Dunk ’em in water

In Indian sport, there’s rarely a silver lining without the accompanying cloud. As Indian sportsmen and women excel themselves in different fields — athletics, volleyball, hockey, archery — the traditional sarkari manner of administration threatens to undermine sport. The photograph we carried of India’s best — the Commonwealth’s best — women hockey players lining up with buckets because the stadium they are staying in hasn’t had water for four days should have caused heads, not cameras, to roll. But the casual manner in which the team manager responded — a philosophical shrug of the shoulders — is indication enough that things won’t change. The manager isn’t to blame alone; most sports bodies in India are run by politicians who’ve been in the saddle for years on end. They run the show like their personal fiefdom and are inured to criticism. Where is the need to improve things when your position is guaranteed for life?

The irony is that these hockey players were, just a year ago, feted by everybody after they returned from Manchester with the Commonwealth gold. What struck us all then, apart from the fact that they had won, was the sheer exhilaration they showed in the winning. But what did all that praise amount to? Empty buckets on a muggy monsoon morning. They aren’t, of course, the first Indian champions to be abandoned after their moment of glory. Limba Ram was hoisted high during his successes of the 1990s; when media and public interest in him faded, he was left in mid-air. He eventually collapsed under the weight of hype, hope and hubris.

One solution to the problems is the professionalisation of sport — by getting people trained in administration, marketing and finance to run it. The recent successes have sparked a growing interest in non-cricket sports; that interest can be tapped, converted into television revenues and sponsorship contracts. It has already happened in men’s hockey, though the details are yet to be disclosed. But are the politicians who run sport ready to deal with professionals? Will they walk that extra mile to get the better deal or will they expect the deal to come to them? So far it has been the latter, and no deal has arrived. For too long, Indian sport has been held ransom to personal ambitions; it’s time someone paid the price.