RELIGION/ FR MORENO DE SOUZA
Give sports a hand!

Corporate houses can contribute towards sports development in a big way, individual's have to be positively inclined towards it

As usually happens in trains, the A.P. Express 3-tier coach came alive with heated discussion, on sports; India's dismal performance at the world meets, returning empty handed from Olympics and so on.

What's the government doing for sports? Nothing. Where is the infrastructure? There is no incentive, no encouragement or support. Our sportsmen don't get international exposure: thus ran the arguments.

After listening for over an hour, I turned to the most vocal sports lover. How many children you have? I asked him.

`I have two sons and a daughter'. He told me further that the boys were in college and the daughter in her tenth class.

`What sports they pursue?' I pressed. Where is the time for sports? The syllabus is so heavy; they don't even get proper sleep. The boys are keen to make it to engineering and computer sciences and the girl has to secure minimum 95% marks to get admission into some good college.

Who, then, do you advise to pursue sports and win Olympic medals for you? The question was enough to keep him shut for the next two hours, till the subject changed to politics. Some parents do allow their wards to attend summer coaching camps. But the interest thus evinced by the children peters off once the school bag asserts its claim thus good results in the exams
becomes their objective.Are we using the available infrastructure for promotion of sports? Talkatora stadium in New Delhi, Jagmohan's pet project, is used for concerts and dances; Lesser-known stadia in states suffer from even bigger neglect. It would be enough to remind the cynics that India did not have better hockey grounds or better equipment when it won 8
Olympic medals. Dedication, not stadia, was their strong point.

And if countries you do not know on the world map can come up with stunning performances in football, why
India after 150 years of history of the game is nowhere? Because we lack a sports culture and pay mere lip sympathy to sports. The government is insincere, otherwise it would not change five sports ministers in six months. The parents are not keen to let the children take up sports and our education system makes it difficult for them to pursue it.Govt and the people
working together could make sports an attraction for the youth if only they concentrate on specific areas. Once they are hooked sports excellence and Olympic medals would come within their reach.

The problem of missing a career could be largely solved if only we reserve 50% of vacancies upto senior
inspectorial level in the police and the army where they surely need the fittest with daring and courage. The police force and armed forces in return would get able bodied, determined and disciplined entrants with grit and determination to meet the demands such force place on their employees.

Other avenues which the sports aspirants miss or risk should also be opened by allowing them to enter the colleges and the university to pursue their chosen courses after they retire from sports at 30 or 35. Sports bodies like the SAI should be free from politics. The government should exercise enlightened control with well- informed knowledge, giving free hand to experts at the same time. Professionalism in every aspect of sport, be it management, coaching, or psychology is the key to success. Money for creating and maintaining infrastructure and managing the sports is most vital. The government has already announced some tax rebates to encourage sponsors and investment in sports goods etc.

There has to be a political will. I can straight away suggest two sources that would more than meet all demands of sports. For instance, if the finance minister issues orders to the banks to recover all the `bad loans' , amounting to 54,0000 crore and allots
50% of the recoveries for sports promotion, major demands of sports bodies would be met. We have temples, mosques and gurudwaras in lakhs, costing easily thousands of crores of rupees. The money comes from donations by the common man who hold religion in high esteem. Were these sportive people to become religious for sports cause. We will be flooded with
funds. If medal starved India becomes medal hungry, we are bound to become sports power.

(PTI feature)
(Gomantak Times)