An attempt to reach out to fellow passionate Indian sports fans!
A curated list of to-do’s to transform the Sports fanatic in you to the betterment of sports and support of our athletes.
An attempt to reach out to fellow passionate Indian sports fans!
A curated list of to-do’s to transform the Sports fanatic in you to the betterment of sports and support of our athletes.
This is what Piers Morgans, a British journalist and television personality tweeted.
1,200,000,000 people and not a single Gold medal at the Olympics?
Come on India, this is shameful.
Put the bunting away & get training.— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) August 24, 2016
What followed next was a barrage of trolls and tweets trending him to numero one across India. Although, he is no one to troll us and, people are equally right to give him back. But, there is no denying the fact that we failed altogether as a sporting nation. 2 medals does no justice to our potential. However, it is perhaps apt for the sporting conditions we have in our country. It is high time we accept this and take constructive steps in this direction.
The blame game!
Another question that arises is – who is to be held responsible, the players or their federations? The recent OP Jaisha controversy, with players getting entangled with the federation is not an unfamiliar sight in Indian sports in the recent past. It shows how difficult it is to compete at the international level. Firstly to be skilled and secondly to have the mental perseverance to fight against your association, dearth of facilities, preferential treatment and politics to finally make it to the top level.
What has happened to #OPJaisha cannot be repeated if we want to encourage,nurture & inspire our people to take to sports & #GoForGold Pls
— Randeep Hooda (@RandeepHooda) August 23, 2016
It is equally alarming that only 1 out of the 27 Indian sports bodies has an athlete at its helm (President). Neither is their working transparent nor is their funding, members and other facts made open to public. Read the whole article.
For any future hopes, these numbers have to change and quickly. Athletes like Abhinav Bindra, Yogeshwar Dutt and many others who have played the game should contest elections to foster any hopes of a transformation.
Talking about accountability, will the sports minister or the hordes accompanying him in the junket at Rio ever accept their follies? Never. They were busy in the carnival that they forgot there is a sporting event to attend as well! Worst still, they were the first ones to click selfies, and later reward the winning athletes so as to take some credit of their glory. And in doing so, they even forget the names of the athletes! Unfortunately, it shows how callous and insensitive they are when it comes to handling sports affairs.
Sports until now is only a hobby, a pastime in school. Nowhere is sport urged to be taken up as a profession. There are some dedicated sports schools like the one by former cricketer Virender Sehwag which focuses on cricket. But too aim a medal, we need more of such schools and sporting facilities at the very ground level.
The USA or other countries that top the Olympic medal tally have a proper gymnastics setup to consider as an example, unlike India. You cannot get top notch athletes out of sheer grit and hard work a la Dipa Karmakar sans any sporting facilities. Not everyone can and will battle it out against all odds and compete against the worlds best in a sport that is not even heard off by many!
A holistic programme involving experts at every level should be immediately drafted. The athletes should not travel overseas to avail world class facilities. It should be made available closer, at home. The quality of training also needs to improve and so too the synergy between government, coaches, sporting centers and sportsperson. There should be sustained amount of investment in the form of sports development schemes through public-private partnership.
Taking stock of the current situation, the PM of India, Narendra Modi made an announcement that has been received well from all quarters of people. Here are the series of tweets.
PM announced at the meeting of the Council of Minister’s today that Task Force will be set up to prepare a comprehensive action plan (1/2)
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 26, 2016
for effective participation of Indian sports persons in the next three Olympic games 2020, 2024 and 2028. (2/2)
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 26, 2016
The Task Force will prepare overall strategy for sports facility, training, selection procedure and other related matters.
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 26, 2016
The Task Force will comprise of members who are in house experts as well as those from outside.
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 26, 2016
The sports federations are doing a review to dissect the performances in Rio. The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has already constituted a four-member committee to examine the reasons behind India’s poor show with Abhinav Bindra as its chairman. Also, Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has hinted to go young at Tokyo 2020 and the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has also started reviewing the performances in the track and field events.
Although it is heartening to hear about the Task force, who will be in the committee is equally important as we don’t want a committee that again constitutes of incompetent ministers.
It is during such times that sports fans like you and me should take up responsibility. Although Tokyo 2020 is far, but we need to support our athletes right from the word go. Till the time we get the above things in place, we need to start thinking for our athletes. Because for the ministry and the federation, it doesn’t even matter! They will be the first ones to take credit for laurels our players have won but not owe any moral responsibility.
After all it affects us the most, doesn’t it? We are getting upset that we could only manage 2 medals in Rio Olympics 2016 when many expected a double digit tally or worse still to at least match up to that of the London Olympics. What can we do on our part apart from cheering our athletes at the games. Well, we all can contribute a little bit, monetarily and also by spreading this message. Lets get involved in filling these gaps till the time the whole system is revamped.
Here is a curated list of organizations that sports aficionados can help to start off with.
1. Contact someone who is working with sports at the ground level. For example, In Hockey one can contact K Arumugam Sir from One Thousand Hockey Legs (OTHL) NGO regarding the same.
