PREFACE
The present work “Media – Sports – Public Relationship” is a modest and sincere attempt to establish a better relationship between sports and public. This work analyses the different alternatives provided by Media to develop sports culture in our society under various chapter.
The work is benefited by profound knowledge and sincere advice of the faculty of Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan. There valuable guidance was immensely helpful to me in clearing my doubts. Despite, there busy and hectic schedule, they were always available for guidance and discussion.
Amongst my friends, I am thankful to Mr. Shashank, Mr. Sumeet, Miss. Anubha, Mr. Randhir Singh and Mr. Divya Dutta. A special word of gratitude to my ‘GURU MAA’ who’s inspiration has always helped me during my thick and thin.
I am grateful to the staff of Olympic Bhawan, who had facilitated the research through their kind corporation.
Last, but foremost important my ever loving parents without whose blessing it wouldn’t have completed.
Pankaj Kumar Singh
Chapter-1
INTRODUCTION
After every four year, we analyses our poor performances at Olympics, usually we blame the authorities and the officials, who run sports in our country. Question is, is the only they who are responsible for our poor show at Olympic? Or, we simply as in other cases try to escape from our responsibility by accusing these officials for poor state of Olympic discipline in our country?
According to Geeth Sethi, the former billiards champion, there is very intriguing and perhaps convenient role the media and the public play in this whole equation. It is a mater of analyses and explanation, how the media and the public are also blame partly for the apathy in Indian sports.
Media can influence public perception and viewpoints. According to Noam Chomsky (political thinker) in his book Understanding Power he has observed how media brainwashes people to assume certain premises, which are sometimes completely lies. He says of American invasion of countries like Vietnam, Nicaragua and of course the recently invaded countries Afghanistan and Iraq. All these aggression were backed by media. It protected the wishes of American government by popularizing that all of them were in the view of self protection and that these nation could have harm the American interest .But reality is that America has never forgave those who failed to follow it’s foreign policy. And the public they never questioned the government, because whatever they were receiving from the media was in favour of the government and the propaganda was self-defense.
In the same way, we find that public never question what is being given to it by the media. Chomsky says, “after all, what are the media? Who are they? Are they us? Actually they are major corporation in a nation. They are not us. Question is, are media follow sample if public opinion? Have they ever-care for public thinking? Or they have only to work in favour of some influenced lobby.
The problem with today’s public is that they have stopped thinking and assume that media should think for them and they are only to follow it. Why can not the media romanticize the achievements of Dhanraj Pillay, Gagan Ajit Singh, Anju Bobby George, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Anjali Vedpathak and Viswanathan Anand? In the same manner in which they build brands out if our cricketers, whose only claim to fame is one world cup triumph two decades ago.
Public, because of lack of thinking is unable to decide what is wrong and what is right. What is acceptable, what is not? What is entertainment and what is not? The situation is such that today’s youth because of impact of media, most of the times do not listen to their parents or even their teacher’s suggestion about the right and the wrong on a particular issue. They think that what is being served to them by media is dead straight.
Similarly the chance of being inclined or biased towards particular sports to provide us sporting entertainment can easily be monitored and controlled by media. Are we becoming slaves to the whims and fancies of a few who decide and think for us? Is this right? Can we not as a collective people do soma introspection and demand that we be exposed to sporting events which are Olympic discipline? Can we not, by viewing these sports, offer our valuable supports to the cause of Indian sports? Chapter-2
PATHETIC STATE OF INDIAN SPORTS
Are we as the public, not to blame for the pathetic state of our infrastructure and the pitiable condition of our Olympic hopefuls? What do we do when we hear Beenamol complain on a TV channel about pathetic training condition and infrastructure at the Sports Authority of India? They were complaining that there practice was hampered because stay six to a room, where mosquitoes do not sleep them in night and frequent power cuts do not allow them to rest in the midst of intolerable heat of Delhi. We just make sounds of empathy and sympathy and curse the SAI and go about living our daily monotonous and pre-programmed lives without thought and concern.
