Are we a One Sport Nation?

Ask the 1.21 billion in our country what their favourite sport is, and 1 billion would reply Cricket. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but my the fact remains that most people in India today follow just that one sport. There was a time when we were dominant in Hockey, with eight Olympic gold medals to show for it. There was a time when we qualified for a Football World Cup, but couldn't participate because of the lack of shoes, or because of the lack of funds to travel, whichever story you believe. For quite a few years after that we were the highest ranked Asian team in the world. Today we are ranked around 150 in the world, behind every single one of our sub-continental neighbours, leave alone the powerhouses. So the question is, how did this fall happen in a matter of half a century  in case of football, and just about a quarter of a century in case of hockey? Perhaps the problem lies in the way sport is run in our country. Most of the people in charge of the sports federations have never played the sport they are running, hence are completely unaware of the facilities and infrastructure required. Even if they are made aware, they seem more interested in devising ways to preserve their seat rather take a hard-line approach in rooting out all the problems starting at the grass-roots level. This fact is very well established when we see the ground conditions of the pitches used for the national football league in the country, and compare them to moderately developed countries like the ones in South-East Asia. No effort seems to be made in improving the grounds and the development facilities, and as a result these sports seem to be a continuous downward spiral.

Another very recent controversy which I should bring to light here is the row surrounding the prize money offered to the hockey team which returned victorious from the first ever Asian hockey championships. They were offered a paltry sum as prize money and quite correctly, they refused to accept it. The reward was later increased, but by then the damage had already been done. This sort of step-motherly and callous attitude of the federations serves as a demotivating factor for the players, who become disillusioned with the lack of recognition which their sport brings. Hence, youngsters tend to prefer Cricket, because it ois sure to provide them a much better source of income if they become moderately successful.

I'm in no way saying that all sport in India is dwindling.  Sports like shooting,boxing,wrestling,chess and a few others have been producing a number of champions over the past couple of years. But an interesting thing to note here is that most of the sportsmen who have achieved success are the ones who have put in their individual time,money and effort to train and improve themselves and have not depended on the federations. An Abhinav Bindra,a Saina Nehwal or a Vishwanathan Anand have all trained individually and achieved success. Probably the only exceptions here are the boxers and the wrestlers, but most of them train with the Army or the Police, who have strict regimens they must adhere to.

So perhaps the pertinent point here is that the attitude of the people in charge of the sport have to change in order for our sportsmen and women to achieve greatness. There needs to be a start somewhere, and the quicker that happens the better. We should not give up on other sports just because we are world champions in cricket. All sports should be given a chance to grow. Sport is the one sphere where people genuinely forget their differences and celebrate as one, case in point, the Cricket World Cup win this year. I hope other sports also provide us qith more such reasons to celebrate in the future.