When India won the world cup last year I was reminiscing about the 1983 World Cup when Kapil and his men surprised us by beating the mighty West Indies. We were glued to our EC Black and White TV to witness the heroics of Kapil Dev, Mohinder Amarnath, Sandip Patil, Gavaskar and the rest. (I actually do remember the names of the entire Indian team including the second wicket keeper Bharat Reddy). The eighteen year old who had just gulped down half a bottle of vodka after Dhoni hit the ball out of the ground gave me a look which didn’t need any explanation. As if, I was just talking about my pet dinosaur. At that point I decided that I better live in the present than go back to the past.
So why is the sudden walk down the memory lane? Well, I can proudly say like the eighteen year old that I have no recollection of the fact when India won a gold medal at the Olympics. The cliché “Participation is more important than Winning” was our slogan as far as the Olympics are concerned. Just to set the record straight, I am not Rip Van Winkle who woke up after thirty five years. I clearly remember the sound of the final whistle on my Murphy radio indicating India’s victory in the Hockey final in 1980. Winning hockey gold when half the world had boycotted the Olympics wasn’t that great. In the universal language of love, I mean Cricket it’s like winning the Asia Cup. Yes it was great but it wasn’t a big deal. I do not want to undermine Abhinav Bindra’s gold medal in the last Olympics. He truly made us proud by winning the first individual gold for the country, but it was unexpected. It was like drinking Blue Label when you are not thirsty. However nothing beats the taste of chilled beer when you are dying of thirst. In 2008 there wasn’t any expectation.
This time it is different. This time one billion Indians will shift their focus from Cricket to the Five Circles of Life. (The rest two hundred millions will still concentrate on Cricket). This time we were hoping that we are going to win not just one gold medal but at least a few. We are hoping that our shooters and archers hit the bull’s eye and our boxers the human nose. We will use the phrase ‘Love game” only in the context of the opponent’s score in Tennis and Badminton. There is a tremendous amount of anticipation this time.
I really wish that we win some medals this year. The other sports desperately need the brand equity that will attract the Pepsis and the Cokes of the world. The birth of new India: where the Mary Koms and Bindras are equally sought after as the Dhonis and Sachins. A sport can only survive when the corporate world takes interest in it, government funding only goes to Kalamadi. (I can’t believe that he is going to the Olympics on tax payer’s money).
These two weeks will determine the fate of Non-Cricket sports. (Well there are only two sports in India, Cricket and Non Cricket). I am praying that our hope does not turn into just hype. Let’s all wish the Indian Olympic team the best of luck. Let’s hope that in the alphabet of the Indian Olympians the letter ‘y’ does not come after the letter ‘o’.
