For most people of the country, the only time any sport other than cricket or football is deemed as relevant is once every four years- when the Olympics take place and India sends quite a large and diverse selection of athletes to win a few medals at the Games.
Outside the Olympics, a small section of us follow the events of badminton and tennis every playing season only to keep up with the likes of Saina Nehwal and Leander Paes while a lot of lesser known sportspeople often slip under the radar. We may blame the mainstream media for perpetuating this culture of satisfied ignorance but mostly it is the attitude of an average citizen that has led to the current scenario of sports in the country.
It is this attitude that led to Aditi Mutatkar feeling no joy on finishing second at a major international badminton tournament. Instead, in her words, all she felt was anger- anger at finishing second and anger that more people did not care.
A revelation at the Bittburger Open
October 6, 2008, was a historical junction in the ever-changing narrative of Indian sports. This day marked the second ever occasion when an Indian woman reached the finals of a Grand Prix tournament in badminton. The stage was set in Germany and Mutatkar, who had a magnificent tournament so far was all set to play the game of her life. The Bittburger Open Grand Prix was to be the turning point of her life.
Looking back on her journey progressing through the tournament, the erstwhile No.2 ranked player in the country reflects on the difficult situations she had to live and get through to savour her success at the end of the tournament. At the beginning of the tournament, Mutatkar was ranked 72nd in the world and each of the opponents she faced en-route to the final was ranked higher than her.
She had set up what promised to be a challenging clash with Maria Febe from Indonesia- an intimidating opponent who, at that time, figured among the five best female players according to the World rankings.
The match ended with mixed feelings for Mutatkar and the country watching and supporting her as she went down valiantly fighting until the last game. She fought hard and won the first game, lost the second and failed to convert three match points in the third to lose 22-24, 21-8, 23-21 in what was the best performance of her career. The silver medal brought her pride, but she also felt disappointed and angry about what her parents had to go through for her to get on that podium.
“In early August that year, I was in Bangalore training for the upcoming European circuit in October, starting from the Bittburger Open. I had just recovered from a bout of measles in July and it felt so good to be on the court and work hard,” she fondly recalls with an expression that effectively communicated her love for badminton.
“I finished training and came out of the court when Vimal Kumar, my coach, told me that the government was having some problems with sponsoring the whole team and I would no longer be going for the European circuit,” she added.
At that point in time, Mutatkar decided to take matters into her own hands and seek for monetary help herself. That season, she was due to play five tournaments in the span of three months and would be training with former World No 6 Julia Mann in Paris. The entire setup was going to cost her approximately Rs 4 lakhs which she did not want her parents to pay for.
A lack of sponsorship, yet again for a non-cricket sport
The only sponsor that she approached who helped her in some way was Bharat Petroleum; she was, at that time, employed by the organisation. They provided her with a sum of 50,000 for her expenditure. Six other potential sponsors were approached which produced various degrees of disappointment and humiliating revelations about the attitude of marginalised sports in the country.
The first turned her down saying that he only sponsored cricketers. The next two showed no interest after preliminary talks. The fourth one blatantly said, “Get into the top 20 and I will then proudly sponsor you”. The sixth owned a lesser known jewellery brand and said that it would not profit the company to support a sportsperson as they do not wear jewellery.
While the country as a whole seems to be obsessed with winning, we are clearly not ready to spare a thought for the infrastructure that is needed to make that scenario a reality. The sham was tellingly exposed when the frustration among the Indian citizens reached a peak after India failed to win an Olympic medal nearly ten days into the competition.
Even after inspiring performances by Dattu Bhokanal and Lalita Babar we had eminent and well-known socialites commenting that the Indian contingent was not really interested in winning medals. The same woman who said this also suggested that the only reason Indians participate in the Games was to enjoy the glamour that the competition held.
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Aditi Mutatkar has been at the receiving end of this attitude and she had only this to say, “With all due respect, if Shobha De and more of her ilk swallow their wisdom and not post it on Twitter and sponsor an athlete instead, I can promise them they would be less depressed about our performance at the Olympics.”
As someone who painstakingly saved every dime she could due to a lack of sponsorship, she is practical enough to realise that talent alone cannot get a player anywhere in the world of sports which is slowly turning into a corporate enterprise. A proper reworking of the grassroots is required if things are to change.
Mutatkar, with some difficulty, recalls the troubles her parents went through to fund the rest of her campaign in 2008 and asks some important questions, “Do we tell our children to be fearless and pick up a racket instead of a book? Does every coach in India give free coaching to a player with potential but with no money? Do the rich among up think twice before saying no to sponsor even a few thousand rupees to a potential medal winner from their seemingly wealthy piggy bank? Do we know as much about the young women in our hockey team as we know about Sachin Tendulkar?”
These are hard hitting questions which produce nothing but a shameful silence upon proper introspection.
Despite all the factors against her, at the end of the five tournaments in three months, Aditi broke into the top 30 in the World rankings which included two semi-final appearances in two consecutive weeks following the finals of the Bittburger Grand Prix. She was able to pay off the loan her parents had to resort to with her prize money. She remains one of the relatively unsung heroes of the sport.
