India’s missed chances and dismal sporting culture

The more things change in India, the more it remains the same. And nothing can ring truer than in the arena of sports. Sporting events, especially mega ones like the Commonwealth Games (CWG) India hosted in 2010 represented an opportunity to project a nation’s future aspiration – rather than its current reality — combining current initiative, expertise and national character with the values that would have built future growth and reputation.

But the flawed 2010 Delhi CWG that came with a price tag of over US$4 billion – almost 16 times the original estimate of $270 million, according to India’s watchdog body, the Comptroller and Auditor General, was known for all the wrong reasons.

Many of the iconic and state-of-the art stadiums that came up during the CWG are in disuse or in grave need of repair. Once the focus of the world's attention, the sites now lie desolate – a stark reminder that hopes of a lasting legacy from international events can lie in tatters. Despite the near disaster surrounding the start of the Games, India won 101 medals in total, including 38 Gold medals, enabling it to finish the Games at second position behind Australia. Under normal circumstances, this would have raised India's image as a sporting nation thanks to the rich medal haul. The question in many minds was – Has India moved a step closer to making a strong bid to host the Olympic Games? It has not.

Focus on corruption instead of sporting success

With so much money and energy expended, many imagined it would have launched India on to the world stage as the next emerging superpower and the newest sporting nation. What it did, was something dramatically the opposite. It kick-started a national anti-corruption campaign, almost threatened to topple a government besmirched with sleaze and sent several top officials of the organizing committee to jail including its chairman, Suresh Kalmadi, the secretary general, Lalit Bhanot and a host of other officials for financial misappropriation.

And it is precisely the fact that political and financial heft can see officials and politicians through in almost all spheres of public life that made the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspend India in December 2012 for holding elections in defiance of the Olympic charter and appointing officials facing corruption charges related to the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

The main reason: Ajay Singh Chautala, a politician, (currently in jail for corruption) was elected unopposed as president and Lalit Bhanot (spent 11 months in jail in 2011) as secretary-general of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) in the elections which were declared void by the IOC. Because of this,  Indian athletes participated in events under the IOC flag and not the Indian flag during the ban.

India only returned to the Olympic fold in February 2014, ending a 14 months exile, after an ad-hoc meeting of the IOC's executive board in Sochi was convinced that the IOA elections   complied with all IOC requirements.

The need for a clean-up

Far from being a hindrance to reforms, the ban could have been a blessing in disguise and an opportunity to usher in changes.

Which brings us to the moot question: Has anything changed since last year? Has the IOA woken up? Have sports administrators at least begun the process of cleaning up the Augean stables? Have there been any tentative steps to instill a sports culture? To all this, the answer is a big No.

The only faint glimmer in an otherwise gloomy situation is that there has been renewed interest and awareness in sports other than cricket, popularly referred to as the opium of the masses. The Banyan tree effect of cricket has hurt sports in India a great deal. Incidentally, in Indian folklore the Banyan does not let a blade of grass grow under it. Thus it does not allow for rebirth and renewal. 

At least now people take an interest in badminton, tennis, hockey, football and kabbadi with premier leagues being formed around these disciplines to drive viewership and attendance at these venues. Youngsters are concentrating on these games which is encouraging. But there is much more that needs to done.

Former Sports Minister Ajay Maken was candid when he declared that most sports federations in India are badly managed.

“I am against the idea of politicians running sports federations for too long. We need to change the way federations are run, but it will take time,” he said.

It was with this idea of revamping sport in India and bringing about transparency, governance and accountability that the government set up a working group for drafting a National Sports Development Bill under the chairmanship of Justice Mukul Mudgal. (See link) http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=97118 The working group included eminent sportspersons like Olympic gold medal-winning shooter Abhinav Bindra and former India hockey skipper Viren Rasquinha, sports administrators and legal experts. He presented his report in July 2013.

Setting up of an appellate sports tribunal, an ethics commission, a sports election commission and provisions to bar tainted persons from contesting elections were some of the salient features of Mudgal’s report.

The report also talks of the controversial age and tenure guidelines under which all office bearers of the Indian Olympic Association and the National Sports Federations will retire at the age of 70.

What is more relevant is that the judicial panel recommended bringing the world's richest cricket body, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) under the ambit of the proposed Sports Bill. This was in the light of the 2013 spot-fixing scandal in the country's highly decorated T20 league, the Indian Premier League. 

The panel had suggested that the BCCI will also have to adhere to the regulations laid forward by the ministry like other national sports federations, and follow the rules regarding elections, the Right to Information Act and doping, among other issues. The BCCI, flexing its financial muscles, staunchly rejected the idea, terming the bill as 'draconian'.

Reforming at a snail’s pace

Two years down the line, Mudgal’s report is yet to see the light of day. Both the National Sports Development Bill and the Sporting Fraud Bill to tackle the menace of illegal betting and corruption in sports have yet to be discussed by the union cabinet, let alone be presented to Parliament for them to be made law. It has been relegated to the backburner.

“There is some work to be done at the Sports Ministry. It has got Law Ministry's clearance. It is upto the honorable MPs to decide on this Bill. I hope all the MPs support this Bill so that it can be passed with consensus,” said Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.

The snail’s pace in ushering sporting reforms and the lackadaisical approach by the government to bring in legislation indicate that there are many issues that ails Indian sports. The lack of political will certainly is a major factor which probably explains why nurturing an all-pervasive sports culture in India remains a distant dream.

So when IOC president Thomas Bach made a one-day stopover in New Delhi a few months back while on his way to Australia there was much speculation of India throwing the hat into the ring to bid for the 2024 Olympics. India would have been up against Paris, Hamburg, Rome and Budapest, if a bid was made. But, as the day wound down, Bach was quick to quash all those swirling rumors.

“The IOA still has to find its feet. India is a sleeping giant and I have discussed with the prime minister and the IOA members on how to wake up this sleeping giant,” Bach quipped.

Is somebody listening?

Editor's note: A previous version of this article said that Abhay Singh Chautala is currently in jail for corruption. This is not correct. The correct name is Ajay Singh Chautala and the article has been amended accordingly.