Indian participants at the Doha Asiad have mastered the art of nonchalance to such perfection that one is shocked in disbelief and wonders if they have any amount of shame left in them. Indian hockey team’s exit from Asiad before semis is like searching for nadir with gusto. No member of the team except perhaps the captain look depressed on TV, and the coach even has the audacity to offer excuses after the debacle.
May be the coach is not the only person to be blamed. There is as if a collective conspiracy to drag the country’s prestige to touch the bottom.
Why this must be so? Who are responsible? I strongly feel there must be stocktaking as to why such disasters are happening in our sports. We must recognize our abysmal showings in international sports as national disasters. There must be inquiries, and the guilty must be punished.
Why such outpouring of sentiment? Because, no matter how worse the Indians perform in sports, there never is any action taken to rectify the faults. Because, as one among handful of sports lovers in the country, my head hangs in shame each time our sports suffer.
Because in the end, every sportsperson, every office-bearer of different sports bodies, and even the sports ministers are accountable for their performances. The nation pays them to perform, and MUST they answer their failures. No matter what.
Related reading: Whither Doha
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