Someone help Indian Sports….
It should be seen as a blessing in disguise that Delhi did not get to host the 2014 Asiad. It might be worthwhile for the people who are sitting in the helm of Indian sports to worry about Grass root development in sports rather than trying to do lavish events to project themselves. Usually, about Rs. 4000 crores would be spent on an event like the Asiad. Is it possible that this money is now diverted towards grass root development & prepares athletes who could win medals in 2012 Olympics & beyond? Is it time to professionalize Sports in India further? I definitely feel that the time has come to remove all the honorary posts in federations & appoint professionals who could be accountable. Any more delay in this happening will only result in losing out a prospective medal in Olympics. Classic example is Indian Hockey & how it is down in the pots thanks to the President & other office bearers of the Hockey federation, they don’t seem to be ashamed or have lost all their moral values.
Everyone might just be happy when India performs well at the 2010 Commonwealth Games at Delhi (which is bound to happen) but is CWG a real test for our athletes? The performance of India in the previous Asiad is pathetic compared to wonderful performance at the previous CWG. Can the people who have been ruling Indian Sports or many years now wake up to call from within themselves, lay their powers down & make way for winds of change in Indian Sports? Indian Sports today need visionaries, visionaries who think of taking India to the league of Powerful sports nations of the world without any selfish motives or short term gains. It is high time we have accountable people running sports in India who should be willing to quit when there is no performance. Why can’t we incorporate the way successful Corporates are run into sports? Unless this change occurs, I’m afraid Indian sports will only go down further. It is even more alarming to see performance of Indian Cricket (though it doesn’t have any effect on Olympics) diminishing as it is the only savior for sports in India. I won’t be surprised to see Cricket reaching the level of current Indian Hockey Situation in a decade if the administration doesn’t pull up its socks. It might be worthwhile to consider having the Tatas, Ambanis, Narayanmurthys, Premjis, MIttals, Birlas, etc be given the responsibility of each Olympic sports. They don’t need to put the money in but their vision & attitude of running things professionally would be sufficient to bring in the winds of change in Indian Sports.
It makes me wonder if Delhi is the only place in India which could host an event like the Asiad. why can't the administrators think of other Indian Cities? That way, atleast World Class Infrastructure would come up in other cities. If a country like Korea could think of 3 different cities, our Sports Administrators should probably go back to learning geography.
If anyone is listening…..!
