The State of Indian Sports - are we ready to play a fair game?

As I reflect upon the state of Indian Sports, I would like to base my thoughts on two recent, independent happenings that are surely going to impact sports.

India won the Nehru Gold Cup in Football for the first time yesterday beating Syria 1-0. If I were asked if India would win it, my instant response would have been, “Are you kidding?” But the inevitable happened. If you happened to watch the match (I watched the recording in the night), you would have been left wondering, “Is it really India playing?” The pace of the match was just amazing – I have seen many FIFA World Cup matches, and I must admit I was equally impressed. Then, there was game-play, which I thought was just too wonderful. India regularly had possession of the ball, and it was continually attacking. In fact, we penetrated the goal twice, but the first time Bhaichung Bhutia was clearly off-side and the goal was denied. Syrians, on the other hand, were excellent but unnerved. They played great football, but Indian defence was flawless, and our goal-keeper saved two of the most amazing attempts that I ever saw. Resultantly, Syrians went ballistic and resorted to violent tactics, getting a red card in the process, eventually helping India’s cause. But that is not the reason why India won – they won because they believed in themselves and played like hungry tigers.

The second instance is the formation of the Indian Cricket League. A rebel league, promoted by Subhash Chandra of Zee, that has the BCCI worried like nobody’s business. Worried they should be, because of what an Australian media moghul by the name of Kerry Packer did almost 3½ decades ago when his Channel 9 was denied telecast rights. He gave birth to limited overs cricket, which was played in the night (due to stadia not being made available to him in day-time) and was called pyjama cricket. The fact that this had to be duly recognized pretty soon by the world’s cricket governing body due to its growing popularity, and eventually the cricket world cup was formulated on the same format, tells us that public mood can change things. That BCCI was forced to raise the pay-check for players and tournaments 7-times over to match the ICL payouts shows that they are scared. It also shows that the world’s richest board has huge a purse from huge earnings whose strings it was not opening till now.

Clearly, things are changing for the better. But what is unbecoming in this rivalry is the fact that BCCI has refused to let players contracted by ICL to represent the country. Why should that happen, I ask? After all, shouldn’t the best players represent the country, irrespective of which governing body they are associated with? I think this will happen sooner than later. If Sachin, Dravid, Sourav, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Munaf, Zaheer (and if Kapil Dev was still in his prime) join ICL – will the BCCI send somebody else to the various tournaments organized by ICC? Would (or should) the sports-loving citizens of India tolerate a second-rung team being sent that is sure to lose, only for the sake of commercial & one-upmanship reasons?

There are various instances (like the Nehru Gold Cup victory), which are moments of glory for India, that for selfish reasons remained ‘moments’ and never became the platform for the big leap ahead. Such is the ill-growth of the weed of nepotism in India (that exists not just in sports but in various other fields in India) that we are never able to take off our blinkers to look beyond our brethren as people who should represent the country.

However, if you watched Priyaranjan Das Munshi (our Information & Broadcasting Minister, who incidentally is also the President of the All India Football Federation for almost 2 decades) dance with gay abandon on the borderline immediately after the final whistle was blown yesterday, you would have said national pride (or at least the love of sports) still rules the hearts of our politicians. I must also add that Mr. Munshi has taken the initiative to announce the creation of First Pro National Football League, which will go active from 30th September, 2007. One small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind – that is the impact this is likely to have on Indian Football. Certainly, some people are trying to move the sport in the right direction, but a lot still needs to be done.

If I were the president of BCCI, with all my coffers filled to the brim, I would have immediately announced the formation of a fund for football (and hockey & other sports where the teams need support to practice & perform). After all, any true sportsman would not restrict himself to helping people playing his sport only. The managing authorities of one sport need to be subservient to other sports that need guidance, attention & financial support. And this has to happen for the growth of sport and sportsmen in our nation. But we’re a long way away from there. In fact, we’re busy in our turf wars over the same sport. If we have to become a mega-power (and I do not see why we can’t – even China went through an equally bad sporting phase some 2 decades ago, which forced the government to ban themselves from participating internationally in any sport till they produced good talent; and look at what they’ve emerged as due to their focused approach), we have to become like parents who bring up their daughters so lovingly, only to give them away in marriage. That is a thought that our politicians do not seem to understand yet, but things will surely change sooner than later.

We have to become passionate about grooming players who play for our country as a team, leaving behind the dirty politics of regionalism & biased commercial deals in sports that dog this nation. I think the 1½ months that our Football Team (brought together from various states) spent together under Bob Houghton, our Zimbabwean coach, helped in getting them mentally prepared as a team for the big league and go out with an attitude & hunger to win. The same needs to happen in cricket, and the two boards should work together for the sake of Indian glory, rather than for business alone. But unless our politicians & businessmen are driven out of the sport, or play for the country first, this will not happen. We, the people, are the only ones who can make that happen; and I am sure the day is not far off.