<$BlogRSDURL$>
My tweets

    Site Feed - Site Feed

    My other writings
    Cricket 24 x 7
    Jaagruthi
    Yahoo! 360
    Mayajaal
    My Bloglines
    My 43 things
    My LinkedIn
    My Facebook Profile On Orkut

    Mail me
    About me
    FlickrFlickr Feed

    Yahoo! Search



    Baakiyon ke blog
    Badri's Tamil thoughts
    Ganesh's Happily Haphazard
    Nitin's Acorn
    Prabhu's Pethals
    Raghu the reluctant Delhiite
    Samanth's blahg
    Sankhya the busy idler
    Srini the movie critic

    Creative Commons License
    Rabble Rousing Random Ramblings by S Jagadish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

    May 04, 2005
     

    Overemphasizing sporting achievement?

    Nitin's first para in his post on letting Pakistani students into IITs and IIMs finally forced me to put my thoughts down here. I've somehow not found the spark to write about why I think sporting achievements are overemphasized. But anyway, here goes.

    Here's the rhetorical question. So what if 1.1 billion Indians cannot win an Olympic gold (now that we've got the bronze and silver out of the way)? Winning or losing at the Olympics, cricket or hockey World Cups etc. really shouldn't mean a thing. Does the whole country become morose if say Tata Motors or Reliance or Infosys fail to win a sizeable international contract? No. So why be so besotted with sporting failures and successes?

    Surely there're other more important things for a country, especially a developing one, to achieve. Frankly, I believe that the Rs. 104 crores which has spent by the government over the last 3 years on various sports federations could have been put to better use in opening more educational institutions & primary healthcare centres, providing better drinking water to the public, improving the roads etc. I know 104 crores will not be enough to attend to all these issues, but there has to be a start somewhere. Factor in the money doled out to these associations in the last 58 years and the number would certainly be substantial. If these sports bodies are not delivering quality products, in terms of world-class athletes, why have them operate in the first place?

    Shut down all these federations. People are welcome to play sports, obviously. But if they want to compete at the international level, they need to find the money themselves. I, for one, don't want my money to be spent on coaching a boxer who gets knocked out within fifteen seconds at an international event.

    Once the economy shows 8% (or whatever) growth consistently over 3-5 years, the manufacturing sector is back on track, infrastructure projects near completion, roads in most areas of the country become usable, rail accidents are minimized, the national literacy level reaches a minimum of 75%, unemployment decreases rapidly and the country finally gets on the track of all-round development, feel free to revive these sporting institutions.

    Can a labourer struggling to earn one square meal a day afford to buy Reebok shoes for his son? Not immediately. Perhaps, after saving up for a year. Can he buy one pair every year, for fifty eight years in a row? Perhaps not.

    Read Nitin's post.

    Labels: ,



    Some of the sites linked in my rants may require registration/subscription. Links within my ramblings open in a new window.
    Some of the links may now be broken/not take you to the expected report since the original content providers may have archived/removed the contents.
    All opinions expressed are mine alone. My employers (past, present or future) are in no way connected to the opinions expressed here.
    All pictures, photographs used are copyrights of the original owners. I do not intend to infringe on any copyright.
    Pictures and photographs are used here to merely accentuate and enhance the content value to the readers.


    Previous Posts
    F-16s for Pakistan v/s strategic co-operation with...

    The Wired 40

    Abu Gharib trial set to impact Tony Blair's campaign

    Simple quiz question: Identify

    What freedom of choice means for a 13 year old pre...

    Kiran Jonnalagadda on blogging in "The Hindu"

    Kofi Annan gives laddu to Indian thambis

    Not even paanch rupaiya baarah aane

    Hindustan Petroleum wants you to pay and apply for...

    Watch out for the Rs. 1000 mobile phone

    This page is powered by Blogger.