Whose victory is it anyway?

I watched the Indian team triumph at the AFC Challenge cup 2008. Right after the match I checked if any news channel was announcing the victory - there was none. I woke up this morning and checked the newspaper, it wasn't there either. I felt very disappointed and quickly scanned through it and there it was, in the last page. When will this step-motherly treatment of 'other' sports end?

The front page of the national newspaper had Michael Phelps’ photograph. Who in India knows him? We know the greatness of his achievement, but our victory at home is not small either. Or are we trying to say that we will only notice if it is at the world stage. What a shame! When the country for the first time won one of the biggest football tournaments in 25 years, shouldn't it make headline news? And the funniest thing is one of the news channels is still basking on past glory saying that the biggest sporting moment was when Leander Paes won the bronze in Atlanta. There is no mention of the latest triumph – a triumph that gives India a direct entry in the 2011 Asia Cup.

I watched the morning sports news on TV and they only talked about what is going on in Beijing. In the capital of the nation, the local boy scored a hat-trick in a final and that does not make any news. This is sad. Nobody knew Abhinav Bindra a week back and now he has become a household name. Abhinav rightly said that Cricket is not going to make us a sporting nation, because it is played only by 10 nations in the world. If I run with two fastest sprinters of the world and there are only three participants, I will definitely be third.

The root of the problem lies in this; that we do not nurture or not even notice a tree until it bears fruit. We only reap the benefit afterwards. When will this hypocrisy end?

One step for an Indian, a giant leap for India

Abhinav Bindra winning the first individual gold medal in the Beijing Olympics is a giant leap for India. From a country of one billion people, one man winning a gold medal in 28 years is a feat that is no less, in effect, than the day Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969.

This win shows that we have what it takes to win at the Olympics. It is not only just about the skills but the attitude. Bindra proved that if you have the attitude for winning, we can. He could have easily felt inferior going from a country where this particular event is unheard of, where sport is still in its nascent stage, except for cricket. It is important to instill this attitude in all Indian sportsmen and women.

The first step is to be at the top of the medal tally at the SAF games. If we can have the zeal and the attitude to win at big events, playing at the FIFA world cup cannot be very far. No matter whether the political system supports it or not, corporates and individuals can come together to build the infrastructure. There are so many countries whose sportsmen win at the Olympics despite the limitations they have in their country.

We know where the gold lies. All we need is an attitude to dig for it.

Cheers!