By Kulbhushan Kain
I remember a casual conversation over lunch with Raja Randhir Singh at his house in Dehradun, last year. I asked him about the future of Indian sports and as to when we would become a superpower in it.
“2030?” I queried.
“Much before that,” he quipped with a smile.
The matter rested there. The year passed by quickly and then I saw him again in an advertisement saying “Is baar, 100 paar”.
I have been following sports, and sportsmen /women all my life. They fascinate me more than any other segment of society. What Raja Randhir Singh told me and the rest of India was like a dream. Or, so I thought! I did not reckon for the words of wisdom of one of the real icons of Indian sports – Raja Randhir Singh.
Today, we stand at the cusp between a mediocre and a great sporting nation.
A total of 655 athletes participated in the 19th edition of the Asian Games at Hangzhou, China, competing across 39 events.
Over the years, Asian Games has been a platform for Indian athletes to do well on an international stage, with many memorable moments. Who can forget the 1986 Seoul Asiad where the remarkable PT Usha, donning the green silk shorts and saffron and white vest emblazoned with the number ’67’, alone accounted for four golds out of 5 and leading women athletes like Shiny Wilson, MD Valsamma, Vandana Rao. They made the country proud. A truly “women” moment!
Much before that, at the First Asian Games in 1951, held in New Delhi, we won 51 medals which were only bettered by Japan. China, which evolved into Asia’s sporting powerhouse, was not part of the initial editions of Asian Games.
India did not match up to this performance in the subsequent editions and its performance slipped. It picked up at the Asian Games of 2018 held in Jakarta (Indonesia). However, despite India’s best tally of medals in 2018, with 70, India was placed in the 8th position below Iran and Chinese Taipei. (It ought to be noted that the position in the Olympics, Asian Games and such is determined by the number of Gold Medals won, followed by Silver and Bronze.)
The conclusion – the best position secured by India was in the very first Asiad, where it secured the second position. Over the ensuing editions, while India managed to win more medals on some of the occasions, the comparatively better performance by other countries meant that India was unable to secure a position in the top three. At Hangzhou, India got 107 medals and clawed its way up to the 4thposition. This is a great morale booster and calls for celebrations!
Athletics have always contributed the highest share of medals, followed by Shooting, Boxing and Wrestling. Frankly speaking, I was disappointed by the number of medals won in boxing and wrestling, the washout in swimming and a measly one medal in table tennis. The sports that did well were Archery and Squash.
We did very well in Shooting, where we won the maximum Gold medals. It was heartening to see India win the gold in hockey – it is after all a game we Indians feel we have taught the world to play! Something needs to be done in swimming, where we lag behind and a lot of medals are there to be picked up.
The heartening thing about the performance at the current Asian Games is that the medals have come across disciplines and are not confined to the traditional domain of athletics, boxing, shooting and wrestling. In Hangzhou, Indians did well (again relatively speaking) across the board.
There is much joy – but there is still a long way to go. We may have climbed a hill – but we have a mountain to climb and to reach its summit will take a long time. We have a long way to go before we match the likes of China, South Korea, and Japan, the traditional sporting giants in the continent. But the fact that we finished at number four should be a great morale booster in the difficult journey of becoming a sporting nation. Undoubtedly our numbers are still measly. But the thing is the emerging stars are from the smaller cities and towns where huge talent is waiting to be tapped.
The newly crowned Asian Games champion in 5,000 metres, Parul Chaudhary, is from the little known Ikaluta Village near Meerut and earned her spurs by running in the sugarcane farms there.
Ojas Pravin Deotale, a relatively unknown archer, became a superstar and so did Jyothi Vennam, who in 2001 swam 5 kms across the Krishna River in Vijayawada and got her name in the Guinness Book of World Records for doing so at a particular age.
HS Prannoy hails from Thiruvananthapuram, which is not a big sports bastion.
Also, 17-year-old Aditi Swami, who is part of the Indian women’s compound archery team that clinched a historic gold, comes from Satara, the town in Maharashtra that has no sporting pretentions. There are many such instances – but the scope of this article does not allow me to go into details.
These are small but significant signs that “real India” is awakening to its sporting potential. With over a billion people, there is bound to be a lot of talent.
We must find replacements for ageing legs in Tennis and Squash. There are many challenges lurking in every corner because the Olympics are round the corner. From the Asian playing fields we will be on the world stage.
What are our chances?
At the last Olympics Games, 2020 Tokyo (but held in 2021), India managed to win seven medals (one gold, two silver and four bronze) —our best ever show in the history of Olympics.
But now there is an opportunity to help provide further impetus to those sporting skills. The sporting administration, despite its many flaws and deep-rooted problems in many disciplines, is working at least.
One can’t help but give huge credit to our Prime Minister, who initiated the “Khelo India” programme. The last decade has seen things ease up (in comparison) for the Indian sportsperson. Foreign coaches, training at chosen locations abroad and the latest fitness and sports equipment are no longer an impossibility. A champion sporting nation does not happen overnight or a good show in one event will not fetch consistent excellence.
It is, as the cliché goes, an arduous process. But as the Chinese proverb goes, “Every long journey begins with a small step”. The journey has begun. Enjoy the after effects of Hangzhou. Celebrate the moment. Dance and party. Celebrate the 100-medals milestone. But don’t get carried away because the journey is just beginning. However, one thing is certain – the war cry now onwards will be “Har baar, 100 paar”!
(Kulbhushan kain is an award winning educationist with more
than 4 decades of working in schools in India and abroad. He is a prolific writer who loves cricket, travelling and cooking. He
can be reached at kulbhushan.kain@gmail.com)
