OPINION India, sports underachievers

Signs are that the sport scene in India is just beginning to take on a new look

I and target more funds to those most likely to s ucceed This is easier said rJi an done, unfortunatel y The second m ain and overriding problem in many Indian sports is the shambolic, dy sfunctional administration Greed, bureaucracy and rbe ch ance to shop in Oxford Street or the Champs -Elysees take over So what's rhe answer?

Words cann ot describe the humiliation many in India would have fdt as the world saw Shiva Kesbava.n, Nacleem Igbal and Himanshu Thakur walk as independenr O lympic p ar tic ipan ts behind rJ1e International Olympic Committee (lOC) flag at the Sochi 2014 winter Olympics instead of the Indian a·i•

''There isn't a shadow of doubt best cricketers wan ting to be part of chis extravaganza, thus lifting standards all around What must not that without government interferen ce sport can prosper in private hands be forgotten is that it is a move away from government into private hands chat is causing chis lifi: in standards. i\fore recently, si nce the IMG group and Reliance have got behind foorbali ln 1983 l nd ia, with Kapil Dev 's memorable explo it~, wo n the Cricket World Cup. This lit the Aame fo r rJie cricket- crazy country that India is n ow. A major r eason for thi s was the tough, private-enterpr ise Jed BCCl that ensured rhe greatest rewards for rhe p layers, the spore and everyone concerned. Since then the IPL has followed with the colour. This is becnuse the Indian Olympic A ssociation (IOA) had been suspended b y the JOC due to interference b y rh e Indian governmen t in the autonomy of the national O lympic committee. As it happens, Shiva Keshavan l:inished a disappointing 37 om of 39 competitors in the singles luge competition So how should we react?

India bas been a perennial under• performer at the Olympic Games for many year s Th e London 2012 Olympics were, in fact, the most successful ever for 1ndia but rJ1e two silver and four bronze medals was a very modest haul i ndeed fo r a country the size of India. L1 contrast, Chi na with a GDP per capita four times that of India had a medal c.-illy of 1 4 with 88 medals in ali. So where are we going wrong?

There was a golden era in hockey, lasting w1cil around 1980, when lndia was o n top of d1e world Now we are ran ked l 0 "' from a li s t of some 7 1 participating cotmtries. And in football , which is passionately followed in a few pockets around India, we langui s h at an inglorious 152 out of 207 parti cipating counties. So how can this be. le would be too easy to criticise S hiva Keshavan and our otl1er athletes for poor performances. \Ve migh t even say the)' lack s kills, don 't train bard enough, are not committed and just don' t possess the winning in stinct. Bur s u ch criticism would be tmcharitab le in di e extrem e l believe these young men and wom en are to be co ngratulated in following thei r passion. They have competed for their country, given their best and clese1·ve o ur tl1anks. Undoubtedl>7, rJiey would have preferred better resu.l ts.

''there has been a 70°/., in crease in TV audiences since 2010 Manchester U nited , Liverpool and otbet top foorbali tean1s are now widely known throug hout the country and the standard of foorbali is .sec to improve dramatically There isn't a shadow of doubt t hat without government inrerference spore can prosper in priv ate hands. So what bas happened?

Unfo rtunatd y, what should h ave been the best model for di e governan ce of sport has lost its gloss B C CJ bas seen beads r o ll and is an entity tl1ar is feared, with a lot of power bur with litde credibility And IPL franchi ses have been in1ploding for a variety of reasons. The saying that absolute power corrupts absolu tdy is not without foundatio n. U ntil controls are p laced on power hungry i.nstitutions tbe roller-coaster that is Indian sport will continue. So wha t's d1e latest?

Actor Abh ishek Bachchan has just purchased the Jaipur franchise of the IPL s1:yle pro Kahbll(/i team. In a recent World

Cup, 30 countries participated

Our cric keting superstars are also starting to shake up the (overall) sport scene We have legend Sachin Tendulkar

''and L i dia's men's and wom en's teains came top \Ve can on ly hope that kabbadi will feature in the O lympi cs i.n d1e near future.

Our cricketin g superstars are also starting to shal,e up the sports scene \Ve have legend Sachin Tendulkar turning into a sport impresario. He has recenrJ y purchased tbe Ko chi franchise for footbaU of die Indian Super League (ISL) and also a s hare turning into a sports impresario in the Mum bai based tennis franchi se of rhe lnrernational Tennis Premier League Not Have they really been hdped in their endeavm1rs? So what can we do for rJ1em ?

