India and the Beijing Olympics – the Good, the Bad and the Future

By all accounts India had a great Beijing Olympics and let’s not even argue about it. There are cynics who will look at our population and compare our meagre haul with the likes of the other big nations like China and US and dismiss the 2008 effort as a microscopic improvement.

But these three medals including a golden one were won by a nation which had just won a single medal in each of the last three Olympics and none in the three before that - a nation which had never won three medals at a single Olympics and a nation which had last won a creditable gold medal way back in 1964. I take the liberty to discount the hockey gold of 1980 as the games were boycotted by the major hockey powers. And that is not all – that is merely a reflection of all the other good which does not show up in the medals tally.

So what is all the other good?

Other than the fact that the medals will spare Indian journalists a lot of embarrassment at all international sports events for the next 4 years.

The greater good from these Olympics is the hope and the confidence that we have gained as a sporting nation – sportspersons and fans alike - That we can compete with the very best in various sports – there is no ceiling to what we can do. We can beat a Russian world champion in boxing and we can beat a top ranked Chinese in badminton. The Olympics have raised expectations – we will no longer be satisfied with a creditable effort. Only a win or a medal will do. And that is why Akhil Kumar and Saina Nehwal will get back with renewed vigour to go one better. Coz famous victories aren’t good enough any more. We have tasted blood and we will not settle for anything less.

The other good is the attention it brought to other sports. The Olympics have always been about hockey – because of the 8 golds, tennis – because of Leander and Bhupathi and Shooting and Athletics – for the bagful of medals we win at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games respectively. This Olympics just set all the conceptions and misconceptions about our ‘world –beating ability in various sports’ straight on the largest stage possible with the almost the whole sports-watching public in attendance.

The big winners were Boxing, Wrestling, and Badminton. The biggest losers were Athletics, Tennis, Shooting and Archery. And hockey wasn’t even present. We have been sick of the mediocrity in these sports and the success in others was welcome relief. This because in spite of Abhinav Bindra’s gold the shooting stars of the Commonwealth games stunk at the Olympics and so did all the athletes. We have been performing well in sports like boxing and badminton for quite sometime but nobody cared. Now thanks to the Olympics the public cares and the powers that be cannot ignore them any more. This Olympics could to a certain extent do something for Boxing and other sports what the 1983 World Cup win did for cricket in this country – starting a revolution. The early signs are encouraging. The Olympic feats relegated the cricketers’ victory in SriLanka to the back pages and guys like Akhil Kumar are now household names.

The greatest good however was the attention these Olympics brought to the efforts of the Mittal Champions Trust. More than half the heroes of Beijing have benefited from their benevolence and love for sport. We now know what 10 million dollars can do. It can turn a talented prospect into a world beater. Our country’s sporting history abounds with stories of potential champions who were unable to take the next step because of lack of funds. The Trust’s effort has proved that there is enough potential in this country which is just waiting for a little cash to succeed at the highest level. Now there is hope for them.

And the better part is that the Mittals are just getting started. They first started by working with the top layer of sports and have already delivered. They have now started to move into lower levels and have gotten into talent scouting. The fruits of their efforts will spur them on to do more and that will mean more good news for Indian Sports. More so with the next Olympics in their adopted city of London.

The best part is the competition that we hope will now start among other Indian corporates to emulate the Mittals. It does not take a doctorate in marketing to see that the Mittals investment in India’s Olympic dream will reap them a lot of social goodwill in this country - the Return on Investment is astronomically high – more than the ROI on all the money spent on funding cricket tournaments and film award nights. It was an experiment which no one had bothered to do. Now its success has been proved beyond doubt and there is no patent on it. The race to copy the Mittals will mean more money for future world beaters and subsequently more glory to Indian sport. The govt which is cash strapped and has a meagre sports budget should at least declare some sops on corporate money spent on promotion of sports.

The mention of the govt brings an end to all the good things about the Beijing Olympics – pun intended. Therefore, its time now to move to the bad stuff.

The Bad Part

The saddest part of the Beijing Olympics is that the mismanagement of sport continues in this country. And whatever we achieve is in spite of the govt and not because of the govt - starting from the way athletes are selected to represent the country, sent for training and finally in the way they are dressed for the opening ceremony ( please refer to the Sania Mirza and Sunitha Rao fiasco)

Abhinav Bindra made a wonderful point about the need for professionalism in Indian sport. Mr Suresh Kalmadi retorted by saying that politicians and industrialists were required to run sports federations because only they knew the art of getting money out of the govt’s coffers.

These are the same guys who complain that the Govt does not provide enough funds for sports – so that means they are not doing a good job of the task that they are supposed to do in Mr Kalmadi’s words - in spite of them being the so called experts. Mr Kalmadi conveniently forgot to mention the other things politicians are good at doing – embezzling funds. And also that he and his cohorts have no clue of what to do with the money they get from the govt. The Govt has provided Mr Kalmadi with a huge budget to ensure sporting success at the 2010 commonwealth Games. And what is Mr Kalmadi’s master plan – ask the Chinese for help. Shouldn’t we just hire the Chinese instead?

The success of the Mittal Trust provides further proof of why things are bad. Other than the money, the Mittals have also brought in professional management. The Trust has on its board past sportspersons like former national tennis champion Manisha Malhotra. This is why they have managed to get so much done for just 10 million dollars. They have a far better understanding of what it takes to create champions.

The hiring of special sports therapist Heath Mathews for the boxers is a case in point. While the boxers and the coaches were raving about the South African’s contribution, the federation thought he wasn’t important enough to be going to Beijing. In Beijing, a defective Velcro strap caused a horrible gash on Akhil Kumar’s face. Any kind of bleeding would have led to an automatic disqualification for the boxer. Guess who got the wound stitched up to avoid such a disaster. Yes, Heath Mathews it was. The sad part is that in spite of all this evidence nothing will change; such is the stranglehold that politicians have on the reins of Indian sport.

Such a situation also limits the efficacy of what the likes of the Mittal Trust can do. The Trust can help make winners out of potential stars, but it is the federations who have the wherewithal to find and groom the potential stars.

A recent study by economists Anirudh Krishna and Eric Haglund provides an answer to another question – why we as a nation of 1.2 billion can’t produce enough champions – because the population of effective participants in sports is far less. An effective participant is one who takes regular part in sporting activities. This is where our federations and govt have failed us and where the Chinese have succeeded – as shown in Beijing. More than 40% of China’s population is involved in regular sporting activities. They have created the infrastructure to facilitate such high levels of participation. Is Mr Kalmadi listening?

So what does the future behold?

The future is bright. Beijing will increase participation in non cricketing sports. We can expect more corporate money to flow in. The corporates will also get professionals to manage their sporting investments; much in the same way VC’s get experts to mentor the start-ups they fund. A combination of the saturation of cricket and success of Beijing has ensured that the likes of Vijender Kumar are getting endorsement offers. India just became less cricket-ized.

As for the govt and the federations, they can’t get any worse. They can only get better from here. With the Commonwealth Games looming and the Chinese and the Mittals showing the way, they have the motivation and the formula for success.

We can start planning for the next Olympics. London is going to be a lot better than Beijing. No pun intended.