“Give me fire, give me freedom, give me reason, take me higher…”
The whole of the world now is caught up by the FIFA World Cup 2010 mania, to be held from the 11th of June till the 11th of July in South Africa. Every nation is waiting anxiously for the nail-biting event to start off and India is no exception. But how much are we aware of the fame that our country has earned up for itself in the field of sports? Let us think a little out of the box and consider episodes that generally do not attract our interest. After all sports does not only include games attached with glamour.
Well, to answer my afore-mentioned question – India has obtained the privilege to host the Commonwealth Games 2010 in Delhi from the 3rd of October till the 14th of the same month. It is conspicuous to note that India has won this privilege by surpassing Canada at the CGF Assembly in Mount—ago Bay in November 2003. Since most of us would be lacking even the basic information about the event, so here is a quick and brief history about it. Commonwealth Games dates back to 1930, held in Canada with 400 athletes from 11 different countries participating in it. It is organized every four years but was withheld during 1942-46 due to the World War.
The opening and closing ceremonies of the event will be held at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. Ashoka Chakra, that symbolizes freedom, power and unity has been publically announced as the logo on the 6th of January 2008. 85,000 athletes from 85 nations will adorn this year’s Commonwealth Games here in India. And the categories of games that have been taken upon this year are as follows:
· Athletics
· Lawn Bowl
· Weight Lifting
· Rugby 7’s
· Netball
· Badminton
· Squash
· Hockey
· Archery
· Cycling
· Gymnastics
· Wrestling
· Shooting
· Tennis
· Table Tennis
· Boxing
· Aquatics
Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has constructed a modern games village near the Akshardham Temple over an area of 63.5 hectares to provide comfortable accommodation to all the participants. Needless to say that the event will also prove to be a great impetus for travel and tourism in India, helping the Government to earn a lot of foreign revenue.
Now the question that arises here is why are the masses of the country not aware of this gala event that has been acclaimed to our country? While we are not untouched by the hullabaloo of another happening far away from here. Why is it that we are all familiar with ‘Zakumi’ (mascot for the FIFA World Cup 2010) and have not even heard of ‘Shera’. The answer is probably the lack of advertisement and promotion, which is an indispensible part of every affair now. A latest news update projected that the State Governments are setting up screens in rural India to entertain the masses with the FIFA World Cup and why cannot it invest in spreading the news of its own achievement? Commercializing sports and its effect is a different debatable issue but if our country has the infrastructure to host such a huge gamut of games then why cannot it prepare and promote sportspersons of the same caliber in all of these genre? Why do we have to limit ourselves to only cricket and it sub-parts largely? The liability however is not only of the government alone, a benevolent mix of hands of both the Government and sponsors is expected to pull up from this stagnated miserable state. And here is expecting that like the Hockey World Cup 2010 (Australia won the tournament defeating Germany), which was also held in India from February 18th — March 13th at New Delhi’s Dyan Chand National Stadium, this huge event does not drift into oblivion without the least notice and respect that it deserves from us.
image: http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/