sports
persons. We can get ourselves on the roads for celebration the night
India won world cup but we don't suppose to notice that how many
tournaments Anand has won in chess or currently he holds what rank in
World Chess. We always talk about the legendary Sachin Tendulakar, but
how we can easily miss the glimpse of Anand writing the history in
Indian chess.
Considering the environment & the facilities he must have been
provided by our corrupt government, I agree with the writer, he should
be bestowed with the Bharat Ratna. That can be our little thanks to
him.
Well said Nirmal. Thanks to "The Hindu" for publishing such articles. It
is very sad to observe the lack of encouragement & support given to
athletes of disciplines other than cricket. Hope things change for the
better from now.
"Paralysis Analysis", rightly said. That's what we are doing here
again. We have certainly done better this year if we look minutely at
how we fared in all the events. Doing the positives for the sports
will take care of the rancor about cricket-mania and its ill effects.
Let's be progressive and look ahead.
There are few ways of addressing India's ambition to perform well in
Olympics:
i) Investment in infrastructure and support by the government for
athletes. Sports Scholarships are way to do that.
ii) Long Term Strategy in Individual Sports, identifying a few at
first. And provide international exposure, training and facilities in
those sports.
iii) Seeking Corporate sponsorship in "target sports" for nationwide
promotion, selection and long-term training strategy of prospective
athletes.
It is ridiculously simple to shoot this stupid theory down.People in the
United States of America care only and only about basketball, basesball,
football or ice hockey.Two of these are not olympic sports, no one cares
about any other sport, no one mobs gold medal winners of single scull
rowing, equestrian or fencing and yet they do it over again.Your
research is shallow and your words are big.dont do that again
I would humbly make my point known to you that it is the media which decided to showcase cricket. How many television channels and media reporters like you have even written about Sushil Kumar or showed documentaries about Yogeshwar Dutt ? It is the media that decides what people should see and not. Once the attitude of the media changes, everything else will fall in place. Because its always, "Mahindra Dhoni was spotted with his wife at this mall at this time.
And in other news, Sushil Kumar played his heart out to win the
championship in Japan" or whatever. It is the media's fault that people are recieving maximum cricket. There is a Star Cricket. Is there a Star Wrestling or Star Badminton? Whose fault is it?
One nation sport doesn't make any other country stop from getting medals at
Olympics. In the US, baseball and american football is followed like a religion much
like cricket is in India, still US leads the medals tally.
The problem is not cricket, the problem is that there is no institutional support for
our athletes who want to compete in other games. Corporate sponsorship always
comes after the glory not before, the grooming has to be done by the
community/government/people themselves.
I don't think it's a valid argument. Even in the country that is
finishing on the top of the table every single time (USA), people
follow basketball and American football crazily and they don't even
think about their Olympic stars for 3 years and 11 and a half months.
So the performance of our Olympic stars has nothing do with the kind
of attention and recognition they get. We are fundamentally flawed at
the ground level where education and career are being pushed on the
kids than participation in sports. Show me one school where kids are
allowed to utilize their sports hours. Show me infrastructure where
athletes can practice. All those who made it to the Olympic podium are
self-made. If only the Govt is willing to make changes at grassroot
level and support sports from early days of an athlete, we will see
better results. If not, it is going to remain this way.
Some valid points raised in this article !!! I was thinking - these
sportspersons are in the limelight (as you said) only once in every
four years and as a result there is enormous pressure on them to
perform. Why can't we have an inter-state olympics type competition
where performance is heavily incentivized by the respective state
associations and sponsored by the corporate bigwigs. I know that there
is something called the National games, but seriously how many of us
even watch it or are aware of it? If a Mumbai vs Chennai IPL final can
raise so much passion, I think significant interest can be generated
for a Tamil Nadu vs Punjab basketball finals !! One thing that we
Indians value, as much as national pride, is our regional
affiliations. If we have a good reason to support a team (be it
whatever sport), I think we will support them.
