To my obvious deligth, the previous reflection on the Indian badminton squad in this space, got forcefully reiterated at the recently concluded World Badminton Championships in China. India had as many as three participants in the QF stages of the individual men's & women's event put together and guess what!!! P.V.Sindhu returned with a bronze in her first worlds, eventually going down to the eventual world champion, but not before 'taking out' two top class chinese in their den. That makes it two right calls in this space after the six olympic medals predicted way ahead of time:)
Aditya Mehta's World Games gold in snooker was the other standout achievement in Indian sport for the intervening period and the Indian hockey team can match that with a win over Korea in the Asia Cup final tomorrow. The hockey squad after a long time has displayed a different approach and stuck to it throughout the tournament for a change, to reach this far. The style though a bit dour, is refreshing and definitely more professional and should be persisted with, eventual results not withstanding. The first post of this blog coincided with the hockey team's Azlan Shah win in a B-grade tournament held that year. This win though will be world class if it takes shape.All the very best as usual.
The real concern in Indian sport lately has been events off the field of play, more than that of those on it.The administration of the Indian Olympic Movement is in shambles and the country is very close to being out of the next olympics, as it till date, stands suspended from the parent International Olympic Committee (IOC). The Sports Minister they say, has been pro-active, but results are still not forthcoming. Can it be fate or conspiracy that today, when we have around six strong olympic sports squads, we are no longer part of the movement.Why should sports and sportspeople suffer because of political middlemen wanting to milk the youth connect and therby destroying the aesthetics of sports? Look what they did to cricket!!!
It is not for us to dvelve too much into pessimism or negativity around Indian sports in this space.We've had a lot of it in the past and have overcome them to reach some kind of sporting credibility globally through the passion and focus of our sporting fraternity and the deeds of our sportspersons.The administrators at the centre of the storm today are not a part of that fraternity as much as they would have us believe they are. Let us never let them forget....despite not due to!!!
So lets march along. The men's Indian basketball team for example has come a long way if peformances in the recently concluded Asian championships are anything to go by.Its not the actual resutls again, but the approach and the shape of the team is what caught the eye, and concentrated efforts might yield results in the long run. Two girls from Andaman and Manipur are on their way to a 50 day coaching sting with the top class Korean coaches in Korea. After their performances in the recently concluded Asian juniors, this can only help them improve.The Women archers led by Deepika returned with yet another World Cup gold in recurve.Its also important to consistently deliver world class performances over a period of time, occassional setbacks not withstanding.
So yes, there is still lots to look forward to in Indian sports as it keeps re-inventing itself on the global stage. That there is a needless controversy over India's highest sporting honour the 'Khel Ratna', another off-field event, with sportspersons reportedly lobbying for the award, actually augurs well for Indian sports in my view, as it means there are more and more sportspeople today who can cite performances on a world stage, to actually believe they deserve the award. The concern there lies with the fact that such charcter traits were always known to be alien to atheletes in general.
Aditya Mehta's World Games gold in snooker was the other standout achievement in Indian sport for the intervening period and the Indian hockey team can match that with a win over Korea in the Asia Cup final tomorrow. The hockey squad after a long time has displayed a different approach and stuck to it throughout the tournament for a change, to reach this far. The style though a bit dour, is refreshing and definitely more professional and should be persisted with, eventual results not withstanding. The first post of this blog coincided with the hockey team's Azlan Shah win in a B-grade tournament held that year. This win though will be world class if it takes shape.All the very best as usual.
The real concern in Indian sport lately has been events off the field of play, more than that of those on it.The administration of the Indian Olympic Movement is in shambles and the country is very close to being out of the next olympics, as it till date, stands suspended from the parent International Olympic Committee (IOC). The Sports Minister they say, has been pro-active, but results are still not forthcoming. Can it be fate or conspiracy that today, when we have around six strong olympic sports squads, we are no longer part of the movement.Why should sports and sportspeople suffer because of political middlemen wanting to milk the youth connect and therby destroying the aesthetics of sports? Look what they did to cricket!!!
It is not for us to dvelve too much into pessimism or negativity around Indian sports in this space.We've had a lot of it in the past and have overcome them to reach some kind of sporting credibility globally through the passion and focus of our sporting fraternity and the deeds of our sportspersons.The administrators at the centre of the storm today are not a part of that fraternity as much as they would have us believe they are. Let us never let them forget....despite not due to!!!
So lets march along. The men's Indian basketball team for example has come a long way if peformances in the recently concluded Asian championships are anything to go by.Its not the actual resutls again, but the approach and the shape of the team is what caught the eye, and concentrated efforts might yield results in the long run. Two girls from Andaman and Manipur are on their way to a 50 day coaching sting with the top class Korean coaches in Korea. After their performances in the recently concluded Asian juniors, this can only help them improve.The Women archers led by Deepika returned with yet another World Cup gold in recurve.Its also important to consistently deliver world class performances over a period of time, occassional setbacks not withstanding.
So yes, there is still lots to look forward to in Indian sports as it keeps re-inventing itself on the global stage. That there is a needless controversy over India's highest sporting honour the 'Khel Ratna', another off-field event, with sportspersons reportedly lobbying for the award, actually augurs well for Indian sports in my view, as it means there are more and more sportspeople today who can cite performances on a world stage, to actually believe they deserve the award. The concern there lies with the fact that such charcter traits were always known to be alien to atheletes in general.
