The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Corporate houses urged to give a push to sports

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 23, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Corporate houses urged to give a push to sports

V.V. Subrahmanyam

It's time we looked beyond cricket, says billiards champ Geet Sethi It's time to realise that the country's sports identity is not reflected by the achievements at a cricket stadium, says seven-time world billiards champ Geet Sethi

ACES ALL: Cueists (from left) Devendra Joshi, Geet Sethi, Alok Kumar, Yasin Merchant, Pankaj Advani and Ashok Shandilya at the CII session in Hyderabad on Wednesday. — PHOTO: P.V. Sivakumar

HYDERABAD: Seven-time world billiards champion Geet Sethi has appealed to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to come out with a long-term strategy paper to promote sports in a big way as it is time to realise that the country's sports identity is not reflected by the achievements at a cricket stadium.

"What is greater is the honour of winning medals and receiving them with the tri-colour flying and national anthem played on at the Asian Games and the Olympics," he said amidst applause from the select gathering of the CII session here on Wednesday.

"There is no better sight than an Indian receiving the medal amidst full Olympic honours. And it is time the industry looks to sports in a more liberal way," he said.

"Cricket is an obsession in our nation like soccer is in Brazil or some European countries. But it cannot define our sports identity," he remarked.

Individual brilliance

Reminding that the country is never short of inspiration by pointing to the achievements of individuals like chess wizard Vishwanathan Anand, who revolutionised the sport. Thanks to him India has now some five million players, Geet Sethi said. He also pointed out the case of the legendary Wilson Jones who went to defend his world title with a daily allowance of one dollar, which was actually released in foreign exchange but the money never paid to him.

Stressing the strong correlation between sports and industry, Geet recalled that in the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games, India's budget for sports was a meagre Rs. 110 crores compared to Rs. 1,100 crores of China. "This was reflected in the medals tally for Indians won exactly one-tenth of what China won in that Asiad," he pointed out.

Criticising the way federations functioned in India, he asserted that some of them are run by the most incompetent individuals who hang on to the posts for decades without any significant contribution.

But, he had a word of praise for the way cue sports were organised and pointed to people like Capt P. V. K. Mohan, president of APBSA and an industrialist, whom he termed a maverick in terms of passion for the sport. "We need individuals like him in other sports too," he said.

`Start with cue sports'

Reminding that cue sports produced 18 world champions in different categories besides several medals at Asian Championships and Asian Games, Geet Sethi strongly felt that CII should make a conscious beginning to test start with billiards and snooker in its endeavour to give sports the desired fillip.

"If it happens, we assure that we will come back from 2008 Beijing Olympics with a rich haul of medals," he added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail