Corporates
must pump money into sport at grassroots level (Comment)
By K. Datta
Indo-Asian News
Service
See
what an Olympic medal can do for you. If it happens to be
a gold medal it can even fetch you a doctorate from a university
as it happened in the case of Abhinav Bindra in Chennai. Till
only the other day the media didn't think it worth its while
talking to boxers or wrestlers. The Beijing bronze medals
have changed all that. Now Vijender Singh and Sushil Kumar
are much sought after by camerapersons and reporters. Even
those who didn't win a medal, Akhil Kumar for one, are receiving
flattering attention.
Don't
be surprised if one fine evening, you find Vijender, endowed
as he is with good looks, endorsing some product or the other
provided it doesn't breach any service rules of the Haryana
police in which he is now a deputy superintendent. If he does,
let's hope he has the wisdom to choose the right kind of thing
to endorse, something compatible with the image of his macho
sport.
It
would be churlish to grudge medal-winners individual accolades,
promotions and awards in cash and kind. But, when Bindra urged
on his return from Beijing that everybody get involved in
a national endeavour to encourage Olympic sports disciplines
he had something else in mind. He was looking far beyond individual
awards.
A
television channel has revealed the sorry state of facilities
provided to the 300 plus boxers at the senior national championships
at Bathinda. This barely three weeks after India won its first
ever Olympic medal at Beijing. The living conditions at Bathinda
were little better than in slums. All because there were no
sponsors, as India's national coach G.S. Sandhu said before
the cameras, a view also endorsed by the boxing federation
secretary Col. Murlidharan Raja.
If
the Indian team at the last month's Olympics could get the
required international competitive exposure before Beijing
it was only because of funds provided by the sports ministry.
At the same time, promoting boxing and other Olympic sports
at the grassroots level is as important as funding the specialised
training of a few chosen ones. Where will the chosen ones
come from if sport is not encouraged at the grassroots level,
in the states and districts?
Suddenly,
Bhiwani is in the news because of the boxers it has produced,
including, Vijender and Beijing quarter-finalsits Akhil Kumar
and Jitender Kumar. But even Bhiwani cannot boast of a decent
enough modern boxing ring. What is true of Bhiwani is also
the case with some other places. In fact, boxers, hardy people
that they are, are known to come from unlikely places with
no rings worth the name at all. There is little protection
from rain even in the Bhiwani ring.
If
Bhiwani has become a boxing hub it is because the tough Haryanvi
can take it on the chin and give it back in good measure.
But there are equally tough races elsewhere in the country,
the men, also women, of the north-east for example. It is
from there that boxers like Zoram Thanga and Dingko Singh
have emerged, not to mention the world 48 kg women's champion
Mary Kom. It is in the ring that these people from humble
homes find a means of self-expression with their fists. Importantly,
the road to jobs also starts in the ring.
This
is the time for corporates to do their duty by the talented
sons of poor drivers and bus conductors and peasants and slum
dwellers not only through sponsorships but also by creating
infrastructure. It is a shame that events like national championships
are so shabbily held for lack of sponsors at a time when the
country is expecting its sportspersons to fetch a more respectable
number of Olympic medals after the breakthrough three at Beijing.
(The
writer is a veteran sports journalist and he can be reached
at dattak2007@rediffmail.com)
Indo-Asian
News Service
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