NOT too long ago, Pakistan was leading the world in hockey, squash and cricket. Serious strife at home has meant that no foreign nation wants to tour it anymore. But that is a more recent development. Pakistan hockey is also suffering like Indian hockey. In fact, Pakistan had to recently qualify for the Hero Honda World Cup in Delhi next February.
Squash where the Khans – Hashim, Jahangir and Jansher – were the cock of the walk for years has seen no real talent coming through in the recent past. The conveyor belt has dried up, the racquet probably replaced by the gun. Cricket is the only sport where Pakistan remains an honest threat. As they proved in the T 20 World Cup in England this summer when they took the cup. But Pakistan’s mantra was to narrow focus on a handful of sport instead of expending their energies on multiple disciplines. The dominance of the Pathans from the village of Nawakille in Peshawar is an amazing story. Hashim Khan won the prestigious British Open seven times, while his brother Azam Khan won it four times. Roshan Khan also from the same village, but not related, won the title once, but his son, the pocket dynamo Jahangir Khan, known as JK, was the biggest superstar winning 10 British Opens and six World Opens. But this amazing run of that village near the Pakistan Air Force base of Peshawar ended abruptly with Jansher Khan. JK 2 was another squash great Moibullah Khan’s younger brother. Jansher won eight world championships and six British Opens. The bruising Jahangir-Jansher rivalry made squash a true blue international sport and both squash millionaires. Nawakille was likened to the epicentre of world squash those days.
But since then squash in Pakistan and Nawakille has gone off the boil. The Beijing Olympics should have served as an eye opener to the mandarins who run Indian sport. The fact that India failed to qualify in hockey at Chile was like a wake up call, but this was offset by three medals including a gold and two bronze. This should have paved the way for a directional call on Indian sport. Not just that, Saina Nehwal reached the quarters in badminton, boxers Akhil Kumar in the 54 kg category and Jitendra Kumar – 51 kg – did the same, as did the archers who lost to the hosts in the quarters. Narrow focus on a handful of select disciplines where sportspersons are likely to bring you laurels. And there are many discip[lines which are showing results. The fact that Vijendra has managed to win a bronze again at the Worlds or a Ramesh Kumar followed up with a bronze in the Denmark wrestling worlds after Sushil Kumar did the same in the Olympics or shooters Chilli Rathore and Abhinav Bindra have won silver and gold for India at successive Olympics are cases in point which need to be studied, dissected and action taken on. They merely reinforce what I am saying, stick to the knitting, focus on your areas of core competence, don’t spread yourselves too thin. Create a base of champions in a handful of disciplines.
What I am essentially hinting at is a microcosm of sporting excellence on the lines of BBC. India’s BBC – Bhiwani Boxing Club – in Bhiwani, Haryana energed from the heat and dust of small town India in 2008 as four of the five boxers who represented India at the 2008 Summer Olympics hailed from there. Sports Authority of India coach and boxer Jagdish Singh has been credited with making the Bhiwani Boxing Club, or “BBC” as it is known locally, a powerhouse of Indian boxing, a la Nawakille. The Academy was established by the legendary Indian boxer, two time Asian Games gold medallist and 11-time national champion Captain Hawa Singh. Among the 2008 Olympians, Jitender Kumar (Flyweight) (51 kg) and Akhil Kumar (54 kg) went on to qualify for the quarter finals, while Vijender Kumar (75 kg) won a bronze medal. Bhiwani is known as Little Cuba in India due to the large number of boxers who hail from the region. This is the way forward, train athletes through a public-private partnership model.
Sportspersons have to succeed at the highest level for the sport to be recognised. It is only then that the trickle down effect of money will begin to flow into the sport. Shooting has seen Indians do exceedingly well and it is clear that like golf and cue sport, we have a wide and deep gene pool in these disciplines. Golf is a classic example of corporate sponsorship igniting a professional circuit where domestic golfers can earn enough. This allows them to ply their trade internationally and they have shown that they can hold their own abroad. As I mentioned in my last column, golf as a sport needs to be emulated by more and more disciplines. Gautam Thapar has shown Indian corporates the way. Shooting, billiards, snooker, boxing, wrestling, golf, badminton, tennis, archery, weightlifting which unfortunately is mired in a doping controversy and of course hockey which needs to be bumped up so that its prominence can be restored as a first among equals, are what we should be concentrating on. These are a few disciplines which are top of mind where India is quietly and even surreptitiously producing champions. We need to give them a push. Not just the sportspersons, but the sport per se. A widening and deepening of the sport will throw up champs.
Actually, an event like the Commonwealth Games which India is hosting for the very first time needs to function like a catalyst for Indian sport. Yes, India as the host will try and maximise this opportunity by participating in every single discipline including rugby sevens and lawn bowls, but the larger question of leaving a legacy for Indian sport remains unanswered. A legacy for Indian sport, an edifice for the future generation of sportspersons. This is an excellent opportunity to build on what promises to be a strong foundation. We will only get adequate traction if we are able to monetise the CWG by narrow focusing thereafter. Think of the money the government is pouring into the Commonwealth Games infrastructure and the training of our sportspersons. Although one hears more about the infrastructure deficit and not about the preparation of our sportspersons. Which is a great pity. I sincerely hope their training is not going unattended. I hope this blaze of controversy over the tardy progress of the Games infrastructure doesn’t derail our athletes’ preparations. Now there is talk of the draft national sports policy being made public as it is scheduled to come before the Cabinet shortly. I hope the lessons of our Beijing success are imbibed and these now begin to percolate in our sports administration machinery.
When one looks at the Hockey India fiasco, it doesn’t seem as if we are paying any heed to the past. Unfortunately, we continue to live in the past.
