Billion hopes — measly medals
The below write-up is a Facebook post from 2018. Not much has changed since then except for a couple of medals in Athletics and the Indian Hockey reinventing itself. India continues to be obsessed with one sport played by a handful of commonwealth countries — Cricket. BCCI has only gotten richer — dwarfing all other sports in comparison. Whether one accepts or not, cricket is advertently or inadvertently killing other sports. You cannot fault cricketers for that. India’s sporting culture needs a reboot. You should not expect miracles to happen on the biggest sporting stage without doing the hard grind in the previous three years.
The Olympics is a quadrennial event. Just like in previous Olympics years, the average sporting Indian has suddenly locked his cricketing passions in the closet and taken out the bag of national pride. Sadly, not much to salvage this time. No national anthem was played at the Olympics this time. Such is the poverty of ambitions that a Bronze medalist in shooting will live a lifetime of glory & adulation. This is not to belittle them, a medal at the Olympics is a medal nevertheless. But it does show India’s dismal performance at the Olympics. There is no shame in accepting that India has failed yet again — despite the Khelo India initiative by GOI. The most populated country, the country that has a penchant for all things Gold, has reached the moon, aspiring to become a global superpower that writes software codes for the world but cannot crack the code to bag Gold. All the six medalists have done well for themselves but I look forward to the day when I won’t be able to recollect all the Indian Olympic medals since India started participating in the Olympic games.
India is ranked 1 in population but ranked 70+ in the medals tally. Where is the pride in it?
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2018 Common wealth games
Sipping on my tea this morning, I entertained myself by watching some breathtaking badminton gold medal matches unfold at the Common Wealth Games. As usual, Australia will top the medal table. No surprises there. It is as if these games are organized by the queen, for the Aussies, to amuse themselves. India came third and grabbed 60+ medals. This will not excite many as India usually does well at these events. Barring a disappointing finish by the Hockey teams, it was exciting to see some Indians do so well in sports that have traditionally not been their stranglehold. Watching Indians qualify for the finals in the 400m, 1500m, and the 4 X 400 meters relay was inspiring to say the least: these are events where you compete against countries like Jamaica, the Bahamas, Kenya, and South Africa. Indians did end up winning medals in Javelin and discus throw. Realistically these performances would not lead to medals at the Olympic Games but that does not sadden me as these are good signs.
Behind every Indian athlete, swimmer, or for that matter any competitor, is an astounding story of grit and determination. A battle against a society that does not give sports any importance or the shoddy infrastructure. Sadly some of these athletes initially take up sports as a window of opportunity. A medal at such events will ensure them a government job as the recognition they know will slowly fade away. The onus of producing sporting heroes lies on a few individuals who themselves have some inspirational tales to tell. Behind the successes of Johnson and Kidambi are the likes of Pullela and PT Usha. Hopefully, things will change with the Khelo India initiative by GOI.
International sporting events have always excited me. Even during the Doordarshan era as a kid, I would keep myself awake if the Olympics happened to be in a different time zone and pride myself on recalling the capitals of the playing nations in an event (I still remember all the capitals — a useless trait I know J ). But as a young Indian, there was hardly anything India gave me to look at these events so I had to content myself by cheering for any non-whites. That is why athletics was good to watch. The colour of the skin is no longer a criterion though, the underdog gets my support. It is good to see Indians making great strides in sports in the past decades. Hopefully, I will have something more to cheer about in the future.
Sports build characters. Only the leftist morons at “the guardian” can see the futility of these international games. It is better for nations to fight for medals than to win wars. India’s friendly neighbour should also look at sports and revisit their martial theory; unless they think sports are out of the equation but bloodshed is. India’s right-wingers should also take note of the likes of Jinson Johnson and Mohd. Yanas; unless they too want to redefine nationalism.
Khelte raho India medals apne aap ayenge!!
