Indian sports is in the throes of a great paradox. On one side, we have the latest training methods, including hitherto unheard of technique of bio-mechanism, meditation and yoga. On the other, we have our athletes with aspirations of playing for the country struggling to obtain the very basics in the absence of proper direction and lack of facilities.
To top it all, we have in-fighting, bickering and allegations of corruption in various national federations that control their respective sports.
No one can deny that the game of cricket lords it over the rest, what with everything being laid out so nice and sweet. The game has built for itself this privilege because it has cashed in on its tremendous popularity and propensity for enormous return of goodwill by those corporates who wish to jump on its bandwagon. The other sports, all of them, including hockey and football, still depend on government doleouts. Professionalism in Indian soccer is a misnomer. A few players are promised more than they get. Disgusted, they seek greener pastures elsewhere.
India’s leading footballer Baichung Bhutia, who had once commanded an annual fee of Rs. 40 lakhs, is today trying to recover his back dues and has finally decided to quit Calcutta football and go to Malaysia as a second-grade professional.
The plight of Indian hockey could not have been worse. The long dictatorial reign of a former super cop has brought such a state of ruin that even our youngsters who had shown such great promise, were left holding their own credibility within their folded hands, crying for a better deal. The squad which had won the Junior World Cup with such finesse four years ago and had conquered all before it, struggled all the way at Rotterdam and even failed to make the final and finished fourth in the latest edition.
After the senior squad’s utterly poor show in the Champions’ Trophy, this performance of the younger lot must come as a severe blow to India’s future in international hockey. The top brass of the Indian Hockey Federation, however, remains unmoved. Even as the junior players were battling out for their survival in Holland, the influential members of the IHF were trying all tricks in the book to manipulate the support and votes of the member-associations to get themselves further entrenched in office.
Those who have been fighting the present regime, which is in office for over a dozen years, tried all possible means, government intervention, legal redress et al to dislodge them but did not succeed. Everyone knows what exactly is wrong with Indian hockey, but no one wants to lend support to bring about a worthwhile change. Why ? It is because these petty men, who represent their state associations, get easily swayed by crumbs of some minor appointments being thrown their way.
This is an old ruse of many a poorly-run sports federation. If there is an opposition in some form, buy the protagonist over with some favors and silence him.
This is not to say that this happens only in Indian hockey and football. Behind the luxurious exterior of Indian cricket exists an even worse form of dictatorship. Just one, Jagmohan Dalmiya, invisibly hold all the strings that control the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The present president Ranbir Singh Mahendra is a mere figurehead. All decisions are taken by Dalmiya, who otherwise does not hold any important post in the BCCI.
Now Dalmiya, who is a the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal, is himself facing a rebellion in his own state body. Those who want to fight him have decided to strike at the very root. A former Police Commissioner of Calcutta has filed his nomination against Dalmiya for the post of CAB president. Whether he succeeds in dislodging the giant is another matter. Dalmiya, a past master in the art of bullying with sugar-coated pill, might yet succeed in overriding the revolt.
