Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

The dark unfathomed of ocean bear,

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Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,

And waste its sweetness on the desert air. – Thomas Gray

Way back in 1973, when I was a student in Nizam College, Hyderabad, Swami Ranganathanandji of the Ramakrishna Mission addressed us. He made many thought-provoking statements. However, one comment of his is very relevant even today, in view of the ongoing Paris Olympics. He just could not understand why, in the medals tally in such events, we had to look from the bottom of the list to find out where we stood. Yes, in recent global events, our players have performed exceedingly well. Who can forget the heroics of our youngsters in the Asiad, Olympics and even the Paralympics?

Our very own Neeraj Chopra achieved something which our great Milkha Singh and P.T. Usha missed – an individual Olympic gold in an athletics event. Many other sportspersons have either won, or given promise that they will become world-beaters in the future. Also, many of them hail from humble backgrounds, but have left all that behind, and excelled in their respective fields. They are the gems and fragrant flowers who have been spotted well in time. The recent T-20 ICC World Cup victory made us all very euphoric.

Yes, the earlier achievements in 1983, 2007 and 2011 also happened despite heavy odds. Agreed, the nation-wide celebrations are fully justified. But then, should we confine our hype to only cricket? Did we not have heroes (and heroines) in other events in the past? In this context, this writer would like to ask all sports enthusiasts to read Melville de Mello’s book, Reaching for Excellence: The Glory and Decay of Sport in India (Kalyani Publishers, 1979).

The author has very brilliantly highlighted how the ‘hockey wizard’, Dhyan Chand and others like him, brought us continuous Olympic hockey glory from 1928 (Amsterdam) to 1956 (Melbourne). We also find mention of the heroics of champions like Milkha Singh and Ramanathan Krishnan in their respective domains. In our over-enthusiasm for cricket, we seem to have forgotten luminaries like Wilson Jones, Michael Fereira and Pankaj Advani who have been world champions in billiards/snooker.

In chess, we have had geniuses like Viswanathan Anand, R. Pragyaananda and many other budding world-beaters. Today, when we speak of soccer, we think only of Bhaichung Bhutia and Sunil Chhetri. We seem to have forgotten luminaries like P.K. Banerjee, Chuni Goswami, Peter Thangaraj, Mewalal, Neville D’Souza, Jarnail Singh and Yusuf Khan, some of whom were part of the team that won the soccer gold medal in the Jakarta Asiad of 1962. This writer had a feel of the then euphoria for this game when his paternal uncle once beamed, “Do you know who my co-passenger on the train was?

It was Capt Lahiri!” Such was the way our players were lionised in those days. Even being in the same train compartment with them was regarded as something to be proud of. In recent times, wrestling has been in the news all for the wrong reasons. Since, the matter is sub-judice, let us not take sides on the issue. However, the fact is that this game has gone for a sprawl. On its part, the government seems to have forgotten the adage, “Not only must you be fair; you must also appear to be fair.” Perhaps the malaise in this and other sports is the monopoly established by many politicians and bureaucrats over the running of these bodies.

Once the selection process for such organisations is made more transparent, our players can reach even greater heights. Let me now revert to my favourite game, hockey. Even when TV had not become an almost essential domestic item, I grew up mesmerised by the radio commentary of stalwarts like Melville de-Souza, Surajit Sen and Jasdev Singh. I was particularly thrilled to hear such geniuses describing how we won the 1975 Hockey World Cup. Fast forward to 1998: in Hyderabad, I watched the Asiad hockey finals on TV. Once we were declared the champions, I stepped out for a cup of tea at a cafe.

In my over-enthusiasm, I informed the person sharing my table, “I have some wonderful news for you. We have won the hockey gold medal in the Asian Games.” The other person seemed to be equally thrilled. Unfortunately, he spoilt the fun by his query, in the local lingo: “Bahut acchi khabhar hai. Batayiye, hum kitne wicketaan se jeete? (This is wonderful news. Please tell me by how many wickets did we win?) Then, and, even now, many of us have not been able to get over our fixation with cricket.

(The writer is a former Central government officer settled in Hyderabad, and an author.)