The National Predicament of Holding Sporting Events

With the commonwealth games just days away, Authorities in India shiver after shambolic pre games preparation efforts that have been protracted over half a decade.

It was a day of elation and celebration as the biggest democracy of the world got hold of, what was thought at that point, a giant step towards holding the Olympics or the soccer world cup. But, that was more of an ambition of a nation looking to be a world power by 2020, today; this all seems a fairytale turned into a nightmare. But being from the same part of the world, this has not come as a surprise for me. Except for Cricket, which is more of a religion in India, the nation lags miles behind the world in terms of facilities and infrastructure. So much so, that few of the world events before this fiasco were on the brink of being shifted to Europe or Australia.
If anyone has interest in field hockey, he would remember the kind of administrative struggle IHF (Indian Hockey Federation) faced earlier this year in holding the world cup. So much so, that the federation was dissolved and elections were held in lightning speed to bring a sort of transparency at the helm. An infrastructure failure lead to a disastrous badminton world championships a few years back with water dripping at the indoor stadium . Hence this is not the first time and with the things the way it is, this does not look like the last time.
So, what is wrong with a nation that has got world class sportspersons, scholars and business minds? Someone alien to conditions in India would be asking why is the nation so much obsessed about holding world events when it struggles to do so? The answer lies in the kind of commitment organizers, administrators and the national government shows in something that do not directly impact them in person. Well, then how come the same country boasts of two successful cricket world cups and the path breaking Asian Games of 1982. Again, the answer lies in the level of commitment.

Let’s look at cricket, a sport run by an autonomous body, BCCI (Board of control for cricket in India). Jagmohan Dalmiya, the head of the BCCI during the mid 90s vowed to make cricket a marketable commodity. He was the kingpin in bidding and winning the right to host the 1996 world cup cricket jointly with neighboring Pakistan and Sri Lanka. A path breaking event, which showed India as a nation which means business and which is second to none. But, all this did not happen in matter of days. From the day the vision of an event of such magnitude was thought off, till the day the first ball of practice matches were bowled, BCCI did everything to make the event, one of a lifetime, and by the time the final was held at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, the board and the world cup organizing committee received unprecedented praise from all over the world. Yes, in 1996, the infrastructure was more or less ready, but how? It was because in 1987, with the world cup looming, Raj Singh Dongarpur marketed the event to the corporate world from which a clothing and warehouse firm came forward to sponsor the event. Again a kind of effort that the commonwealth games of today yearns for. Imilarly, Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, took the things in her hands in order to make the 1982 Asian Games a showcase to show the world where India stands after three and a half decade of independence. Hence if we look closely, the one thing common to these three organizational success is a sense of pride and a level of sheer commitment on the part of the government and administrator in order to showcase the best they have to offer.

Now, let us analyze how India went about the commonwealth games. The nation bid for the games as it had done a few times before, may be having a notion that the bid may fail again. Ironically and should I say against the expectations of the bid committee the only other nation reaching the final bid stage was Canada. Since the North American nation wanted to host the winter Olympics, it did not go full fledge for the other bid and hurray, India gets the chance to host the second largest games in terms of nations after the Olympics.

This clearly shows the fault start to a marathon of hosting a global sporting event that started about six years back. The marathon turned into a 100 meter dash which is now right at the home stretch and probably that is a real life proof why a fault start means a fresh start for any athletic event. But in the case of CWG 2010, it transformed into an ordeal which I fear may end up marring the image of a nation which is aiming to be shanghai by 2015.

Hence I believe, unless administrators, like the sports minister who compares this event to a typical Indian wedding in which everything is haphazard before the main ceremony but on the D Day all falls in place, are replaced by event management gurus, India will remain an aspirant of hosting an Olympics.

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Tendulkar, The bradman of ODI

December 1989, national stadium, Karanchi. A one day international, which was turned into an exhibition match because of poor light conditions turned out to be a turning point in not only the cricket history of India, but, the sport as a whole.

Sachin Tendulkar, at the age of 16 years took on the might of the Pakistan bowling attack, with the likes of Wasim Akram, Imran Khan, and Abdul Qadir, with such ease and authority that for once Imran Khan complemented the young boy by suggesting that he is the only tiger in a team of lambs. For a player Pakistan to shower such accolades on an Indian player was thoroughly unprecedented, most of the cricket fraternity took notice of that particular innings and a star was in the making. Just for those who do not know, Tendulkar smashed Abdul Qadir for three consecutive sixes, and that was after he took apart Waqar and Imran. India lost the match by just five runs but Tendulkar won a billion hearts.

I have been following the cricket as well as the life and times of Tendulkar from this very day, and I had no doubts in my mind that one day this prodigy from Mumbai would break Sunil Gavaskar’s records, but I had no idea as to the zenith of his achievements. Last week, he did what many thought was beyond him.
When you think of someone who has been a stalwart in his discipline over two decades, who has mystified the world with his eloquent behavior of the field and has mesmerized the world by his stroke making on it, you would say, what is left for him to achieve? What drives him to go all out each time he is on the field. I guess the answer lies in his passion for the sport. The drive and urge to just play for India, no more and no less.

It has been months since last time I wrote anything on this site, and am as lazy as the fat lady to write these days, but it’s a pure pleasure when it comes to putting thoughts together for a person who has been the epitome of success for over two decades. Today Sachin boasts of innumerable records in both forms of the game. If there were no bradman, tendulkar would have been the king of cricket by a long way. It is just unfortunate that we cannot have the great Don and the Bombay bomber playing in the same era. The debate over who is better between the two has again got momentum with Tendulkar smashing 200 in a one day knock. I feel there should not be any debates over matters which are generations apart. Bradman played in an era when pitches were uncovered, matches use to take place under what we call today, bad light and poor field conditions, add to that the bodyline series which caught, all accept the great bradman, by surprise. Apart from that there was a small matter of the Ausie playing without any protective gears. This all leads me to think that if he were playing today, even with brilliant fielding, analytical tools, enhancement in bowling skills, Sir Don would have scored with the same rate and average as he did about seven decades back.

Think of it, if we look seven decades further, we may get someone playing akin to Sachin and then there would be a further debate as the one doing the rounds today, hence I believe these comparisons would continue eternally.

Hence its better to concentrate on the present. Today and arguably till now, there has been no batsman apart from Tendulkar, who have taken the one day cricket by storm.He is growing in stature and performance with time. After the catastrophe of the 2007 world cup, it seems the genius have found a motivation in adversity to perform at the helm and lead India to what many see his only uncherished dream, a world cup win. One of the television commentators once said, statistics are like short skirts, they reveal more than they could hide. Same goes for the man who currently holds the record for most number of centuries, most runs, most half centuries, most man of the match awards, and the most recent, highest individual innings score in one day internationals, he is simply the best the one day game has seen and may remain the best for a long time to come.

Today, as the world of cricket has been taken over by the Lalit Modis and the IPL, there are very few batsmen who would attract more than capacity crowds to test matches, Virender Sehwaag is one and to an extent Gilchrist or Hayden in their prime may have done the same, but is their a better sight than watching Tendulkar go on the front foot to a seaming delivery and punching it down the ground for a trademark boundary? Would anyone care if that shot is played in a test or a twenty -twenty? I guess not, and that’s what makes greats like Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, special.
People struggle to come to terms with his balance on field and in life. Carrying the burden of more than a billion people, Tendulkar has been a true ambassador of the sport. I hope that in the remaining career of his the batting genius would continue to bedazzle the world with his master class on the field and his humility of it.