Indian athletes did us proud
Now the government should provide for them
By Nisser Dias
nisserdias at gmail.com
SMS to 9422437029
At the recent concluded Common Wealth Games in Delhi, Indian athletes in
various disciplines brought laurels to the country by winning almost 100
medals. This count of medal is the highest ever in India and by this
huge achievement, the young athletes of this country has sent a message
to the government that they too can compete with the world’s best and
bring back the honours for their motherland.
As recently as maybe two years back we were thrilled that Abhinav Bindra
won the first ever gold medal for the country during the last Olympics.
This tally was further raised by Sushil. But at the CWG 2010 games at
New Delhi, new talents emerged taking every one by surprise. Everyone
was expecting the same athletes to win their gold and a few other medal.
But the countrymen were stunned by the performance of athletes in
various other disciplines that our country stood tall in the second
place of the gold medal tally. My hats off to the athletes, their
parents and the coaches who put in hard work over the years to make the
world and more importantly our own government to realize that there is
no dearth of sporting talent in India.
It is high time that the Union government and the state governments
appreciate the efforts of the athletes and become conscious of the need
to allocate much required funds for various sports, infrastructure and
other needs of the athletes. The government should also specify the
heads under which the funds can be utilized simply because our
politicians have the tendencies to utilize major chunk of allocation of
funds for building infrastructure because this is where either the
minister or the sports director or someone down the line get their
commission and what is left for the athletes is just pittance.
The fallout of such a policy is that parents and family members of the
athletes have to slog it out to provide for the children to bring out
the best in them. This mindset of the government has to change and
instead organize coaching camps to tap the talent. And once a athletes
is noticed or rather identified, the government should go all out and
provide the facilities to bring out the best in the child without
burdening the parents because when an athletes shines at the
international sporting event it is pride not only for the parents but
even bigger pride for the state and the country.
The need of the hour is to ensure the current medal winners do not feel
slighted after the games are over and that they will be remembered only
at the time of next national or international sporting events. The
government should ensure that their future is secure, that when the
athletes surpass the age of competition that they will either be
employed as a government servant or the government will facilitate,
subsidize or finance them if the athletes want to set up their own
academies in the field of their discipline. This is besides other
incentives in cash and properties that the national or state governments
doles out to the athletes on their return home. This will send a clear
message to grooming athletes that the governments be it national or
state has a policy in place to ensure their well being and that they
will not be left in the lurch or left to fend for themselves.
This is the biggest fear of athletes that the government does not
appreciate their efforts nor cares for them. And this has a ring of
truth to it because Indian ace sprinter gold medalists Pillavullakand
Thekkeparambil Usha better known as P T Usha was not even invited for
the opening ceremony of the recently concluded Common Wealth Games.
But Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress party president Mrs.
Sonia Gandhi extended their courtesy to the medal winning athletes and
personally met and acknowledged their contribution to sports in the
country. But it should not just remain at this, much more needs to be
done to boost the morale of sportsmen and women in this country. They
should be honoured publicly. On the eve of Common Wealth Games national
news channel CNN-IBN honoured forgotten sports heroes of the country and
they had similar thing to express, wherein they said that they do not
require money from the governments but require recognizance of their
achievement, which the governments failed to but were accomplished by
CNN-IBN
To start with Indian athletes should have access to all the world class
facilities made available at the Common Wealth Games. Sports Federations
and Associations should be invited to organize national level meets,
tournaments, events, matches etc at these facilities throughout the
year. Sports infrastructure and facilities in states should be revamped.
Good coaches should be employed by the government to coach, train and
instruct athletes on the finer nuances of the sport, check on their
fitness levels. Such measures will go a long way in building our
athletes for future.
As of now sports in India seems to be in a disarray with our youth
taking interest in sports only at the school or college level and then
giving up and the reason being no future prospects are underlined by the
government. Those few parents who encourage their children have to dig
deeper into their pockets to sustain the needs of their child or
children, as the government’s dictum is -- you first get the medals for
the country only then it will recognize your talent and maybe then think
of contributing to the expenses incurred. This scenario has to stop
immediately and instead, national as well as state governments should
spend money on identifying talent in sports and training them. (ENDS)
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First published in Gomantak Times, Goa - October 21, 2010
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