T here are basically two areas t hat ho ld our athletes bad t. FirsrJy, tl1e funding India s pent close to $1 Om on 83 adiletes ($120,000 per athlete) for the London 20 12 Olym pic Games. This contrasts with Australia's funding of $310m for41 0 athletes ($750 ,000 pe r athlete) A lower ft.mding per athl ete, eveojf all else i s egual, eq uate s to lower result~. Theo retically, on e way to overcome chis is to reduce the contingent of atluetes to be outdone, Sourav (Dada) Ganguly, di e recent fiery lndian cricket captain, has bought a share of the Kolkata franchise of d1e ISL.

A s hake up i s definitel y trucing place in Indian sports Will in terest in cricket start to wane and football increase in populari ty ? \\'lilJ rJ1e new sports leagues be able to govern themselves without falling over? \Xiill all this rnb off on future Olympians? These are exciting times indeed for sport in India.

For the first time. Singapore Airlines will launch A380 services to lwo destinalions on the same day. With Lwo new flights that take you direct\), to Delhi and Mumbai, getting to India's business and cultural cenlres has never been easier.

The managers of my office put up a sign saying: "Keep the door close". Do they mean "c losed," or do they want me to take tbe door off its hinges and keep it close to me eve rywhere I go? Given their ratio nality l evels, both are equally possib le.

In rny previous office, management put up a sign on the ja nitor's office: "Cleaner room". I glanced i nside. Ttwas cleaner thao my room. Bue aren'r they all?

Some people get really upset abouc writing errors. A man angered by a mi sspelled sign outside a US government office tried ro blow up the building with a ha nd -held bomb, a news report said last year. That's crazy: You need a tr uck bomb.

Internet users freque n tly abuse me with the phrase "Yom stupid ". I usually reply: "Yeah but at least 1 can spell you're".

This annoyed one correspondent recently in to writing back: "Yom a idiot''. I replied: "Yeah but at least I can spell an". He replied: "The ir's different ways of spelling stuff moreon". I replied: "Yeah but at least 1 can spell there's and moron". He hasn't replied, no doubt becau se he is busy p reparing a truck bomb to drive around to my office.

But frankly, it's time co hold a funeral senrice for the wo rd "yo u 're". It went on my endangered list in 2007, when a US technology firm launched a majo r ad campaign w ith a rwoword phrase: "Your on" When you have a mass ive b udget and just two words to hanclle, you 'd think you'd get both of tl1em right, but n o. The same country saw d1e launch of an inn called the Your Welc ome Inn, which suggests that three word s is WAY too mucl1.

By 2009, "your" was rep lacing "you're" in about more than 50 pe rcent of internet exchanges f monitored, and today "your" bas rrilm1ph ed almost completely. Modern dictionaries are governed by tlie "descriptive not proscriptive" pri nciple, which m eans "your" will soon appear as a legitimate alternative for "you 're".

A fune ral should also be h eld for the phrase "eve r y day". \Vhen you write this as two words, it mea ns " all the days". \Vhen you write it as o n e word, it means "mun d ane". So pop star Elvis Costello's hit song EverJ'dC()'

I lf:71ite tbe Book means "i'vfw1da ne

I Write the Book" The Coca-Co.la Company's slogan for Dasaoi bottled water describes it as a mundane drink, ,vhich is bang on target. One of the top songs su ng in churches today is called Eve(ydqy which says all you need ro know about modern Christian music

As for punctuatioll, the saddest lost apostrophe of recent times must be the one in me photo a reader seat to me, showing a schoo l in India owned by a certain Anu Shar ma The signmaker dropped the al l-im portant apostrop he and thus the sign says ANUS ENGLISH ACADEMY Sad bur true. I once had an oolioe dispme with someone w h o told me: "Theirs nothing wrong wi tli my Brian" I congratula ted her o n her Brian's health.

B u t, dear reader, l et's face facts. T propose that we, t h e last few people on earth to still use "you're" shoul d have a Save The Apostrophe meeting in a hote l or conference centre. But PLEASE, not at the Your Welcome Inn What's the one grammar erro1· t ha t gets your goat? Let us know on our Faceb ook p age I lndianLinkAustral ia