Mumbai, time to get back on the sporting track

Lack of open spaces is obviously one huge challenge for people to play sports in Mumbai, but that is not the only reason why the city is languishing in producing world-class athletes.

I’ve had a gala time the past week doing television commentary for the Commonwealth Games, currently underway in Gold Coast. Broadcast timings are a challenge to sleep since Australia is five hours ahead of India, but this has not whittled down on the fun and excitement.

While cricket remains an abiding passion, the sheer sweep and scope of multidisciplinary events not only provide fantastic variety, but are also truer index of a country’s sporting ethos rather than excellence in just one sport. (FILE)

While cricket remains an abiding passion, the sheer sweep and scope of multidisciplinary events not only provide fantastic variety, but are also truer index of a country’s sporting ethos rather than excellence in just one sport.

The delightful part this year obviously has been India’s fine showing as yet. There were compunctions about the form of some athletes, and also a few controversies involving others, but by and large this doesn’t seem to have had an effect on performances.

Barring a couple of setbacks (Gagan Narang and Jitu Rai in their pet shooting events), there has been cause for a lot of cheer as medals have come in good numbers and across disciplines.

As I write this on a balmy Thursday afternoon, India’s medal tally stands at 29, of which 14 are gold. The strike rate for gold, almost 50 per cent, is important in my opinion because it shows more rigour in training and ambition.

Several events are still to be concluded before the curtain comes down on CWG 2018, and since many are those where India has rich talent – badminton, wrestling for e.g. – the gold medals could well be doubled.

This would be far more than the 14 we got at Glasgow in 2014 and possibly match if not exceed the 30 at Manchester in 2002. (In Delhi 2010 we got 38, but that’s a `home country’ skew that almost never stands scrutiny elsewhere).

In this encouraging scenario, the only dampener appeared to be the paucity of athletes from Mumbai representing India Down Under. Thane’s Madhuri Patkar, part of the table tennis team which won a historic gold, seemed to be the exception.

Indeed, the best performance by Mumbai at the Commonwealth Games seemed to be not in the playing arenas but at its cultural wing, Festival 2018, where Malkham India performed a few days ago.

Rajesh Mudki who comes from Santa Cruz (West) and his team of Rajesh Amrale (33), Atharva Angre (16), Jarard Quardras (17), and Akshay Taral (22) enthralled viewers with that very Indian combination of yoga, wrestling and gymnastics using a long sheesham pole.

For the rest, there seemed perhaps more Mumbai athletes at the ceremony to see the Indian athletes off than in the contingent itself. Or in the TV commentary team which includes former hockey captain Viren Rasquinha, shooter Anjali Bhagwat (lives in Pune, born in Mumbai) and former badminton star Aparna Popat.

I’ve since been corrected by Viren who listed five more Mumbai athletes apart from Madhurika who are in the Indian contingent: Sanil Shetty and Pooja S (TT), Chirag Shetty (badminton), Suraj Karkera (Hockey) and Vikram Malhotra (squash). Perhaps a couple more he couldn’t recall off-hand.

But all included, this still reflects poorly on Mumbai’s sporting prowess. I’d in fact say, it shows a definite slump. In years gone by, a fairly big chunk of the contingent for such an event would be from Mumbai. Badminton, TT, hockey, athletics were disciplines where the city regularly threw up stellar players. The number has come down dramatically.

Lack of open spaces is obviously one huge challenge for people to play sports in Mumbai, but that is not the only reason why the city is languishing in producing world-class athletes. Rasquinha, who heads Olympic Gold Quest which supports several elite athletes, has a more telling explanation. It is also dismaying.

“Sport is not seen as big priority in Mumbai, education, most parents believe, opens up greater opportunities,’’ he says. “Kids here want short cuts. They don’t want to work hard enough, without which it is impossible now to represent India.’’

There’s a serious message in that for budding athletes, coaches, parents, respective sports associations.