This post comes at the time of the FIFA World Cup and therefore I guess the issue is tugging at my heartstrings. South Africa 2010 has begun and the world awaits it's Champion with eager anticipation. I have certain loyalties as well(Portugal), but that's not what this post is about. Although I shall use this event as an example. South Africa has almost the same population as Gujarat, it was banned from all international competitions till 1992 as it was under apartheid. 1992 onwards, with the release of Nelson Mandela and the abolition of apartheid, they have hosted the Rugby World Cup 1995, the Cricket World Cup 2003 and now the FIFA World Cup 2010. This makes them very eligible to stake a claim to host the Olympics in 20 years.
Hosting events like this requires massive development work in the country which shall only benefit it in terms of foreign investments, tourism revenues etc. South Africa has made full use of this and the results are there for all to see.. Brilliant stadiums for the matches to be held, fantastic lodging services for the fans to stay and convenient travel for those who want to follow a certain team( country specific fans). These require planning and investment for sure but they also have massive returns. The image of the country changes in the eyes of the citizens as well as the world.
Coming back to India, yes we have hosted the Cricket World Cup on numerous occasions and the results are for all to see. BCCI is the richest sporting body in the world, ahead of all football clubs and what not. They are the cash cow for the ICC and with the DLF IPL being the massive success it is there is no stopping cricket in our country. That is however only one sport. Our nation doesn't even begin to have the same kind of enthusiasm for other sports. Our national sport, hockey, neglected, treated like a step-child by the authorities has a team which has been performing poorly at all major tournaments for some time now. A great hue and cry is raised each time they underperform, the spirit of Dhyan Chand is invoked and the coach is sacked. No funding for improvement at grassroots, or for better infrastructure or anything of the sort though. At the very least, India is still in the top 10 of the world when it comes to hockey. One mention of world rankings and the Indian football fans let out a collective groan. The beautiful game never caught on commercially like the gentleman's game did in our country. We do hope that football catches the imagination of the common Indian the way cricket has.
I wonder why India don't host anything substantial. The last time they did it was the Commonwealth Games in 1982 in New Delhi. South Delhi still looks better than other Delhi areas as a result, 25 years on. Just goes to show the pace of development in our country. New Delhi is hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games and East Delhi has been revamped to match the occasion. So if hosting such showpiece events results in a better image of the city and country then why aren't we going ahead with this??
One of the reasons that comes to my brain is our elected officials, those shining lights who lead our country. Everybody knows that a politician is corrupt, not only in India but everywhere. Power corrupts everywhere, not just in India. Then why is it that other nations are able to do so much more than we despite us having greater manpower than all of them combined. Beijing hosted the Olympics with aplomb and their political machine is as slow as ours!! There was this paper written by a Harris White where he explained that a country with a semi-regulated economy(like ours) is better off being corrupt than clean.
So there you go, better dirty than clean. I'm OK with that. I have a simple analogy here. If a politician has 10 projects worth 10 lakh each and he takes in all the money from all the projects then he has 1 crore and no work is done. If the same guy has 1 100 crore project and he takes 1% then he has 1 crore and all the work is almost done, a simple sanction asking for extra funds would finish the work. He'd have the same amount of money and work would be done too. It is common knowledge(IPL again) that when people decide to go for something big there is a lot of money at stake. I somehow feel that the politicians should just aim bigger, eat a smaller percentage and land up with the same amount of money and we'd be better as a nation. However that's a very very basic analogy. There must be a 100 factors involved and some which I won't even be able to imagine.
Anyway, maybe this is the rambling of an unsatisfied citizen who is also a sports fan and doesn't like to see his country lagging behind. Nonetheless, I thought that something had to be said so I did. Hopefully things shall change for our nation and we shall be viewed as slick and swanky, not as a cowshed. Cheers!
