EMERGING SCENARIO : FAITH IN THE YOUTH WILL BEAR FRUIT

D.K.Bhardwaj*

---

The sporting successes have now become a matter of national pride everywhere. In the highly commercialised world of sports today, only the achievers are admired, adored and idolized. The consistent achievers are placed on an even higher pedestal. They become icons like our own Sachin Tendulkar and Viswanathan Anand. Failures, however, cause disappointment and despair and continued failures and mediocre performances breed indifference and apathy in the masses, without whose support no sport can survive. Success, on the other hand, acts as a catalyst in arousing public interest and dispels the dark clouds of despair.

Some high quality performances that the success-starved Indian sports have savoured during the first seven months of the current year should be viewed in this background. Cricket is almost a religion in the country. Chess is a fast rising game. Though not spectacular, tennis always had some steady performers. But what happened recently in hockey, our national game which had been passing through a lean patch for too long a time, and some other rather neglected and lowly-rated sports like archery, volleyball and squash is really heartwarming and augurs well for the well-being of sports in India. East Bengal’s historic win in the ASEAN club championship too has given a much-needed fillip to Indian football and revived the fans’ hopes and aspirations. The most encouraging aspect in the emerging scenario is that the youth has come to the fore and apart from systematic training more attention is being paid now to the fitness factor.

Milestones

The new year began for the Indian sports on a cheerful note. The Chennai girl, Joshna Chinappa, won the British junior squash championship at Sheffield, UK - the first Indian girl to perform this feat. India won the under-19 invitation hockey tournament in Kuala Lumpur trouncing South Korea, Pakistan and the host, Malaysia. India dominated the first Asian junior archery championship at Jamshedpur in a rather weak field. India’s super grandmaster Viswanathan Anand won the new year’s first super category chess tournament at Wijk Aan Zee (Holland), his third triumph in this prestigious tournament. Leander Paes won the mixed doubles title partnering the legendary Martina Navratilova of the US in the Australian Open, the first grand slam tennis tournament of the year. The happy trend continued with more notable performances.

A month later in Islamabad, Pakistan, Joshna added another historic first to her bright young career when she won the girls’ title in the 11 Asian junior chess championship. Another Indian girl, Vaidehi Reddy, was the losing finalist. India also won the girls’ team crown for the first time and in all captured 2 golds and 2 silvers. Among the boys, Sourav Ghosal did extremely well as he helped India reach the final in the boys team event at Islamabad and later won the under-19 title in the German Open junior squash in Gerlingen, Germany. Though India’s success in the inaugural Asian junior archery championship was taken with a pinch of salt, the sceptics were pleasantly surprised by the Indian archers’ remarkable performance in the World archery championship in July in New York, where the men’s team reached the semifinals and the women’s team quarterfinals. They finished fourth and sixth respectively in the final placings and both qualified for the next year’s Athens Olympic Games, a commendable performance indeed. Satyadev Prasad and Acharya Ved Kumar of Meerut Gurukul and Tarundeep Rai of Sikkim among men and Dola Banerjee, Reena Kumari (both Jharkhand) and Chekrovolu Swuro (Nagaland) among women impressed most.

When the former India captain and Arjun awardee, G.E. Sridharan-coached Indian boys lifted the Asian junior volleyball crown beating the defending champion Iran in the final at Visakhapatnam in April, they created volleyball history. Though the Indian juniors’ performance was highly commendable, the sceptics attributed it mainly to the home advantage. About three months later in the World Junior Volleyball Championship at Suphanburi, Thailand, the Indian juniors surprised everyone by brushing aside all the opposition to reach the final. In a dream run, they had six straight victories over Poland, Brazil, Czech Republic, Australia, Puerto Rico and Iran before losing to Brazil, who they had beaten in the league phase. But the silver medal they won at Suphanburi is no mean achievement. R. Kamaraj of India was adjudged the Best Setter in the tournament.

Cricket

Although Australia dominated the 8th World Cup of Cricket jointly hosted by three African countries-South Africa, the main host, Zimbabwe and Kenya- and defended successfully the title it had won four years ago in England, India too did extremely well winning 9 out of 11 matches it played and losing twice only to Australia in the league as well as in the final. India’s super star, Sachin Tendulkar, was adjudged "Man of the Tournament" with a record 673 runs and three "Man of the Match" awards to his credit. The fiery bowling of pace trio of veteran Javagal Srinath and young Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra gave a sharp edge to India’s attack and was largely instrumental in India’s fine performance. Skipper Sourav Ganguly too scored three centuries, a record for the ICC World Cup-2003. India "A" cricket team, comprising mainly talented young players, did well in its recent tour of England, remaining unbeaten.

Chess

The Viswanathan Anand-inspired phenomenon continued in chess with Indian junior and sub-junior chess players excelling at the Asian level. In the Asian youth chess championship at Kozhikode in June, Indian children won five of the six gold medals at stake and in the Asian junior chess championship at Negombo, Sri Lanka, in July, Indian teenagers captured all the six medals. The Master himself was in great form winning the Amber chess tournament in Monte Carlo in March and then captured the Masters rapid chess tournament in Denmark in April. Viswanathan Anand continues to be the leading light of the chess world with only two Russian gainsts Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik ahead of him in the Elo ratings. Following in the footsteps of his idol Anand, the young national champion GM Krishnan Sasikiran, who had won the 4th Asian chess championship at Doha, Qatar, in March, won the North Sea Cup international chess tournament in Demark jointly with GM Alexey Dreev of Russia and GM Luke McShane of England. A fortnight later, the fast rising star Sasikiran won the Politiken Cup grandmaster open chess tournament, also in Demark.