An excellent article which lays out the malady should steer everyone, especially those big corporates to introspect how much have they have really cared about other sports and athletes as much as cricket which they have heavily promoted and patronized. I recall how the Indian hockey team even in its prime had to travel by second class in train while cricketers enjoyed royal attention. Congratulations to all the Indian athletes who were triumphant and salutations to their coaches.
Wonderful!!! We are a one sport nation and cricket is our obsession.But the heroics of our athletes in Beijing 2008 & London 2012 has opened many a eyes. I Think that is a positive sign for greater glories in the future!!! I Believe this Olympics has surely 'Inspired a Generation' in India!! Thank You TEAM INDIA!!!
I do not think that it is as gloomy as has been presented. There is a
resurgence in all walks of life and I am sure that in four years India
will be a force to reckon with in many sports events.
This is true in other areas like science also. The only Nobel prize for he work done in India was that of C.V.Raman over more than 70 year ago during the much maligned British Raj. Others
with Indian names who got the Nobel prizes were those who went
out of India and did their work in their country of adoption as
they were degraded after India by the governments for being
intelligent and belonging the the castes not liked by them. The
members of the governments after 1955 were more interestsd in
themselves than the country
Sir !! As you have pointed out rightly , we don't care about them for
3.5 years and we blame them for not performing well !! True -But ,we
(read commoners) tend to forget the recent black money , 2G scandal ,
Nuclear Plant struggles -because Public memory is short !! We think
about the NEWS which does the circulation in the media currently .
NOW COMES THE QUESTION -As a professional SPORTS WRITER for four
decades ,how many times have you written about this in the other 10
batches of 3.5 years ?? or how many times even if you had written ,was
the article not published,because it is not "the current" !! Sir -this
is the reason - MEDIA has a lot to do in this !!WE did watch the
olympics -we were glued to the TV to see KOM'S matches .If on the
other days ,we are not glued -THEN BLAME THE MEDIA !! BLAME THE SPORT
EDITORS WHO WRITE ABOUT "in trend" TOPICS,CONVENIENTLY IGNORING OTHERS
!!
A brilliantly said article. A very comparison between cricket and Olympic players. in stead of blaming Olympic players we should take responsibility and help these players winning more medals in Olympics
Excellent article. Thanks to Nirmal for writing it and Hindu for
publishing this. This hits the nail right on the head!
You have written the truth. But our authorities never mind to statements made by you. They go on supporting cricket. Every sport is important.There should be proper infrastructure, proper training and proper encouragement so that our sportsmen would come in flying
colours.Over importance to one game should stop. We shall have patience to watch hockey, football and encourage the players.
I am sorry, but this is an extremely one-sided article,which blindly follows the 'cricket is
killing other sports' rhetoric. Perhaps the writer has forgotten that unilike in the past, our
athletes were well-prepared and there was sufficient funding from the corporate sector(infact
thats been happening for sometime-from the mittals and the tatas).Perhaps it escaped your
attention that the various govts have already announced crores as rewards for the medal
winners? Saina Nehwal is a prominent face in the ad world today,and so was Bindra.When the
hyped up Archery team and the hockey team who were touted as medal hopes fail miserably, Is
cricket to blame? And we have countless runners from impoverished nations like ethiopia,
trinidad, grenada,kenya who dominate the long distance running events? How come lack of
funding affects only us and not them? And most importantly, does the writer tune into DD
sports and other sports channels to watch marykom and the others during non-olympic events?
We won 3 medals last time. We doubled that tally this time. In cricket we are the ODI Champions. As the achievements increase in every sports, its popularity rises. Instead of appreciating the positive trends in Indian sports, this article only vents its misplaced grievances and that too at the most inappropriate time. As a Sports-Editor of Hindu, don't be a cynic and please provide constructive criticism
@Sadash, You're making the wrong comparison. You should be thinking about why Mary Kom has run from pillar to post for a gas cylinder, while Sachin Tendulkar does not.
