It’s good to see the media, both print as well as electronic, giving good coverage to what is undoubtedly the greatest sporting event in the world, the Olympics. Naturally, all countries want to excel in this event and win medals if possible, but to the sports-lover, it’s a feast of superb sporting action and a testament to human endeavor to go beyond the boundaries.
To that extent, some have tried to use illegal means to do better than the others and modern medicine has allowed some of them to get away, as there will always be that one drug that will only be detected a bit later after the Olympics are over. Still, the thrill of seeing a new world record or even a new Olympic record being set up is something to excite everybody.
Although Ben Johnson was found to be using banned substances, is it easy to forget the scorching pace he set up to leave rivals like Carl Lewis breathing dust from his footmarks? The athletics are the main attraction with the sprints being the most exciting, but the marathon and other endurance races are also the ones to watch out for to see the human spirit overcome physical obstacles or shortcomings.
India as always sent a fairly big contingent to the Games and this time there’s more than one hope of getting a medal. Whether that happens or we come back empty-handed will be seen in a fortnight’s time, and if its a medal-less journey then be sure that the post-mortem will start again as to why a country of one billion people are not able to produce a medal winner. Basically, it will be the same old reasons and again it will be a debate for a few days before the people go back to worrying about India’s chances at the ICC Champions Trophy.
That will be a pity, for if there’s a debate required on why India’s sports scenario is such a bleak one, then the time is best after the Olympics. Ironically, it will be cricket that everybody blames for the lack of attention to other sports, which will come to the rescue of other sports as the attention of the sports-lovers as well as the media will be diverted and focused on the Champions Trophy in September.
There have been some debates — most of them city-centric and half-researched about why the sports scene is not encouraging, but blaming cricket is not going to get anyone any real answers. Unless accountability is fixed in our sports, we will keep on asking the same questions after every Olympics without getting any answers. Unless there’s a serious attempt to find out why we are unable to achieve world levels in our performances, we are going to get disappointed every Olympics as we have been all these years. The media love to ask why cricket gets the attention it does, but that is a question they should be asking themselves instead of firing those questions at sportsmen and administrators. One has to only see the way the media hang out around the Indian cricket team’s hotel on the rest days to see that for them, even a quote from a non-performing member of the squad is more important than giving the same time to a budding sportsman from another field.
If there’s anybody that can force a change in the Indian mentality on sports, it is the media and not officials or sportspersons. The question is whether the media is content in its comfort level of cricket leading its sports coverage, with the odd headline to other sports or whether it will be proactive in changing the mindset of the Indian and get it past the apathetic stage it is in at the moment? It’s a choice the media has to make, after which the officials and others will fall in line.
India’s losing in the finals of yet another tournament has once again raised the topic of the team’s mental preparedness for the last hurdle. There have been some cutting observations made and a lot of blame apportioned to sundry reasons. The point missed by just about everybody is what a tremendous achievement it is for a side to get into so many finals. Not too many sides do that but India is doing that regularly, so it must be doing more right than wrong. I remember a conversation with Alvin Kallicharran when he was then the one batsman in the world with the most 90s in Test cricket. Kalli’s reply to that was that at least he was getting 90s, which is a darn sight better than getting 9! Maybe we should also look at it from this positive angle than the negative one. How about thinking, how good it is to get into all these finals and not losing in the first round?
Having done that though, there’s also a need to see if things can be improved and see where we are falling short. Going back to 1985 when India won the World Championship in Australia after a disastrous series against England at home would be a good way to see if things can be improved. Then the selectors decided that a fresh approach was needed and so those who might have been in a losing mental state and were thus suffering from a defeat trauma were discarded and fresh blood was brought in. Sure, the main experienced players are not normally touched but bringing in those who haven’t been in losing sides does give a different thinking to the side as those players are more likely to be positive rather than negative in a finals situation. India went on to win that World Championship of cricket in a most emphatic manner, beating all sides and in the process dismissing all the teams, except in the finals where India got nine opposition wickets. At the moment, there’s far too much of a comfort-level with some players and though one understands the need for continuity, it should not be one that breeds complacency rather than the desire to excel in every game.
The one-day competitions will be followed by the Tests against Australia and South Africa and they will decide who is the No. 2 team in Tests today. Indian sports-lovers certainly have a lot of sporting action ahead of them.
