The Indian Sport scenario is a unipolar world dominated by the often-singular obsession with cricket, the great Indian passion. The push to take cognisance of the need for a plural emphasis on Sports is echoed within the sporting fraternity at large. The effort certainly has to be posited as not a counter to cricket but as one competing to capture the imagination of the country. That the stars of today’s less endowed sports have made their way ahead in spite of the system than because of it is common knowledge given our challenges in resources, talent management and administration. Also for every Anju George, there are scores of the like of Bobby Aloysius swept under the Arjuna awards carpet, but that is another story.

But more importantly, we need to broadly examine that in relation to the more pressing issues facing us as a nation. The call for a greater deployment of resources and focus on sporting achievements needs to be balanced with that of the issues enveloping the nation bordering on strife. The common refrain often heard in an Olympic year "One billion people, not one Olympic gold medal" needs to be examined vis-à-vis the reality of overwhelming poverty and hunger, iniquitous gender and socio-economic structures, and not to mention the well-orchestrated genocides and disasters. The need to define the relationship between doing a better medals tally in 2008 in China vis-à-vis meeting the Millennium Development Goals in 2015 is immediate.

For instance, the correlation between Kerala’s steady stream of top-notch sportswomen and the state’s leadership in gender equity is an important pointer to the inextricable linkage between human achievement and human development. We need to focus on the basic needs and rights of the people and invest in structures that address them if we are to even fairly retain a long-term vision.

You want the Olympic gold? Focus on performing well in your national Human Development index. Once we do well in the MDGs – eradicating poverty & hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a strong base of community (global) partnership in development – then, the more than a billion people will ensure a steady flow of gold at the quadrennial event.

The ‘One billion people – Not one Olympic gold’ refrain does not stand a decent scrutiny. One needs a critical mass in pursuit of any particular sport for the emergence of talent and competence that would consistently flow to occupy podiums in the international setting. When a vast majority is in perennial hunger, malnourished mothers raising malnourished children, never knowing when they will be submerged or evicted depending on their rural or urban existence, what more can you expect but flashes in the pan of elite and competitive sports. And then there are those who unveil the Olympic movement to be seen for what it has come to be now: One that leaves ecological (and often economic) devastation in its aftermath where the display of the values of sportsmanship is often underscored by cutting-edge substance abuse. To imagine the scale of ecological impact one needs to only look closer home at the National Games Village in Bangalore, which was built on a tank bed flouting enough norms to warrant a PIL that couldn’t do much since the damage had already been irreversibly done. We in India need to realise that Sport today is a highly scientific discipline and along with its associated neo-liberal economics has made quantum leaps tilting the scales clearly in favour of nations featuring at the frontiers of science.

An examination indeed reveals, among other things, the need to proactively forge the essential ingredients of sportsmanship - principles, values, ethics etc – into the coaching programme design. One would hope that this saves our misguided athletes and sportspersons, in the absence of effective checks, from puncturing their bodies to national glory and international shame.

It’s not always necessary that we play to the linear design of the dominant west and its okay to develop and play our own game, that which will benefit us socially, economically and politically and most importantly unite us as a community. We need not forget about Olympics, but clearly need to focus on grassroots and community-based sport because that’s the game we ought to be playing. The line-of-inquiry ought to be to position sport as one relevant to our national and local contexts and that, which is affordable with low entry barriers. For instance, the introduction of astro-turf in hockey redefined the way the game is played. But given its high economic and ecological costs (huge water consumption) it’s an impediment to Indian hockey aspirants. The very way one holds the hockey stick to stop the ball differs depending on whether one is on a kutcha ground or astro-turf.

It is important that our schools begin to shed their view of academics and physical activity as two disparate fields and also recognise the distinction between sport and physical education. The role of physical education towards wholesome education in today’s school system where PT is not play time or pass time but physical education time; a time when one gets to understand how to take care and develop his / her body; a space to hone one’s essential lifeskills; and learn to discern the health and lifestyle imperatives that follow such as nutrition and rest. Each school must develop its own PE syllabi across the classes where the children increasingly gain mastery over their physical faculties. Sport and PE are two different things. Some may engage in sports, but all must benefit from their physical education.

More than examining our ability to compete, we need to examine our ability to integrate sport as an important part of our development agenda. One where the intrinsic benefits of engaging in sport, such as developing a sense of fairplay, teamwork, and a disciplined approach to achieve both individual and team goals are available to all and that which will stand in good stead whatever one does beyond sport. Of course, Sport-for-all does bring its socio-economic and political ramifications and there lays its significance – as a tool in empowerment, a platform to occupy mainstream spaces; and a medium to give rise and highlight developmental issues. There are quite a number of working children and those in Juvenile Homes without an opportunity to play, relax and engage in recreation. So much needs be done beyond taking them to picnics and camps once in a blue moon. There can be an agenda that includes programmes for children-in-difficult-circumstances that address their right to play, dovetailing with initiatives geared toward gender equity, and facilitate linkages that enable the deployment of the sporting fraternity in emergent socio-economic and political opportunities so that sport gets out of its current welfare existence.

This international year for sport and physical education is a curtain call to check our premises and attitudes; examine our deeply held notions of development and well being; and the essential instruments and modalities that take us there. To pitch it narrowly, as only the development of sports and its economic implications, would be skilfully managing to miss the boat.

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Last modified on August 7th, 2008 webadmin, CED