Dear Editor,
P. V Sindhu, a brave heart Indian daughter has achieved the most coveted slot of being first Indian woman to win silver in Olympics. She has brought laurels to the nation. When Sindhu reached the podium with Tricoloured National Flag in her hands , the 125 million Indians felt on the top of the world. She has performed this daring deed in her maiden sortie in the Olympics at the age of 21. It was not a cake walk for two times world champion. She fought to the hilt in the third game. Carolina Martin was a bit ahead of her because of her experience and better training. P.V Sindhu has become the youth icon in the arena of sports, therefore, deserves the heartiest accolades from one and all. In the sphere of population we are well placed in number two position but comparatively performance of our Olympics contingent is stunningly dismal and disgusting. This has to be seriously looked into, lessons to be learnt from usual mistakes for the purpose of desired improvement in the future world level tournaments.
Unarguably there is no dearth of talent in the county. Our combing and search for talent may be lopsided , biased and misdirected. All pervading politics is our area of concern and perceiving every activity across the national canvass through political lenses is our conspicuous Achilles Heel. No doubt there is a separate Sports Ministry headed by a minister but services of experienced ace players are not harnessed in the proper spirit. We are disproportionately attached to one major sport owing to the glamour and slush money tagged to it. Other sports by and large face general apathy and gross neglect of the authorities. This striking flaw needs be rectified. Presently huge funds are placed at the disposal of MPs and MLAs for development of their constituencies without any accountability and check. They should also be made responsible for hunting out the best of raw talent in their area of operation who can be ultimately pooled at national level for training in the institutes of international standard so that many more P.V Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and Deepa Karmakar can be produced in the true national spirit.
P. C Sharma
Trikuta Nagar, Jammu