Milkha Singh feels there is little hope of India winning any athletics medal at the Delhi Commonwealth Games. And the 81-year-old knows a thing or two about athletics as well as the institutions that run these sports. He thinks some medals will come our way in boxing, wrestling, shooting, archery, tennis and weight-lifting, and will come despite the sporting bodies, not because of them. It is determination and passion that eggs our youngsters on to pursue sports, despite all the disincentives. It is a tribute to the great Indian family that sports are pursued at all in this country.
Some of the big successes that India has seen in the global sporting arena in the recent past?Tejaswini Sawant, Saina Nehwal and Abhinav Bindra?are all creations of dedicated parenting and systematic nurturing of talent by the country?s sporting infrastructure. But the latter only comes in after the hard work is over.
Tejaswani is the first Indian woman shooter to win a gold medal at the World Championships with a world record-equalling score. She dedicated her victory to her late father, Ravindra Sawant, a retired Naval engineer, who encouraged her to take up the unglamorous, unpopular sport of rifle shooting in Kolhapur. Her parents, though not very well off, went through a lot of hardship to enable her to pursue the expensive sport. The training infrastructure was also never adequate. It is only now that a world class shooting range has come up at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune, where she can practise.
Twenty-year-old Saina Nehwal was able to bloom under coach P Gopichand and become the World number 2 in badminton thanks to her family. Saina?s father relocated from Haryana Agriculture University in Hisar to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Hyderabad, and refused promotions to support Saina?s sporting career. India?s first individual Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra?s success is also attributed more to his family, especially his father, than any sporting association.
Unfortunately these successes have been few and far in between. And the family system can only do so much. The time to professionalise sports management and bring in professionals with a passion to promote sports, and not themselves, is needed. Milkha Singh suggests handing over training of athletes to the army. A bit drastic but not a bad idea. Until then, Indian families please do your best so that the country of a billion plus has something to show in the medals tally.
geeta.nair@expressindia.com