Discipline such as weightlifting, tennis, athletics, shooting and hockey need to be watched by each of us so that more sponsorship will come into these sports in the country. This will lead to better and more infrastructure for these sports and more financial security the athletics who could perhaps retire after winning an Olympic gold without having bothering about where they will live and where their next meal would come from.
Chapter-3
WHY DO WE FAIL AT MAJOR SPORTING EVENTS
Recurring points raised by pundits on what goes wrong with India’s Olympic campaigns
1. No proper structure at the youngest level
2. Priorities are wrong
3. Lack of planning
4. Lack of tactical methodology
5. Pressure of expectation
6. Over importance of cricket in terms of sponsorship and media coverage
7. Lack of mechanism and infrastructure to identify and train talents
8. Vested interest
9. Lack of “killer instinct”
Lack of Audience interest
No Interest From Sponsors and Media
No Medals, So No Role Models
Vicious Circle Driven By Market Forces And Lack of Role Models In Other Sports
Officials boast of good sports base for sports in the country. But, where is the base? There is no proper structure for sports at the youngest level. There is only one national level competition for schools, the Nation School Games. That is not sufficient to harness young talent. We do not provide incentives running shoes, tracksuits etc. How will young talent be attracted? How can they or their parents think him to make sport a career?
Recall, our Bollywood actors and actress carrying Olympic torch in Delhi. The official do not even invite one time proud of India P.T.Usha for this. In her words itself, Priorities in our sports is wrong in the country. Sports is run by wrong people. Often the wrong athletes are picked and the training method itself is wrong. She can not understand why we have to bear with the same sports organizers for decades? It is amazing how our federation officials survive when they are unaccountable. Why can not sportspersons appoint to these offices.
Our approach to sports has always been amateurish, never professional. Have we ever given thought for sound health care to the generation coming up? After independence, we have progressed in every wake of life as industries, education technology, agriculture, economy but not in sound mental and physical health. How can we expect to compete at Olympic without acquiring better mental and physical health? Orientation towards sports has never been concern neither for society nor for government.
Absence of qualified technical people and specialists in various aspects related to the sporting development is the other reason for our failure. Most of our coaches are part-timers and there are very few trainers who are accomplished enough to prepare athletes who will be able to compete at the highest level. This is all about lack of direction in our sports policy, which is highlighted by the fact that we do not have long term planning for the many discipline where our country represented regularly. We do not focus on sustained development of any sports.
On the individual front, we hardly show the hunger to excel. The lack of individual initiative is also the summation of the collective failing that includes the dearth of focus in the administration and the social lassitude seen in the developing economies.
Cricket in India is a mass game. It is a nation crazy about cricket. So the sponsors and media also bet for them. This deprived our other sports of sponsorship and media coverage. What cricket gives to the sponsor and media can not provide by other sports. This is because the trio media, public and sponsors are not interested in any Olympic discipline.
There is no certain mechanism to identify talents at younger age and train them as medal hope. And if there is some way to choose athletes that too is biased while selection
Again too many sports bodies are mere a wastage of money and time. Lot of vested interest working in them making it difficult in functioning properly.
The next big thing what we miss is lack of killer instinct. This lackness is associated with all the sports we play. At the point of decision making we lack it and then loose our nerve and surrendered
Chapter-4
INDIA’S PERFOMANCE AT ATHENS
It was one of the best performances by India at Olympics. It was the first time when our double trap shooter Major Rajayavardhan Singh Rathore won an individual silver medal for India. Although we could not add another medal the tally yet there were other memorable performances by Abhinav Bindra, Anju Bobby George, Suma Shirur, Satyadev Prasad, K.M. Binu, J.J. Shobha. At the other hand our medal hope this time were tennis double players Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, shooter Anjali Vedpathak could not lived to our expectation. We will go through all these players performances individually.
