I am extremely passionate about sports. Nothing (almost nothing ;-)) excites me as much as a sport does. For those of you who believe in the Zodiac, I am a Gemini, and I think my "other" personality gets accentuated when I play / talk / debate / discuss a sport and not otherwise
Here is the official description for the Padma awards – “Padma Awards, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri are given for exceptional and distinguished service in any field including service rendered by Government servants. The recommendations for Padma Awards are received from the State Governments/Union Territory Administrations, Central Ministries/Departments, Institutions of Excellence, etc. which are considered by an Awards Committee. On the basis of the recommendations of the Awards Committee, and after approval of the Home Minister, Prime Minister and President, the Padma Awards are announced on the eve of the Republic Day.
As in most controversies, there is so much subjectivity in this description that there is bound to be a debate. Expecting the government to make the selection process much more transparent is to ask for stuff that is not practical.
I want to plunge into this debate and defend Harbhajan. I believe that he deserves the award more than a Vijayendra or Sushil Kumar and should get the award over them if there were a restriction on the number of awards that were to be given out! Some reasons
· Vijayendra and Sushil Kumar’s international success is restricted to 1 or 2 high level performances. Is this a flash in the pan? If you claim to be a world class sportsman you need to demonstrate sustained success in the global arena, which Harbhajan has. Being nicknamed the “turbanator” by the best cricketing side in the world and being part of the Indian team for the last 7-10 years means that he is a world champion.
· A handful of countries play cricket while over 200 participate in boxing is the other argument. So what…
The sad but unfortunate part of all this is that for other sports persons to aspire for stardom will mean that they will have to do much more than what a cricketer does to get attention. Sustained success in sports other than cricket will ensure stardom and rewards commensurate with its popularity and this is the unwritten law.
Do not write me off as a die-hard cricket buff. All I am saying is that Vijayendra’s of
- Let us except the fact that we will never have many Vijayendras and Sushil kumars. They are rare and we need to protect them really well. They deserve their place in the sun and I hope the paparazzi, media and the ad world pamper them well. Honestly speaking, I feel that they have no other hope but to get their stardom thru these stray incidents
- Considering the mess that our sporting institutes are in, we can never expect a systematic process to produce more Olympic medalist. All those that will come up will be rare geniuses who would have beaten a rotten system. In a country of over a billion people to find a few 100 geniuses is our only hope for more Olympic success.
- We are fooling ourselves to think that some day we will be able to be amongst the top medal tally in an Olympics. This will never happen. I am willing to bet my last rupee on this. We will only have a few sparks of geniuses that will surprise us.
- Most sports in the world are moving away from dependence on grace and talent to power and strength. In that scenario an average Indian or even an above average Indian is still smaller, weaker and slower than most other human races…be it Anglo Saxon, African or African American.
- Cricket is easy as there are millions who aspire to play for the country and we will always get players who come up because of sheer talent from a larger pool of players
- In other sports, we need to focus on games that suit our physique and aptitude to produce world champions.
2 comments:
well written , i agree , however the whole padma and awards have become a sham now , how on earth would one explain aishwarya rais win , other than the great amarsingh connection !
when i started reading, i had so much to say...but then i kept reading further, you have probably talked abt what all i may have wanted to...u being from sports background and pretty much aware of the situation our institutions are in...only difference is...i always keep hope against all hopes...may be i fool myself waiting for a perfect world...but i cant live if i don't have hope :)
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