Is it really cricket versus other dimensions of sport, in India?

There have been multiple discussions and debates on social media platforms and we have been watching people share details of athletes achievement in their respective sport and in the caption, they often describe cricket, being the only reason for that sport and the athlete for not getting the respect she/he deserves or request the viewers to pay attention over the win of other dimensions of sports specifically when Indian Cricket registers a win.

Personally, I am totally against the fact of criticizing just one game to be the sole reason, why other sporting dimensions are unable to make that impact without people noticing the efforts and story of those athletes, because of endless reasons.

Is it really cricket that is responsible for other sports not growing in India or is it the people of India not accepting the culture of being a sports-educated society who gives equal importance to studies as well as physical activity for our children to grow both physically and psychologically? What parameters do we choose to blame cricket for being the primary cause of other dimensions of sports, under-developed and not being recognized?

Some checkboxes that were checked by BCCI and why cricket gained so much popularity is because of,

• The Emotional Connect with the game: Before 1983 it was about representing India at the International stature being Vinoo Mankad, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi aka Tiger Pataudi or Vijay Hazare, but post-1983 it was about being on that world stage and winning it while playing against the best of the best of the world. The whole of India became united and felt the win, because of the history we had with the Britishers. Indian’s felt important and felt their presence, walking and talking with the global leaders in sports.

• Needs and Wants of the Game: Similar to football, in Cricket we don’t need too much of space or certain specified equipment’s, to begin with. I remember my first association with cricket when my father used to take us out to play when we were small kids. It used to be, small lane’s with limited space but way too many players, where each one had to bowl and accordingly each one would bat, based on the sequence he had joined the game. A whole evening would pass-by with just one-ball and a customized bat, which was never meant for cricket but actually for washing clothes. This was nowhere close to professional sport, moreover, this was the first step towards knowing the game, with our own set of rules so everybody could enjoy batting and bowling, helping us realize our strengths and weaknesses, which would take us further realize if playing professional sports would be a sustainable career option.

How about, factors which other sporting dimensions could not capitalize on?

Hockey is one such sport, which could not capitalize on the achievements of the talent which India had, such as Maj. Dhyan Chand, Balbir Singh Dosanjh, Capt. Roop Singh (brother of Maj. Dhyan Chand), Udham Singh Kular, Kunwar Digvijay Singh, Dhanraj Pillay, Ajit Pal Singh despite hockey being the National Sport of India for over a decade. They also could not utilize the stature of winning 8 Olympic Gold’s, which is equivalent of 32 years of hard work of both the association, the players and the support staff.

Olympic Gold's (Hockey): Amsterdam 1928 (British India), Los Angeles 1932 (British India), Berlin 1936 (British India), London 1948 (India), Helsinki 1952 (India), Melbourne 1956 (India), Tokyo 1964 (India), Moscow 1980 (India).

Growing up for me there were stories, my father used to you tell us. About the legendary Maj Dhyan Chand, Mr. Udham Singh and the name famous in the 1990s, Mr. Dhanraj Pillay. These stories or references, gave me a small dose of motivation to wake up early in the morning, and go to play with my friends, not specifically hockey but any sport and later try and learn the “art of playing hockey” while watching senior’s players in their practice sessions, which eventually I never did, but read about a few.

The reasons why hockey could no longer be considered our national sport are, 

Rules & Regulations of the Game: Was it really the constant change in rules by Fédération Internationale de Hockey (FIH), which made India or probably Asian countries lose their edge in the game (Kaur, 2019).

• For instance, rule change for the abolition of the offside rule forced Indian players to focus on player’s wandering around the goal waiting for the long pass rather than on drilling, dogging which was totally based on skills and anticipation of the players when required rather than just power (Kaur, 2019).
• Also, the time frame of the game from 70mins of two-halves changed to a 60-min game divided into 4-quarters of 15-mins each to speed-up the pace of the game with time allotted for strategic restructuring and implementation (Kaur, 2019).
• The other factor, which affected the game (debatable) is NO-CAP of rolling substitutes. Player replacement can be done as per requirement at any moment for multiple times in a game, therefore we can rest our strongest players and bring them in critical situations to win it with enhanced strategies and re-structured plans via 4-quarter format (Kaur, 2019).

