It's not often that Indian sports persons except cricketers get featured on the front page of newspapers. It is time for the media to create an equal space for all sports to encourage the masses towards other games beyond cricket..
SUSHIL KUMAR, Vijender Kumar and Abhinav Bindra are names, which have done India proud at Beijing Olympics. Hardly anyone knew them a few days back, may be the sports journalists had known them but now these three have become a part of history forever. Media is all over them for a small interview, a picture, for a minute of their life. Their families are being interviewed on television channels, media has reached their homes. And all the credit goes to the three stars who proved their mettle at Beijing. Else, when does the media in India get time to cover any other sports except cricket, which is their first love.
Even if Dhoni buys a new car, or gets a new dog it is ’breaking news’! Or Yuvraj attends a party with a girl, it’s news! Before the world cup, anything you do, make a cake in shape of bat, sing a song to wish the Indian team, it was news and the media covered it. But the same passion is never there for any other sport. These do get some coverage but that prime time attention is missing, especially in electronic media. In fact, when Abhinav was competing in the shooting event, half the Indian media at Beijing was missing, they only rushed to get his shots when he won.
Media attention also brings in money, sponsors and no doubt, Indian Cricket Board is the richest cricket board in the world.
Sports other then cricket also have a story. It is not that Sushil, Abhinav and Vijender have never played for India earlier. In 2006 Doha Asian Games, Sushil got a bronze. Vijender is the Asian Games bronze medallist and the King’s Cup silver medalist. Similarly, Abhinav had got a gold in 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games and is the first Indian shooter to win a world championship gold. It was covered by media, may be as one news item or limited to sports page. Unlike this time when Bindra made to Page One as India’s golden boy. Possibly, these victories in wrestling, boxing and shooting may do some good to these sports and divert attention to them. And a country like India with over a billion people should be aiming high in the next Olympics.
We celebrated India’s 1984 World Cup victory in cricket, but we never celebrated or even remembered Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav’s victory, he was India’s first individual (Olympic Games) wrestler to win us a bronze medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Today when Sushil Kumar repeated history they talked about him. Hope his work gets some recognition at least after 56 years.
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