MUMBAI, 28 December 2007 - As we get ready to burry the bitter-sweet memories of the sporting year that was for India, the resolve to learn from past mistakes and do better than before is bound to emerge with great vigor.
That is nothing new, you might say, but sports gentry in the country will have reasons to feel optimistic about the future. That is because the problem of lack of financial support to all their plans, will surely ease considerably.
It is not that the government agencies have jacked up the budget for sports, which continues to remain a pittance as ever before. In fact the ministries have curtailed the same by striking off some of the major sports from the list of financial grants. This, in fact, has turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
In the new official policy of slashing aid, India's national sport, hockey was the worst casualty. But this brought in its wake a never-before awakening in the corporate world to support sports in a big way. Many of the industrial and business houses have even found it fit to see beyond cricket for their munificence.
Today Indian hockey, its national team as well as the major tournaments, have the support of big sponsorship. The result was quickly achieved when India won the Asia Cup. The Premier Hockey League, a unique tournament in which players from Pakistan, Korea, Spain. Malaysia and Spain, are invited to play, is developing into a prestigious competition.
If the members of the Indian cricket team that won the Twenty20 World Cup earned a bonanza from the cricket body, the other sporting achievements too were rewarded, as much by the corporates and sports federations, as by the state and central governments. The only individual world champion, chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand, was not left behind.
Things are indeed looking up for sports in general and for the more popular events in particular. Thanks to the worldwide exposure of the events on television, there is no dearth of sponsors.
All this must bring us to the oft-debated topic of dependence on the government to carry out major sporting activities. The government itself has shown us that Indian sports would be much better off without such official doles. Government can recognize achievements, but it cannot be promoters of sporting events. After all, no one desires needless interference in the affairs of a sporting body. The corporates, on their part, may demand their mileage, but have never, and will not, interfere with the working of a sports body or with the conduct of an event they are sponsoring. Can we not, therefore, see better days for Indian sports?
