“Congratulation to the country, to Bindra and every Indian. .. It will give great encouragement to all.. We all stand one feet tall today.” said Dr. M.S.Gill, Union Sports Minister who is in Beijing. “His ( Abhinav Bindra ’s) gold medal is far higher than any T20 or any cricket. This is something very big and very special.”
India has always held cricket much higher than any other sports in India. Even though Abhinav Bindra was the World champion before going into the Olympics, only a handful Indians knew his name. When Indians know even the 12th man of Bangalore Royals, the IPL cricket team, rarely anyone still remembers the silver medal winner of the last Olympics. With not much infrastructure in place for most sports in India and sportsmen can move up only if he can sneak through the politics of the district and the state sports associations.
Question still remains, why the huge money from IPL and cricket boards are used only for the promotion of cricket. Why can we not train young boys and girls in sports we can play. Swimming and gymnastics medals are not possible in the next 12 years for sure. While hockey won us the gold medals all these years, we do not even qualify. Team sports will be tough for Indians but maybe with individual glories of prosperous Indians can propel the sports revolution. Only the fortunate few can pay for world class coaching and accessories world class sports demands and we can just hope for Sania Mirza, Leander Paes, Vishwanathan Anand and Abhinav Bindra to bring us the smiles in the Olympics !
Abhinav Bindra had this to say: “I sincerely hope my medal changes the face of India’s Olympic sports. For me. life will go on as usual but I sincerely hope Olympic sports get a leg-up”. Let us hope so.
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(Source: News Line 365)
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