What a brilliant article, specially the para: The world chess champion is an Indian — chess, my friend, chess, where the grey matter matters more than in any other game — and that should make us prouder than any other achievement by any Indian sportsman or team.
Brilliant!
Very thoughtful article. It is indeed the lack of encouragement and naive mindset from the average indian that is a big drawback for our olympians.
Very good article, Nirmal. Sports people are like artists, and they excel with recognition.
At least these athletes received press for few weeks. I know a mountaineer, Malli Mastan
Babu, who holds guinness and world records, and totally ignored in India. His details on
1stindian7summits.com.
Question also is - we could have won more medals, if the whole contingent, selection
process, and related ministry were "sincere" with their efforts. We can win, despite Cricket.
What you are saying is true however I am sure India can support equal interest in hockey and soccer, as well as in track. It is precisely because cricket is played in 8.5 countries that cricket is big in India - we are at least present in the international arena. You are again right in saying that Anand is quite special (particuarly he is a champ in a sport played by more than 9 countries!) and so the same is true of every single Indian Olympic medallist - they are higher up in rankings than the Indian cricket team. However, chess and track will never attract the same attention as a cricket or hockey or soccer - that is the way it is. Let us hope that things change, Mary gets her gas cylinder and Indians get clean water, electricity and Olympic medals.
Sorry, we have been gene modified to be brainy than brawny,long time ago. Physical strength was seen inferior to mental strength from long past. All our mythology and legends point to that direction from the Vedic times. Jainism and Buddhism followed and pacifist philosophy and vegetarianism became even more embedded. Indian sportsmen/women will do well if they concentrate on their inherent strength and take up the sports where physical strength and stamina is less demanded but needs concentration and accuracy, such as chess,shooting,archery etc:. Focus on the inherent strength, develop the most and win some gold!
Nothing new in this article. Instead of flogging a dead horse - namely
the issue of india's non-performance in sport, we should be happy that
India's medal tally has improved. Indians don't come from another
planet and if we have not been a sporting nation historically - it is
not because we are genetically so but rather because we have had
bigger problemse.g. having two square meals a day. Gross
overpopulation, scarcity of resources, corruption and antediluvian
social practices have crippled us against contributing anything to the
progress of science or humanity, forget sport. However, things are
improving slowly and steadily in Indian sport. Let us make a free and
fair society first - the rest will take care of itself.
The article as cynical as it sounds. I guess very few are "bemoaning" that India just got 6 medals. Most of us are happy that this time Indian contingent gave a 100% improved performance than the last time. Coming to cricket, the media is as responsible as we are for making it what it is today in India. We are constantly bombarded by the news of cricket. It occupies more space than all the sports combined. We dont care who Yuvraj dates!!
But the time is changing, people are getting conscious about other sports. The credit again goes to the media for the wide coverage. Lets be optimistic that this wind of change will do good for other sports in India. Lets be proud of the achievements of Olympians.
I completly agree with you. It is high time we Indians start showing same respect for rest of the sports other than cricket and Govenment in its part should make some sponsors from cricket to other needy sports. This will attract more talented people to take up sports other than cricket.
Let us first make two symbolic changes.
1. Name the Award for best Coach after BHISHMA AACHARYA instead of Dhrona who always denied meritorious students (Karna and Ekalaya) chance to learn under him on the basis of caste and promoted Arjun for Dhrona's personal benefit.
2. Name the best sportsman award after "Karna" or "Ekalawya". Arjun was a pampered prince who lacked determination and will power to win and got demoralized when facing adverse situation. Karna on the other hand was self made, upright and courageous when facing adversity. He did not lose his cool even when his chariot was struck in the mud by treachery.