MAJOR RAJYAVARDHAN SINGH RATHORE: The hero of the Indian contingent. He had won the world championship bronze in Nicosia. He shown his character and did well to deliver goods on the world stage. Rathore had shown his class in winning the world cup in Sydney earlier in the season with a 189, he returned only a 179 in Athens but shot his best under pressure in the final.
LEANDER PAES AND MAHESH BHUPATHI: In the first match they beat Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish if U.S. and then beat swiss pair of Roger federer and Yves Allegro. They were only seeded team to reach semi-final but in this round they lost to Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schuettler of Germany. In hope of bronze, where a gold was expected they once again lost to Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic in the third set.
ANJU BOBBY GEORGE: She finished sixth, her longest competitive jump of her carrier of 6.83. It was no mean performance by any yardstick yet a minimum of 7.00 m jump was required to win medal at this stage. She deserve praise because she bettered her record in trying to give her best and it was her best ever.
SATYADEV PRASAD: The archer came close to glory when he was very close to beat world no 1 Dong Hyun Im of Korea ,but gust of wind or lack of killer instinct hurdled him to won medal. He may be considered as dark horse of the contingent.
ABINAV BINDRA: He was a class act as he made the final with 597 out of 600 in men’s air rifle, which was better than Olympic record. He was third in the final round but any how could not manage earlier performance and lastly finished seventh.
K.M BINU: Binu made his identity by making the semifinals of the 400-metre event. He in the way also broke national record in words of one of the finest decathletes Daley Thompson, because of inexperience or lack of proper advice he missed a medal
J.J.SHOBHA: It was her sheer courage despite of her hamstring injury, she competed in 800 metres when she could have taken easy out like a few others in the Indian team. She eventually finished 11th spot but set a fine example of how a person forgets everything and just goes for it.
ANJALI VEDPATHAK: Few in the Indian contingent had promised to deliver an Olympic medal as this lady had done with her consistently good fare on the world stage. On the day of reckoning her challenge misfires because of a bad start. The first two shots were 9 and she just could not get thing going her way. A 96 in the first series shook her so badly that Anjali lost the will to fight.
HOCKEY TEAM: The eight time champion has not been able to enthusiasm the millions of fans with its performance. Of course some matches were pretty close but that is the way sports are. It is the defeat that is remembered, not how closely you had fought. Few mistakes like sacking the coach on the final phase before the Olympics. You can not compromise with quality preparation at every step and hope to get the best result. It was a face-saving exercise that the team retained its seventh position.
Chapter-5
HOW TO IMPROVE AT MAJOR SPORTING EVENT ESPECIALLY AT OLYMPICS
How we miss medal in Olympics is mystery. If we go by the performance at commonwealth game 2002 and Busan Asiad, we see that we have faired very well in these event along with several other countries such as Australia, Iran, Indonesia, and Jamaica. Why pick these countries to compare with India will be cleared in next few paragraphs.
First with Australia, Many will say it is not good to compare ourselves to this sports crazy nation. But because we were on the 4th spot in the medal tally of commonwealth game 2002 at Manchester, Australia was at 1st with 144 gold / silver. India has 52 gold / silver. Australia conversion rate i.e. a commonwealth games medal into Olympic one is quite good. Australia combined tally of Sydney and Athens is 107 whereas India’s two (that too one silver one bronze)
Now compare with third world country Jamaica. India faired five times better than Jamaica in commonwealth games but Jamaica faired five times better
than India at Sydney and at Athens jointly.
Now at Busan Asiad India performed better than Iran. India won 23 gold / silver and Iran won 22 gold / silver at Busan. In fact India did better than Iran by winning 11 gold compared to Iran’s 8. What is the combined tally of Iran at Sydney and Athens-10 and India two?
May be because of better GDP rate and per capita income Iran faired better than India. So now compare to Indonesia which per capita income and GDP is similar to that of India. Indonesia won only 4 gold and 7 silver at Busan Asiad as opposed to India’s 11gold and 12 silvers. However, Indonesia won total of 10 medals at Sydney and Athens.
