National Sports Day - Past and future

The true Indian fan transcends religion, region, language, caste etc… Sport is the single unifying factor in India

August 29^th is our National Sports Day. It is time to celebrate and reflect on all our past achievements in any sport that we have touched (that includes Archery and Horse riding from the Mahabharata Era). After all we have set quite a few records in many of the sports. But first, why, of all days, is August 29^th the National Sports Day? It is to commemorate the birthday of Indian hockey wizard Dhyan Chand. Wait, wait… Why not April 24^th, Sachin’s Birthday? The answer follows…

Hockey was, once upon a time, India’s own game. They were in fact better than the present Indian cricket team because they won all their gold medals on foreign soil, and did not mind the ‘grass’ on the pitch. In fact, India thrashed the USA 24-1 for the Gold medal in the 1932 Olympics. For people who know Dhyan Chand only from the Sachin – Bharat Ratna issue, Dhyan Chand was one of the greatest hockey players of all time, with 3 Olympic Gold medals being the highlight of his playing career. He scored over 1000 goals in his career, and is synonymous with Indian hockey and hence the National Sports Day.

When we debate who India’s greatest sportsperson is, we often tend to overlook the stars of the yesteryear. Ranjit Singhji, Duleep Singhji, Dhyan Chand himself, PT Usha etc. were all people who took India to the limelight at a time when they did not have the quality of resources that the players have today. For skeptics, how about this real story? Once, while playing a hockey game, Dhyan Chand was not able to score a goal against the opposition team. After several misses, he argued with the match referee regarding the measurement of the goal post, and amazingly, it was found to not be in conformation with the official width of a goal post (as prescribed under international rules). Isn’t it similar to the present cricketers complaining about the pitch?

Like every good thing that comes to an end, the Golden era of Indian hockey ended in 1980 after 8 Olympic Golds. We have not seen a podium finish at Olympics since then. Indian hockey reached dizzying ‘heights’ in the 2012 London Olympics, with many of the players now jointly authoring several bestsellers, notably amongst many, ‘How to ridiculously lose from an outright winning position’, ‘Pay the Penalty’ and ’How to drive a foreign coach nuts’. RTI has denounced hockey and declared that there is no particular National Sport in India.

Other sports aren’t encouraging either, with the likes of 8 consecutive Test losses, Kindergarten kids playing tennis, one man army Football, Chi-nemesis badminton, ‘Do-we-have-a-national-team’ volleyball etc. So which sport do we call our National Game? Snake and Ladder or Ludo, maybe?! Or how about a seasonal National Sport? Cricket, when playing in the subcontinent; Badminton, when China is not invited for the tournament; Football, when….er…forget it.

Just think of it… The highest run getter in cricket history, the World Champion in Chess, 5-time Boxing champion, the World Champion in women’s Archery (before the Olympics, I suppose), they are all from India. On a serious note, it is most painful to see India perform so poorly in the world of sport. Probably our authorities and players must take a leaf out of our neighbour’s book, if they are determined on not losing true fans. After all, we send them to represent our nation on our behalf. Their loss is the loss of a billion. Hope they make me tune to the sports channels as soon as possible. Congratulations to the Dronacharya, Arjuna and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awardees. Jai Hind!