Political involvement and lobbying have also been some of the concerns for Indian Hockey over-time including corruption as well. These reasons do feel like excuses, right? Maybe Yes and Maybe No, depending on which side we are on and what sort of feelings an individual has towards the evolution of the game over time, as we call it “Reaction & Action towards change.”

The game will evolve over time and necessary changes would come into play as per the needs and wants of the society. The governing bodies, associations, officials, athletes, fans and the respective stakeholders have to adapt to situations quickly to gain a competitive advantage as other countries did. My article ‘Fantasized reality of Indian Sports Leagues’, discussed how other dimensions of sports are trying to use IPL-Success-Template to bring sustainable factor to their business, but struggling, as IPL has been an innovation understanding the individuals of India alongside growth of Indian economy over time, which is very much in connection with or similar to the question “why blame cricket for their success and other sporting dimensions not being able to cope-up with what is required to be sustainable?”

The coping-up factor brought India in the defensive position, but the aspirations and objectives of young athletes are breaking the barriers today to bring back India on the attacking position to score an Olympic gold and many other accolades in upcoming tournaments.

Similarly with Badminton, coping up has been the key factor which Indian contingent has been trying to find out and work hard in recent times.

Legends of Indian Badminton like Mr. Prakash Padukone, Mr. Syed Mahdi Hassan Zaidi, Mr. Pullela Gopichand, Mrs. Aparna Popat who proved their worth at various tournaments across different continents against the bests of their era’s. Now they are grooming talented athletes like P Kashyap, Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy, B Sai Praneeth, Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu with many more champions from the junior and sub-junior categories to prove their worth while playing for their country in various national and international tournaments or while playing different leagues (The Times of India, 2019).

The major issues currently being discussed around are (The Times of India, 2019),

Lack of maturity, dealing with anxiety or excitement, overtraining, overexposure & over competitiveness, early or late specialization depending type of development, adulation or idolizing someone while forgetting their own worth, improper or lack of management & resource utilization, the inadequacy of well-trained coaches (skillfully and psychologically impactful) and last but not the least politics and corruption. 

How about the involvement of Media? Do they play a huge role in making or breaking things up, in Sports?

While many of us criticize cricket for taking all the luxury, lavishness and fame from other sporting dimensions and taking up the spot of being the No. 1 sport of India. I feel Media, also known to be amongst the Four-Pillars of any democracy (India in our case) have taken a different approach towards classifying sports. Maybe, depending upon the needs and wants of the society with the changing, growing & developing economy. There could be ‘n’ number of reasons to prove a point, some of which we discussed above, to which media/the press/ the newspapers had a very crucial rule and considerably a huge role to play in terms of the development of players, the sport, the coaches and the associations or governing bodies themselves.

Surprisingly, one of the facts that I recently came across was that *some* of the media houses or news sharing platforms have category under their news section, a separate section for cricket & one as sports. But the sports-section mostly consists of information related to cricket and very few related to other dimensions of sports in India. 

I feel, this is a bigger question for the editorial board to think about, as they are a platform who should be sharing news about every sport happening around the country as well as some of them from other countries, to help people be aware and stay up to date, not just focusing on one leading or dominating in specific regions or localities of India.

Well naming them, won’t do any good, as there are dedicated sports websites which mostly balance out the difference b\w cricket section and sports section as per ‘some’ news sharing platforms or media houses and are investing their time, money and energy to get our athletes the recognition they deserve, even giving a voice to those  who retired and are no longer with us to see the success of Indian sports.

Political involvement, corruption, improper management, lobbying, favoritism, etc., etc are part of every industry, day-to-day activities then, why not in sports. Since we are dealing with people here, these issues/concerns/problems are genuine and are likely to be there all the time, but these have to be dealt with, not with criticism but, with People Management Skills or as we call it Man-Management skills.

Sometimes, some of the athletes also set a bad example after gaining that elite stature for their own good, needs and wants which is very much understandable looking at what they have gone through. But that does not give them any leverage or authority to disrespect the game or manipulate not for the good of the society rather for their personal good. Athlete’s themselves can be one of the major reasons for that particular sport not being accepted by the people of our country. 