Where does India’s Asiad gold and silver medal go? As P.T.Usha wonders; “does that mean after reaching a certain level we lost the fire within”
If India is to improve its performance in the Olympics, It should have a short-term strategy to build on its strengths and a long-term strategy to rectify its weaknesses .In the long term, India should emulate the success of countries like Australia, China, Japan, S. Korea and the U.K. If it starts acting now, we
can expect good results in 2016 or 2020.
In short-term, however India should carefully learn that are able to translate their achievements in the regional games into Olympic medals. Like
Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, S. Africa, Thailand and Uzbekistan. From table 1 we see that these countries win almost all their Olympic medals by focusing on two or three sports and striving for regional and world class achievement in them.
How to build on its strength: Shooting and weightlifting ought to be the main focus and they have attracted considerable interest in the country because of medal won by Rathore and Malleswari. From table 1 we see that in weightlifting Indonesia, Iran, and Thailand are India’s main competitors. India would benefit if it sends its best weightlifters to these countries and organize exchanges and competitions, Similarly, China and Russia are the best in the world in shooting. India can take help from its old friend Russia and also can improve ties with China.
The best Indian boxers could train on Kazakhstan, Thailand or Uzbekistan; the top India athletes have to learn from Jamaica and Kenya. Sending the athletes to train abroad should go hand in hand with developing in-house infrastructure and training facilities.
India certainly needs to set up a centralized residential facility one for each sport on which it has an excellent/good potential. Such initiative are better sponsored and managed by India’s booming corporate sector.
If properly implemented, the short-term strategies coupled with the home crowd advantage should help India to come third in the commonwealth games here in New Delhi 2010.
Chapter-6
CONCLUSION
Under democratic setup, public perception has lot of weight. By every election results, we can understand the importance of public opinion, when its changes, the government changes.
As in the case of sports, public have no opinion on it, besides Cricket, Football and Hockey. Specially, when we talk of Olympics, most of the public are ignorant of it. In this, Cricket engrossed nation, nobody talks of other sporting disciplines. So, there is lack of public interest in Olympic disciplines. We can say, we are not willing to accept sports as an issue. The people of developing country like ours, where thirty crores people are still below poverty line, have no time to think of sports. How can anyone make sports an issue?
But question is: Is it only us, who don’t recongnise importance of sports. If you go through an Olympic Medal Tally, you will find many developing and under – developed country fairing lot better than us. Say for Jamaica, Indonesia. These countries are not only developing one but they are less populated as well as less in resources compare to India. It is not like that only Indians struggle for there daily meal but the people of these countries are also struggling the same way; still they won medals at international level competition.
As far as, our thought is concerned, it can be concluded that until and unless we don’t change our opinion on sports, we won’t be able to perform better at international level.
But, this change can only be brought by the public. Fact is that as soon as, we will not make sports the talk of our life domain, the problems associated with sports will not be eradicated.
Accusing government every now and then, for there negligence of important issues in just a try to avoid our responsibilities. Mind it, it is our government, our wishes and demands always reflect from government policy on certain issue.
Well, this can be contradictory, yet at least for the election, our issues reflect from election manifesto of different parties. See how many politician organizations have sports as an issue? None, but it is not there fault, it is ours, who surrounds them.
Political parties are democratic institution and if we make a proper thought on development of sports, nothing will stop us from making sports an issue. This will force the political organization to adapt it as an issue in their manifesto to woo the voters. So, if media can make Temple construction, corruption, basic amenities, rail, and road as an issue, then it can also help in promoting the sustainable development of sports in a country of more than one billion population by making sports an issue of public domain.
Chapter-7
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Þ The Hindu
Þ The Times Of India
Þ The Hindustan Times
Þ SportStar
Þ
http://www.tssonnet.com/Þ Radio Korea International
Þ Commonwealth Games Federation
Þ International Olympics Committee
Þ Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky
