Towards the end of World War II, when the Americans landed in Japan, the Japanese fought with whatever they could lay their hands on ... mostly sticks ... they were brave but ill-equipped(at the time).
The Indians were ill-equipped at the Olympics when compared to the American, Chinese, Russian & European juggernauts...
Congratulations to Our Olympic Team !! We have done well !!
We fought bravely and we have had some great performances - some which have gone unnoticed, some which gave us the medals ... Even our hockey team showed some flashes ...
Mostly, it looked like we were lacking in confidence in some places apart from comparatively lower training / practice in others...
One may argue that it is their job... true ... but these were among the top people from our country. It is time for us to stop doing back-seat driving and let us constructively look at our temporary setbacks ...
Let us look at Cricket: Once upon a time, the Indians were not doing well but then there was the great victory of Kapil’s Devils and that changed the attitude & beliefs. And later when support was faltering there was one man who came to the rescue - Subroto Roy Sahara who sponsored the Indian team at a time when nobody would believe ... Followed by the T20 success ...
So Lets start with the questions: What should we do? Some ideas ...
- Change of attitude : We as parents are always looking for Engineers, Doctors ... So may be we need to encourage Sports
- Which sports should we concentrate on? I think as many as possible if not all ... Olympics always bring surprises ... Who knew about Jamaica for 100m till Usain Bolt? Then who knew that the Javelin gold would go to Trinidad & Tabago? Then there was our very own Bindra ...
- Which age group? The earlier the better ... Talent scouts need to travel and search everywhere for sports talents...
- Look for sponsorship (whether Govt or private) for city, state, national tournaments
- Look for sponsorship (whether Govt or private) for infrastructure - playgrounds, stadia, training facilities, Coaches ... Right now in schools, Housing societies and even in city-wise there no adequate facilities ...
- Look for sponsorship (whether Govt or private) for transportation to the stadia... Take Pune, we have great stadia at Balewadi but there is definite lack of transportation to get there ... Have good subsidized(or free)buses, say even Volvos to get to Stadia from Schools and strategic places in the city.
- Look for sponsorship (whether Govt or private) for lodging and boarding of Sports persons during tournaments
- Make one full day in week compulsory for Sports at Schools
- Count the Marks for Sports in Boards
- Encourage our good players to turn coaches and/or share their experiences and techniques at sports camps and even at Schools. There is an impression that most of our players work at various organisations that do not have links to the coaching aspects ...
- Sponsorship could also be through Specific Funds or Bonds for Sports, Tournaments, etc funded by public. Maybe govt can give a further boost by making these tax free ...
- It would also help if the media covered the small tournaments with same zeal as breaking news ...
There may be many things we can do, but, most importantly, we need to set our minds to it and collectively decide that we want to win at Sports (of course Olympics too) and everything will fall into place ... So whether you are a student, player, official, coach, sponsor, manager, CEO, parent, minister, president, media person,well-wisher - you need to believe & act ...
It will then be only a matter of time that we start striking Gold !!
