Games over Losers all

Subhash Rajta in Chandigarh

About a decade back, Sunil Dutt, the then Sports Minister in a Congress government, let out a worst-kept secret. “Politicians consider the Sports Ministry as a punishment posting, no one wants it,” said the genial actor-turned politician. Dutt was absolutely right. The brightest individuals, almost as a rule, aren’t sent to the Sports Ministry. And the individual who ends up as the Sports Minister, despite his reluctance, is constantly on the lookout for a plum posting elsewhere.

With a reluctant minister totally clueless, it’s no surprise the Indian sporting ship continues to flounder in choppy waters. So should we be really shocked by the Rio debacle? The fans may be, but most in the sporting circles aren’t. “What did you expect,” asks Virender Poonia, a Dronacharya awardee in athletics. “Our sports policies are formulated by the people who have perhaps never participated even in their school’s sports meet. And that’s hurting our sports and sportspersons the most.”

False start

If it’s the lack of concern and interest at the top, at the bottom, it’s the absence of scientific coaching, training and infrastructure that’s keeping our athletes from becoming world beaters. In the modern sporting world, it’s necessary that an athlete starts early under a competent coach, with access to good facilities. Unfortunately, our athletes fall behind their competitors at the very start of the race to become champion athletes.

“For every sport, the critical element is coaching at the junior level. That’s one thing in which we’re far behind the rest of the world,” Viren Rasquinha, a former hockey skipper, said. “It’s the combination of coaching, the right training facilities, the right equipment, the right doctors, physiotherapists, nutritionists, mental trainers and the desire of the athletes to be the best that goes into the making of a champion athlete.”

An overwhelming majority of our Olympians come from poor and rural background. In the small towns and villages they start their sporting journeys from, coaching and infrastructure, if at all, is very basic and primitive. The glaring examples of the odds these athletes have to beat to reach the national and international stage are Dipa Karmakar and Lalita Babar, the two women who impressed one and all with their gritty showing at the Rio Olympics. Babar, who hails from a drought-prone village in Maharashtra, didn’t even have a pair of running shoes while she was growing up. Karmakar, from Agartala, started off by training in a rickety gymnasium, using shock absorbers from discarded scooters as spring boards.

“Our athletes are already 16-17 year old by the time they start serious training or get noticed. It’s difficult to improve beyond a point an athlete after a certain age. One needs to start early, at least before 12 years, to have a better shot at developing into a top athlete,” said Poonia.

Running on empty

Most of the athletes in Olympic sports come from under-privileged background. As a result, most of them struggle to get a nutritious diet, a must for someone aspiring to be a professional sportsperson, in their growing years. An coach told this correspondent how lack of proper diet was keeping a promising athlete from realizing her true potential. “I need to increase her training load, but can’t. Her fragile body can’t take any extra load,” the coach said.

A 20-year-old judoka, who feels a better diet in her growing years would have made her a better fighter, is bemused with the attitude of our government and society. “The government promises riches and jobs to sportspersons after they win medals, but how can underfed sportspersons win medals?” she asks. Maybe we will win more medals if the government and people offer even ten percent of the appreciation they shower on medallists to the athletes when they are slugging it out in anonymity. 

Outdated coaching

Sometime back, an All India Football Federation scout said the training imparted to the juniors was anything but outdated. Michael Nobbs, a former India hockey coach, had told The Tribune that the syllabus used at NIS Patiala to prepare coaches was totally outdated. Even if the two gentlemen had exaggerated the situation, it’s an open secret that our coaches aren’t up to scratch, especially at the junior level. And nor is the system churning out the coaches. Poonia feels the coaching scenario could improve to some extent if the champion players are cajoled into coaching. “A top class athlete knows what it takes to compete at the world level. Having done it himself, he will be in a much better position to chalk out the plans and preparations for others,” said Poonia. 

To understand Poonia’s point, look at Pullela Gopichand, the coach of silver medallist PV Sindhu, and Bisheshwar Nandi, the coach of Dipa Karmakar. The two, while Gopichand was India’s top shuttler for a long time, Nandi was five-time national champion, used their experience from their playing days to turn their wards into champions.

Poonia’s Hisar fails her

Hisar: The district authorities seem obsessed with developing yoga infrastructure. Sports nurseries are practically closed and sports wings supporting the young achievers have been disbanded.

Savita Punia, 27, the world class goalie of the India Women Hockey team, has been jobless. It was her stellar performance as goalkeeper in the Hockey World League semis against Japan last year which ensured India’s berth in the Olympics. Her father Mahender Punia says he has been trying to meet state sports minister Anil Vij for a job for her daughter. “There has been no job offer. I want a decent job for her so that she continues playing.” The district sports infrastructure is so bad that Punia and her team mate Poonam Malik have to practise at the rough grass turf at Hisar’s SAI centre. The Astroturf is ready but it’s out of bounds for the players in the absence of water, electricity and sewerage. District sports officer Sube Singh Beniwal says three nurseries – boxing, wrestling and judo – have been closed for two years. A parent of a young gymnast said: “The facilities are so poor that players risk injuries while practising.” — Deepender Deswal

Selling bananas, clay wares

Bhiwani: Coaches at Bhim stadium in the district, which has produced Olympians like boxer Vijender Singh, say they have not received any equipment in the last two years. “Rajiv Gandhi Khel stadiums in villages have no equipment. I met two players recently who had the potential to be elite wrestlers. One sells bananas on a cart and another has become a mason,” he said. 

Nirmala Prajapati, who captained Haryana in women’s kabbadi in June that won Gold, says she had no money to participate in the national championship in Tamil Nadu which forced her to sell clay ware with her mother on a roadside.

“The government is unwilling to take sports seriously,” says wrestling coach Mahabir Phogat, whose two daughters, Babita and Vinesh, lost their bouts in Rio. Phogat would get Dronacharya award on August 29. He says despite him and his two daughters becoming the recipients of the top award, government support for building facilities is almost absent. — Sat Singh

Any taker for Rai?

Sonepat: Sports don’t make careers. Ask students of the prestigious Motilal Nehru School of Sports (MNSS) at Rai near Sonepat. The school authorities say 31 students of the school went up to the international level, but they gave up later. “After leaving the school, they generally concentrate on academic career because of lack of job opportunities in the sports,” says Vice Principal Neelam Chaudhary

There are 842 students in the school from class IV to XII. It is compulsory for each student to adopt a game of one’s choice. The school has an athletics stadium, swimming pool, gymnasium, tennis, volley ball and basket ball courts, equestrian lines, football, hockey and cricket fields and squash courts. The coaches are drawn from three sources: School’s own establishment, SAI and Haryana Sports Department. Chaudhary says new Director-cum-Principal, Bharti Arora, DIG, has introduced this year a sports eligibility test consisting of seven parameters for new students joining class IV.  — BS Malik