We have just now witnessed the war between the Indian hockey players and the association, wherein the players finally won. They won not because of the magnanimity of the association, but due to the huge public outcry and the contributions made by some business houses to pay the players dues. If not for the public outcry the association would have continued to bully the players and then chosen a Z grade to represent India at the world cup. Who in the association cares as long as he / she gets his airlines tickets, 5 star hotel stay and daily parties wherever the association meetings are held. They have money for all this, but have nothing to pay the players.
What the players did this time was perfectly right and perfectly timed. Crudely we can say that the players had the association by the balls. It is also highly commendable that the media and the public stood behind the players and put and end to this nonsense quickly.
This particular situation is not restricted only to Hockey. All Indian sports including athletics, wrestling, archery, boxing, football suffer from the same. A few years ago when Mr Shahnawaz Hussain was the sports minister glimpses of a party of the athletic association of India in a five star hotel were shown on TV. Most of the attendees were having a gala time drinking expensive liquor and posing blatantly in front of cameras. Yet this same association said that they did not have the money to pay for the athletes food and milk while they were undergoing training in camps. There are no modern stadia anywhere in the country, no infrastructure, and not even the basic needs of the players and athletes and sportsmen are met. Nobody is able to answer as to where the millions of rupees sanctioned in the annual budget towards national sports go. And nobody cares to find out.
Most of the heads and administrators of these sports bodies have had nothing to do with sport in their lives. They are politicians who have somehow sneaked their way into these bodies and hijacked them, to gain status, free foreign trips with families, eat, drink and make merry in 5 star hotels all the while when Indian sport has been dying a slow and painful death.
Even though the cricket board is rich with tonnes of money, its board members do all kinds of nonsense except promoting the game of cricket. They have turned the sport into business as the Income Tax commissioner has herself pointed out in today’s newspapers. Where is the effort by the board to promote test cricket which is the purest form of cricket. In fact if they have their way, no test cricket will be played in 5 years time. Our heroes in the board will see to it.
A wrong perception has been spread around by vested interests saying that former sportspersons cannot run the game because they lack administrative and management skills, but the state of Indian sport clearly shows as to how the so called people with administrative and management skills have destroyed all sport in the country over 60 years. Yet they don’t want to give up.
However all is not lost yet and we can change this negative situation into a positive one. We have a media today which is alert and active and this hockey episode conveys a very positive message that the general public along with media support can change things. We must somehow all join together and with the help of the media sweep away all these parasites that are running Indian sport today. They simply are not fit to occupy these positions. It should be seen that senior sports men from the past who have represented the country occupy all important positions in all sports bodies. They can hire professionals to manage money and administration. This will bring back passion and interest. Strong sports bodies who have sport at heart will surely encourage young people to take up sport seriously. With proper management and accountability industrial houses will surely come forward and contribute towards the betterment of Indian sport. Today they are discouraged in doing so because they see their money going down the drain, as it is being swallowed by corrupt officials. If all this happens we will surely see a positive change happening in Indian sport is less than 5 years. I for one am 100% sure.
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"Chak De India" the film featuring the song,was an effort to remind the nation of it's national sport-hockey.
ReplyDeleteOf a sport that brought the nation 8 olympic golds,
Of a sport that saw the emergence of a spectaculer sportsman-DYAN CHAND,
Of a sport that went on to witness one of it's most unfortunate days when india failed to make the cut at the olympics for the first time in 80 years,
Of a sport that shook the collective conscience of an entire country as one controversy after another surrounded it's administration,
Of a sport whose achievers are languishing in poverty.
The adrenalin rush is unmatched for those who have played and watched it.
And same is the anguish and despair they feel for it-enough is enough.
Athletics-i have had the insight of the pathetic plight of our athletes and coaches way back in 1981- i was travelling from mangalore to delhi by train Vandana rao was traveling with me on her way to attend a training camp prior to the asian games at SAI patiala.During our conversation i rember vandana telling me as to the amount her father had spent for her kit travelling ,traing and other incidental expenses.Later on during the asian games imet anand shetty,sunil abraham, reeth deviah and they reiterated what vandana had told me earlier.The shockng part was that no accomadation was provided to the coaches of athletes-believe it or not even to the coach of PT USHA and the middle distance runner SRIRAM and many other gold medal winners.infact we did meet nambiar(coach of pt usha) sharing a room with other coaches at madras hotel,seeing thier plight i invited appachu (coach of vandana and anand shetty)eight of his collegues to stay in my tiny flat.Am sure you remember all this-and food poisoning-Later during the visit to the asian games village appachu introduced me to the then director of S A I M.P.Ganesh,when i quizzed him about the shabby treatment meted out to the sports fraternity,he lamented that hundreds of crores were spent in the construction of stadiums and other infrastructure but peanuts for the sports fraternity.remember this being the asian games held at delhi.2010 -the story remains the same nothing has changed.And of other sports less said the better.Can we ever be a sporting nation shouting at a cricket match'Chak DE India" ???-And Kalmadi vying to be the next president of Hockey India-Bhollo Jor se "
Chak De India"