Golden boy Bindra !!

So finally India has won a gold medal at Olympics. It feels great !!!. This blogger was quite coincidently following the event. It was very keenly competed event, although Bindra started fourth in the finals. He kept his grit with consist performance 10.5-10.6, he was in the second spot then he became first, next he scored 10.1 so got tied for first spot. Then came the clincher, probably his best shot of the day- a 10.8 near perfect. Following this event was tense for me wonder how that boy handled it!!. It is amazing strength of mind. Truly remarkable. We can learn lot from him. It is very true of most sportspersons irrespective of any country. It is great fun watching them.

Indians tend to do exceptionally well when it comes to games needing concentration. But not many people get the opportunity. After all how many of us have handled a gun or for that matter even seen an event like this!!!. This blogger has maintained that Indian sports should be brought under Indian Army. The sports ministry should be held by retd defense chiefs (retired senior Defence personnel need be involved in much more active role, they are exceptional people. Country needs their service and most are very ready take up this challenge). People who excel in international sports need be given honorary defence title. This gives respectability and boosts the morale. Army could start something on the line of military school- the sports school, so that talent is identified at the earliest and nurtured. Army has all the international facility and infrastructure. Sports needs disciplined and scientific approach, the diet requirement has to be taken serious care. Army personnel are exceptional in handling these, they also have a very challenging and competitive environment (this would also be inspiration for Army personnel and their children also). If one looks at the people who have done well in sports they mostly seems to have some connection with Defense (like Dhyan chand, Milkha Singh, Rathore, the boxers, rovers, hockey players and so on. Not only that most Coach do have Army background). That clearly means they had the opportunity but think of some millions of people who never could get that opportunity despite being talented. If they had the opportunity and given all the facility, probably the country might have had twenty Bindras now at Beijing. Think of PT Ushas who could not make it.

This blogger had seen some exceptional sport people in Kerala. In kerala even the school district sport meet is given such an importance that most Malayalam media give significance, it is main news (when was the last time the so called ‘national channel’ given any importance to these events). Kerala has a culture of sports unlike most other States. But since people are not very rich the facilities are primitive, further many young people take sports as means for gaining employment. It is about surviving and its quite tough out there. This blogger also suggests that earnings of cricketers/actors from ads be severely taxed-and given to other Sports, since they earn so much money in few seconds because of the population and nothing to do with talent. It is quite disproportionate.

Sports in Delhi like everything else is about big lick by uncouth manipulative people. It is a business of officials to promote themselves at the expense of sports and sportsperson. Kalmadi it seems will continue for ever!! Sports should be freed from the clutch of politicians and small timers who have absolutely nothing to do with the sports.

Trivia: This blogger is a keen follower of sport events, I recall during delhi Asian games we had bought TV and I fell ill for the entire period of the games. Didn’t go to school for three odd weeks watching all the games. People thought he was having some serious disease and all kinds of tests were conducted, nothing came out but the boy looked very ill. Then the games got over and presto he is normal and back to school!!!.