According to me India may not fare well in the ongoing Rio Olympics and as expected our sportsmen may return almost empty handed. Nowadays, many small countries in the world feature in the medal list. One of the reasons is the “political influence and the high-handedness of the officials”, in the field of sports. The sports commissions and organizations are headed, not by eminent sports personalities but by ignorant politicians.
The selection of candidates and sportspersons for the national/international competition is done not on experts’ advice but mostly as per the whims and fancies of these politicians who know nothing about sports. There are still cases where the selection is not done on merit and performance but on the basis of influence and money power! Several talented and worthy sportspersons have been sidelined and neglected and much lesser known are selected and sent abroad to represent India, though of late –say for the last couple of years – such cases have rather reduced.
Our officials when abroad behave like “bosses”, indulge in high handedness and treat our participants as if sportsmen are at their mercy. Did we not hear about the jerseys being not supplied to the hockey team this time, before the inauguration? The officials mostly demoralize and destroy the initiative of the athletes. We have already started witnessing how our Union Sports Minister and his entourage have been throwing their weight around at the Olympics games venues. And how the Haryana sports minister Anil Vij and his officials / MLAs are visiting the Rio at the cost of public exchequer. Does the presence of these officials motivate our athletes and sportspersons? Instead of spending crores on such outings, can’t the government spend on the welfare of our sportspersons, their training and provide other amenities to them? Will their visit improve the conditions of our sportspersons there?
Our sportspersons too are to blame to some extent. They still do not devote much time for practice and become active only on the eve of a contest. Perhaps, they lack enough resources, facilities and time too.
Yes, this is a fact that in our country except for cricketers unfair treatment is meted against other sportsmen. The government doesn’t make proper travel arrangements for sportsmen. Instead they are made to travel in unreserved coaches, and substandard accommodation is offered to them.
To a certain extent competition and animosity between our own players also contribute to the demoralization of our sportsmen. Less said the better about the wrestling and tennis sportspersons, this time which became a matter of debate on news channels and media. There is no dearth of talent in our country. In fact, there is abundant youth and talent. The sports officials must groom youth in right earnest and sincerity to enable them to successfully compete in the next Olympics. Countries like China, Russia, Japan, Korea spot talent at the very early stage and groom the children for right sports and make them experts to compete in the international arena. We need to learn from these nations. Eliminate corruption and politics from the field of sports and politicians and corrupt officials must not hold any post in sports institutions. India, then, can certainly achieve a respectable standard and position. Let this “RIO-2016” Olympics be a lesson to all concerned.
S. Krishna Kumar
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
