An eight-member task force to oversee the preparation for the coming three Olympics could be the beginning of change towards eyeing for sporting glory
Abhishek Dubey
2016 was the year of Rio Olympics. 2016 also happened to be the year when the game of cricket which the country reveres, administratively was given chemotherapy. For a country of crores, getting two medals in the highest sporting spectacle on the globe was certainly a disgrace. But India has been facing this awkward moment before and after the Olympics after every four years-since years altogether now. It was true way back in 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. It was true in the 2016 Rio Olympics as well. The tone and tenor of the debate, however has changed over the years. Earlier, the question was, When will be the country of crores be able to find its feet in the highest global sporting platform? Now the question is, Why is the country which aspires to be the global power and which has got such a huge demographic dividend stands at the bottom in medals tally? The match fixing and betting allegations which got intertwined with the Indian Premier League — certainly brought disgrace to the Indian cricket. The governance model definitely needed course correction to make it more transparent, democratic and professional. But then, in the field of cricket, after 1983 World Cup, India’s graph has been on the upswing. India has been amongst the top of the ladder in all the three formats of the game. The team has got unenviable bench strength. Former cricketers are taken care of well and the future stars have high standards of socio-economic security. So there are many who feel that instead of chemotherapy, high dose of anti-biotic would have done.
The dawn of 2017 has seen two committees. There is a task force appointed by the Government of India to oversee India’s preparation for the 2020, 2024 & 2028 Olympics. A committee has also been appointed by the honorable Supreme Court for the execution of the recommendations of Justice Lodha Committee. The tale of the two committees and the media coverage following their announcements is a tell all story on the state of Indian sports. The committee on cricket, its members profile, vision and likely shortcomings were debated and dissected in the television studios,
editorialised in the national and regional press and covered in the digital space. On the contrary, the announcement of the members of the task force, hardly found any
resonance in the media and the larger public discourse. Does this don’t answer as to why we wake up after every four years, just before and after the Olympics, to go on deep slumber thereafter.
Time for the seminal change has come. And the decision of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to formalise a task force to oversee the preparation for the coming three Olympics could be the beginning of this change. As one of the members of the task force, Om Pathak says, “It is true that the experience of Indian sports with the past committees has not been good. But we are sure about what we intend to do. And this is the difference. We realise that if the transformative change has to come, it has to start targetting the early age groups. And, if this is the consideration, then our main focus should be in the reverse order of 2028, 2024 and then 2020 Olympics”.
The task force comprise of members bringing in diverse specialisation on the table. Pullela Gopichand has been the shining star in the Indian sports fraternity. Over the years, Indian sports has been found wanting in the legends of the game walking the talk in terms of preparing the future generation. Either they have failed the system or the system has failed them. Pullela Gopichand and Rahul Dravid are the two major exceptions. Pullela and Rahul were amongst the greatest players of their generation. They were the role models off the field in terms of their work ethics and behaviour. But most importantly, they started from the scratch when they took to coaching. While once interviewing Pullela Gopichand in his academy in Hyderabad, I asked him, I have often read that great players don”t make great coaches. How are you able to break this myth? Gopichand replied back, “When I took to coaching, I was sure that I have to start afresh. I may have been a reasonably good player of my times, but as a coach I had to start from the scratch. Yes, the only advantage was that having been there and seen it all, I exactly knew about the aspects I should focus on. Also, since I have played at that level the wards tends to take you on the face value initially”. Ditto Rahul Dravid. The top BCCI brass had approached Rahul Dravid to be a senior coach. But Dravid politely declined saying that he”s currently happy coaching the junior team which is so critical in terms of supply chain for the senior team”. Thus, in Pullela Gopichand, the task force has got an elder statesman who brings to the table the immense expertise in terms of coaching and sports specific institution building administration.
As Pullela Gopichand says, “This is a great initiative by our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. He has throughout been supportive and he genuinely wants to see India as a powerful global sporting nation. He wished Indian contingent all the best while we were leaving for Rio. But for me, more important was the fact that he was supporting and encouraging us even when we were not doing well in Rio. He was with us throughout. So, it’s an honour for us that he has given us this valuable opportunity”. Gopichand further adds, “All of us brings into the table our own set of expertise”.
We will share our views and thought process and prepare a way forward for the Indian sports. Right now our focus will be on those sports in which we have potential in the Olympics. But we need to put in a plan with the focus on gradually spreading out the formula’. Gopichand too is clear about the fact that 75 per cent of the focus should be on the latter two Olympics and 25 per cent on the Olympics 2020.
