Vol-3. Issue 152, News Mania, RNI No. - WBENG/2013/50163, Weekly, Dt. - 02-09-2016 to 08-09-2016/ 16 Pages/ Rs.4.00 3

Cont... P-2

Dola believes that we must nurture talents from school or academy levels. “Manybright talents give up in the long race due to poor infrastructure. Yes, comparingto the past, nowadays we receive a lot of help in our preparations, but that reachus quite late. We must ensure that the fund allocation and its implementation comein the same page”, she added further.

This is true that as far as Indian sports is concerned—Cricket eats the majorshare of the pie. The sport is regarded as a religion in India. Cricketers earn a lotof money and fame, which is almost unthinkable for our Olympic athletes. Theirperformance hardly matters, these days; with Indian Premier League (IPL) ensuringanother source in the long lists. Other sportspersons slam this situation and blamethe government and sports bodies. They argue that this game is played by a handfulof countries internationally, yet they receive huge attention in terms of every-thing—sponsors, endorsements, match-fees, awards, media coverage et al.

Meanwhile, India’s only individual Olympic gold medallist, Shooter AbhinavBindra, said he was fed up with apathetic officials, someof whom were unqualified for the job and were not beingheld accountable for a lack of success on the field.

“I won’t get angry and spoil my own health. It hap-pens every time and that is the way it is,” the shooter,who won gold in Beijing in 2008 and finished fourth inRio, told reporters.

“We need a complete overhaul of the system. We needmore experts coming in. I have no problem with a politi-cian if he can bring something to the table”, Bindraadded further.

India, a country obsessed with cricket, has never fin-ished high on the medal table — winning just 28 from24 Olympic appearances. We’ve achieved too less in toolong period.

But India, with a population of more than a billionpeople and enjoying strong economic growth, had beentargeting 10 medals in Rio and sent its largest eversquad. India’s government spent about 1.2 billion rupees($18 million), however, preparing the athletes, accordingto the sports ministry, a fraction of the amount forked out by China, Britain andother countries.

Experts believe that the archaic mindset of running sports ministries or bodiesin the country should change. Our sports federations and associations have re-mained more or less like the fiefdom of greedy politicos—where professionalismcomes last and self-serving policies comes first. These bodies become merrymakinghubs of muscle-flexing for our politicians.

India’s lone individual gold-medallist Bindra, alluding to the vastly improvedperformance by the British athletes backed by massive funding, says one must not“expect much until we put systems in place”. However, developing a sporting culturemeans more than improving facilities. It demands that people cease to see sport inarchaic terms, of being nothing more than a pastime. While it is true that it cannotbe a substitute for life-subsistence needs of the disadvantaged, the disdain for ittranscends classes. It is important to understand that modern-day sport is profes-sional at its core and helps in creating jobs and businesses. It is also an importanttool for human resource development. And above all, don’t forget a country’sOlympic performance works like an indicator of its overall health, living standards,education, culture etc.

When a wave of franchise--based sports leagues are emerging in the country,it’s the right time to instil a sports culture among our young wards. In that direction,the US, Great Britain and China model can work wonders for us. Yes, we’ve donetoo little, too late—but there’s been some positive change witnessed in recentyears. For the first time—four sportspersons—PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Dipa Kar-makar and Jitu Rai will be given Khel Ratna Award. It’s heartening to see that noneof them belong to Cricket. It’s going to boost the confidence of other sportspersons.The action plan for next three Olympics should be implemented whole-heartedly.Let bygones be bygones—and start our journey afresh towards walking that extramile to become a sporting nation.