Indian Sports

How can India emerge as a sporting superpower?

Surya Shekhar Das 

Rohit Sharma essayed a pull shot with oriental or native artistry at the cricket stadium in Dharamshala and the ball sailed towards the Himalayas.

Virat Kohli sculptured  a cover drive at the ethereal Eden Gardens that should be put at the Louvre museum. He played a highly calibrated innings with the optimum  application of nifty or skillful engineering  on a treacherous track in Johannesburg.

MS Dhoni, having arguably the fastest hands of the East, effected a brilliant stumping with consummate ease in Chennai.

These Indians cricketers are the icons amidst us.

Team India has won three world cups. Two fifty-over world cups and a T20 world cup. Virat Kohli's team is  the numero uno in Test cricket.

But when the Indian athletes go to the Olympics, they dish out a sorry tale year after year.A few valid questions  bug me. Our hockey team, once a part of the  sporting folklore, did not win a single Olympic medal since 1984. We still do not know when will our football team at least participate in the Olympics or in a World Cup. Why do we fail on a regular basis at the Olympics? Even in the last Olympics, the financially weakened  Ethiopia dribbled past India comfortably on the medal table. And in the 2012 Olympics, the poor Uganda scooted past our country. In both cases, India ranked outside of the top fifty nations. Why do the Indian athletes fail to broaden the   horizons of performances ? Is it fair for India to establish itself on the sporting map just as a cricket-centric country?

An then comes a very pertinent question . When will we have  a comprehensive sports policy? Unless we have a proper detailed sports policy, we stand nowhere. A policy which should be supplemented by clear vision, government as well as private (PPP) investment and proper deploying of personnel. In India, politicians often sit pretty well on the  various sports organisations. The politicians should make way for the former competent players, sports writers,and  surely, the management people. The former players bring a wealth of experience, they have the excellent understanding of the game concerned, invariably they possess the priceless  ground knowledge. The sports writers fetch creative yet actionable insights into the game. Surely, these people nurture the finest minds in them. They can add immense value, new perspectives to the various discipline of sports. And we need the management people. The triumvirate of former players, sports writers and management people can pull the Indian sports a long way forward. The management people/managers can blend technology with innovation. They can create a knowledge pool where natural intelligence will embrace the artificial intelligence seamlessly. These suave professionals would be transparent, accountable and working on the sustainable as well as implemetable models. They do not settle for anything less than excellence.Importantly , they have the courage to challenge the status quo. Invariably, they are adaptive to change. They thrive on quality innovation, ambition, honesty as well as integrity. With the help as well as hunch provided by the former players and sports writers, these managers will craft a glorious future for our athletes. When Australia failed to win even a single gold medal in the 1976 Montreal Olympics,the Australian government took some drastic decisions which brought a positive, seismic change into their sports. As a result, Australian Athletes were paid handsomely, the government created  such a sporting ecosystem where budding talents could bloom properly, the precise  scientific process strengthened the players, medical teams and physiotherapists ensured athletes reached at the peak of  physical fitness. Even, mental aspects of sportpersons were taken into due consideration.When everything fall into place, Australia put themselves on the global sports map. Their ascendancy has taken a colossal leap in the Olympics. If the Kangaroos experienced such metamorphosis in their sports, why not the Indians?

When the indefatigable Leander Paes annexed the bronze medal in tennis (singles) in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics,I thought Indian tennis would experience the hitherto unseen glorious dawn. Leander is cut from the entirely different cloth. Such is his unsinkable self-belief and enormous intensity, he has shined brilliantly. Truly, Leander's accomplishments have symbolised the individual brilliance. Mahesh Bhupati, Somdev DevVarman, Sania Mirza...all  dazzled briefly. But none piloted  himself/herself on the global canvas of tennis. India has not produced even a single grand slam winner in singles. When Karnam Malleswari won the bronze medal in the weightlifting category in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, it was  indeed a historic achievement. Karnam Malleswari was the first Indian female athlete to win a Olympic medal. But has any woman after Malleswari achieved  something special in the  Olympics in weightlifting? The answer is painfully No. And there was the  magnificent Mary Kom who fought hard with such an epical courage that even a brilliant wordsmith might fail to describe. Mary Kom's unique achievement in the 2012 London Olympics should be a trailblazer in women boxing, but unfortunately it did not not turn into that way. Has the ground-breaking performance of Dipa Karmakar at the Rio Olympics given a new lease of  life to gymnastics? Has the wrestler Sakshi Malik's stunning exploits in the last Olympics turned a new chapter in women wrestling? The answer is tiresomely inconclusive. But then, think of badminton. As a shutller,P. Gopichand was a once-in-a-generation player . He won the All England Open Badminton Championships. Now, as a coach he has created a virtually Gurukul system where shutlers like P V Sindhu,Saina Nehwal  blossomed into an Olympic medalist. So there is no dearth of talents in Indian sports. As I have already pointed out, if the working of former players, writers and managers can be allowed in tandems, Indian athletes will scale dizzy heights in Olympics or other global competitions . Surely, investment is a  massive factor. If Indian cricket team is enjoying the sumptuous brand of sponsorship ( the amount is astronomically high at INR 1079 crore bequeathed by the OPPO Mobiles India for a five-year deal started on 1st April 2017 ), why should  other Indian athletes not be financially  bolstered ? I have already mentioned about Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni. I have nothing against Indian cricketers. I believe, along with Kohli,Rohit and Dhoni,... Dipa Karmakar, Sakshi Malik, PV Sindhu...all are tough, proud competitors who have given immeasurable joy to us. And they can win more global laurels for our motherland. They can be world beaters. They should be given the proper ambience to flourish. I don't want to see India as  a  single-dimensional, cricket-mad country.To me, from the investment perspective, the great Indian sports conglomerate is like a  magnificent diversified equity fund which will go from strength to strength over a period of time provided everything fall into place. And if that happens, I have no doubt in my mind that India will emerge as a comprehensive superpower sporting nation which will excel from the cricket fields to the fields of Olympics, the greatest show on earth.