Sunday, November 18, 2001		Article

EXCEPT for sporadic achievements, India’s over-all progress in the sporting arena has been dismal during the last 50-plus years. An in-depth study and dispassionate survey shows India was much better in the pre-1982 era in Olympic disciplines than in the post-IX Asian Games in Delhi.

This is because magnificent stadia have decayed more because of disuse than because of adequate and systematic utilisation. The fate of the stadia is the same as it has been since the Asian Games. The sportspersons are starving because of exorbitant levies while tamashas and ‘festivals’ will be held to provide fat salaries to ill-informed non-entities of the Sports Authority of India (SAI).

Similar is the fate of stadia at many other centres, which have held the National Games since 1985. The stadia at Suresh Kalmadi’s home-town Pune, for instance, have been rotting although the National Games were held there in 1994. While the stadia have become monuments, Pune has not thrown up even a mouse in the arena of Olympic disciplines.

During the last 20 years or about, the Central government and state governments have spent more than Rs 200 crore and succeeded in producing only lambs for slaughter in the Olympic disciplines. Worldwide, countries opt for international events, like, Olympic Games, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, to display their wealth of human skill, ability and extraordinary achievements and also showcase other assets to earn fame and improve their image.

In sharp contrast, we Indians hold international events to provide a platform that will enable our opponents to maul and humiliate us in our own territory.

Top Performers

Satish Bhatia

Gurbachan Singh

Ajmer Singh

Nripjit S. Bedi

Parveen Kumar

Unlike sportspersons, who fail to perform and thereby sulk after the events is over, the officials make hay as it happened after the conclusion of the Games. Many officials were awarded promotions, sent abroad on lucrative postings and some were even honoured with Padma Shrees.

Following many trials and turbulations against British rule, India climbed the Everest among 10 other participating nations (six disciplines) in the inaugural Asian Games at the National Stadium (New Delhi) in 1951. The happiness was however shortlived. The Indian officials, most of them social-climbers, stayed static in their ideals; they were devoid of plans and programmes. Sportspersons became complacent. In sharp contrast, many Asian countries recovering from the devastation of the World War II embarked upon refreshing and scientific measures to raise their general standard of sports. Soon, the gulf between India and other Asian countries widened and in many events India stood in the category of ‘also ran or participated’.

China has now broken away from the rest of the Asian countries. It is placed among the best of the world. It will now host the 2006 Olympic Games and Chinese sportspersons will steal a decisive march over even the Americans!

It is said: "Do not think what is difficult for thee to master is impossible for man; but if a thing is possible and proper to man, deem it attainable by thee." It should have been a guiding philosophy of Indian sportspersons and officials. But they sadly stayed in deep slumber leading to the widening of the gulf. Where we were cutting seconds, others were cutting minutes. Now the gap is so alarming that it will make many decades of dedicated efforts to reduce the difference.

The fault for declining standards of sports in the country is not because of sportspersons or lack of talent. The fault lies with officials, who have little clue about sports and sports management. It does not require foreign coaches. But what it urgently needs is foreign planners and programme setters.

The Indian sporting scene continues to dip. The hockey team’s first loss came at the Tokyo Asiad. Since then it has been battling to regain its glory. There are some who feel that the Indian hockey has been buried with the death of wizard Dhyan Chand. Maybe, it is too harsh an observation. But our overall performance in international competitions has been generally dismal, occasionally disgraceful, and rarely satisfactory.

As if loss in hockey in the Tokyo Asiad was not enough, India suffered an ignoble defeat against West Indies in the Kanpur and Calcutta Tests in 1958-59. Anthony de Mello, one of the architects of Indian sports, was confronted by a youngman sitting by his side in the plane from Bombay to Delhi. De Mello pleaded with the youngman that he was no longer at the helm of affairs of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. But the agitated youngman produced a juicy morsel from his briefcase. The tiny news-item that had appeared in Calcutta daily, read: "Sir, we regret to announce the sad demise of Indian cricket on January 4, 1959, at 11.40 am at Eden Gardens (Calcutta) after a protracted illness painfully borne. The body will be carried to Madras to enable a vast number of mourners to pay their last homage and thence to Delhi, where the last rites will be performed. Inserted by a grief-stricken nation."

The defeats in hockey and cricket gave rise to the formation of the All-India Council of Sports (AICS) to arrest the falling standards of sports in the country. The AICS totally flopped and the tax-payers’ money went down the drain. With the AICS failing to take-off, the Government constituted an ad hoc committee in July, 1958, to study the low standards of sports obtaining in the country. It was entrusted with the responsibility of recommending for a ‘Central Training Institute’ to provide first-class coaches.

The ad hoc committee formed a two-man panel of M.K. Kaul and M.N. Kapur. After undertaking visits abroad, they suggested that the ideal centre would be at Patiala’s Moti Bagh Palace (250 acres).

Rich in history, traditions and culture, Moti Bagh Palace was indeed the best centre from every point of view. The National Institute of Sports (NIS) came up on May 7, 1961, and it functioned satisfactorily until 1982, when the Asian Games were staged in New Delhi.

The conclusion of the Games led to formation of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the NIS was merged into it. It was indeed a bad day for Indian sports. if NIS was labelled as ‘Nothing Inside’, the SAI is a ‘white elephant’ which is swallowing major chunk of money by way of salaries and perks and travel allowances and daily allowance. The SAI’s first Director-General was Maj. Gen Narender Singh, who had the support of the Asian Games Chairman, Buta Singh, an important wheel in the Government.

Maj.Gen Narender Singh was essentially a well-meaning official. He was articulate and had the gift of the gab. He had brought with him a team of officials who were, in essentiality, ‘dead wood’ in army. No wonder SAI has been languishing, with no tangible results to show despite spending more than Rs 600 crore since its formation.

Similarly, the prestigious Patiala Training Institute, rated one of the finest by world authorities, is being controlled by an official, who is neither an educationist nor a sportsperson. There was time when it was headed by such luminaries, like, Dr A.W. Howard.

No wonder sports standards have been falling at an alarming speed.