(Un) Sporty India

India lost its recent Davis cup tie against South Korea, a tie which it could easily have won had its best players been playing. The question is why the best players were not playing, and that is due to the ongoing dispute between the AITA (All India Tennis Association) and the players (which include Somdev Devvarman, Bhupathi, Bopanna and the prodigy Yuki Bhambri).

This made me think – Tennis is not alone, and there are standoffs in other sports as well. Two months ago, the IOC had slapped a far-reaching ban on the Indian Olympic Association, post which the administrators have not taken any action to resolve the issue of transparent elections.

The government too made its presence felt. The sports ministry derecognised the Boxing, Archery and the Athletics federations within a week of the IOC announcement. Then, there was the controversy over Mohun Bagan’s ban by the AIFF.

Amid the sporty gloom, there were some positives. Hockey India successfully started their ambitious project – the Hockey India League, which is being handled very professionally and has seen participation from some of the best players around the world. Yes, there were problems regarding the participation of the Pakistani players, but that was due of a purely political nature.

There has also been a strong movement by the aptly named body, Clean Sports India, which aims to weed out corruption and instill transparency in Indian sports bodies. If it succeeds, then it will definitely not be music to the ears of Messrs Suresh Kalmadi and Lalit Bhanot.

The basic question remains – is autonomy the way forward for sports bodies, or is there a need for the Government to act like a big daddy and implement its cherished sports code? The BCCI has put up a strong case for the former, with its successful running of the sport (at least, its coffers are always full).

At least in the western world, most of the sports bodies are autonomous. One big advantage of them being autonomous is that, they have to be efficient in order to manage their finances, since they cannot depend on the Government to bail them out with the tax payers’ money. And in order to be efficient, they have to hire good people and maintain a transparent culture. All this will look like a Utopian scenario for the Indian sports bodies, but this needs to be the way forward to avoid all the negatives which are so common now. This will finally result in better performance of Indian sports teams and individuals, which should be the objective of all working for and interested in Indian sports.

There is this proverb: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

In the Indian context, it could be revised to: “…but no work by the Indian sports administrators leaves Jack with nothing to play at all.”