Tennis

In tennis, the doubles specialists Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi kept India’s flag flying high. They helped in victories over Japan and New Zealand in the Asia – Oceanic Zone Group I Davis Cup ties to take India once again to the play-off stage for a place in the elite World Group of Davis Cup. After Leander Paes’ mixed doubles title in the Australian open, the Indians fared quite well in the French Open also though they didn’t win any title. Mahesh Bhupathi partnering Elena Likhovtseva of Russia reached the mixed doubles final and India’s Sania Mirza and Sanaa Bhambri reached the semifinals in girls doubles. In Wimbledon, Paes again won the mixed doubles title alongside Martina Navratilova and Bhupathi partnering Max Mirnyi of Belarus reached the men’s doubles final. However, it was the talented Hyderabad girl Sania Mirza who created history by winning the girls’ doubles title pairing with Alisa Kleybanova of Russia. Sania thus became the first Indian girl to win a grand slam event. Earlier in April, Sania Mirza and Manisha Malhotra had helped India to qualify for the Asia-Oceania Group I Fed Cup tournament by trouncing the Philippines, Kyrgyzstan and Pacific Oceania in the Group II.

Hockey

But the most satisfying sporting performance that caused national rejoicing was the Indian hockey team’s heartwarming victories in Sydney and Hamburg international hockey tournaments. The victories over formidable teams of Australia, Pakistan, Argentina and Spain dispelled the gloom and transformed the mood of the nation from despair to that of jubilation. Though more stern tests are ahead of the Indian hockey team, which is astutely coached and shrewdly guided by the redoubtable Rajinder Singh, the former India star and ably captained by the ace striker Dhanraj Pillay, the ageless hero who leads by example, the newly instilled sense of self-belief and more importantly hunger for success should motivate it for bigger deeds. The biggest fallout of the change in fortune of the hockey team is that Sahara India Pariwar, the sponsors of Indian cricket team, has come forward to sponsor it for eight years.

Football

East Bengal’s triumph in the inaugural LG Cup ASEAN club football championship in Jakarta has done a world of good to Indian football. Though popular in the country, the successes in football at the international level have been few and far between. Playing as a special invitee in the ASEAN club tournament in which all the other participants were top football clubs from the ASEAN countries, the National Football League champion, East Bengal, became the first Indian football club to win an international tournament on foreign soil beating the highly rated and hot favourites BEC Tero Sasana Club of Thailand in the final convincingly. East Bengal did India and Indian football proud by its stupendous achievement. Incidentally, East Bengal’s goalkeeper Sandip Nandy was adjudged ‘best goalkeeper’ of the tournament and its star striker Baichung Bhutia was the top scorer with 9 goals to his credit. Hopefully, East Bengal’s landmark win will herald a new era in Indian football.

Other Events

The other notable performances include Arjun Atwal’s fine victory in the Malaysian Open golf tournament, an event jointly sanctioned on the European and Asian PGA tours; women weightlifter’s rich gold haul in the Commonwealth championship in Tonga in the first week of May alongside Sydney Olympic bronze medallist Karnam Malleswari’s golden comeback after a long layoff and Indian wrestlers’ creditable performance in the Commonwealth championship and the Canada Cup in July after a poor show in the Asian championship in Delhi. Virat Badhwar, a seven-year-old kid from Delhi, created waves when he finished second in the under-8 category of the 2003 Junior World Golf Championship in San Diego, California in mid-July. Among the shooters, Anjali Vedpathak Bhagwat and young Abhinav Bindra, both earned the quota places in next year’s Athens Olympic Games. Though Anwar Sultan and Major Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won gold medals in the Asian Clay shooting championship in Delhi, the Indian shooters need more consitency to succeed at the higher level. The long jumper, Anju George, currently training in the United States, is the only Indian athlete to be rated in the world’s top ten. The Indian speed-kings Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok are proving their mettle in the highly competitive world of motorsports. The 26-year-od Narain, who is currently second in the Formula Nissan World Series in Europe and the 19-year-old Karun, who has several podium finishes in the British Formula – 3 (Scholarship class) are both aspiring to enter the most glamorous, existing, exclusive and elite world of Formula One racing.

No doubt, the emerging scenario is encouraging but the fact remains that India’s sporting achievements are far less in proportion to its vast potential. India is often referred to as a sleeping giant whose immense potential is dormant. The march of the young and the growing awareness that the young talent should be given its due can still wake up the giant. Fortunately, there is no shortage of suitable role models for the youth. Sachin Tendulkar in cricket, Viswanathan Anand in chess, Leander Paes in tennis, Dhanraj Pillay in hockey, Baichung Bhutia in football, Karnam Malleswari in weightlifting and Pullela Gopi Chand in badminton are some of the big achievers who can inspire and motivate the youth. Then there are indigenous coaches with vision and expertise such as G.E.Sreedharan, Rajinder Singh and Subhas Bhowmick who have the ability to produce the desired results. However, the need of the hour is to weed out the self-seeking parasites from various sports bodies.(PIB Features)

*Senior Sports Writer