Introduction:
“All work and no play makes jack a dull boy”
I think this issue must be discussed from the origin. The origin lies with the students. I strongly believe that sports will have a better future in India only if students are trained in various athletic events from their primary level. Even today, there are some human beings who dump education on their kids. This is the main problem. Students should definitely be exposed to various sports. Here goes several discussions about the past, present, future trend of sports in India.
Let us go from the primary level.
Government’s role in imparting sports in schools:
It s been often debated in the recent past, whether sports should be compulsory at school or not? It cannot be denied that sports enhances the abilities of the child and develop challenging spirits. Keen to give sports in the country a boost, sports and youth affairs minister M.S.Gill has said, “It is essential that physical education and sports are given at least one period everyday compulsorily in school curriculum, beginning from elementary school onward.” He also added “I would like to emphasize that while opening new schools, we should insist that adequate open grounds be provided for playing fields.” Lacking in infrastructure most schools have few sports facilities and even lack teachers. Playgrounds give way to school buildings and in senior classes accent on academics means less time for sports. The sports ministry has pointed out that navodaya vidhyalayas and kendriya vidhyalayas, which are directly under HRD’s control, can play a leading role in imparting sports and physical education with the academic curriculum and act as a role model for other schools. Pushing hard for filing up vacancies of physical education teachers, the ministry wants that schools which do not have such posts must be asked to create them and recruit the teachers. The ministry has also mooted the idea of making sports and games a component of the Government’s flagship Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). A small percentage of the budget for SSA, if earmarked for the promotion of sports in primary schools, can make a big impact in promoting sports in schools and all round development of children. The sports ministry which has constructed 25,000 playgrounds under the National Rural Sport Endeavor scheme has also asked the University Grants Commission (UGC) to provide adequate funds to universities and colleges for modernizing sports infrastructure.
Now the next important question is:
Why cricket? Why not the other games?
It’s a known fact that Indian spectators do not give enough attention to other games as for cricket. Why is this? We have won enough medals in Common Wealth Games and in Asian Games 2010 only from those events like shooting, archery, wrestling and much more which are rarely brought under limelight. These personalities would have achieved much more if they were recognized earlier. It’s not that, everyone could afford to spend on their own. We can observe this from the stories of some successful personalities like Aswini Agunji (Athlete) Deepika Kumari (Archery) and much more. We all know Kapil Dev was the captain of India when we won the World cup. How many of us know who was the captain of hockey team when it won the World cup.
The next issue is:
Influence of commercialization on the professionalization of sport:
One of the classic example for this commercialization of sport is the Indian Premier League(IPL).we have gone to such an extent of providing free security to the venues of T20 matches. Moreover there is no need to mix and match one profession with the other just to earn currency. Should sports be commercialized to such an extent? After all it was once a leisure time activity. What makes people much worried is how is that some extraordinary men find some loopholes to include those heavy words like “scam”, “corruption” etc.., into sports? One has to come to terms with the fact that cricket is now not just a game of bat and ball but it is Big Money. It does not matter whether you play well, but you should have an endorsement that surpasses your cricket record and a company that backs you in your endeavor. Today the benefit of being a member of Indian cricket team is not just playing for the country but being paid for it by one and all. A cricketer has just become a product for all to be used. The BCCI needs him for its survival, the Company that sponsors him uses him for its product mileage, media has to be favored to write about him and if he fulfills these criteria then on top of it, he has to play well for the country. The order of preferences is just that. Let us strive to make cricket a gentle and gentleman’s game. Allow the gentle influence of money that is earned to flow towards those areas of the game that needs attention.
If this is the case where will we land?
We are all aware of the fact that India won 101 medals in Common Wealth Games and 64 medals in Asian games. Out of those 101 medals in CWG we won 30 medals including 14 gold medals in shooting, 19 medals in wrestling, and 8 medals in archery. The saddest part is that some players like Deepika Kumari, Tindu luka who won medals in the recent Asian games are from economically poor background. Not every talented person is given hand and being lifted up. Only few are passionate enough and self-driven. What happens to the rest? There is no point in giving cash awards after winning. HELP THEM TO WIN. For instance when Abhinav Bindra did India proud by winning the first ever gold medal as an individual, the newspapers splashed his pictures on the front page as he deserved. The politicians announced lakhs and crores of rupees in prize to him for winning gold medal. Is this a good thing? It is not that the Government should not award them. But what these sports personalities are waiting for is not the cash awards but to provide proper training facilities of international standards to deserving sports persons. We are effective in collecting taxpayers’ money but not spending it.
Conclusion:
Here the conclusion again join hands with the introduction stressing on the fact that however big or small the school may be, no matter where it is in rural or urban, there must definitely be a proper play ground and a well-efficient physical education teacher to spot out the talented and to provide proper sources to train and bring them up. The management of all Government and private educational institutions must be duty bound to provide sports facilities as it is high time that sports was made part of the academic curriculum, if necessary by awarding marks or grades to performers in sports. If all these are not done and sports are to be more and more commercialized, sure, there won’t be any future for sports in India.
