Losing proud sporting legacy

If availability is emblematic of accountability, it is easy to see why Tamil Nadu has evolved into a sporting powerhouse in the last few years while Karnataka has regressed over the course of the last decade. 

Out of over ten administrators who were approached to ascertain why Karnataka has failed to capitalise on pre-existing infrastructure and an abundance of sporting talent, only two of them were available for comment, and even they were only interested in spelling out the deeds of days gone by. 

On the contrary, two influential government personalities from Tamil Nadu were approached, and both were more than willing to relay the government’s new-found passion and direction. 

More importantly, both - J Meghnath Reddy IAS (Member Secretary, Sports Development Authority) and Dr Atulya Misra IAS (Chief Secretary for Youth Welfare and Sports Development) - were insistent on discussing their visions of a better, more congruent tomorrow. 

They were not rueing what governments prior had failed to do or resting on the laurels of what Tamil Nadu as a sporting state has managed to do of late. They spoke of using sports to improve the overall health of their state. 

Administrators in Karnataka, meanwhile, were content with what has been done and were mostly bent on reiterating the monetary support they have offered to a select group of athletes in the State. In the process, they consciously discarded the fact that Karnataka has not hosted a big-ticket event in a long time.

“We hosted the Khelo India Games last year and that was a big success,” recalls Dr Jeethendra Shetty, the Deputy Director of the Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports (DYES) in Karnataka. “We have had some big basketball tournaments here. I think we’re doing fine as a sporting State. 

“Also, don’t forget about the monetary support we offer to athletes. Over 75 athletes from the State are funded by us. Last year alone we spent around Rs 20 crore in outflow to promote sports. We’re also pumping in over Rs 10 crore into the Karnataka Swimming Association over the next five years because we are a swimming powerhouse in the country. 

“See, we are slowly getting more and more events to Karnataka. It won’t happen overnight,” he adds. 

Well, it kind of did in Tamil Nadu. 

When the All India Chess Federation (AICF) put up its hands to host the 44th Chess Olympiad in India as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Tamil Nadu government outwitted, outpaced and outspent the competition to bring the event to Chennai. They spent close to Rs 100 crore on an event which was an immediate success. 

Tamil Nadu’s propensity for producing world-class chess talent surely played a role in the decision to coerce the International Chess Federation (FIDE), but to earn hosting rights for the Asian Champions Trophy when Chennai had all but forgotten hockey?

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, his son Udhayanidhi Stalin (who happens to be the Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development) and their ambitious crew bought the tournament to India for the first time. It so happened that Chennai hadn’t hosted an international hockey event in over 16 years. 

So, this wasn’t about building on a sport which already has the following, this was about bringing in everything they could to build on a legacy which was being forgotten. 

Now, they’re hosting the World Surf League in Mamallapuram. Later in the year, the Formula 4 Indian Championship will see its first night race at the Chennai Formula Racing Circuit. The Tamil Nadu government has also signed a deal with tech-giant HCL to run a professional, international-quality Cyclothon in October.

“We have a packed calendar for this year,” says Meghnath. “Sports became a priority for us, and we’re moving this fast and this well because of our minister (Udhayanidhi). He’s an avid sports lover so he walked in with clarity. He injected life back into sports in Tamil Nadu. The vision was simple: bring back big events, and that will, in turn, inspire more athletes. The other thing we focussed on was ramping up our infrastructure. We have the Global Sports City coming up soon, and several such large-scale venues are being built.

“All this while, the athletes are all being taken care of,” he adds. 

While this soft power flex is great for the optics, Atulya reveals a deeper reason behind the TN government’s push for sports. 

“We realised that we needed to create new role models in the state,” he says. “We consciously decided that we wanted to dissuade the new generation from screen time and drugs. That is a major reason for this movement. The CM wanted to use sports as a weapon against the ongoing drug menace and also the virtual high people get off their screens. We wanted to take our youth away from it.”

“Also, caste and community differences take the backseat in sports. This generates a higher quality of people and a better generation of leaders. We didn’t know how to go about fixing all this at first, but we slowly figured that sports was going to do it for us. And we knew that cricket didn’t have to be the only sport to help us achieve this.”

Cricket is streamlined courtesy of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, and it runs almost seamlessly across the country. The same organisational acumen can be seen in the Karnataka State Cricket Association, meaning the sport is well taken care of. Also, there’s accountability. 

Most other sporting bodies, all the while rueing cricket’s success, haven’t shown the inclination to adopt some of cricket’s strategies to help their own sports. 

“There are no checks and balances in place here,” says Ashwni Nachappa, former international athlete. “The problem begins at the grassroots level, and it goes all the way to the top. It’s so sad that Karnataka is in this state right now. We didn’t have anything, even proper infrastructure in place, back in our day, but there was a culture of sports. It was thriving.

“Take the (Sree Kanteerava) stadium for example, it would be impossible for most schools to afford the space to host inter-school meets there. Why should it be so expensive to let kids play? Why can’t they subsidise the price? Also, see what happened at a government-organised school tournament recently, they ran out of medals and certificates for kids… If this is how the sport is run, why will children be inspired to continue? You need to make sports exciting and vibrant for the new generation. We need to evolve, and for that, we need to have checks and balances in place. That’s the only way.”

That’s certainly one way to fix the issue at hand, but understanding sports' economics and social impact on a populous should help too. 

According to a recent report, Formula E had an economic impact of nearly Rs 700 crore in Hyderabad. The report also revealed that 59 per cent of the 31,000 people who attended or supported the race were from outside of Hyderabad. This means the race managed to generate significant inward investment into the local economy. The same was seen at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida.

Karnataka, meanwhile, hasn’t capitalised on the monetary windfall or the employment opportunities sports can generate in direct and indirect ways. In fact, the cutting down of the sports budget - even if only by one per cent from the preceding year - shows where the government’s heart is. 

It’s not a given anymore that Karnataka is a sporting hub, and while that’s unfortunate enough, it’s the dilution of the sporting legacy everyone should be concerned about. So, it would be prudent for administrators, especially those in charge of sports federations, to drop their lackadaisical approach and make intentional moves in the months, years to come.