The Eternal HOPE

Back to the Asian Games for India. Sujit Bhar takes a look at India’s medal chances and the scenario that may unfold at Doha

Only if the Indian sporting scenario had been spunky as its economy. A billion dollar cricketing fraternity can a take a few humiliations in its stride, and it does; impoverished Olympic disciplines can’t. Ironic, that while the country looks ahead to hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games there can only be cautious projections of the probable medal count from the Doha Asian Games starting next month.

Experience says that tracking an Indian athlete’s personal career graph can almost never yield a true picture of India’s potential at the continental sporting extravaganza. Sadly enough, this has held true even for the only world class athlete we have really had — Anju Bobby George. Memories of her bronze from that Paris World Championships are fading fast. Great expectations bit the dust at the jumping pit when she managed her best of 6.83m on her first and qualifying try at the Athens Olympic Games before slipping into indifference.

If that can happen to the best we have had, what can be said about the others? Legendary track athlete P.T. Usha once told this correspondent that the problem with Indian athletes is actually in the mind. “They just cannot think world class. They are too quickly satisfied,” she had said.

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Mirror it to our economic growth of late, as compared to the mythical Hindu rate of growth we had gotten used to, and you see how a mind-shift can be the difference between success and failure. To this end, Anju had, for a while, succeeded in shrugging off Indian sport’s Hindu rate, so to say.

Thankfully, though, so have our shooters, it seems, and our green baize exponents, at least at the amateur level. That’s where we store our hopes every night, that’s where we get our dreams from. Then there is Leander Paes. How we cling to memories, harking back again and again to the Atlanta days or the Davis Cup escapades. But he is our best bet yet, along with Mahesh Bhupathi. Possibilities exist, and we all live in hope, because her 67 ranking notwithstanding, Sania Mirza is sill medal material.

The last Commonwealth Games has raised the status of our dreams. There were spectacular performances from the shooting ranges, and, following up from Rajyavardhan Rathore’s Olympic magic carpet ride, we have been dreaming of conquering all. The archers finally have killer arrows in their quivers – Jayanta Talukdar riding the world No. 1 crest – and the cue artists come through as strong.

Problem lies in the traditional disciplines, what are called the Mother Disciplines in any Olympic event – events like athletics, aquatics, field games like soccer and, oh, hockey! Even if Anju manages to be in the final, she will have to reach deep within to reproduce her own high standards. That, then, will fetch her a medal. Only that. The rest of the athletics squad automatically disinherits itself. They get what they want: domestic glory, job, family, peace and quiet, maybe. At Busan, four years ago, it was a decent show with seven golds. But then KM Beenamol will not be in fray, and neither will Saraswati Saha or Neelam Jaswant Singh. Hopes are pinned, still, on the relay quartet, but adrenaline is at a premium here.

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There is an aquatics squad, too in fray. Why they go, even to the Olympic Games, is a mystery. Khajan Singh’s medal at the Asian level apart, we have failed to even get our toes wet at the big events. That’s how soccer nosed in for these games, it seems. Considering their grouping they just might make it to the next round, and that will be a fallacy like no other. Recent exploits of the country’s soccer team, under new British coach Bob Houghton, have touched new nadirs, and this movement could run in the face of Indian soccer in a bad way. But if the swimmers can have foreign trips, why can’t the footballers? Both have shopping to do or their families!

And of course, there is hockey! Our very own Holy Grail of sporting callousness. Every time a team goes out, the coach gets ready to be sacked. This time Vasudevan Baskaran is on notice: there is a foreigner at the door, IHF president KPS Gill has indicated. Here is where hope flagellates itself, talent froths at the mouth, and politics rules the roost. We will attend, cheer, and expectedly, return with our heads hanging. If not, it’s just a bonus. Not true spirit and potential.

Hockey’s Indian intrigue has eaten into many a player’s and coach’s careers. Yet they do it, over and over again.

It isn’t a pretty picture. But a canvas needs a coat of paint. One just hopes there’s no taint around like at Athens with the dope, or at the Commonwealth Games with the masseur. Hope is that even if we fail to cover ourselves with glory at Doha, we shouldn’t return in shame. That will be the last vestige of pride down the drain.

THE PERILS OF THE YEARS

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Here is former India coach Rajinder Singh’s (Jr) take on what one might expect:

“I can’t comment on the team’s performance as I have not seen them play, but from what I have seen in Germany, I think we should not expect anything big.”

He has a view on the on the team’s experience quotient too:

“Well, experience has not given us a medal yet, and if keeping experience means that we come 11th, then I doubt we need the experienced players.”

— Sandeep Narayan