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NEW DELHI: India’s booming economy has had a favourable impact on the sport of cricket, with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) quickly becoming the richest cricket governing body in the world. Unlike cricket, other sports in India have failed to grow, and as such, India has struggled to evolve as a sporting nation. This is not for lack of trying. Over the years, a series of sports have gotten their own franchise-based leagues in India, which not only gave sportspersons job security but also helped players to develop their games. Despite that, India has failed to emerge as a sporting nation.
Let’s look at some examples to elucidate this further. So far, India’s total medal haul is 28 in 24 Olympic Games. While China, the world’s most populous nation, has developed itself as the competitive nation in the Olympics, India is yet to lay down a foundation for success for Indian athletes. Off late, initiatives have been taken to overhaul the entire sporting culture in the country -- a process that was started by corporates and now in involves the government, with the collective aim to nurture and grow sports in India.
A competitive atmosphere at home helps players to get the best out of themselves. Franchise based sporting events have been on the rise in India since 2005 when the now defunct Premier Hockey League and Indian Cricket League hit the Indian sporting market. But, the first big hit was the Indian Premier League (IPL), which was unveiled in 2007 following India’s maiden World T20 triumph in South Africa.
Following the IPL the Hockey Indian League (HIL), Indian Super League (ISL), non-glamorous Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), Pro Wrestling League (PWL), Premier Badminton League (PBL), and now the Ultimate Tennis League (UTL) are all in the fray to bring a revolution in Indian sports.
However, these are commercial entities. India still lacks expertise and infrastructure to build a service line for a talent pool. India needs to focus on building multi sports academies where young children will be trained by qualified experts. At the moment, most of the players pick up sports as per their own wish and they are developing their game keeping a personal coach. Unlike cricket and badminton, where former Indian players like Pullela Gopichand and Vimal Kumar took initiatives to build academies where young aspirants are coming to fulfill their dream, other sports don’t have any functional infrastructures.
India has become a reckoning force in the world of badminton. The likes of Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap, B. Sai Praneeth, Ajay Jayaram and Sameer Verma made India an invincible force in men’s badminton while PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal are two Olympic medal winning Indian women who are dominating in women’s badminton. Alongside cricket, badminton has become a national sensation in India due to the rise of many talented youngsters and this happened because of players who are being trained by former players and getting advanced facilities to prepare themselves.
But, India’s Olympic performance is still not impressive. Since independence, India failed to produce a blueprint for success. So far, whatever India has achieved are individual achievements of athletes like P V Sindhu, Abhinav Bindra and Vijender Singh. Recently, surprising everyone, India enjoyed an overwhelming success at the Asian Athletics Meet in Odisha as India finished at the top with 29 medals in Odisha leaving China behind at the second position. Thus far, Indian sporting governing bodies hadn’t shown any substantial intent to make a big change in Indian sports, especially in Track and Field, which is part of renowned Asian Games, Olympic Games, and Commonwealth Games.
However, following the successful Asian Athletics championship, Indian Sports Ministry released an ambitious blueprint for producing talents for various events. The ministry made yoga and sports mandatory at school with an ambition to make India a sports nation. The Union Sports Ministry released many projects with the deadline to fulfill the targets. The ministry also pledged that sportspersons would have five per cent reservation in coveted government jobs. The Indian government also decided to allot money to the athletes for their development for the 2018 Olympic Games.
On a happy note, recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a TransStadia in Ahmedabad in front of India's sporting icons where athletes from every nook and corner of the country will enjoy advanced facilities. No doubt, the modern facilities at TransStadia were built to help Indian athletes, but India needs much more stadiums like this to help athletes to prepare themselves for tough conditions.
No doubt, these projects will bring a revolution in Indian sports. Following the implementation of these projects, a sporting awareness will grow among Indian fans and it will encourage young children to take up track and field sports as their profession. Till now, India failed to ensure track and field sports players’ job security which is one of the reasons that not many Indians take up these sports sincerely.
In the meantime, India also pledged to host as many multi sports events to inspire athletes to keep themselves up for tournaments. The year 2017 and 2018 will see India hosting many marquee tournaments like FIFA U-17 World Cup in October, Himalayan Games in December and in 2018 the Hockey World Cup in Odisha.
At the same time, considering India’s booming economy and Indian sports enthusiastic masses, FIFA, FIH and many other world sports bodies are planning to host tournaments in India to get the monetary benefit. India has to grab these opportunities to create a culture amongst the fans and sportspersons.
While the projects have only taken a baby step, the government has to ensure that they full their targets in a given deadline. Alongside the government, the Indian media will also have to take an initiative to unearth talents and to feed readers about the rise of young athletes. The government will also have to involve the media in this process as the media is the only medium to disseminate information amongst the masses. The media can unearth talents and give readers a lucid human interest story about the rise of an athlete. Keeping in mind that sports and its icons need encouragement, the national media and government should work side by side in order to make India a sporting nation.
