Trust the Finance Ministry to act spoilsport.
Despite India's stellar performance in the Commonwealth and the Asian Games, the budget outlay for sports development in 2011 has fallen by 1/3rd as compared to last year.
It is quite understandable that the monies allocated were on the higher side due to the CWG, but one still finds no reason for such a huge cutback.
While games like cricket are self sustaining, sports like soccer, golf, athletics, boxing, wrestling and swimming will need all the support they can get in order to win accolades in the international arena.
Of these, golf has seen the fastest growth among sports that are outside the traditional pale in the country. Besides, the sport is now an Olympic discipline, to be revived after a gap of 100 years, and the government has marked it out as a ‘priority’ sport
Subsidies on import of sport equipment and infrastructure development was something that should have been touched upon this budget but alas, find no mention. Could have been a good move to help budding sportspersons to get the latest equipments and infra in order to compete with internationally.
Here you have international players joining hands with like minded Indian firms to promote sports in the country and there you have low budget allocation by the ministry to checkmate the euphoria.
While private corporates have taken their steps to promote sports it's a no brainer that they're made for profit motives. Would you believe for a minute that Kingfisher set up Force India to promote F1 racing in the country?
Sports in our country will never get a fillip unless and until the government steps in to promote them.
The lethary was quite evident when the PM and the CM of Delhi stepped in at the last moment to save the games that too courtesy the media.
While the UPA government showed the right intentions of placing a relatively younger, Ajay Maken, to head the Union Affairs and Sports Ministry, they have not really walked the talk by providing him with the wherewithal to improve the sporting scenario. This move was probably to remove an errant MS Gill rather than getting in somebody to ring in sporting success.
If one was to look at the top 5 medal winning countries in the Olympics as well as the Asiad, it's clearly evident that they are there due to favorable government policies and the required support.
And here we have horror stories of sportspersons not having adequate facilities or the infrastructure to succeed. We do not even have clear cut policies laid down for taking care of retired sportspersons who've bought glory to the country.
It's extremely easy for us, to read the morning newspapers and criticize Indian sportspersons for not winning medals. It is still a reality that we try to represent the state/country just once so that we may get safe government or bank jobs through the sports quota.
So, would we only get to see a lone ranger in Virdhawal Khade struggling to get a medal for his country?? Or would Ashish Kumar remain the lone medal winner in gymnastics??
Would I ever want to encourage my kid to take up a sport and bring laurels to my country??
Where's the support??
Despite India's stellar performance in the Commonwealth and the Asian Games, the budget outlay for sports development in 2011 has fallen by 1/3rd as compared to last year.
It is quite understandable that the monies allocated were on the higher side due to the CWG, but one still finds no reason for such a huge cutback.
While games like cricket are self sustaining, sports like soccer, golf, athletics, boxing, wrestling and swimming will need all the support they can get in order to win accolades in the international arena.
Of these, golf has seen the fastest growth among sports that are outside the traditional pale in the country. Besides, the sport is now an Olympic discipline, to be revived after a gap of 100 years, and the government has marked it out as a ‘priority’ sport
Subsidies on import of sport equipment and infrastructure development was something that should have been touched upon this budget but alas, find no mention. Could have been a good move to help budding sportspersons to get the latest equipments and infra in order to compete with internationally.
Here you have international players joining hands with like minded Indian firms to promote sports in the country and there you have low budget allocation by the ministry to checkmate the euphoria.
While private corporates have taken their steps to promote sports it's a no brainer that they're made for profit motives. Would you believe for a minute that Kingfisher set up Force India to promote F1 racing in the country?
Sports in our country will never get a fillip unless and until the government steps in to promote them.
The lethary was quite evident when the PM and the CM of Delhi stepped in at the last moment to save the games that too courtesy the media.
While the UPA government showed the right intentions of placing a relatively younger, Ajay Maken, to head the Union Affairs and Sports Ministry, they have not really walked the talk by providing him with the wherewithal to improve the sporting scenario. This move was probably to remove an errant MS Gill rather than getting in somebody to ring in sporting success.
If one was to look at the top 5 medal winning countries in the Olympics as well as the Asiad, it's clearly evident that they are there due to favorable government policies and the required support.
And here we have horror stories of sportspersons not having adequate facilities or the infrastructure to succeed. We do not even have clear cut policies laid down for taking care of retired sportspersons who've bought glory to the country.
It's extremely easy for us, to read the morning newspapers and criticize Indian sportspersons for not winning medals. It is still a reality that we try to represent the state/country just once so that we may get safe government or bank jobs through the sports quota.
So, would we only get to see a lone ranger in Virdhawal Khade struggling to get a medal for his country?? Or would Ashish Kumar remain the lone medal winner in gymnastics??
Would I ever want to encourage my kid to take up a sport and bring laurels to my country??
Where's the support??
Feel your pain Sporty Sundae! Hope someone out there is listening and is willing to think beyond self and make a change.
ReplyDelete-Rajeev Chowdhry
The only way out is pvt public partnerships fuelled by the state admins. That way they will fulfill their "need" of making money and benefiting sports!
ReplyDeleteSure the Govt Needs more teeth in forming the policies & more critically implementing them to nurture talent.
ReplyDeleteAlso from our part, as public, we need to continuously encourage our kids to take up a sport (obviously outside of cricket) to be played by them in whatever level possible.
This doesn't come as a surprise to me. We are not a nation that encouraged sport ever and we are not going to change. So what if we won a few medals recently? Rajyavardhan Rathore, Abhinav Bindra, Vijender Singh, Sania Nehwal did not need state support..did they? That is how we want our sportsmen to win laurels for us...Inspite of the system! We would all be ready to pose for photographs with them, should they win awards though!
ReplyDeleteSecondly, we are a country that is still confused as to whether we are a third world economy or a developed one! China has shown us, with spectacular results in the past couple of decades, as to where they stand in the world polity and see the correlation between that and their Olympic standings!! US and USSR have also used the Olympics as the stage to announce to the world about their standing in the world economy! It is a no brainer that the Olympics medal tally reflects where we stand as a country. Given our confusion, why is it still a suprise when the budget slashes our support to sport!!