The ball has been set rolling. The task force has decided to visit each of the 29 states of the country to get the facts and feedback from the ground zero. Till date, there has been two fundamental bane, which has led to the failure of any such initiative. Firstly, a policy is decided and the varied stakeholders are expected to fall in order. Secondly, one size is decided and the others are expected to fit into it. Om Pathak who has a long experience in governance says, “I plan to go to each of the 29 states of the country. We will be meeting all the concerned stakeholders in these states and getting first hand inputs from them. And these inputs will be critical in the finalisation of the overall report”. If this done with fairness and transparency, this will be an
unprecedented step in the annals of the India’s sporting history. In India there are sports pocket boroughs spread all across the country. If the country wants to do well in sports, these sporting strongholds need to be strengthened. For instance, as governor of Mizoram once said in one of his speech, ‘if India has to become a sporting global powerhouse, North- East has to be the engine of the
sporting growth process’. Similarly, sports specific regionwise mapping of the country has to be done. Jharkhand, Orissa, Kerala, Haryana, Punjab, Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan amongst others have these sports specific talent base. Based on this, time bound
execution plan has to be drawn out.
Another key area is the process of selection. If the country wants to have an international class talent pool, sound selection system and process is the key. Former hockey player and task force member, Baldev Singh, brings into the table, his long term experience in this aspect. Though, Baldev agrees that Indian hockey team is gradually coming back on the track, he feels that a lot needs to be done. “One of the distinct reasons for the fall of Indian hockey was faulty selections at varied levels. We need to
completely weed this out. And so, we need to see the best of the global systems and then put in a structure best suited for us”. Baldev also talks about developing infrastructure keeping in mind the lacuna inherent in the system. He says, “If we see our astro turfs, they are mostly located in warm areas. There you cannot practice beyond
certain hours. So, if the coaches from these areas say that we practice for 8 hours, they are not giving the correct picture. We need to lay astro turfs in the cooler zones of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand and other areas, where our young players could practice for longer hours throughout the year”. Age group fraud is another area of concern. For this, use of the latest technology has to be made. One of the way out could be to introduce an Information technology based system whereas all leading sports institutions at the varied levels maintains a databank which could be shared by all the concerned
stakeholders.
There are two ways of looking into the things. A broad macro picture and then micro based solutions. Does the task force has that picture in mind? Any sports nations of the world are based on specific models. There was the model of the erstwhile Soviet Union and the eastern bloc nations. This was the authoritarian based model, where the state used to dictate the profession including sports. Here, talent was spotted and like a factory mode processed to churn out the champions in a regular mode. The entire process was linked with the national pride. The system was opaque and so the problems like drugs
discredited the system. This, pattern has been more or less followed by China after the cold war. This cannot and should not be India”s model. And then, is the model of the United States of America based on the school and university sports robust structure, backed by massive private funding. Though, certain cantours of the model could be followed, it could not be adapted in totality. Corporate
participation in sports is critical to this and this trend is in the nascent stage in our country. Third model is that of countries like Australia and to an extent South Africa, but then a strong sporting culture is critical to this model. In terms of sports culture the country has miles to go. The most pertinent model, which India could look upto is the British model. The country’s graph in the Olympics sports has fallen to its lowest ebb. It was then that John Major government stepped in. An elaborate and comprehensive plan was drawn in and the funding structure based on the lottery system was zeroed in. The results are there for all to see. In the last two Olympics, England has performed admirably. Though, India should have the funding structure other lottery system, but an unconventional and tangible route has to be found out. When asked about this, the task force gave broader hint.
As Om Pathak says, “The task force members are persons of repute. What I can contribute is my long experience in governance and the effectiveness with which we are trying to implement them in School Sports Promotion Foundation. The two
critical areas in my mind are sports governance and end to end solutions. Sports governance encompassing interlinked structure from the grass root to the international level is a must. This includes a viable structure at the grass root level which is so critical. Secondly, there should be end to end solution in terms of infrastructure and coaches. We certainly need structured specialised infrastructure, but also need to augment sports infrastructure at school, college and panchayat level”. India needs coaches at various levels and we could not be eternally dependent on the foreign coaches. So, an effective training programme as a national campaign theme is the need of the hour.
The task force has miles to go before they sleep. There is a past which has repeatedly failed our athletes. There are also ambiguities like the present task force continuity in terms of execution of the plan. But as one of the task force members in the condition of anonymity says, “It can’t be worse than what is existent. We have to work with this mindset. I don’t agree that a huge nation like ours don”t have talent. We need to give ecology to this talent base to excel”. And in this media has to play a critical role. The media needs to be part of the process in the making of the champions and just not confine itself to chasing
the champions. 2017—the tale of two committees, going hyperbolic on the one on cricket and totally ignoring the one on Olympic sports should become a thing of past.
(The writer is a senior Sports Journalist)
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