India’s Chances at Beijing Olympics
Each time Olympics arrive I feel ashamed of being an Indian. A population of more than a billion cannot grab a single gold medal in any individual event. Isn’t it as shame for us – Indians?
Someone might say, it’s less than a month to go for Beijing Olympics and it is not the right time to say so. However, any Indian reading this piece would certainly agree to my viewpoint. It’s a SHAME that we have not nurtured our human resource like the way other small countries like Sri Lanka has done.
I would like to say ‘Why to participate in a sphere where we can’t excel?’ We should either increase our effort to garner more respect in the sphere of games and sports or we should stop financing them altogether.
Yes, in cricket we have certainly made some mark but not in others. Gold medals at Olympics and World Cup football are the events that make one feel proud. I just want to be proud of the country where I am born. Is it the wish which won’t be fulfilled before I am laid to rest? Is it too much to ask for from a nation that has billion plus population.
I believe everything is possible provided, we have the temperament and backing of right institutions/persons to do so.
Hope this Beijing Olympics makes me proud as an Indian. Just waiting for an Indian chances at Beijing Olympics. – Amen
If u have a problem with it do something about it yourself !!! dont just feel “Ashamed”
India has progressed a lot. Although the hockey team is mising from the Indian Contingent, we have a few hopefuls this year. Read more at:
http://www.iwebie.com/indian_reality_shows_comparison
Let’s not heat up on this. Do I feel ashamed “YES”…but is that because we are not capable “NO”. Why is it that we all are willing to spend so much to see Cricket but have never paid to watch a local hockey or atletics tournament…so how the hell will companies ever spend money on sports that no one watches. We are all to blame along with ineffective politicians and administrators who have brealy any vision. Let’s fix it instead and attend all kinds of sports along with Cricket…money will flow and it will turn stars…
We won our first GOLD medal! I hope it makes you proud. WOOT!
- Shivya
http://theshootingstar.wordpress.com/
Have you ever thought, which sports did you participate and which one did you excel???
No that is not for you right?
I work as a Software programmer and play professional football with a club.
Sports needs lot of commitment and not Government help. It requires spirit…If you are good enough you will get funding.
This year India has won one Gold. That is good
news…Considering economic development and educational standards…
Wait for Olympics 2020.
I am not ashamed of Indian achievement.
There are very few countries who have seen 10,000 years of civilization growth and more than 1000 years of slavery. So stop thing like a slave and wait for others to come forward.
Start doing, may be help ur son/daughter with sports carrier!
Look- India needs Olympics infrastructure to actually achieve anything. Yes, much of the success can be attributed to the spirit and will to excel, but there still needs to be places where Indians can train. Why do you think all the countries that put lots of money in the games do so well? Take China, Korea, Japan, the US, Italy, Spain, and countless others who have invested into the Olympics. It is India’s choice if she wants to earn respect in this sphere. All I can say is- I was ashamed for India to have only 57 athletes while countries like Cambodia and North Korea surpass us. Is this the way that one of the world’s largest economies should be?
Well I am really not going to blame our country men for not getting any significant success in Olympics. There are people who used to compare cricket with other games and conclude that Indian’s only watch cricket and this is the reason why we are not doing well in other games. For your kind information let me tell you the majors part of money goes to international players or say BCCI only. Ranji’s and Dilip trophy hardly have any sponsors. Someone like Sharad Pawar, a complete politician, is the chairman of BCCI. Why not Hockey or Olympic committee. Clearly politicians are taking interest in cricket. Apart from politician there are one major thing that is making the situation even worst. This major player is Media. There focus is also centered around money only. They have so much to tell about Cricket but for other games they hardly have anything.
Now coming to the major question who is responsible for all this. Is it international Cricket or something else? Remember sponsors are still making money from International Soccer, Grand slam Tennis or even Olympics. The problem is we are not interested in nation levels game. Here cricket is also not an exception. We are still doing well in this particular game is not because of money only but the number of players we have in this particular game at national and local level and off course the kind of interest politicians and media are showing in this particular game.
Now solution. Well I feel there is no such solution exist today. We can’t make any big difference in current scenario. We have to wait until we really have that much money and time which can be spent on national level sports.
No point in just lamenting., we as citizens are carried away by media. Media projects only the wishes of sponsors. Leave alone cricket., atleast cricket all are watching. Take the case of games which is not that popular, yet media projects like Golf, billiards etc. Even in Tennis, Sania’s best performance is around 32, however we crown her as if no other indians are doing better. There are many indians who are consistantly within No10 in their field, but we does’t recognise them, because there is no sponsor and so no media coverage. Take Anju, Saina- they are doing consistantly well in international arena. But how many knows them. We allow Tendulkar to play any number of tests to surpass Lara’s record, yet we will worship as if he is cricket’s god. Even in newspaper games like golf, snooker will have 1/4 to 1/2 page coverage, but football, athletics, hockey, basket ball will just find few lines. So it is in the thinking of us – the public. We should not be carried away by the media., we should have our own judgement.
I would like to thank everyone for the comments. Shivya, yes Abhinav’s medal made me PROUD as an Indian.
Did anyone notice Kapil Dev’s comments on Abhinav. I would like to thank Kapil Dev for showing concern for other sports as well.
Kapil Dev — ‘These days it is more competition, more professionalism. With the resources that Bindra has, it is really a great effort. This is the best victory in our sports history’
I would also like to thank BCCI for announcing Rs. 1 crore prize money for Abhinav. Such initiative will certainly boost morale of other sportspersons.
There were few comments which attacked me personally. But I don’t mind these attacks as long as these comments bring out some point that will benefit Indian sports in particular.
For your information, I come from the northeastern state which has around 2.4 million population ravaged with years of militancy yet produced many reknowned sportspersons (san cricket) compared to majority of Indian states.
I have seen much of the politics being played in Indian sports. How someone with zero knowledge gets into certain association and tries to flex muscle his/her way to give chance to someone representing his/her state/region. If this tendency continues for long, it won’t be long when our Olympics participants would go missing in foreign country as they did go there to participate in it but they just went to seek some employment opportunity there.
I am feeling very much proud, after winning our first gold medal. I hope we will win more gold medal in the event.
chak de India !
It is true that India is not performing very well in Olympics and is not a sports country. But please give it some credit, we are still a developing country. In US, theres is enough time and money to put in sports whereas in India focus is still on basic needs.
And if we talk about China, whihc is also a poor country like us, they have a communist government which helps them institutionalise changes. China Govt creates associations for sports which are liable to produce results. Democartic govt in India can not enforce any such regulations. Yes, this is a disadvantage of a democratic country but then it has many other advantages also…
Witht he speed India is learnign and growing, India will soon leave a mark in this field also.
Least you cna do to help is show some repsect to this nation and be PROUD of it. Whatever it is, we have made it.