Mind Speaks - Common Wealth Games 2010 and way forward

Mind Speaks - Common Wealth Games 2010 and way forward

Indian sporting events is passing through one of its glorious periods. On one side, Indian cricket team beat Australia convincingly 2-0 in a home series. With most of the visiting Australian players or for that matter leading players from any rival cricketing nations get accustomed to Indian playing conditions courtesy IPL, playing in India is not anymore complicated. The determination shown by those who got selected to the Indian team in the absence of the injured to opportunistically utilize the match conditions and gain advantage over Australia is remarkable. This shows how cricket as a sport has evolved in India. It could not be achieved by the tremendous support of corporate bodies and BCCI organizational skills to promote the game and develop it to be on top of the list.

Concurrently, a set of different sports personalities have put their best effort in the Common Wealth Games 2010 competitions. The results were extremely impressive. It was a delight to watch the finals of the 4x400 meters relay race for women.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kezboiU3l-w&playnext=1&videos=kA_bOn9bizc&feature=mfu_in_order 

The short framed Indian athletes put their heart and soul into their feet to stay ahead till the finishing line with their swift strides. This memory will remain forever as do the winning moments from the other games played so far.

With Saina Nehwal's victory in Badminton, India finished a historic 2nd place in Common Wealth Games 2010.

These achievements are of immense importance to overall sporting growth of the country, as well the region. It should not be considered as India’s only achievement rather should be treated as an inspirational step for the entire region to excel in track and field sporting activities.

Too much emphasize and money is now channeled to some sports, ignoring the importance of track and field games. To cash in on the interest generated by the victories of the CWG, organizations and regional associations should come forward and promote group and individual sports and encourage participants with financial supports and practice options. Electronic gaming industry have also a bigger role to instill the thoughts of opting for these sporting events by creating new games and toys to generate interest amongst children. Schools and universities should also encourage students to participate in one sport at least as a personality development programme.

Indian women athletes performed exceedingly well winning 13 gold medals out of 38 golds won by India in the recently concluded Commonwealth Games 2010.

http://www.dnaindia.com/videos/1453132

For all those who generated such a hue and cry, it is time to revert with a word or two of congratulations to those athletes who did their best to erase entirely the bad momentum generated to the curtain raiser of CWG . It’s also because; they are and will remain unknown if necessary support from all concerned is not in place from now on.

Post event scenario, I am extremely happy to read reports coming in from India, where the authorities have already started actions to find out the reasons for all the wrong doings and book those evil doers. It will be a great lesson and way forward procedure. We definitely look forward with optimism and hope that corruption will no longer be tolerated.

The link below will give a detailed list of all the 404 participants who represented India in the the 2010 Common Wealth Games. The spreadsheet is hyperlinked and thus you can click on the individual names and get the players profile. As you may notice, a google search of many of the players details and updated statistics are never available for these sports events. It shows the important different between the organisational support a cricket player gets and players from other sports, specially track and field gets in India.

For list of participants:

http://results.cwgdelhi2010.org/en/Participant.mvc/List

Organisations and associations have to come forward and do more for these silent heroes.

Ramesh Menon

Abu Dhabi