Manmohan Singh has said that India will bid for the Asian Games 2014 and Olympics 2016 reports New Kerala. Can we build infrastructure to host an Asian Games so soon? We have the Commonwealth Games in 2011 and so infrastructure would be boosted any way. So Asian Games 2014 is possible if India pursue it seriously.

Olympics in 2016? Forget the infrastructure for a minute. Lobbying and a lot of effort is also required to host the games apart from initial financial expenditure for promoting an Olympic city. Even then cities lose out. Also the competition is immense and India entering fray right now for 2016 would already find a few counries ahead of it. Maybe it can be a bidder in name (which would again require serious financial expenditure). India can go for hosting an Olympic in the future but not as early as 2016.

With India’s population, it surprises many that India is not a force at the Olympics. R.J.Elliott wonders the same in a comment in Aaman’s recent article:

I’ve always found it a bit baffling that India, with over one billion citizens, doesn’t seem to have much success in either the Winter OR the Summer Olympics…and that they don’t seem to have many (any?) nationals playing at the professional level in the US in any of the four major American sports. Surely there is a 7-foot 6-inch Indian fellow out there who would like to make millions playing in the NBA. Or a 35-pound Indian who would make a good offensive lineman in the NFL. But where are they?

Winter Olympics

Most commonwealth nations have performed poorly at the Winter Olympics. Apart from Canada who had won 31golds and was at number 10 in the all time Winter Olympic medal table before the games started, Commonwealth nations have had little to show. Poor performances at the Winter Olympics is not an India specific or South Asia specific phenomena.

Great Britain have won 8 golds in all, and among them are medals from an era when not many nations competed in the Olympics. Australia hadn’t won a medal before 1994. Australia loves its sport passionately and evidence of that is its improvement in the Winter Olympics. 40 athletes are competing for Australia at the Torino games, almost double the size in recent times. However, I might add that the latest gold medal winner for Australia, Dale Begg-Smith, is Canadian born.

What about the other nations? New Zealand is at number 36 with a solo silver in a tally of 38 nations which had won medals before the current Olympics started. Countries like Norway, Austria, Finland and Sweden have extreme cold conditions unlike a Great Britain or Australia which explains the vast difference in medal counts in winter sports.

The fact that India has sent out 4 participants for the Torino Games is a big enough achievement considering the bare facts. India does have the Himalayas, but how many skiing resorts exist?

Summer Olympics

The wonder cannot be put to rest with the Winter Olympics, however. With a population of 1.1 billion, India still has not managed to win a single individual gold at the Summer Olympics.The reason which is usually given? India is a one sport nation.

Is India really a one sport(cricket) nation?

Cricket is played on every street in India. Go to the cities,villages, sea beaches, deserts or mountains - everywhere you will find children playing cricket. Why then can India not produce cricketers who are better than cricketers of the rest of the world combined, if all its sporting resources are going to cricket?

To begin with, there is hardly any infrastructure, and talent is not tapped. If it is tapped, it is not groomed well enough. This has changed recently with cricketers coming from outside the major cities like Sehwag, R.P.Singh and Suresh Raina. The fact remains though, that for every Sehwag there are countless kids playing with rubber balls whose talent is not tapped and do not know what playing with a proper cricket ball is.

At the first class level in India, there is no support system for the players. A former India player told me once when I went to meet him that his biggest mistake was that he did not finish education before going on to pursue cricket. Obviously, if he had the qualifications, he would have retired much earlier than he did, trying to earn a proper living.

Hardly 5-6 players can command a place in the national team for a span of 10 years. There is money in the game yes, but is there really money then to support the careers of at least the state level cricketers? The way the money is currently distributed, the answer is no.

The plight of other sports in India

Rajyawardhan Rathore, silver medalist at Athens, 2004, in the Men’s double trap event did it with an attitude few people have or are expected to have. He did not receive much support. Despite that he did not criticize the authorities and made the best of what he got, staying undeterred. When people see a Sania Mirza in India sport today, they do not realize the expenses players have to deal with when they are not ‘stars’.

To gain points a player has to travel far and wide and for it the player requires money. Add to that the money required to be paid to the best coaches from the world for proper grooming. Sponsors are necessary. The tragedy is, sponsors only come in once the player has become a star or is on the verge of becoming a star. Even after some one has achieved success, a sponsor can back out as was the case with Konery Humpy, India’s finest young chess talent. (though chess is not an Olympic sport, this shows the difficulties players face)

Why does money and infrastructure need to come up in a country where so many people are poor?

Sport brings in joy which is priceless. The joy the Brazilian kid gets playing football or the Indian counterpart gets hitting a six is unmatched. In that moment he forgets all hardships. Another argument brought up was regarding money invested in sports. Gaurav commented in the same article:

I believe spending money to compete at top athletic events that require insane amount of money is perverted for a country coming to terms with over 300 million people living below poverty.

If India had that attitude, India would not even have had the base for winning the World Cup in 1983. That victory it propelled a cricket craziness in India and money coming in through privatization of broadcasts in the mid 90s, the Wills World Cup happening in 1996. Hosting a big sporting event means the growth of infrastructure, tie ups with companies and jobs to many people. Sport is an industry in itself, even if you leave aside that it also brings joy to many people in the process.