Parameter’s that justify the declining success of other dimensions of sports would be lack of leadership and administrative authority, improper utilization of resources, divide-and-rule policy depending state-quote for selections, full-power to states for whole & sole of sports and so on and so forth. The list would go on if we try and capture every aspect of, what should not be done. Recently as a regular discussion with a dear friend and fellow Sport Management Professional, Praseeth Prakash we talked about, 

Here we are, with many goals and respectively different objectives towards making India a Sporting Powerhouse !!!

There are multiple stakeholders, with their own set of goal and objectives, which may or may not be in line with strategies formulated by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports (MYAS) and Sports Authority of India (SAI) under various policies and schemes. There is no doubt, on having multiple perceptions about a single aspect and have multiple goals with certain objectives, but it is really important to know, what the overall outcome is. There has to be a singularity, not multiple directions of implementation of a solution. It is obvious to have various opinions, suggestion, but choosing the best possible solution would be the key to, re-shaping the Sports Ecosystem in India.

Rejuvenating Indian Sports Ecosystem (Some aspects, which can make a difference)

What can be done to re-develop people’s perception about Sports? How can sports be more than just a lifestyle for Indian citizens?

• We as a society, the governing bodies and associations and sports management professionals need to work with an aim to achieve a common goal and respective objectives.
• Problems/issues/concerns/setbacks are part of the development at any given moment. The fact that every athlete has to go through and lately been discussed by legends of various dimensions of sports in India is, creating a strong “process” of identification, recognition, development, and management, 4-Key-pillars of Athlete/Talent Management. Adoption of a revised, Athlete Development Model would be a viable option, with a little bit of personal touch in terms of approaching the citizens of India, as we are a population of over 1-billion and would need a little modification in the existing model used by different countries.
• Taking responsibilities of our actions is also a key-factor of approaching betterment of sports while being true to ourselves.

I am sure the talks of being truthful, this positivity towards work, feel boring and would seem to be irrelevant in the current era/generation. Because we are supposed to be street smart or aware enough to take up responsibility and complete it by any means and do it as fast as possible, correct? Can focus on ethics take a back-step? Or, Finishing up the task early is more relevant than doing is correct with a little bit of patience?

Well, this comes from being an athlete, a fan, a follower, a keen learner and also from a sports management perspective. Management does shine some light on us, to differentiate b\w products, and I am sure everybody would agree with me on the fact that an athlete is altogether a different product to be sold as compared to a bottle of water or a soap or sports bike for that matter, as we are dealing with a human-life with each of them, dealing with their own difficulties. 

I guess, it is totally up-to how the individual approaches his/her task even in their day-to-day activities. Athletes are no different, how they approach the match before being on the field or on the court. It is the thought process and preparation, which brings success rather than all other external factors, but the external factors do help in developing the thought process and making the athletes psychologically and physically ready to perform, both on and off the court against all odds of our societal expectations and pressure. 

Moreover, it is not the sporting dimension of Indian Sports Ecosystem which, brought the differences as cricket versus the others, it is the evolution, growth, and change which created the difference, but of-course, involving our athletes, governing bodies, associations, multiple stakeholders, the media/press/newspapers and most importantly the people the citizens of India who has to be inclined towards one dimension because of various acceptable and non-acceptable reasons.

#Sports #IndianSportsEcosystem #MYAS #SAI #FutureOfSportsInIndia #TalentManagement #LTADModel #TOPSAthlete #BCCI #Cricket #BAI #Badminton #HockeyIndia #Hockey.

Reference:

• Kaur, S. (2019). Did you know that these changes in hockey rules helped end India's domination over the game? [online] Scroll.in. Available at https://scroll.in/field/812823/did-you-know-that-these-changes-in-hockey-rules-helped-end-india-s-domination-over-the-game [Accessed 16 Jul. 2019].
• The Times of India. (2019). Lost in transition: Indian badminton's not so smashing success story - Times of India. [online] Available at https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/badminton/lost-in-transition-indian-badmintons-not-so-smashing-success-story/articleshow/68135695.cms [Accessed 26 Jul. 2019].
• India Today. (2019). Transitional struggle from junior to senior: Indian badminton's not so smashing success story. [online] Available at https://www.indiatoday.in/sports/badminton/story/indian-badminton-junior-from-senior-transition-struggle-1463711-2019-02-24 [Accessed 26 Jul. 2019].