Sunanda K Datta-Ray: Chasing wrong dreams

WHERE MONEY TALKS

India should worry about its performance at sporting events, not their venue.

Indian heartburn over not hosting the Asian Games recalls Milkha Singh saying, "You can spend billions to build infrastructure, but no amount of money can buy you medals." That doesn't mean, however, that depriving the putative organisers of their grand ego trip will realise Mani Shankar Aiyar's dream of a Rs 5,000 crore windfall for his Panchayat Yuva Khel Ahbiyan. Money not spent is seldom money saved. Those for whom sports is nothing more strenuous than jumping to conclusions or running away with ideas may yearn for the Asiad tamasha on their doorstep. Others will agree sensibly that hosting the games is less important than doing well at them, no matter where they are held. India does consistently badly, way behind China, Japan and Korea.

Perhaps the Flying Sikh's exhortation that "Indians should target finishing on the top of the medals tally" might look less like the crock of gold at the end of the rainbow if his suggestion of training being entrusted to the army were adopted. Sustained training would cost less and yield more. But then expensive extravaganzas promise a dividend beyond the emotional. Massive budgets mean a rupee or two for every sticky finger. China makes a special effort to pick out promising athletes when they are children and puts them through a rigorous lifetime training regimen. Unlike our players who have to look for jobs, they can afford to dedicate themselves only to that one activity. The state makes sport lucrative for them.

The other day I read of the long forgotten Asoka Mehta telling the Asian Socialist Conference's founding meeting in Rangoon in 1953 that he was a socialist because meeting the "animal wants" of Indians "" "hunger, shelter, a piece of cloth to cover the body's nakedness" "" should be any government's first task. Despite all the publicity about Shining India's booming growth, there are far too many hungry, homeless and naked Indians 54 years later for that priority to have changed.

Providing a lavish showcase for basketball matches or marathon runs will not meet India's "animal wants". Facilities for basketball players and marathon runners are another matter. Our sportsmen should certainly be able to compete with the world's best. But they can do that just as well in Incheon where the next Asiad is to be held. They don't need a Delhi venue to prove their mettle.

The Commonwealth Games scheduled for 2010 in Delhi are just as much a drain on scarce resources but might be excused as an unavoidable historical and political obligation. The Commonwealth needs support. If it were not for such events, people might altogether forget its existence. Though in the Commonwealth for 60 years, India hasn't played host before.

Surprisingly, Asia has had the honour only once "" Kuala Lumpur in 1998. Even so, the mind boggles at the Rs 7,000 crore budget. One thinks of essentials like schools and hospitals in which the money could be invested. But, again, if the money is not raised for the Commonwealth Games, it will not be raised at all. Money begets money, and there is little return for smart operators from setting up schools and hospitals. Sportsmen's accommodation, stadiums, various sophisticated facilities and personnel and publicity are another matter.

A 40-acre estate of low-rise dwellings for 8,500 Commonwealth athletes must be a contractor's dream. Equipment, fittings, furniture and furnishings alone would not only be worth a fortune but would allow scope for fortunes to be made. I am sure the third Commonwealth Youth Games scheduled for Pune two years earlier will be much the same, if on a smaller scale.

Two points come to mind. It's intriguing that so many business tycoons become physically, financially and emotionally involved in these jamborees. Second, developing countries are usually most obsessed with hosting international events as if glamour can compensate for poverty. Malaysia was furious when the Asian Games went to Doha. China saw the rejection of its earlier Olympic hopes as an anti-Asian western conspiracy. Even the Greeks were anguished when Atlanta was selected for the 1996 Olympics instead of Athens where the games had started 100 years earlier.

It is ridiculous to regard hosting an international event as a sign of status, especially if the host country needs aid. I remember Sri Lanka being helped with wine and cheese for the 1976 non-aligned nations summit. There's nothing wrong with that perhaps, unless, of course, the goodies find their way into the black market. But donors might not be alone in asking why the host nation doesn't spend the money on improvements that are reflected in the UNDP index of living standard. India lags behind disgracefully.

There's no cause for despair. Even if we don't host the next Asiad, we can savour the thought that an Indian, Guru Dutt Sondhi, thought of them in the first place in 1948. India hosted the first games in 1951, and again 31 years later in 1982. So, why is anyone complaining? India won 57 medals in 1981 against China's 153. But what is remembered best is the racket in television imports. Clearly, you can't take either commerce or politics out of sport.

sunanda.dattaray@gmail.com