Shoba De’s Rant - Do We Deserve It?

Two or three days before, as is her wont in creating a flutter, Shoba De tweeted, Goal of Team India at the Olympics: Rio jao. Selfies lo. Khaali haat wapas aao. What a waste of money and opportunity. The backlash was expected. One of the most mature replies she got was from Viren Rasquinha, a former hockey captain for India. Ms. De, kindly run on the hockey pitch for 60 mins & hold a rifle like Abhinav and Gagan. Bit tougher than u think Naturally, the country was outraged because she snided the players who went to the Olympics. But, introspecting coolly, is there anything wrong in what she said? If she is frustrated, full marks to her. If she was intent on trolling, sorry madam, there are no takers. But, saying that, is the timing correct? Will it not demotivate players and stop them from achieving their fullest potential? Nothing more is needed to explain the situation other than the table below, charting India’s Olympics exploits -

			Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Rank
1920		Antwerp	0	0	0	0	-
1924		Paris	0	0	0	0	-
1928		Amsterdam	1	0	0	1	23
1932		Los Angeles	1	0	0	1	19
1936		Berlin	1	0	0	1	20
1948		London	1	0	0	1	22
1952		Helsinki	1	0	1	2	26
1956		Melbourne	1	0	0	1	24
1960		Rome	0	1	0	1	32
1964		Tokyo	1	0	0	1	24
1968		Mexico City	0	0	1	1	42
1972		Munich	0	0	1	1	43
1976		Montreal	0	0	0	0	-
1980		Moscow	1	0	0	1	23
1984		Los Angeles	0	0	0	0	-
1988		Seoul	0	0	0	0	-
1992		Barcelona	0	0	0	0	-
1996		Atlanta	0	0	1	1	71
2000		Sydney	0	0	1	1	71
2004		Athens	0	1	0	1	65
2008		Beijing	1	0	2	3	50
2012		London	0	2	4	6	55
			9	4	11	26	37

Total - 9 Gold, 4 Silver, 11 Bronze. Out of this, 8-1-2 is for Hockey during India’s golden age of hockey(1928-1980) making the tally 1 gold, 3 silver and 9 bronze spread over 22 olympics - more tournaments than medals. 

In the same vein, look at the comment Rasquinha made. He is saying the players are working hard. 

Now, where is the problem? There are umpteen possible scenarios - 

1. They are trying hard, but there is no one to tell that their quality is not upto the mark

2. There are no training facilities available

3. There is no sufficient funding

4. There is no sufficient motivation to play.

5. Callous administration, uncaring for the needs of the players

6. Corruption

7. Players not unto the mark

Another pertinent thing here is Chinese media's analysis of why India ranks last, the reasons being lack of infrastructure, poor health, poverty, girls not being allowed to participate in sports, boys being coaxed into becoming doctors and engineers, the popularity of cricket over other sports, India’s fading hockey glory and lack of information about the Olympics in rural areas. Some, like poor health, poverty and girls not being allowed to participate are plain rants, the rest of them have hit the bull’s eye.

It will just be an unnecessary tirade if I start citing examples for everything from the support Indian boxers got from their administration during the last olympics to Leander Paes’s room drama this time to Sushil Kumar’s histronics to the 1952 Indian foot ball team playing without shoes.

In reality, all of them are applicable. Shoba De harped only on the last one. But, did anyone question the callous attitude in which sports are run? What is the encouragement we get? Did any administrator look seriously into the problems the sportspersons are facing? Bleating in joy for every medal we receive, are we not doing a disservice to India, a country of a billion which can go to space but can’t even win a single olympic gold?