The shooting circus
After Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the silver meadal in shooting in the double trap event, how could India, corporate and the sport overall, not capitalise on the event.
So Indians will find Rathore in an event labelled Top Gun telecast on television. Whether it will be live or delayed telecast, is not clear from what I have read.
It has been termed as an attempt to experiment to make the sport more popular with a new format and TV coverage.
Apart from the rule modifications, there is so much more in this event. So much more noise to be specific. As Rathore says on NDTV:
There is generally a pin drop silence at shooting events. But people cheering and clapping when shooting is going on increases the pressure. I was feeling nervous, but I enjoyed it a lot.
Events such as these will certainly boost the viewership of the sport in the country to a small extent. It is India’s own version of Twenty20 cricket! MP Lok Sabha Naveen Jindal says they would like to organise five to six events and increase the total number of events to 15 or 20.
I dont think viewership and the quality of sportsmen a country produces is correlated though. India has the largest viewing public in cricket by a mile. By that logic, India should be miles ahead of Australia as a cricket team. Viewership can lead to people following a sport and hopefully some of these viewers will start following the sport.
What I want to know, though, is what is being done to impove the infrastructure of the sport over all in the country and whether the young aspiring shooters are being given the proper encouragement, both financially and training opportunities wise. Having such events which end in Formula 1 style celebrations in the end are good for television and good to get more people to follow the sport. It is good for the sport only if the people following can get a chance to become the best if they desire to.
Tags: Shooting.
