We are not a sporty nation. We have no sports facilities. The government needs to fix a lot of the infrastructure.” I could go on and on about what we say and hear, when we talk about sports in India. But there are two important lessons India must learn from Beijing and the Olympian athletes, whom we have watched and admired.
First: building a sporting culture in the country. Each of us has to play a role in this, you included. When was the last time you played a game, or swam or cycled or ran? Last year? In college? In school? We are a cricket crazy nation but 99 per cent of us are spectators — that too, television viewers —
A new Army Sports Policy had been formulated in 2003 to replace the Regimental/ Corps Centric policy as it had failed to achieve the requisite benchmarks and organizational aspirations. Salient nodal policy envisages Inter Command (Army) Championships will be organized under the aegis of the Army Sports Control Board, which will also bear the entire expense of conducting the championships. Both, the Services and Army level sportsmen will be trained at the designated Army Sports Nodes as part of the Mission Olympics.
Five years since inception of the new policy there has been no dramatic improvement in the quality of sportsmen in the Armed Forces.
A wake-up call from Beijing
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