A broken hole in Indian Sports Culture

Being surrounded by sports all my life playing and watching various sporting events. I feel sad to find the condition of Indian sports: the infrastructure, facilities, emotional support, all slowly being diminished day by day. The news about Messi visiting India and the sum of money pumped in by the sponsors, which although are not government entities will not do anything in Indian sport is merely lack of intent and pure dishonesty with the whole system. And this does not imply that I have a problem of Messi visiting India but the very problems are left intact without any drastic solution. And it does not mean that we do not have money but apparently our priorities are lost. And what annoys me the most about it all these India house that was in display last year during the Olympics and spilling the limelight on the Ambani’s when our own sportsmen were pushed. In India, everything of the rich appears to demonstrate their wealth and be in the headlines at any given time.

This is coming from my own personal experience in which I had to compete without a coach. It was a pity that our basketball team was playing without the help of the college other than completing forms. When this is the truth in college level, then one can just imagine how athletes in higher levels pass through. However, as soon as results fail to arrive we are quick to point the finger at the players. Thus, I realize how the professional sportsmen should feel seeing the situation in Indian sport. It is only sad that we forget about all this stuff and then people want our sport stars to become winners.

Medals do not come suddenly. It is accompanied by both the quantity of preparedness and the priorities that a nation makes. We continuously appear to be in comparison with China but the fact is that systems they possess is by no means comparable to our systems in India. It is therefore stupid to compare ourselves with China. It is sad to see the people accuse the athletes in case of Olympics, Commonwealth Games where the number of medals has been so low. The sporting ecosystem comprising of the scouting, coaching, sports science, psychological support, and athlete development of long-term in China is a thousand times ahead of our own It is so wrong in so many aspects to blame the athletes. To begin with, India is a developing country and there are so many ignored groups of people. They enter the sports world with such humble backgrounds hoping that they may bring change in the situation of their families. And even when they get to a certain stage, they cannot find a sponsor, as difficult as they are to get and they leave sport as it would no longer be a living. It is in this cycle that so many young and talented sportsperson leave or stop the sport, altogether. And those who make it professionally also have trouble competing with the global athletes because of being unable to be exposed to a certain extent such as facilities, even going up to 90% and above of the things you need to continue growing, the ignorance of professional psychologists and the value that they add to taking your game to a new level. These are the issues they meet at international level. 

I have been keenly following Olympics since the last 3 editions. And the only thing I have noticed particularly to Indian sport is that we have good athletes, but the same athletes where big stage is concerned, they fail to deliver. Particular to the Olympics 2024 where nearly 6-7 athletes got 4th place in the podium and could not win a medal. This is how it has been the case over a number of years now, So, it is not about the absence of skills but rather the inability to play in big situations. This was the same statement made by Prakash Padukone when Lakshya Sen lost the bronze medal match to Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia whom he had a spectacular record prior to the match and had led by winning the first set and had led in the second set also. The same sentiment is the absence of mental strength in crunch situations also expressed by him. This is not of course instantly improved. This issue is a systematic issue and a trend that will only be overcome with time and with other athletes also. To this we must possess good coaches around us, who know all about this, addressing the subject of mental health and the taboo which pertains to it. But the lack in concentration that the individuals managing the sport have in this country is simply discouraging to the future generation sportsmen.

Finally, I do not want to mention our aspiration of hosting Olympics in 2036, I would only say looking at the present condition of Indian sport infrastructure in India, it is better not to host, or the financial losses we are going to incur in terms of economy will be immense. It would have been better that we had learnt on the 2010 Commonwealth Games disaster otherwise even the image of the country is at stake in the event of continue doing so.

India needs to first mend its foundations rather than pursuing grand events. Until we value athletics more than appearance and systems more than show-biz, Indian sports are still going to be affected, and so are generations of talent that are denied the opportunity they should be able to get.