Serve & Volley Naresh kumar

The sporting netas have stepped down from the rostrum and the stirring echoes of the Bollywood beat have faded into the Melbourne night.

The Commonwealth Games has left a smug sense of well-being in Indian sport. The selection of Samresh Jung, the first Indian in the history of the Games to win five golds as the best athlete of the Commonwealth Games, sent our spirits soaring.

Suresh Kalmadi, flamboyant leader of the Indian Olympic movement, exulted, “I am a proud man today. We have shown the world that we are not just a cricket nation. There is life beyond cricket as well!”

Samresh Jung has sent our spirits soaring

We all share his pride with the Indian tally of 22 gold, 17 silver and 11 bronze. Kalmadi’s emotional rhetoric is understandable, but a close examination of the medals tally tells a different story. Twenty seven medals out of a total of 50 medals which India harvested (16 gold, 7 silver and 4 bronze) were won by two dozen or more shooters.

They belong to a discipline which, I am taking a wild liberal guess, consist of at the most a thousand or so shooters in the country.

The rest of India, a billion plus, with a population possibly more than all the other 70 participating countries put together, won only a paltry 23 medals out of a total of 743.

Outside cricket there is life in Indian sport, but requires mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

One does not need a management guru to tell you that unless the basic fundamentals are right there is no hope for success. The current Indian sports structure is like a wobbly upside-down pyramid, held up by uncoordinated sporadic grants by the government of India. Our basic strength lies in numbers.

The millions in schools, colleges and universities must be provided with the opportunity to participate in sport. Considering the dividends such a policy will pay in improving health and character it should be made compulsory and integrated into the education system.

Sport which require minimal equipment like athletics and team games like soccer etc. have to be encouraged and properly organised.

While there is a growing realisation of the benefits of sporting excellence in a nation’s image and the financial and political impact, the government has totally failed to grasp the importance of sport as a builder of national character.

Sport has enormous power to uplift and improve the nature and character of our society. Exposure on television to billions all over the world has made sport one of the dominant forces that project the image of our culture, our society and our character.

It is sport’s role as a builder of national character which has to be developed and recognised. Sport teaches you everything. To improve standards, one needs discipline, application, focus and perseverance.

Every match or tie one plays is like a minilife. In a physically contact games it teaches you not to lose your temper under extreme provocation. You have to learn to contend with unfair tactics and work out a strategy to overcome them. In team games you learn to sacrifice for the team’s good, and develop team spirit.

But most of all, it teaches you how to face defeat and handle and adjust to a badly mauled ego.

Honesty, fairness, value for human dignity and rights, concern and respect for others and the community are the pillars of good character and can be nurtured by sporting activity.

Have we forgotten the old saying ? “a healthy body makes a healthy mind”? Even time cannot change or amend this clich?.

The IT world belongs to India and the focus of the millions is to achieve academic excellence. This is spurred by the forecast of a projected 10 per cent growth rate, the nuclear agreement with the US and the irresistible lure of high western level salaries. Sport in schools, colleges and universities is dead.