Every sport achieves success not only because of the it's fans but more importantly the federation that gives it the much needed support. However, India's has seen some examples where the federations and players cannot look eye-to-eye on certain grounds. iSporter Ashvir Khurana makes his debut with his views on this 'Tom and Jerry of Indian Sport'!
We have always been a nation boasting it's rich culture, it's tradition and a glorious history. A nation that is strong in values, morals and a will to succeed under the toughest circumstances! Yet we have not been able to build Indian sport to its full potential. We have produced a number of individual superstars, but have not been able to dominate a sport for a long time. We have won awards but never been able to grab the Oscars. Sad, but true.
The recent controversy between the Indian national hockey players and the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) is the perfect scenario to understand the uneasiness that occurs in Indian sport and I think that it's been the root cause hampering the development of sport in India. Such fights and differences in opinion just make an interesting family drama and help increase viewership and TRP's for certain news channels!
This is not the first time that we are witnessing such a divide in Indian sport. May it be Tennis where half the team revolted against their captain and AITA failed to resolve the issue for a long time, or taking the case of Badminton where the Badminton Association of India was delayed in sending the entry of India’s Badminton queen Saina Nehwal for the China Super Series, as they were busy organizing the World Badminton Championships! All this resulted in Nehwal dropping points which affected her chances of ending the year in the top five!
To add to this India’s only Olympics individual gold medalist, Abhinav Bindra is now planning to quit shooting because of his constant battle with the National Rifles Association of India (NRAI). Bindra has always been known to voice his issues against the NRAI publicly. The NRAI too have never been shy to criticize Bindra. This verbal war unfortunately has not resulted in any winners but the consequence being that the sport has had to face a lot of shame and embarrassment! It is disappointing that a board which boasts of producing the only individual Olympics gold medalist for India in its resume has been involved in this “Tom and Jerry” tussle with its sports star and it’s unfortunate for the sport that a sport star of the caliber of Bindra has never been able to respect and look eye to eye with the board!
So the question really is what is the path ahead for Indian Sports? Will we see more tussles between the boards and the players? Or will the Boards and players contribute to take Indian sports to the pinnacle of success?. In a population of more than a billion it is amusing that we cannot produce a few hundreds who can run a sports body with the correct morals and ethics required to conduct the affairs of a sports and help in consistently producing sport stars who can make India’s flag fly high with pride. It will be wrong to play the blame game and blame the federations wholly. It is time our sportsmen realize that sports in India is developing and now is the time to make a few sacrifices so that the heroes to succeed them do not face the same fate.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/hide comments
a guest
said:
 |
... great article.. cases like sania nehwals are particularly disheartening to hear about.. i guess the boards need to be managed in a better fashion |
a guest
said:
|
... makes a lot of sense being a sports person i cant totally relate.. theres a lot that has to be done .. |
Show/hide comment form
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
