First and foremost, the east german, slovenian and other government may not have great quality of life.. but they had basic patronage in terms of food, health and other things for everyone. No one went to sleep without food. The countries had smaller population for identifying and nurturing talent pools. Here in our country, someone has to pay to enter a swimming pool. Archery or football kits, who is giving it away.. Its important to cultivate a culture of decent basic amenities of life, before one can actually dream of medals at olympics and so on. All one can say is, talent needs nurturing. But, for nurturing, u need eyes that can spot talent. Do we have them? We have politicians holding post in every sports association. How long has suresh kalmadi been president of IOC or sivanthi adityan for Volleyball federation. Looks like rotary membership for these guys. No responsibility, accountability or any other ability. Except bureacracy. Anyway, your article will be forgotten.. my comments would be forgotten. We both will be doing something else by end of day today. Lets pray that we get some good olympians years from now atleast
RE:All said in article is well.. except
by Manjit Thomas on Aug 04, 2008 08:02 PM Permalink
Though I agree with some aspects of the article, I do disagree with some aspects. We have to face the reality that we Indians are not exactly the outdoor people that Europeans or Americans are. I went to Oslo last year and really wondered how a country that has biting winters and midnight sun six months round the year manage to produce a world cup playing soccer team. The answer is that in those six months of sunshine , every family, every child try to spend as much time as possible outdoors playing and being physically active. We cannot blame ourselves for our situation. As long as roti and Kapada is still a issue amongst us, when employment and next meal a challenge, when leadership is apathetic to sports and victory in the field not a dream, we will remain a sportingly impoverished nation and keep trying and never winning.We will blame everyone - kalmadi, communists, IOC... yet wouldn't encourage our son to take up a racket just for the sake of playing it - (cause where are the returns ???) Forget it - India cannot produce a Olympic Gold Medalist unless we the people of India change our pathetic attitude to sports - and I don't see it happening any time around !