Why do you want to belittle cricketing achievements to push through the agenda of improving other sports? Are cricketers unworthy, because their sport is popular? And by the way, Harbhajan Singh is a real life fighter as well. He lost his father at a very early age but still fought through everything to secure a place in a team of 11. Do you know the odds of that? And you got nothing on Yuvraj Singh. Does he not deserve the respect like Lance Armstrong? This article is loaded on emotions and misdirected. Please get well soon!!
Absolutely correct and a well written column, you have pinpoint all the important points. Actually you are correct that India is a one sports country.
"They don’t owe us as much as we owe them"! that line says it all..
Thank you for this wonderful article!
i request every indian to watch other sports and encourage other sports
men/women so that it can scale up to great height. To encourage local
sports person, buy ticket and watch these games directly. Once many
people watch, then sponsors will be there automatically. This is how,
great sports and sports men evolve
Amen.. very well said, Nirmal Shekar.
Keep exposing the "corrupt conscience" that we all have, as Indians.
Nirmal, you really are a glass-half-empty person, aren't you?
It's plain to see that things are getting better on many fronts, and as a writer in the media your role should be that of the drummer who himself does not fight but whose beats encourage others.
Sad to see this article take the cliched (and unhelpful) line.
What a brilliantly written article. I stand ashamed at my ignorance as an Indian, at the
spirit of hundreds of Athletes whom we trample every day and Applaud the write -
an amazing testament of truth.
We for sure are one sports nation but we need to evolve and patronize
other sports as well for the good of our country in years to come .....
Nirmal,
A nice read and well written. Now that you have talked the talk, I'd be
keen to see how much of your time over the next 4 years that you
dedicate to writing about our Olympians or Olympic hopefuls. Hopefully
you mean ever word of what you have said here.
I am one of those who watched only two cricket matches in last 10 years. Prior to that i was a big fan of cricket. In the end i realized that it is just waste of time. I will have to agree with the point author is trying to make. Kudos to Indian Olympians for sacrifices they have made in the pursuit of Olympic medal. Provided they get enough support from government and private sponsors..Indians are second to none when it comes to sports. I wait for a day when our administrators realize this and learn to respect and take good care of our sports persons. Hats off to Nirmal Shekar for this article
Awsome reflection on scattered appreciation I must say....but this is a persisting fact of our
Indian society...be it sport science or other areas of glory.....but media is also a little
responsible for this (no of fences to anybody) we hear more of negative things about politics
and crimes rather than appreciating sports or other achievers.....media can make or mar
once response Im not suggesting anybody to cheer any political party or defame
others.....but if our television and print media can profess what this writer suggests it will
raise a step towards social reformation.....one might challenge my concern by the TRP
concept.....but if you educate the society (just like Aamir Khan and Anurag Kashyap) it will
change the future races and your TRP at large!! :)
Six medals is a sign that a new sports consciousness is arising. In
addition to better training facilities and a more enthusiastic
audience, our athletes will be aided by more mature and analytical
sports reporting. We need reporters who can report beyond the obvious
fact that India won 6 medals. How many top 10 finishes were there? How
did each athlete perform with respect to their ranking going in? When
someone goes in ranked 20th but comes with with a higher ranked
finish, then our reporters need to bring that out and not just whine
that the person 'crashed out'. We need an intelligent analysis of what
training an athlete had, whether it had an impact and what are the
areas for improvement.
India has contracted to a one sport nation. Even before Kapil Dev won
the cup for us, I spent most of my playing time with cricket. The game
suits mass, with one bat and one ball and 20 participating. In
addition anything could substitute for a bat and the ball. Any patch
of land, road or side-walk could transform as a pitch and you may get
a cheering bystanders to add. Everything fits and it became "the game"
of the masses. National players thus have catapulted as demi-gods and
their lives serve as juicy stories.
India cannot churn sportsmen by having a national policy or pumping
funds into its Olympic committee. These are desperate measures to put
on a face saving show. India has to be a sporty country first, where
sports is respected, honoured, discussed, patronized and rewarded as
any other career.
