Sports is beauty, romance and an exultation of life. And when sports and beauty merge in a seamless hue, it transcends the ordinary and turns into extraordinary bliss, something that can soothe and heal; something that can alter lives.
The year past has seen such moments that touched our lives – both international and national. In India, we have seen the next generation of athletes slowly take over. We have celebrated those moments in a series before the year ends. However, there were a lot of other goings-on in the fringes – outside the beauty and the utopian world of wins and losses. These were dominated by sports administrators and officials.
The year, in Indian sports, was dominated by the 2017 Draft National Sports Code of India. The Code everybody was expecting to be introduced and followed by the Indian Olympic Association and the National Sports Federations finally found its way this year (this newspaper was the first to report on this).
It was introduced more because of a court directive than perhaps the ministry’s insistence. Only to be opposed, as expected, by the IOA and the NSFs. Why was it not surprising? Because it had enough restrictions to cripple the current functioning of most of the NSFs and the IOA. Interestingly the sports ministry that seems to be enjoying its best relationships with the IOA and NSFs, instead of a confrontational approach, adopted a consultative approach.
In the end, the 2017 draft Sports Code was quietly tucked away with the sports minister Kiren Rijiju saying courts cannot ask us to implement the Code and sports secretary saying in an affidavit that it cannot give a timeframe as to when it could be implemented. “It is difficult to mention a strict timeline for adopting or modifying the DNCGGS 2017 in this present junction:” his affidavit said. Then why table it at all?
The most embarrassing moment perhaps was the suspension of the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) during a year when positive dope tests and bans increased. But again this too was not a surprise. It was coming and perhaps could be called an oversight by the officials concerned. There were serious issues of manpower at the NDTL and the always-short-staffed laboratory was finally suspended by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in August. During the entire saga, it was hilarious to see people confusing between NDTL and National Anti-Doping Agency, two independent agencies. The six-month ban seems unlikely to be revoked by January as issues regarding technicians and machines are yet to be resolved.
Factional feuds in NSFs too were big let-downs. Gymnastics, taekwondo, chess, volleyball and archery are some cases where public spats reflected poorly on the administration. The equestrian federation is the other one who, despite of not following the Sports Code 2011, has been given extensions by the sports ministry. Likewise, the Indian Golf Union, de-recognised by the IOA and whose recognition by sports ministry is not clear, also seems to be in the sickbay.
There is perhaps nothing more embarrassing than unwarranted publicity. I would also say this year saw the rise of numerous players’ agents and agencies. There couldn’t be worse publicity than when quartermiler Hima Das’s achievements in some obscure events in Europe were portrayed as humungous. Not her fault definitely.
Those who started that Twitter accolade campaign should be careful. Hima, for most of the year, was out injured and suddenly she was pushed to the limelight because of those irresponsible tweets. As Bob Dylan sings: You can fool somebody sometimes, not everybody all the time”. Perhaps the time has come for NSFs to monitor agents and players more closely. In the end, it’s the career of our athletes on the line.