Learn from Pakistan

SANJEEV SHARMA

Criticizing the neighbour for every dam thing, those associated with sports in Jammu and Kashmir should take a lesson from Pakistan for the way as sports loving nation encourages its sportspersons by offering them handful of incentives before they depart for any big event where country’s prestige is involved. Recently in that country in the presence of President Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistan Cricket Board made an announcement to make the country’s cricketers richer by Rs 50 lakh each if they manage to win the prestigious World Cup. Such kind of encouragement really matters for a sportsman, who actually fights for the nation like a soldier. In fact, the incentives play the role of a motivating force for the players to do their best.
In India where people think that Pakistan is backward and can’t match with the fast growing economy of the world, back home there was not any big announcement for the cricketers what to talk of other less popular games like hockey, football etc. However, some sports loving states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur and Karnataka are doing a good job in making the players richer every time they excel at any international event. If one look at Jammu and Kashmir, a state otherwise affected by militancy, hardly any attempt has been made to encourage the sportspersons. And when the time come for some big announcement, what the Minister promised was not sufficient enough to boost and further energise the players for a do or die game in the prestigious 33rd National Games at Guwahati in Assam. The Sports Minister, Babu Singh might have been feeling that he had offered something big, but to the dismay of players they were expecting a big deal. The amount offered to the players excelling in the highest sporting event of the country was so small. The announced cash incentives were Rs 20,000 for a Gold winner, Rs 10,000 for a Silver medalist and just Rs 5000 for others finishing third. Alright, whatever meager amount was offered should have been handed over to the players soon after they returned. Almost a week has gone when the teams came back Jammu, but there seems hardly any action on the part of the Sports Ministry to either expose the winners to the media or decide a date to hold a felicitation function. The Ministry should have taken atleast the winners to the Chief Minister and Governor’s residence for introduction. But who cares.