Else India will continue to claim credits from individual perseverance of a PT Usha here and Mary Kom there.
I am going blame the media, the sports authority and schools for not
giving sufficient visibility to other sports for the period between the
Olympics. The kids in the nation should have insight into what their
options are when it comes to sports. You show them cricket 24/7 and that
is all they will see. Children should be given more exposure to
athletics, gymnastics and other events, not just on television but in
stadiums where they can feel the exhilaration when an athlete runs a 100
meter dash or when a gymnast gives a solid performance.
YES NIRMAL YES!!!!!
I really Thank you Nirmal for being so brave in explaining the situation from the root level.I would like to mention some thing here,Most of the people dont even know who these olympians are even after winning the medal.Media should have provided more information about these people.People who have particpated in the event without winning any medals, where are they??. They are all forgotten already.
I think media has to do something better in highlighting their performances rather than keep repeating all these polatical messages as Breaking News.
very well written article.The likes of yogeshwar dutta and mary kom
deserve the recognition and support from the indian people.But that's
the problen with our country.Leave cricket,i have seen people fighting
over epl and spanish league and players transaction over there but
when you say that yogeshwar is fighting for a bronze medal,they say
who is this guy.If we leave cricket aside there are only 2 weeks once
in a four year when people do care about other sports and that too for
criticising sportpersons for not performing well.Olympics is wake up
call,but wait,india and its people are getting this wake up call from
past many years and what they are doing is just putting a snooze time
of 4 years everytime.
I don't agree with your 'gas cylinder' argument. Do you seriously think that Kiprotich (the Ugandan athlete) does not have to struggle to get a 'gas cylinder' in his country or Usain bolt is given rich largesses in Jamaica? Nay sir your argument does not take into account the struggles in Kazakhistan or Kenya or other corners of the world where living is tough and perhaps even tougher than in India for the Koms etc. There are other reasons for Indian athletes not performing well. Excellence in any field is only possible if you are able to compete against the best. And are we the best???
Well said. I hope we are able to respect and celebrate other sports.
It is sad that domestic sports is never appreciated in our country.
Even Ranji trophy doesn't attract much interest, but playing another
country in any sports evinces more interest. Which leads me to think
that though we are proud of our silver and bronze medal winners, it
has more to do with patriotism than any genuine appreciation for the
sport, skill or technique. Maybe the best way to get us more involved
in these sports is to telecast other international sporting events
with the participation of our athletes
Bravo! Nirmal Sekhar. You said it!
Some good word for Olympic team as I was expecting from todays paper. But the fact
is, things like this happen in all the countries, go to US baseball, basketball and
rugby is only sport people care about there, in japan sumo is only sports, in brazil
and most of the south american countries, football is only sport. Has these countries stopped winning medal in Olympics.
We must not hide what we haven't achieve. Nation of 120 Million is again searching
for medals.
How very true. Nirmal has said what many of us think; very eloquently. A cogent
piece of writing that hits the mark (if only Abhinav Bhindra had done so !?).
Nice article. Couldn't agree more on the views expressed. However, the point to be noted here is that even in cricket, only the players at the highest level get all the attention. Other than the IPL and
International games, cricket doesn't attract crowds at the lower levels either.
But yes, the sad fact remains that we are just a cricket crazy nation.
The highest ever Olympics medal tally of India and the large number of Indian Olympians reaching quarter finals and semi finals are strong positive signs for the country’s sports. Nevertheless, what is to be noted is that we are not good at team events, but in Individual events. Let the individual spirit blossom fully in the next Olympics at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016. The government may fashion its game-plan accordingly to groom and nurture the individual talents and the sports officials.
well said
As for the nation not celebrating Anand's achievement, let me assure you that Chess as a whole is not as celebrated as Basketball or Football(Soccer) across the globe. Chess has a limited following and it's not surprise that although it has a dedicated fan base (of players) in India, it is miniscule compared to the overwhelming populace. But yes, we are not calling out for a Bharat Ratna for Anand who has achieved far more than Tendulkar has, and what's more, Anand has several more years to go in his sport. So Anand can keep his hopes up.
