With Sania Mirza combining with Martina Hingis to take home the women's doubles title at the US Open, there is much to celebrate for India. It’s been an impressive year for tennis in the country. Leander Paes and Hingis also won the Mixed Doubles title, making it their third Grand Slam of the year. Currently, Mirza is ranked world number 1 in doubles and her pairing with Hingis was the first seed in the women’s doubles at the US Open.
But amidst the celebration, a sobering thought came to mind. What next? Leander Paes has carried Indian tennis on his shoulders over the last two decades and even at the age of 42, shows no signs of slowing down. The same applies to Sania Mirza, who may be just 28, but has been the focus of media attention right from her teenage years. While their achievements are incredible, it is slightly distressing that Indian tennis (and perhaps even in extension other Indian sports beside cricket ) are limited to just one or two icons.
Why is this so? Why are the Leander Paeses, the Sania Mirzas, the Saina Nehwals so often the exception rather than the norm? Perhaps the answer to that lies in a slightly rueful statement made by Mirza in an interview to the DNA in 2013. Mirza recalls a question she used to be asked in the early days of her career, when she was running from pillar to post looking for sponsorship. Potential sponsors would ask her a counter-question – “Which Indian woman has ever succeeded in tennis?”
Despite the system
The fault, maybe, does not lie in our sportspersons. In fact, over the last few years, many athletes have broken through and done well, in sports other than cricket. But a cursory analysis of most of their stories reveals that most of them are ones of triumph despite the system, not because of it. These are stories that have become painfully common now – the story of the victorious Indian women’s kabaddi team which won the World Cup but had to hail an auto-rickshaw to go home. Or when Dipa Karmakar, a gymnast who won a bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, bemoaned the fact that her sport was compared to a circus act. Apathy towards sports other than cricket is common and most athletes who dream of achieving excellence have to spend large chunks of their formative years fighting for recognition.
It is the lack of financial support that is probably the biggest stumbling block. Chetanjit Singh, the father of Karman Kaur Thandi who recently reached the third round of the Girls' Singles at the US Open, gave an insight into the list of expenses for his daughter’s year-round training. The figure for just a week of training came to around $1500 (almost Rs. 99,540 as per today’s exchange rate). When asked as to how he could manage, Singh gave a wry smile and said, “We manage...maxing out our credit cards, enlisting the support of relatives.” And if you were to believe that it is a problem that only exists at the lower levels, think again. Shiva Keshavan, who created history in 1998 by becoming the first Indian athlete to win a medal at the Winter Olympics, has spoken of how financial difficulty almost forced him to quit his sport. If a gold medallist at an elite level contemplates quitting a sport that he has played at the highest levels because of financial difficulties, can you really blame parents for not wanting their kids to think of a career in sports?
Bickering in national bodies
The national associations which govern sports in the country are in disarray. Believe it or not, boxing is run by an ad-hoc committee due to infighting within the federation. As a result of this, boxers from India who participated in the Asian Boxing Championships were represented under the International Boxing Association banner. There is chaos within the Indian Olympic Association, where many including Hockey India chief Narinder Batra is gunning for the removal of its president Narayana Ramachandran. And finally, the All India Tennis Association is fighting a judicial battle with the Sports Ministry over the candidacy of its president Anil Khanna.
Yet despite the shambles, talented athletes still keep on coming forward – as in the case of Vikas Krishnan Yadav who won silver at the Asian Boxing Championships, despite the logjam in the boxing federation or the Indian para badminton team which won 11 medals at the World Championship despite its governing body being derecognised for, you guessed right, internal mismanagement. The story of our athletes, in a way, mirrors Yadav’s – a case of winning against the system rather than because of it. And if the status quo remains, Indian sport will be forever be limited to celebrating the few icons which somehow manage to break out.
But amidst the celebration, a sobering thought came to mind. What next? Leander Paes has carried Indian tennis on his shoulders over the last two decades and even at the age of 42, shows no signs of slowing down. The same applies to Sania Mirza, who may be just 28, but has been the focus of media attention right from her teenage years. While their achievements are incredible, it is slightly distressing that Indian tennis (and perhaps even in extension other Indian sports beside cricket ) are limited to just one or two icons.
Why is this so? Why are the Leander Paeses, the Sania Mirzas, the Saina Nehwals so often the exception rather than the norm? Perhaps the answer to that lies in a slightly rueful statement made by Mirza in an interview to the DNA in 2013. Mirza recalls a question she used to be asked in the early days of her career, when she was running from pillar to post looking for sponsorship. Potential sponsors would ask her a counter-question – “Which Indian woman has ever succeeded in tennis?”
Despite the system
The fault, maybe, does not lie in our sportspersons. In fact, over the last few years, many athletes have broken through and done well, in sports other than cricket. But a cursory analysis of most of their stories reveals that most of them are ones of triumph despite the system, not because of it. These are stories that have become painfully common now – the story of the victorious Indian women’s kabaddi team which won the World Cup but had to hail an auto-rickshaw to go home. Or when Dipa Karmakar, a gymnast who won a bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, bemoaned the fact that her sport was compared to a circus act. Apathy towards sports other than cricket is common and most athletes who dream of achieving excellence have to spend large chunks of their formative years fighting for recognition.
It is the lack of financial support that is probably the biggest stumbling block. Chetanjit Singh, the father of Karman Kaur Thandi who recently reached the third round of the Girls' Singles at the US Open, gave an insight into the list of expenses for his daughter’s year-round training. The figure for just a week of training came to around $1500 (almost Rs. 99,540 as per today’s exchange rate). When asked as to how he could manage, Singh gave a wry smile and said, “We manage...maxing out our credit cards, enlisting the support of relatives.” And if you were to believe that it is a problem that only exists at the lower levels, think again. Shiva Keshavan, who created history in 1998 by becoming the first Indian athlete to win a medal at the Winter Olympics, has spoken of how financial difficulty almost forced him to quit his sport. If a gold medallist at an elite level contemplates quitting a sport that he has played at the highest levels because of financial difficulties, can you really blame parents for not wanting their kids to think of a career in sports?
Bickering in national bodies
The national associations which govern sports in the country are in disarray. Believe it or not, boxing is run by an ad-hoc committee due to infighting within the federation. As a result of this, boxers from India who participated in the Asian Boxing Championships were represented under the International Boxing Association banner. There is chaos within the Indian Olympic Association, where many including Hockey India chief Narinder Batra is gunning for the removal of its president Narayana Ramachandran. And finally, the All India Tennis Association is fighting a judicial battle with the Sports Ministry over the candidacy of its president Anil Khanna.
Yet despite the shambles, talented athletes still keep on coming forward – as in the case of Vikas Krishnan Yadav who won silver at the Asian Boxing Championships, despite the logjam in the boxing federation or the Indian para badminton team which won 11 medals at the World Championship despite its governing body being derecognised for, you guessed right, internal mismanagement. The story of our athletes, in a way, mirrors Yadav’s – a case of winning against the system rather than because of it. And if the status quo remains, Indian sport will be forever be limited to celebrating the few icons which somehow manage to break out.
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