MS Dhoni advocates youth to play more outdoor sport in order to improve India's performance in big events
When the year 2016 finishes in a couple of months time, one of the phases that no Indian will look back with any kind of delight will be the Rio Olympics. The 15-day period, where there was much expected from the massive Indian contingent, proved to be a major disappointment for everyone as athletes failed to deliver on the biggest stage of them all.
Only Sakshi Malik and PV Sindhu provided any moment of cheer for the supporters, winning a Bronze and a Silver in Wrestling and Badminton respectively, in a campaign marred by several moments of bad luck.
A lot of opinions have floated since then over what can be done to ensure such a scenario does not repeat in the future and joining that bandwagon is Indian limited-over skipper MS Dhoni, who has advocated that the younger generation must be pushed to play outdoor sport and added that they needed to find their own way.
"We often say we don't win medals at Olympics. But we don't realise how many of our youth is playing outdoor sport. A lot of the kids are hooked to electronic gadgets.
"We have to throw the kids out of the house to play sport. It will not only help them stay active but also help them in their academics," Dhoni said at an event on Tuesday.
Prior to him, Sourav Ganguly had said if the younger generation were given proper facilities then India could surely produce champions in the next decade or so.
Abhinav Bindra, India’s only Olympic Gold medalist, had given a report to the shooting federation, that contained his review about the performance of India’s shooters at Rio and also gave measures on how to ensure such a showing is not repeated in the future.
Hopefully, all the ideas provided by these sporting greats is implemented soon enough and come Tokyo 2020, India will hopefully be able to turn things around and deliver to their true potential.