Arjun Atwal’s performed impressively at the Buick Invitational. He again showed improvement is required in finishing off tournaments. That will hopefully improve in the future. The Telegraph, Calcutta, reports:

Arjun Atwal came close to winning his maiden PGA Tour title, but in the end finished tied fourth after missing three close putts in the last three holes of the $ 5.4 million Buick Invitational at the Torrey Pines.Atwal (71) missed a four-footer on the closing 18th and was shut out of the three-way play-off which was won by Tiger Woods, who himself birdied the 18th to get into extra time.

With his victory in the Corus Chess Championships, Anand becomes the first player to win the tournament 5 times. He also becomes the 4th player ever to break the 2800 barrier in the ELO rating points. Anand as a chess player is a constantly improving genius as indicated by his ELO. More here.

Sri Lanka inflicted a defeat on Australia. Not many were giving them a chance in the VB series after their performances versus India and New Zealand.

Bengal courtesy Deep Dasgupta and Laxmi Ratan Shukla look all set to go into the Ranji Final. So do Uttar Pradesh.

The India-Pakistan match meanwhile turned into the Afridi show yet again yeterday. The essential point in this match is there is a lot of time left. Two things are very vital from now on - whether the Indian batting puts up a total or collapses, what the effect of the spinners is from the 3rd day evening session onwards.

India has 110. At 3 and half runs per over then can reach 425. Accelarting tomorrow, they can reach the score of Pakistan. Then a performance by Kumble and Harbhajan (provided the pitch provides support) can lead to a change in scenario.

India may have to chase around 200-250 in the last 2 sessions or so. Could be a mouth watering prospect.

On the other hand the Indian batting can collapse and we can see a Pakistan victory.

There is a lot to unfold still in this match

The National Football League starts today. Be sure to catch the action on Zee Sports!

Okay the Indian Cricket board is a circus. There are no two ways about it. If years of neglecting domestic cricket made me feel dismayed earlier - the current fiasco puts what a pathetic mess the Indian board is more on my face than ever before.

It is clear Dalmiya backs Ganguly. He does not get sacked. It is also clear Chappell being sacked would mean financial loss to the board (he is not foolish enough to sign the coach’s contract without financial security). So what do they do? They retain both people who have serious differences to try and put the Indian team forward. How can they sort the problems of the team when they cannot sort their own problem and divide the team rather than unite them? Why would the board care. The Dalmiya faction wants to stay at the helm while the Pawar faction is tyring to achieve the same objective.

Harbhajan Singh is being asked to summon before the Punjab Cricket Association. I doubt if the Punjab Cricket Associaiton is not opposed to the Dalmiya faction.

On a more humorous note from across the border - Inzamam who refused to go for the super series earlier sighting it would effect his preparation for the series vs England (actual reason being he did not want to be 12th man”), now says he will play in the match for his country after Tendulkar has opted out.

Now Harbhajan has spoken in favour of Ganguly.

This is the point where I think problem is bound to become bigger.

Ganguly said team mates should shut up yesterday. I do not support the statement as its the players who will have to deal with the issue the most.

First Ganguly came out in the media. Then Tendulkar made a remark in the media that whatever happens in the dressing room should remain there. Now Bhajji comes out in the media.

Speak with the BCCI and state your stands. Dont be out of it as Ganguly said. Be in it. But please dont go to the media and make it a bigger circus.

Please.

Also Sambit Bal earlier and Sidhu today (On NDTV Programme Cricket Controversies) remarked on how the BCCI is more responsible than any one and has their own vested interests for leaking the matter (The Dalmiya faction).

I am not an expert into the founding principles of the BCCI but I feel now there should be a serious enquiry into its structure and the current structure should be dissolved - with Indian cricket starting anew.

My answer to the question asked by fellow Indian fan Arjun here.

There is a lot of stuff Indian cricket needs. The thing is if the National team is in such a state and the board election process is such a mess one can imagine how the Indian cricket really is over all.

There are so many associations and each one has its own share of mess no one knows about.

Indian cricket is a reflection of the politics of the country at large in fact.

The domestic matches give no money so neglect them. The poor do not have any money so they do not have much of a say like wise as they cannot bribe the officials. Thankfully the poor can still cast their vote in India - Indian cricket fans are thus in a worse state in this regard.

I said some months ago, before I started this blog, that Ganguly should have retired from tests after the series win in Pakistan. The guy had achieved what no other Indian captain had - defeating Pakistan in Pakistan. It could not get better than that. It indeed went a lot worse. Ganguly has done his legacy no good and its really sad on the scheme of things currently.

I would like Ganguly to play in the Indian one day squad come world cup 2007. Why? Because it would be good for the team to have a player with his agression and his one day match talent in the squad. If it was a perfect world where back room groupisms and comments to the media of what happens in the dressing room were not made public, I doubt despite the bad form of Ganguly if he would denied a 2007 world cup place. Right now there is legitimate doubt.

The question every one is asking is will this episode harm Indian cricket. Is this a depressing turn of events in Indian cricket. It is depressing. But if you look at the results from the post India’s tour of Pakistan, nothing has gone right for Indian cricket.

India has lost almost every series, tournament. So this is the nadir. This is as low as it gets. Things can only improve from here and the firm stance of Chappell, a person known for having his own mind always, I believe can indeed be a catalyst.

This incident brings a ray of light to Indian cricket again and is not some thing which will harm it.