Sunday, August 24, 2008: Beyond the Beijing tally: Indian sport has begun to climb out of the barrel

The current euphoria over “our best ever Olympics” is quite justified. One gold and two bronze and a ranking of 50 may look like nothing for a nation of our size. But if you consider the fact that in the history of Olympics we had only won four medals so far, besides hockey, the 2008 performance is surely something to cherish.

There is, however, a bigger cause for celebration, a good news story not entirely told by this medal tally. It’s the story of a phenomenal, across-the-board improvement in India’s sporting standards. It’s a story to be found way below the stratospheric level of the Olympic podium. It’s one that we can appreciate only when we free ourselves from the tyranny of expectations of an Olympic medal. For, if we then take a close look at our sporting performance over the past five years, we can see an upsurge that’s for real, that will inevitably begin to reflect in medal tallies. Then Beijing 2008 will no longer look like that expression Indian sportswriters could copyright as their own forever: flash in the pan.

Let’s look at the Olym-pics first. Besides the three medal winners, when was the last time you saw so many Indians break into the quarter-finals, even to the last 16? This time we had Saina Nehwal, barely 19, within a few points (at 11-3 in the final game at one stage) of a badminton semi-final slot. Paes and Bhupathi in the quarters along with three boxers and a wrestler. The answer is never. At past Olympics, all Indian challenge was over in the first round with the rest of the time and emotion spent on following the fortunes of the hockey team.

Now look even beyond your new, Olympic quarter-finalist heroes. When was the last time we had so many Indians in the top 15, top 30 and even the top 300 of the world rankings? Today, two shooters are in the top 10 and at least six in the top 20. Saina entered world badminton’s top 15 at the age of 18 and should at some point enter the top 10. Anup Sridhar and Chetan Anand are already in the men’s top 50. Wrestling, weight lifting, boxing, all have, between themselves, several Indians who are leading contenders in their own respective categories. So while you may have still got only three medals, such a substantial improvement in sporting standards is the real plus for Indian sport.

Traditionally, we look at the Olympics and the world championships and get depressed when we draw a blank. But you cannot expect Olympic medals when you do not even have a dozen people in the top 10 or 20 rankings in key sports. Unless you have that depth, you cannot become a medal power. The only odd medal that will still come will either be from a prodigy, or from a sport of traditional strength, until the world catches up like hockey. Anybody in the top 10 can, however, win a medal some day at the world level. Anybody even in the top 20 can win a medal at the Commonwealth or the Asian Games. In any case, this growing talent pool for medals also improves competition at the domestic level and improves standards.

Given that we are so used to gloom-and-doom on our sports pages, and looking at the Chinese tally rise, it is risky to paint a rosy picture. But that is the reality. Even in cricket, with our ongoing trouble with Mendis and Murali, our international rankings have never been higher. Our Test team has stacked out the Number Two spot in the ICC rankings as its own for a couple of years now (though slipping narrowly to No. 3 right now). Never in our history, not in the days of Gavaskar, Kapil and the great spin trio, have we been ranked at No. 2. Playing overseas in the past decade, we have won Tests and sometimes even the series. And surprise of surprises, our one-day performance entered the 50% zone for the first time in our history in recent weeks. What this means is that now we have won as many matches as we have lost, a Rubicon never crossed in the game’s four- decade history, not even in 1983, the year of the World Cup win.

Some of our tennis stars may look in decline. But there is depth discernible there — with more Indians figuring in ATP (or equivalent) tournaments than before. Our golfers have made a phenomenal improvement and now three are at least prominent regulars on the international circuit. Chess today boasts 18 grandmasters, many more than ever, underlining the fact that Anand wasn’t just an odd-ball prodigy, but an inspiration for so much hidden talent waiting for opportunity and a role model.

Even Narain Karthikeyan breaking into F1, despite his indifferent performance at that level, is something to cheer in a country with no tradition, not only of car racing, but even of building highways.

So what is the story in all this? Could it just be that this across-the-board improvement in Indian sporting standards has something to do with nearly two decades of breathless economic growth? With improvement in living standards, education, awareness and, above all, urbanization, do we we now see a narrowing of the gap between raw talent and opportunity? There are two ways countries produce winners. One is the old, Soviet-bloc (and now probably Chinese) way of regimented, single-minded talent hunts and training. The other is the way of free-market democracies where fierce internal competition for big money and media-generated fame produce champions. India has, in sheer desperation, dabbled in the regimented strategy sometimes, even handing over the training to the Army which, traditionally, produced our top boxers. It is significant, therefore, that none of the three Indian quarter-finalists in Beijing has come from the Army, which was until now our only nursery for contact sports.