India as a nation cannot suddenly improve the popularity of other sports, unless they grow as an athletic nation, which will never happen unless athletic ability is stressed by parents and by prospective spouses.
With the western culture and fear of diabetes, vigilance over fitness has improved but it is still a means to an end. When fitness pursuits become a lifestyle, then India will become a major contender in the Olympics.
This is a brilliant piece. Bravo Nirmal Shekar. We are not even true fans of the so called sport "Cricket". We do not even stand by them when they failed 8 times in a row, abroad. We, not all, but many of us are hypocrites, yes that is what we are and we should not be called or call ourselves fans or followers.
How would such articles reach people? Where will its impact be? We had a glorious opportunity to construct a world class stadium for the commonwealth games and we missed it sorely. It will hurt us, the common public, on a later date. So much could have been done. Nothing lost, we still can bring about the change.
Do not stop following cricket, but do follow other sports. If not, stop asking questions and stop complaining. If you cannot, do yourself a favour of participating in the olympics and bring a medal to honour the nation. Jai Hind.
Mr Nirmal Shekar, don't use the word 'we'. The Indian public is faceless and voiceless. It is the media (print and electronic) which is the culprit. Day in and out the public is bombarded with 'news' about cricket and cricketers (both Indian and foreign). Why, the Hindu itself has hosted a video of Mr.SRT receiving some award or launching some book. Then the other ofcourse is the irrelevant to Indians "English Premier League" whose results are peddled as if they are of earth-shaking importance to the Indian people. If you are so concerned about non-cricket Indian sports persons receiving NIL publicity, stop reporting on 'Cricket' and EPL for a month.
This is a genuine concern raised by the sports editor. Indians need to appreciate all
spots and show love for their Olympic players, admire them and value their
contribution in the Olympics. More than that the government should have a sense of
direction, a road map in place to promote sports beyond Cricket. Finally, we should
have less politics and more business in sports.
This article does not delve in the root of the problem.
The problem with India is simple and straightforward. I don't see why we're ignoring that.
As long as our parents keep teaching kids that "Playing is a crime" and that "A good kid is always studying and getting centum", we will not develop as an athletic nation.
Even our cricketers are not extraordinary athletes- several of them break down faster than a bamboo tree during a storm.
And the reason? The athletic discipline of the sport is fast bowling, which neglected by all and sundry in our country.
So we as a nation are not athletic. It doesn't matter what sport we celebrate. Unless we tell it to ourselves that we must become achievers through sport as well as profession, we will never be hauling a huge booty of medals. Even today, thousands of young Indian men/women hit the gym for the first time to hurriedly reduce their belly fat before marriage.
The author is partly right that India is a one sport nation – watching cricket.
I suggest to Nirmal Shekar to collaborate with US journalists, follow the daily practice routines for several years of athletes and sports persons in different areas. Such a write up would show the enormous effort of individuals, their families, coaches, sports organizations, and society.
Even articles like this will only show up in the newspaper after three full years and eleven and a half months, soon after the olympics are over no media will give any coverage to these sports person. We cannot follow their struggles individually, the burden lies on you to enlighten us.
Sad But True!!
4000 odd crores just for the TV rights for cricket!! why dont we divert most of the money we earn from cricket and divert it to other sports to build world class infrastructure , why cant all the athletes get paid really high !
hard to disagree with the column !! Mr Maken 2020 !! 25 medals ! stop dreaming!! 2050 ! may be 7 medals!! its a very sad state
India has been doing well at cricket (although this was not always the case in the past) because it has consistently put effort into
improving the level and quality of the game over many decades. Talent is spotted at a young age, even in school, and there is a strong cricketing tradition at the school, university, and state level. It is therefore no surprise that India has done well at cricket. It has done so well that it is now a lucrative and commercial venture, just as football is in Europe.
