CHANGING FACET OF SPORTS IN INDIA

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!.. Well, Jack is not the only follower of this age-old adage, everyone abides by it. The commonwealth games of 2010 for me, were the enunciation of a revolution in India that swept the youth in the wave of the sporting culture. Delhi hosted the games, just as the deja vu of Melbourne, Sydney or of the Olympics in London, Beijing is and maybe a notch higher than that.

When a city, even better, a capital city gets to host a gigantic international event at more than a dozen of venues; all ushering a world-class infrastructure and the media does its part of covering it, business tycoons do come up with endorsements and sponsorships for players..... and all of this, when watched by a young kid in the stadium, boosts him/her up for an encore of their heroes. They get excited to fill in the big shoes of the person, who stands on the podium making his/her countrymen proud.

To top it all, the government of India envisages to honour sportspersons with quotas in government jobs, housing, attractive cash prizes, facilities in sporting aids and so on. Apart from this, by playing sports one gets to tour the world and experience it , under their own terms. The health benefits are well-adhered to sports and are renowned.

In ground reality, the pleasing fact is the growing likelihood of parents to send their kids to one or the other sports academy and expecting fructious outcomes from it. Thankfully, gone are the days when playing and enjoying oneself was termed as a waste of time.. and the mentality was tagged as 'a typical Indian one'. Schools and colleges simulate to be the launching pad to enthrust the young athletes into the orbit of a successful career in sports, layered with self-belief and passion. The coming up of sponsors in the sports has belligerently magnified the financial growth of players, sports associations, sports officials, sports coaches, enterprises that invest in matches and tournaments, travel industry, hotel industry, principal food and beverage partners, and so many more technicians and others who work behind the lenses for covering live matches, publicising them and so on.

From broadcasting rights to the logo of several franchise teams; everything is now epitomised as the national symbol in domestic households. The most placid part is that, it's just not cricket this time. IPL was the brain-child of a man who was thrown out of his very own start-uo just as Steve Jobs once was from Apple Inc. : Lalit Modi. Hockey India League, Badminton Super Series,Football League, Kabbadi League, Wrestling League and the Tennis Series are all signs of not a wave but a tornado! And this tornado isn't a disaster but a saviour.

History tells us that SOCIETY is one thing in the world that exists right from the time of civilisation and makes a heck of it. It kills millions of dreams day in and day out, and being a professional athlete is one of them.

On a good note, it feels great to look up at Sania Mirza or Saina Nehwal being treated as the dolls of the nation. It's incredible to learn that MC Mary Kom will soon have a movie dedicated to her name. It's impreganable to know that Deepika Kumari is the world's numero uno archer. When Gagan Narang or Abhinav Bindra gathers the gold in Asian and Olympic games respectively, and Vijendra Singh and Sushil Kumar seize silver and bronze in the Olympics, then the self-belief of aspiring youngsters rise up. When the nation looks upto Baichung Bhutia's retirement not as the end of an era, but the as the start of a legacy, then the human heart gets thrilled with joy and novel enthusiasm in the air. And then the heart and the mind unanimously utter, “There's still a little good in the world, and that is worth fighting for!”.

For an athlete, sports isn't fun. Ask any of them, most of them hate it,but they play because they couldn't imagine their life without it. Its part of them, the love/hate relationship. Its what they live for. They live for the practices, parties, cheers, long bus rides, invitationals, countless pairs of different types of shoes, water, Gatorade and coaches you hate but appreciate. They live for the way it feels when they beat the other team, and knowing those two extra sprints they ran in practice worth it. They live for the way they become a family with their team, they live for the countless songs they sing in their head while training all those hours. They live for the competitions, for their friends, the practices, the memories, the pain, its who they are. Its who we are.