India’s failure to clinch a Gold for kabaddi at Asian Games was shocking. But will a judicial eye cure the real malaise?
A kabaddi match ordered under the supervision of a High Court-appointed monitor speaks volumes about the inherent corruption and the maze of nepotism in our sporting federations. Suffice it to say, the nadir is here and now. Alarmingly, however, the condition has been pretty much the same over the decades with influential politicians and men of money making it to top posts in sporting bodies, turning them into a family affair and player selections being guided by anything and everything other than acumen. That's the reason why Indian kabaddi teams — both men and women — who were selected to go to Jakarta for the Asian Games did the unthinkable of losing India's traditional Gold to a measly Bronze in a sport that has always been known as Indian domain in international fora. The Asian Games Bronze was an ignominious first after a long, long golden era and just one silver slip in the past. The High Court case had been going on against the “wrongful” selection of the team for Jakarta but due to paucity of time it ruled that proper cognizance would be taken of the entire selection malaise after the Asian Games. A High Court-appointed observer, a former judge, monitored the ordered contest against the team that went to Jakarta and the players selected through a fresh process from all corners of India through camps, on Saturday. As expected, the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India's national team players did not turn up for this one-of-its-kind contest under judicial supervision but the petitioners were happy to have made their point that they failed to do so because they were not the best ones selected for Asian Games and feared a loss. This makes it clear that considerations other than playing worth were at play, they say.
Losing Gold in kabaddi is unacceptable and even incredible but it points to a much bigger malaise that assails India's sporting federations which have been under a comfortable cushion of corruption and nepotism for so long that they look like a lost case despite the courts stepping in now and then. If it is the Gehlot family ruling the roost in kabaddi, it was Praful Patel in football and Srinivasan in cricket to name just a few. Needless to say, sports federations need professionals at the helm, much like wonder coach Gopichand who has shown how the face of a lost sport despite its flailing federation can be changed completely into a league of sunshine champions. Otherwise, much like traffic rules being flouted with elan, everything in sports will carry on —everything other than transparency, honesty and the determination to win.