2. Donate to the Viren Rasquinha led Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ).
3. Contribute to the JSW Sports Excellence Program (SEP).
4. Petition to increase the funding and number of athletes picked in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) using the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) programme by the government.
5. Start a crowd funding program for an athlete.
6. Lets make sports an integral part of our lives. Don’t take up an Olympic sport, but do sports for fitness. The whole experience will be enriching and will help the sporting culture to rub in for generations to come.
Sakshi Malik, India’s first medallist with freestyle wrestling bronze.
India’s performance in the last match at the Rio Olympics 2016
With the Rio Olympics having no classification matches, the positions were decided on the number of wins and goals scored in the league phase, India’s quarter-final loss turned out to be their last of the campaign. A look back at what transpired in India’s final match – the quarter final against Belgium.
India opened the scoring just at the stroke of the first quarter. VR Raghunath again with a superb through ball for Akashdeep to score India’s first goal and believe it or not it was a field goal! Again good contribution from Manpreet in the buildup to this goal.
A double save from PR Sreejesh at start of the 2nd quarter showed time and again why he is called the wall for India and one of the finest goalkeepers in the game right now. India’s defense was tested here.
SV Sunil dribbled and mazed his way past 2-3 players to find Sardar whose backhand shot from the right was intercepted at the top of the circle. Sardar found Devindar on the flanks who passed it to Ramandeep only for Elliot nicknamed Zizou (Zinedine Zidane) to foil another move from India. Ramandeep scooped a good ball on the left flank for SV Sunil to Nikkin just missing to put a stick to it. Sunil later found Akashdeep whose tomahowk (reverse hit) was powerful but not on target.
India had deliberately slowed the game by taking time on every foul. It was perfect game management to kill the game and make it work on your advantage. Oltmans has to be given all credit for marshalling his troops, instilling belief in them lifting their morale every time when they had lost all self confidence.
A ball in to the D for Belgium and Sreejesh saves that was close shave,only to give in to the pressure at the end to concede a penalty corner. The ball deflected from the stick for a long corner and the half time whistle to go off. At the end of half time, flawless from India!
India had 3 field goal chances compared to 4 for Belgium at the end of the half. How ironic a team devoid of any field goals scores one and the other gets a chance from a penalty corner insead, their weakness so far! Same goes to Belgium who have done the bulk of the scoring from field goals, earned a penalty corner instead which they failed to convert.
The all important 2nd half
The game resumed with an ultimate save again from Sreejesh and the rebound scoop was above the goal. Again that was superb during the initial minutes of the 3rd quarter with an excellent interception from Kothajit to wriggle the ball away from the circle.
However, a good move followed and Belgium scored from Sebastien Docier just went below his right foot. Sreejesh another save comes out to save a tomahawk with excellent anticipation closing the angles by coming out. Beautifully tackled by Raghunath to Danish and they started to pass it around to build a move and in process slow down the game and keep possession. VR Raghunath lost his shape and calm to concede his 4th card in the tournament. This was another big worry coming into this match.
Emanuel Stockbrocks goal bound attempt was blocked again by Sreejesh. A baseline attack from Belgium has stuck the foot of Indian defender which is 10 man now to concede a penalty corner. This produced a superb low acrobatic save from the leder and keeper
Raghu’s absence was felt Even more as we lost an on rusher in him.
With 1 min left Raghu came back on, and just at the end of 3rd quarter Belgium scored a backhand goal from outstretched stick by the same scorer Sebastien Docier and Sreejesh beaten at his near post. That was good presence of mind from the Belgium forward as India began to lose shape and momentum at such a crucial juncture of the match. Another field goal for Belgium and also the second in this quarter. India earned a free hit but the hooter went off for end of quarter 3.
Final Quarter – Advantage Belgium!
Danish stated the proceedings with an excellent run and the resulting hit was deflected for an own goal that was resulted to a long corner. Danish made a good tackle only to hit his own player Rupinder to give Belgium a penalty corner. Belgium has until now converted just 1 out of 20 pc in the tournament so far.
Akashdeep made a good run but failed to find Sardar who was fouled and earned a free hit or the team. And another good flick this time for legend Tom Boon to score and the match was over dashing hopes of a comeback all over India. The Boon family would have rejoiced this sight, with Tom getting his first goal.
As a last ditch attempt to go all out, India removed Sreejesh with 10 mins left for the sweeper keeper, much to the shock of Sreejesh! For the third time in the tournament, Raghu took the responsibility.
Ramandeep passed to the D just missed by Akashdeep. It was desperate defending for India and time wasting from Cedric Charlier. No penalty corners earned for India, their biggest strength!
PR Sreejesh on quote after the loss:
“When it comes to quarter finals, it’s a do or die match and that’s where we need to improve. We are happy that the team could reach the quarter finals, but the team we have had the potential of going higher. It’s bad for us and I am disappointed.”
Mind you India had beaten Argentina in the group stages and also scored first against the Red Lions of Belgium, which talks about how close and tough this tournament has been.
The youngsters will have to pick themselves up and lead the team to new glories quickly because they are the ones who don’t carry any baggage of past performances. The team has adopted an exciting brand of hockey in the last one year and with time the results are bound to come for sure!