Discuss... Great indian games

GREAT INDIAN GAMES – NO.III​

Before Me Discus about the historical performance of Discus Throwers at the Commonwealth Games 2010, I would like to recall my own performance at School during the Annual Sports Meet. As I took deep breath and swirled round to hurl the Discus, it slipped out of my fingers making it swing much higher and farther than what I would have wished. It could have been a World Record but my dreams were smashed as the Discus flew haywire and landed straight on the head of a passerby watching the games. His head started bleeding and my earth shattering performance went unnoticed. The poor man was taken in a stretcher to the hospital. That was, probably the last performance of mine, atleast in the Discus Throw event.


Now, I cannot say whether the Discus slipped away from the hands of the Commonwealth champions or genuinely went the way it was supposed to be but with due respect to the 1-2-3 winners of India, I was disappointed by their cocky attitude as soon as they won the event. Soon, one of the winners went on to boast how she proved Milkha Singh wrong. The television commentators went ga ga over the historic win and immediately started talking about India’s Olympic chances.


No one was looking at the win from a proper perspective. The performance was nowhere near the personal best of the concerned athletes, nor did they shatter any World Record. It was indeed a proud event from the women athletes in a country with no sporting culture, but to speak of Olympics so soon would amount to cheating the layman who does not understand the difference in standards between the Commonwealth Games and the World events.


The athletes did India proud in the Discus throw as well as the 4X400 relay events, where they won gold amidst intense pressure. But the unprecedented show of false pride indulged even by the media will soon wash away when India will have nothing to show in terms of Gold Medals in the upcoming London Olympics. Many are winning, but they are nowhere their personal best.


Practically speaking, India always excels against the countries where the Sun of the British Empire did never set till the nineteenth century. The No.1 position enjoyed by India in Test Cricket is also not an exception as Cricket is played only by Commonwealth Countries.


Indians are always good at games where considerable amount of skill is involved rather than raw muscle power. That is why Indians perform creditably well in Maths Olympiad, Spelling bee competitions, Chess and Billiards. When the astro turf pitches reduced the skill element of hockey and gave edge to speed, the dominance of India over hockey began declining.


If you look at the composition of the medals won by the Indians in the Commonwealth Games, India won 14 Golds in Shooting, 10 Golds in Wrestling and 3 Golds in Archery where the skill factor is more important than brute force. Wrestling has been India’s traditional sport for years, but the lack of focus in the approach towards training the players for the international arena resulted in our players lagging behind in this sport. India can very well concentrate on building a concrete system for budding players in such sports and this can fetch us rewards in the long term. Let us concentrate on winning minimum 10 Gold Medals in 2020 Olympics rather than listen to Suresh Kalmadi and trying to host it. It is a foolish argument that a nation of around 11 billion people should win medals in proportion to their population. Population of a nation has nothing to with sporting performance. The tradition, culture and a focused approach towards what suits Indians in sports will fetch rich dividends. Every country’s people have their own assets. That is why Jamaica always excels in 100m to 400 m races while African countries excel in long distance races.


It was disappointing to note that Gagan Narang’s World Record performance was not acknowledged. Narang went past his own World record of 703.5 on Wednesday 6 Oct, 2010, but the mark will not be counted, as the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) only ratifies records set at the Olympics, World Championships and continental sporting meets, like the Asian Games. When a 664 run unbroken partnership set by Tendulkar and Kambli against some non-descript schoolboys at Azad Maidan was acknowledged for a long time, why can’t a world record performance at an international event like the Commonwealth Games stand out as an achievement?


The performances of the Boxing contingent left a lot to be desired. Boxer Vijender Singh may have his own reasons, but the poor performance of the other boxers reveals that when a system finally works, overconfidence seems to get better of the occasion. India, however, managed to win 3 Golds in Boxing, 2 Golds in Athletics, 2 Golds in Weightlifting and 1 Gold each in Tennis and Table Tennis.


Not a single leading newspaper I came across covered the event in the proper perspective. They should have given a comparative chart of our Commonwealth achievements vis-à-vis World Standings to exactly reveal where India stands at the sporting arena in the World Map.


Each player deserves a word of praise as I know what it is to be competing for India at international meets braving all domestic odds, improper infrastructure, partisan system and red tapism.


The players who stood out for India was Gagan Narang and Sushil Kumar. Sushil Kumar showed why he is the true World Champion. He was the symbol of simplicity. In fact, both the above players were level headed and did not shay any signs of cockiness, as they very well know that there are bad days as well as good days in sports.


The motto is to be competing against ourselves more than competing against others. Success in competing against others is relative, as it will depend on the opponent’s strengths and temperament at that particular period of time. Success in competing against oneself is long lasting. Saina Nehwal showed why one’s game should speak rather than a style statement which is why Saina Mirza, another promising player perished.
Saina Nehwal's badminton victory was an icing in the cake at the end.

GREAT INDIAN GAMES NO.II​

In Cricket, Riding on a double century by Sachin Tendulkar and an all-round performance, which includes a superb knock of 72 by Cheteshwar Pujara, India knocked Australia out 2-0 yesterday and won the Test Series in emphatic fashion. It is always a nice feeling to beat Australia in cricket. Cricket matches against Australia are always competitive and no one speaks of match-fixing during India-Australia series.

BHARATIYA JANATA KA GAME NO.1​

Rest assured, politics, the No.1 Sport in India has not taken the backseat. In Karnataka, the politicians are showing their true class. This is an arena where India stands out as a World Class player with our lawmakers leaving no stone unturned to break laws and enhancing their Commonwealth.

 

Olympics are too far away and much bigger event to dream of now
The Asian Games are around in November.
let us take one at a time and compete

cheers
suresh

 

yes, i agree with you

cheers
suresh