A roundup of Indian sports these days, is
seldom without more than one piece of exciting news. Not sure whether the
return of the country to the Olympic fold in February this year after having to
face the ignominy of participating almost the entire length of the Winter
Olympics in Sochi under the Olympic flag, would fall in the same category.
Although it was always a foregone conclusion, but it still had to be
accomplished and the basic strenghts of Indian democracy finally shone through
on this one. We can dismiss it as a nightmare, a rude jolt, which should
hopefully augur well for the future of the success of India as a sporting
nation.
Heena Sidhu and Manavjit Singh Sandhu
would be the rockstars of this roundup, each doing their bit to keep enhancing
India's status bit by bit as a global shooting powerhouse. Heena became the
first Indian shooter to be ranked number one in the world, when after a string
of consistent performnces including a world record breaking feat at last year's
world cup in Munich and a silver in this year's edition, she scaled the
International Shooting Sport Federation's (ISSF) 10m Air Pistol summit in the
first week of April. A week later, Manavjit stunningly took out two former
Olympic champions to grab the ISSF Shot Gun World Cup Trap gold to become a two
time World Cup winner.Incredible feats both.
In between the legendary Leander Paes
completed the small matter of wrapping up his 14th Grand Slam doubles title
(eight men's and six mixed doubles) partnering Radek Stepanek at the US Open in
September....AT THE RIPE YOUNG AGE OF 40 TO BECOME THE OLDEST MAN TO WIN A
GRAND SLAM TITLE EVER. A Kolkata guy, this work ethic is rarer than hailstorms
where he grew up.Salute!
Also laudible were the efforts of
P.V.Sindhu, who enhanced her growing reputation as a top woman's shuttler by
bagging a bronze in the always closely fought and high quality Asian Badminton
Championships and Sania Mirza picking up a WTA doubles tour title with partner
Cara Black. Sania though is now resigned to play for her passion and career,
called out in this space quite some time back.
Two tournaments of great interest, one in
progress and one yet to begin are sure to capture the imagination of the
country's sports buffs even as this roundup is being drafted. The Thomas and Uber Cups, literally the badminton equivalent of the FIFA world cup
finals, are being played in the country's capital.It is a pity that such high
quality badminton, taking place in your own country and there isnt enough noise
around it.....even in the sports pages of the national media. And India does
play regularly in this one amongst a total of 16 countries who qualify for it.
It is a real shame.
The Men's squad ended its campaign in the
group stages finishing third in their group, but the Women have already booked
their places in the last eight stage of the tournament. With two world class
shuttlers it is kinda expected from the women, but from here on the BIG GIRLS
IN THE BUSINESS come into the picture and it will be boil down to your
'strength of meditation versus mine' as is usual during the business end of
every top class sporting event. A medal is not an unrealistic proposition for
this squad.
The FIH Men's hockey world cup is
scheduled to start in Hague at the end of this month and as usual ardent
followers the national game will be hoping against hope for nothing short of a
miracle- a win. As usual, we do have a top class team with great players, but
it is the basics of modern hockey like consistency and good defense which has
been our bane for over three decades now and nothing in recent times has
suggested that they are near extinction.
All the best to the two national squads as
usual.
The newest entry into the olympic fold,
the sport of golf, has been the other source of great joy for Indian sports
fans in recent years. Particularly heartnening has been the rise of AnirbanLahiri, a 26 year old Bangalore pro golfer. The lad is into his seventh
year-still early days, as a pro and is currently perched comfortably at the top
of the gritty Asian Tour (although its still early days) with earnings close to
US $245,000 for the current season already. Amongst the golfing fraternity in
India this is how the top players by calibre are spoken of in descending order:
Jeev Milkha Singh, Arjun Atwal, Jyoti Randhawa,Gaganjeet ,Bhullar, Shiv
Kapur..... Anirban though has managed to steel the thunder from all of those
big names in the recent times.
He just seems to be the guy born for the
big moments. Picture this.....A hole in one on his Open debut, four Asian Tour
titles, hero of a sensational comeback which was key to Team Asia drawing the
inaugural Eurasia contest against a Europe Team boasting of the legendary
Miguel Angel Jimenez, major winner Graeme McDowell and European Tour leader
Thomas Bjorn and an 18 feet Eagle on the last hole to win his first title
outside India. Also, I havent seen an Indian golfer register so many mid-60 or
under rounds which such glaring consistency. The prayer is only a whisper at
the moment.
India was in the grip of a political fever
from the beginning of the year.No conversation could afford to miss out on a
discussion on who would possibly come to power post the largest general
elections of the world which concluded with the results on May 16. It was
almost as if the world had come to a standstill. In the midst of all this,
three young men, Anirban Lahiri, Rahil Gangjee and S.S.P.Chowrasia-can
ostensibly be called the 'Bong connection in Indian Golf' (Anirban is a Bengali
by birth and Rahil and S.S.P are Kolkata boys through and through)- and the talented Rashid Khan of Delhi, nonchalantly picked up a cool Rs 3 Cr approximately amongst themselves in the
first five months of the year, with Anirban garnering the larger share. They
have been playing some very pleasing golf consistently and seems to be enjoying
travelling and being together. If this carries on we have a pretty decent chance to fight for a medal at the Olympics.
Just goes to show how far away a sportsman's mind
is from issues which appear to be larger than life for us.Relations have
soured, friends have been blocked/unfriended on facebook, abuses have been
hurled in the heat of the campaign and these three just going about enjoying
themselves playing the sport they love so much.There is a lesson of life to be
learnt.
It is not something new that I have
discovered but merely reiterating the purity of sport.Sports and sportpeople
across the globe have had to undergo far greater turmoil but have always
allowed the sport to lord over politics.So when the Afghan national team beat
the Indian national team in football recently, purely as a sports buff you felt
a lump in your throat even though you were not from Afghanistan. The stories of
African long distance atheletes overcoming inhuman living conditions, Jesse
Ownes showing the iron will and resolve to triumph in front of Adolf Hitler,
Serbian tennis stars and Sri Lankan athletes living and succeeding through war
have been there since time immemorial.The learning from all this I beleive is
that the greatest instrument of peace in this world could only be the
widespread penetration of the sporting spirit, the sporting culture.Maybe
global leaders and statesmen recognize this, which is why they have often used
sports to build bridges.
