Virender Sehwag talks about what inspired him to become a TV host for 'Umeed India'

What’s the story?

Former India opener-turned-commentator, Virender Sehwag, will now don the hat of a host in the television series ‘Umeed India’ in which he will interview 13 athletes aiming for glory at the 2020 Olympics.

Speaking exclusively to FirstPost on what propelled him to sign for the show, the Nawab of Najafgarh said, “I like the concept because nobody did this kind of show for our athletes, and the amount of hard work they get to do behind the scenes (is something that) nobody gets to know.

“When they don’t get a medal, then people will put on their Twitter or Facebook that our athletes went to click selfies there. Some of the athletes actually spend eight hours a day (practising). If we can provide better facilities, better diet, then we can get more golds and more medals in the future,” Sehwag further explained.

In case you didn’t know...

During the 2016 Olympics, writer-columnist Shobhaa De made a controversial comment on Twitter in which she said that the goal of Indian athletes at Rio 2016 was to click selfies and return home without any medals.

De had made this comment before PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and others did the country proud. This is the incident Sehwag has referred to in the aforementioned chat with FirstPost.

The heart of the matter

With Umeed India, the Indian commentator travels to the places where the athletes are training for the 2020 Olympics.

He explores their ambitions and struggles by speaking to them. The athletes interviewed by Sehwag are Sakshi Malik, Suyash Yadav, Prakash Karhana, Dutee Chand, Avtar Singh, Vinesh Phogat, Dattu Bhokanal, among others.

What’s next?

The show, ‘Umeed India - 3 Khiladi, Sapna Ek’ premiered on Epic Channel on July 20 and will be telecast every Thursday at 8 PM IST.

Author’s take

Rio 2016 saw three Indian athletes, wrestler Sakshi Malik, badminton player PV Sindhu and India's first female gymnast Dipa Karmakar, salvage India’s pride by returning home with glory.

While Malik and Sindhu brought home a bronze and silver medal respectively, Karmakar missed out on her bronze by only 0.15 points. Bear in mind, these feats were achieved after fighting tremendous odds, the biggest ones being the lack of recognition and poor training facilities.

This is exactly why the stories of these athletes deserve to be told, so that they can get more recognition and love from the people of the country. And when most of the country is obsessed with cricket and cricketers, there could not have been a better host for the show.