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In the doldrums
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ISSUE With the exception of cricket and tennis, most other sports get a raw deal from their respective associations
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Photo: Sampath Kumar G. P.
Don’t cry for me Athlete Pramila Aiyappa’s posture seems to mirror the state of the game
Not long ago, Karnataka enjoyed the pride of place in Indian sports. Not anymore. One does not have to look far for the reason. The infrastructure barring cricket is crumbling and the respective State associations are doing little or nothing about it
. Governmental support over the years has been lukewarm.
Cricket has a structured system in place and the grading of a player is largely transparent. The same cannot be said about other disciplines.
Lacking support
For instance football lacks administrative and sponsorship support in our country. Bangalore was home to many a football great, but today there is neither a national level tournament being conducted anywhere in the State nor any representation from the State in the National Football league of the current I-League.
The BDFA recently conducted the Prasanna Kumar Memorial Football Tournament for A and B division teams and attracted just six entries.
Rail Wheel Factory (RWF) walked away with the championship trophy. The ongoing Puttaiah Memorial for Super division teams saw nine entries, but with one team scrapped, Group ‘B’ has been reduced to a three-legged race.
The Super division league in itself was enlarged to 15 teams last season in an effort by the new committee to give more opportunity and exposure, but the experiment fell flat as one team having lost five matches in a row, pulled out halfway while two other teams just about managed three and five points at the end of 14 matches.
The State basketball scenario is in a similar state. There is just one State-level championship for the under-13 group and the players are short-listed, sent for the National championship annually and forgotten till the next year.
The matches are invariably delayed, there is no age verification and most often no scoreboards on view to follow the progress of the matches.The hard surface (cement courts) that the State championships and the senior league is being played has only added to the injury woes of many promising players. When the South Zone Senior Volleyball in J.P. Nagar attracted big crowds, the temporary galleries erected for the event collapsed twice in the five-day long championship. The matter was not even addressed at the general body of the association, until the media took up the matter. Volleyball like kabaddi invariably attracts good crowds but hardly ever are on schedule.
Athletics is another sport living on borrowed time. While the tracks need a rethink, the athletes from the State have opted for greener pastures for want of money and recognition. Karnataka athletes have gone onto perform and win medals for Jharkhand and AP and nothing is being done to lure them back.
Amongst these lows, there have good performances in hockey (winning the PHL for the second time) badminton and cue sport. Anup Sridhar and Arvind Bhat (from the Tata Padukone Academy) in badminton and Pankaj Advani and Chitra Magimairaj in billiards, Rehan Poncha, Rohit Hawaladar and Shikha Tandon in swimming, have done exceptionally well.
The State Games, revived this year and the annual Dasara Games could well be the take-off pad for greater deeds only if the administration cares to promote the young talent!
AVINASH NAIR
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