If this kind of effort had gone into individual sports like athletics, swimming, gymnastics, etc., then we would be seeing similar results. But that has yet to happen, although the 2012 Olympics has given us reason for hope. It is very likely that individual events are slowly gaining ground and future Olympics will see India moving steadily up the medals table. However, more effort needs to be made to build these sports at the same level as cricket - at the school, state and national level.
The question is whether we can even call ourselves a "One sport nation" for I think we have a BCCI cricket team rather than a Indian cricket team, which would NOT represent India in any matches other than that of ICC, which translates to. Even if Cricket does become a olympic event, we wouldn't participate because BCCI cannot make cash out of it.
This write a lot to say a little. If you have people like him and Politicians like you have you WILL NEVER FIND THE TALENT ALREADY in the country. Sushil is an excellent example. From nowhere to the Olympics. IF INDIANS were really Serious, just like Sushil there are a lot of talents in diverse sports in the country. SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND.
I totally agree with the writer. The treasure with BCCI cannot be
compared with the sports federation. The funding and
support(technologically or economically) is very poor though resulting top rank(from the bottom) in medal telly and demands in open field by Sushil Kumar to which we interpret as greed.
To make them work better I think there is need of structure like BCCI.
Well said. The author has hit the nail on the head !!
Very well put it Nirmal. We got to celebrate them, the Koms and
Yogeshwar.
Only if government could provide better infrastructure for other
sports..
Thanks for writing this. Dead on spot. And if it gives you any solace, I detest cricket. Don't watch it. Despise T20, and don't think Sachin is worth a Bharat Ratna. Can't stand the movie stars around the game, and don't bother checking on who is dating whom.
Cricket makes me want to throw up. And Saina and Pullella Gopichand have me going all over the web to find out how the hell they did it. Yes, let us keep Mary Kom alive. I, for one, will post their pics periodically on my FB page just to poke my fellowmen. Again, just letting you know if it gives you any solace. Just tell the Ambanis to give a huge party to the medal winners.
I could not disagree more. Winning in the Olympics is a function of two things - the economy
of the country and the number of people in it, the former being the heavier factor by a big
margin because Olympics are no more the amateur sports the organizers would like us to
believe. As the economy has progressed in the last 20 years, more money has flown into
everything. Yes, the odds are biased heavily in favor of cricket, but it is changing, slowly but
steadily. All the medal winning athletes this time got upwards of $100,000 in rewards. This
was unimaginable 15 years ago. So the money is getting there, and corporate sponsors are
taking interest. There is no reason not to believe that in 25 years, we can compete with
China and the USA in the medals table.
Excellent article. I could not digest the scene when the archer girl
sold her bow for paltry 50000 and even worse when the government paid her only 25000 as compensation whereas the 13th man in cricket gets in crores for his water bottle service. Saina has given us medal but our authorities were not able to manage her a fluent visa to malaysian open.
And just as you said the same question comes to me again.
Tainted politicians run most of the sports in India. Cricket at least have money left over for game development after politicians have taken their share. But for other sports there is no money for development.
I really appreciate your deepest insight. I agree with each of the
points raised and endorse your pioneer view on the situation of Indian sports. Thanking you for this organised article.
Question is: Why only a few medals for a Nation of 1.2 billion.
The main reason could be "Awareness". Many Indians do not know about many of these games. For instance many Indians never heard of about 'water polo', 'beach valley ball' and so on. Also 'culture' play a major role in this. Many Indian mothers do not allow their kids even to watch 'swimming' 'gymnastics' etc,. Participating in these games by girls - never happens.
Also many TV Channels do not show Olympic games. All most all TV programs are related to cinema. Awareness and Culture play a bigger part.
For Indians important things are: Education, Good Job, Sunday movie, Worry free Life and Peaceful Death. There is no room for games and sports. Not interested even to watch any games/sports.
Andy Padman - Waiting for the past 50 years to see India name in the first place in medal list. May not happen in my life time.
While I accept that in the last three decades, Cricket has become sort of a national sport, we weren't winning too many medals before that as well. As you have pointed out yourself, let us keep it simple. The reasons that I see are natural physical fitness (we have to accept that we haven't produced fast bowlers in popular cricket as well and it only comes naturally) dedication, discipline and government involvement. You may call Chess a superior sport and mock other sports...but other "physical" sports like track and field, cricket, football require an enormous amount of sacrifice of time and a lot of discipline (knowing fully well that one injury can curtail your career).As your own column has often shown, Indians tend to celebrate brains more than physical hard work. The other point is without government getting seriously involved in winning medals at Olympics, it is just not possible.
Brilliantly written. It's a wake up call. Thank you.
:)well written.
Don't worry they won't pester you for another 3.5years.It is a pity that this nation lets down countless athletes, in the name of one Game rest all are neglected.
Nice article, thought provoking . Having lived the first 30 years of my life in beloved India, and later in the U.S., I've often asked the question too. Its not that we are not hard working. The average man on the street in India struggles like no other , and fights through a myriad challenges, like the gas connection you mention, power cuts, childrens' schooling, taking care of parents, etc etc.
Then with all our stamina and efforts, why do we not shine, except rarely? Or asking the question in an obtuse way, what makes, for example Americans tick in all fields like science, sports etc.
I dont necessarily think its some kind of over-dedication or just over-working . It seems to lie in their almost almost unemotional work habit. They come at 9, leave at 5, take a lunch break, enjoy vacation sports etc,nothing spectacular, but do their job right. That, multiplied across 300 million people makes a great nation.
Well said. You have reflected the angst and sentiments of the majority of the people. We pay lip service to all other sports and games other than cricket. Yet when this sports extravaganza comes around, we are armchair critics expecting our neglected athletes to bring in glory!
We need a complete change of attitude, start at the grassroots to imbibe the passion to what we go and needs the support of the government. Start small with honesty and dedication... and in a few years.. we can expect great results.
Very nice article about reality in India. Sad but true
oh c'mon dont be so negative...
India across the Olympics 1996- 2012(G,S,B)
Atlanta 1996 - (0, 0, 1)
Sydney 2000 - (0, 0, 1)
Athens 2004 - (0, 1, 0)
Beijing 2008 - (1, 0, 2)
London 2012 - (0, 2, 4)
So, in short the best Olympics for India - though gold was elusive this year. Good to see medal winners different sports like shooting, wrestling, badminton and women boxing. Expected something in archery and tennis (would have got something if player egos would have been dominated by patriotism); this year hockey team was the most disappointing.
But lots more of encouragement to sport - by providing more funding, better training facilities and more dedication from players needed for India to be among the big league of US, China, UK.
As the London Olympics motto - we need to inspire a generation. All the best for Rio 2016.
Love the anguish of the writer in the form of sarcasm! I wonder how
people find the lazy colonial game of Cricket so fascinating!
Sportsmen are sportsmen and why do you want them to be given a gas
cylinder out of turn than their less talented equally needy brethren who are also equally busy to survive and make a living??!!
Encouraging sports does not men to throw freebies to the successful but hard work at gross route to locate talents, facilitate them, give them coaching and develop a culture for achievements.Unfortunately, in the name of sports many parasites sap the fund and politics is playing havoc among officials, selectors and sports persons.
An Outstanding article. Nirmal Shekar is right on target. When will India learn that their obsession with cricket is causing poor image in all other sports. Look at the hockey team in the Olympics, finishing dead last after losing all the matches. It was a sport where India were the best. The Indian athletes who won silver and bronze medals deserve more credit than their counterparts from other countries winning gold medals, because they did that in a sport that nobody cares about in India. Thanks Nirmal for shooting straight on this subject.
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