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SPORTS:
OLYMPICS SPECIAL
All
Over Again
Killer
instinct or bad karma? A bunch of Indian athletes flirted with glory in
Sydney but fell short of rewriting history.
By
Rohit Brijnath in Sydney
Twenty-four
hours later his face was still a set study in bewilderment, a man almost
refusing to embrace his reality. A few kilometres from the athletes village,
just beside Lidcombe Station, home of the much-visited Raj's Curry Pot,
hockey player Baljit Singh Saini dragged his feet across the pavement.
We talked, and the subject was tears. As he said, "We've been weeping
all morning."
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| Hockey
goalkeeper Menezes after the match against Poland |
The night
before, when India drew 1-1 with Poland, needing a win and up 1-0 with
a minute and 41 seconds left for the hooter, Saini made a telling statement.
"Everything's changed," he said. And it had. Had they won, imagine
Indian hockey. Sponsors might have turned a weary eye away from cricket,
parents who passed shops without looking in might have ventured in to
buy hockey sticks, the first breath of oxygen that every revival requires
would have arrived. Imagine Saini too. He walks Indian streets unrecognised,
his bank balance not worth an income-tax raid, but the garlands have now
been put away, the cheques remain unsigned.
In the grimness
of the moment, we have pulled a sheet over Indian hockey and declared
it's back in its coma. Not true. One loss from five league matches is
significant, a reminder that the Indian hockey gene survives. Officials
will blame the players, but cupping the spark in their hands and blowing
life into it is their responsibility.
Irrespective
of the fact that his team considers him tactically incompetent, it is
pertinent that coach Vasudev Baskaran should point out to India Today,
"I'm the only coach of 12 countries who hasn't been there three years
or more (he was re-hired in December 1999)." When asked if he gets
paid, he replies, "It's devastating. Again I'm the only one who doesn't
get paid. I don't tell anyone because they won't believe it."
It's not
the reason why we lost, but as the Olympics demonstrate, to win every
building block must be firmly in place. Says Baskaran: "You can't
compare how much other teams plan to get gold. Three meals and accommodation
is not the end of sport." Triumph, even in ensuring a personal best,
lies in the detail. While Australian swimmers bonded at a pre-Olympics
camp, swimmer S. Hakimuddin trained alone in Delhi for an entire month,
with the national coach in tow, not his personal one. When he arrived
here and was presented with a Speedo full-body swimsuit, he was unsure
whether to use it. The world was wearing them, he'd never worn one before!
The problem is "See Sydney For Free" holidays at the Indian
Olympic Association's expense continue. Officials, whose only report will
be to their wives regarding what they brought home, are everywhere. Except
at the right places. When shooter Anjali Vedpathak was in sniffing distance
of a medal not an official was to be seen. Yet, the Minister of State
for Sports Syed Shahnawaz Hussain told India Today, "Even the prime
minister asked me why are there so many officials in Sydney."
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In
India, youth is marked by impetuosity and prevented from getting ahead.
Elsewhere, of course, the young rule the world, says INDIA TODAY Deputy
Editor Swapan Dasgupta in 
