WHETHER or not we like to face it, historically India at the Olympics has been a constant tale of woe. While some see the London Olympics as a defining moment for Indian sports since the 6 medals won are the most ever at a single Olympics, the fact remains that our performances as a nation remain dismal, and there seems to be minimal improvement each 4 year period that elapses between the events. And, with a jarring last place finish in Hockey, India now has reached a new low when it comes to the only sport (outside of Abhinav Bindra’s stunning performance at Beijing) where India has ever won a gold medal.
Many have caught on to this regrettable inability to improve, and South Asia as a whole clearly has the worst population to medal ratio in the world. Consider this – India has a total of 26 medals, of which 5 were won prior to independence, leaving us with a grand total of 21 since 1948. Pakistan has a total of 10 medals, Sri Lanka has 2. Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal have none. Approximately 1.8 billion people have combined to win a startling 6 medals at the London 2012 Olympics. 1 medal per 300 million individuals. 300 million is the population of the United States of America – it has 2400 medals at the Olympics, and 104 at London. China has won 473 medals, Turkey 87, Jamaica 67, Kazakhstan 52, North Korea 47, Ethiopia 45, Estonia 33, Azerbaijan and Egypt 26 each, Mongolia and Thailand 24 each, and Nigeria 23.
Michael Phelps (22 medals) on his own has won more medals than India since independence. Not only this, our success is in sports that rarely have crossover synergies with professional career enhancement.
In business of sports parlance, there are two important distinctions that one must make – between professional sports and amateur sports; and between revenue sports and non-revenue sports. Barring a few cross-over stars in any sport, these distinctions remain pertinent for the growth of sports in any domain or jurisdiction. In India, the trend has been for amateur sports to reap benefits for our athletes, and the success has been mostly in those particular sports at the Olympics or the Asiad. Wrestling, Archery, Shooting, and to some extent Boxing, remain amateur sports where professional careers are rarely lucrative or even possible. Sports such as Table Tennis, Squash, and of course Badminton are professional sports but again have limited opportunities for career enhancement unless one is at the very pinnacle of achievement, as Saina clearly is.
What this means is that between amateur and non-revenue sports, India with its stated limitations in the growth and promotion of sports, stands to remain more or less at a status quo in the short and long terms. It is only when sports such as Hockey, Football. Basketball and Tennis are promoted and encouraged that there will be the monetizing of sports other than Cricket.
Once there is a broader based emphasis on professional and revenue-generating sports, only then will there be any spill-over synergies into amateur sports where Indians can excel beyond the present parameters. It is unforgivable that the Indian contingent had such limited representation in icon events such as the Track & Field sprints or relays, or in Football, Martial arts, or even a sport where Indians have a distinct advantage historically – Field Hockey.
Amateur sports are where the focus is in India, and this is not sustainable as a career option or to have mass appeal. Even sports such as Badminton and Boxing will not lead to a mass interest in this as a career option, since they are highly competitive and not nearly as lucrative as many team sports or professional sports. Our athletes who out-performed despite the history of futility deserve all the adulation and more, but that takes nothing away from the glaring reality that unless the sports domain is clearly outlined and demarcated, not much will change and we will continue to fight for elbow room with countries at the bottom of the sports hierarchy of achievement.
Some blame our consistent non-performance on the political system, comparing it to China and its consistent excellence, while others blame it on the lack of infrastructure. Still others point to Cricket as the offender, insisting that it has cannibalized talent and revenues from all other sports where India could technically succeed. Many of these hypotheses are correct to varying extents, and while some are in the process of being cleansed and improved, there are some which are natural culminations of the laws of economics.
And let’s be clear about one thing – Cricket isn’t the villain here. It is merely the only viable option for most aspiring and talented athletes looking for a career in sports. Most countries have a historic affinity for success in one or a few sports. India is one of the few countries where our affinity is moving from sports where we succeeded due to natural advantages, and now concentrated mostly on cricket.
Again, this really needs to change, because the saturation point has been reached, and talented/athletic individuals need additional options. Nowhere else is this divide so stark, and now is the time for the global interest in India to be utilized and monetized in revenue & professional sports. We are behind the game, and even the wooden spoon is becoming a matter of routine despite the strides India as a country has made in so many other aspects.
Let’s stop the blame games, and let’s stop using the Commonwealth Games as the proxy scapegoat for all that ails Indian sports. Focus on what we should do to make sports a business and career option, and the rest will hopefully follow. We as a nation cannot afford to continually be the litmus test for futility or merely a side-show for the true legends of sport. Rio beckons in four years, we better be ready next time.
