Expats feel let down by India’s Sydney show

Add as a preferred source on Google

Sydney: Sydney Olympics are in final stages and Indian Olympians have already started leaving the harbour city's shores to go home. Just one of our 100 plus contingent, K Malleswari, would be questioned at numerous airport metal detectors for an unusual chunk of bronze metal in her baggage.

India have once again returned an embarrassingly abysmal performance at Olympics. The shameful realisation that a huge contingent representing a mass of 1 billion people has managed to win just one obscure Olympic medal becomes even more acute in the light of a recent finding of AustralianBureau of Statistics.

According to this figure, India is the worst sporting country in the world as far as Olympic sports disciplines are considered.

It is not that the sporting world was waiting for an Australian organisation to come out with this 'unthinkable' piece of statistic to reach at the conclusion that Indians are not cut out for performing at the international levels.

The bureau reached at this derogatory conclusion by dividing the number of medals India have won in Olympics by their huge population. The per capita figure thus arrived at carried India straight to the bottom of the table.

But there are few who do not believe in this finding. Punjab's former police chief and president of the Indian Hockey Federation K P S Gill has one such disagreeing mind.

"It is not true that Indians are the worst in sports because there are number of sports disciplines (in which India are good) which are not included inOlympics," he told India Abroad News Services in Sydney.

"We have produced world-winners in billiards, chess, golf, etc. So I do not agree with the theory that India is the worst country in sports," he added.

Other India sports followers or officials also point out that Olympics, both winter and summer editions, are tailored to suit the needs and tastes of the industrialised countries.

"Why do we have beach volleyball, elitist equestrian events, such a large number of swimming competitions, baseball, softball, tennis, etc. in Olympics. It is simply because these are white people's sports and, thus, gives them enormous unfair advantage," a member of the Indian contingent, who did not want to be named, said.

"How come we do not have a single indigenous Indian sports in Olympics?" he asked. The International Olympic Committee officials would be in a better position to provide appropriate answer to this query as they have laid down guidelines regarding inclusion or omission of sports disciplines inOlympics.

There are others who have been buoyed by Malleswari's performance in a way that such performances would shift India's over-dependence on one or two disciplines like hockey and tennis.

India's union minister of state for Sports Syed Shahnawaz Hussain is one such optimist who also believes that India is standing at the launching pad. "India have come a long way after the Independence as we have made long strides in industrial development, social up-liftment, atomic energy and, in recent days, Information Technology," he said.

"We are revamping the national Sports Policy and the emphasis would be on enthusing sports culture in the masses by making sports compulsory in schools and colleges," he added.

The dismal Indian performance on the Olympic sports field has also let down sizeable Indian expatriate population in Australia. They have been religiously backing Indian performers in various arenas with their flags, banners, painted faces or with just their vocal chords.

"Why do not we learn few things from India's giant neighbors, China who were also once sports laggards like India," Melbourne-based IT professional Neil Ghosh, who travelled to Sydney just for India's hockey engagements, asked.

India Abroad News Service