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Sports and academic achievements are a good combination for success

There are enough scholarships in schools and colleges in the West, but no substantial incentives for the less privileged sportsperson once they graduate, unless he/she has been drafted by talent scouts for professional sides.

We spend so much time comparing India to what other countries do, especially in sports, knowing very well that the former USSR bloc and Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, the US, Australia, South Africa, western Europe and New Zealand have achieved high platforms of success on a consistent basis for decades in the sports arena.
Actually, it has not been all that bad for top sportspersons in the nation. Barring a couple of disciplines, India lags behind mainly due to the sheer neglect, lack of professionalism and the apathy towards the requirements at grass root level. But once at the national level, Indian men and women can bank on permanent job placements with public sector undertakings (PSUs).
There are enough scholarships in schools and colleges in the West, but no substantial incentives for the less privileged sportsperson once they graduate, unless he/she has been drafted by talent scouts for professional sides.
It's all about self-sustenance for the athlete, who has had less time to pursue academic or skill-based training when sharpening sports skills.
If one looks closely at the Indian scenario, a ranking athlete active in a popular sport has better scope to make a sport-based livelihood much more smoothly than in the West. The PSUs, where 99 per cent of them are commercial, absorb sportspersons as additional staff and carry out decades of long corporate social responsibilities without stipulations outside the playing time.
Once placed in a reputed government firm or a handful of private companies in India, sportspersons inducted through the sports quota are free to practice and train without having to report for daily office duties. They are provided good salaries, especially when placed in an officer grade. Post-playing days, they are trained for general duty assignments for mainstream PSU functions.
Unlimited leave is sanctioned when called for national camps and international events, and when players represent individual PSUs or state sides in the nationals - a phenomenon never heard of in other countries.
For instance, the Russia-backed Eastern Bloc, despite being at the peak of world sports ranking, did not provide support to their athletes. Talented young hands experienced military and communal farming impositions, and after retirement, unless one turned into coaching, there were no structured mechanisms for former performers to rehabilitate into mainstream livelihoods.
The standards in all Indian sports are well below the norms required to get on an international podium on a consistent basis today, except for badminton.
Cricket is an indulgence only among 10 Commonwealth nations, so saying that India is a world champion is equivalent to being a topper in the US' World Series baseball leagues. The media continues to paint a rosy picture of Indian teams going to foreign shores in order to be eligible for allowances to cover matches abroad. They paint a wrong picture for the gullible public.
A classic example is when unrealistic projects are drawn to produce 'gold medal winners' for the Olympics and the greedy 'instant money' sponsors who back them for sheer publicity. As there is hardly any monitoring, realistically India does not have a chance of gaining a world title in team games anymore. It's the effort of individuals that has seen them clinch world and Olympic honours in disciplines like badminton, shooting, wrestling and tennis.
Fancy money-spinning soccer leagues is not the solution to unearthing talent. It's good for former stars of the sport and maybe a quick bite of temporary financial windfalls for quick money-snatching corporates, advertisers and media.
However, the problem with providing comfort and career-settling programmes for an athlete is that it cuts down the hunger for more achievements once secure with a government job, where layoffs are absent.
But job security and the availability of basic facilities for a good life are enough incentives for leading sportspersons to join the PSU way of life.
Mentally and physically, an accomplished Indian sportsperson is far more settled and at peace of mind than personalities who call it a day in their 30s in other countries.
Public sector companies and a handful of private companies in India provide employment opportunities for top national and state-level players in hockey, basketball, volleyball, badminton, soccer, wrestling, table tennis, cricket, athletics, archery and boxing, selecting them via the sports quota.
Nationalised power and energy companies and banks, corporations like the Food Corporation of India, Indian Railways, the three wings of the Services, Air India, and other national level and state undertakings, have yearly intakes of sports quota staff. It has good job offers with an entry-level criteria based on sports and academic achievements.
moni@khaleejtimes.com