History Re-Written, Olympic 21!

 

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The difference between a star player and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of skill, but rather a lack of will… Vince Lombardi

It's such understanding of sports (actually of life) that has made Vince Lombardi one of the best coaches in the history of American Football & that’s why when the subject is Olympic, I chose his above words as opening comment. By now, we all have been full of Olympic dosage, thanks to Neerajs’, Bajarangs’, Dahiyas’, Rani Rampals’, Chanus’, Sindhus’ & many such names who not only participated in the Baap of all the Festivals of Sports named Olympic as indeed it’s something which we (I meant 130 plus crore Indians) haven’t witnessed or say forgotten to be witnessed in recent past! A country which has got freedom some 74 years back with a record of just one individual gold medal of sport that too in game like shooting which not many can afford to play in first place, though that doesn’t take away credit of Abhinav Bindra, such country getting nearly 8 medals & seven out of those are in individual capacity, this is something we haven’t witnessed for sure! And in the team game also, after forty years in our national game i.e., Hockey (well, it’s not cricket) we won the bronze medal & missed the bus of silver or gold by one match. It was exciting. At the same time in five to six more categories we missed medals by flicker such as women’s hockey, boxing, wrestling, golf & few others or the medal’s kitty bag would have been heavier for sure! But that’s fine as every Indian sportsman’s & woman’s (I am deliberately not saying every Indian, will explain that part later) bag of pride is sure heavy though not full with what has been achieved by the Indian players which has participated in this Olympic!

Many will say (as usual), what’s big deal, look at medal tally of China & USA & Japan or even countries like Indonesia or Qatar or Jamaica & with population of 130 crore where we stand & I don’t blame such voices rather that’s why this time a new history has been wrote at Olympics, is what I will say! Because with the kind of history we have in every other game other than the legendary cricket I wonder how many so-called critic’s voices will ask their son or daughter to take any other sport than cricket as their career, in the first place! And there lies the specialness of these eight plus odd medals, as today when I opened a news-paper, I witnessed something which I haven’t seen in my fifty plus years of living in this country & that is team India is playing cricket in England & is in leading position in the first test match but on the sports page of all news-papers that news is printed in a small single column, at bottom of the page while news of athletics, golf, hockey & wrestling are in bold & covering the entire page, shadowing the cricket news of Indian Cricket Team! Have any of us could have believed this can happen ever in our country as that was the history, we have been living through for all the 74 years after freedom & today that history has been wiped & a new one has been written & that is indeed a specialest moment for entire sports world of this country for which every sportsman & woman is happy & proud of!

Now, why I said Indian sportsmen & women & not every Indian as keeping due respect we are hypocrites when it comes to appreciating or celebrating anything as most of us take part in such celebration to encash that success & not because we really feel anything for that cause! As, how many people even knew what a Javelin throwing game is & how many knew whether such a game even played in the Olympics! I bait if out of 130 crore citizens even 1 crore knows such sport exists & now suddenly everybody is pumped up & posting Neeraj’s snap, though it’s a good thing that all 130 crores are doing it but don’t let this celebration restrict to just postings on social media & counting likes but convert it in to making path for many more Neerajs’ who has got capacity to earn many such medals but don’t have the launching pad for executing that capacity, is what I meant!

And on this background, I must congratulate Haryana State’s CM as well their entire State govt for supporting the sports as whole because its not just luck or accident that maximum numbers of the players in the Olympic squad of our country hails from this State. Haryana has achieved this feat not because its one of the richest as well prospering States of our country, but because the Haryana govt has dedicatedly supported the sports faculty as whole & for years such success you don’t get in overnight! Right from giving promotions & jobs (read as immediate & without red-tapizum) to the players doing well in National & International tournaments to providing best of the facilities to the players & yes spending to appoint world class level coaches, everything they are doing & these players representing our country is outcome of such efforts by Haryana State. At the same time, we must congratulate as well as appreciate the families of all these players who supported them with a great sacrifice as making a career in any such sport is a very tough decision. Imagine no money to start with & extreme efforts required to train for maintaining skill as well physical fitness to compete with world class players & all this for few minutes of performance once in four year & the career is hardly up to age of thirty while most other jobs offer you safety of income till you become sixty years old, how many of us will dare to opt to become an athlete, tell me!  And then if you fail then nobody will even remember your name of face is again a cruel fact yet all these parents & families dared to sent their kids for training in games which they themselves have never ever played or knew the future & once again Harayanvis’ stood tall among these parents with many families from the State daring to allow their kids to take this sports path of career to get the glory than the conventionally safest path of being a doctor, banking, govt services or of IIM/ IIT !

And on such a background high time for our so called Most Developed, Smart, Rich, Cultural, IT (& what) State to introspect (whom I am fooling but myself) why there are not many (rather nil) names from our State in Olympic squad or in any such sport! Yes, there was one Veer Dhaval Khade in swimming & one woman, I presume Ms. Jadhav from Sawarkheda, in running, a few years back but rest is darkness on the sports front in our State is a fact! The only reason of poor presence of our State in sports is our State Govt’s approach towards sports as well our so-called Maharashtrian mentality which is happy in taking safe path of careers for their kids than daring to throw them in sports competition & yes, our rich businessmen who ride posh sports cars for themselves but hardly open their wallets for sports (except cricket) or sportsmen! And the same scene (read as attitude) is about environment front or off-track fields like wild life conservation, just social media postings, no actual contributions! Now ahead many business houses from Mumbai will suddenly wake-up & declare crores of rupees for the winners of medals as well as sign them as their product’s brand ambassador but this should have been done while these players were training, right? The best part of this Olympic is, not just the country but entire world appreciated the way Indian players fought (read as played) every game, they all might not have won the medals but they have shown that they are capable of winning every medal & Indian players can give great fight, it was the attitude which was missing & we have got it right this time!

So dear Maharashtra govt & Marathi public, “Chalo, Der Aaye Par Durust Aaye” (that never late for doing a good thing), guys wake up, a history is being written with what our players have achieved in this Olympic & choice is ours whether we want to part of the team which is writing this history or get forgotten as a history; till then “Chak De India”…

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Sanjay Deshpande Sanjeevani Dev.

 

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