Dear Readers,
India is making some headway at the London Olympics. We are on the verge of winning the maximum number of medals ever won at any Olympic gathering- 3. This tiny fact sums up our attitude towards sports. Needless to point out our characteristic shortcomings. A few days after the conclusion of this global event, one may find many "experts" criticising our flawed sports policies at one TV channel or the other.
As a Hockey enthusiast, I have been watching the games played by Indian men field hockey team in the group stage. We are performing miserably. It is a pity to watch the Indian team cave in to the sleek tactics of the other teams which are more rigorously trained and employ better management and coordination. Gone are the days when the famous Indian dribbling could leave our opponents dumb-struck. Power and speed are the order of the day. Sardara Singh has impressed us as a solid game-maker but the rest of the team could neither project individual genius nor a concerted team action.
In my opinion, the problem that plagues our nation when it comes to our dismal performance in sports is that we are very emotional about it as a people just as we are touchy about many other issues. We expect drama on the field. We expect losers to perform wonderous feats and champions to shed tears. There cannot be a creatively woven story like Chak De behind every sporting glory. It is precisely because of our extreme nervousness that a sport like cricket emotionally blackmails us. We justify our single obsession with this sport at the cost of other sports by telling ourselves that 'cricket is a game of nerves, you see'. We should change our thinking. Lets see sports as a tough game involving blood, sweat, injury, victory, comraderie, defeat, tears, exercise, strategy, etc. In short, we as audience, spectators and commentators should become more sporty and associate this word with anything but heart.
As a Hockey enthusiast, I have been watching the games played by Indian men field hockey team in the group stage. We are performing miserably. It is a pity to watch the Indian team cave in to the sleek tactics of the other teams which are more rigorously trained and employ better management and coordination. Gone are the days when the famous Indian dribbling could leave our opponents dumb-struck. Power and speed are the order of the day. Sardara Singh has impressed us as a solid game-maker but the rest of the team could neither project individual genius nor a concerted team action.
In my opinion, the problem that plagues our nation when it comes to our dismal performance in sports is that we are very emotional about it as a people just as we are touchy about many other issues. We expect drama on the field. We expect losers to perform wonderous feats and champions to shed tears. There cannot be a creatively woven story like Chak De behind every sporting glory. It is precisely because of our extreme nervousness that a sport like cricket emotionally blackmails us. We justify our single obsession with this sport at the cost of other sports by telling ourselves that 'cricket is a game of nerves, you see'. We should change our thinking. Lets see sports as a tough game involving blood, sweat, injury, victory, comraderie, defeat, tears, exercise, strategy, etc. In short, we as audience, spectators and commentators should become more sporty and associate this word with anything but heart.
No comments:
Post a Comment