Make The 2024 Olympics In India!

In a significant decision, Narendra Modi has asked the Sports Ministry to make a bid for the 2024 Olympics, with Ahmedabad as a probable host city in mind. This has predictably kicked off the usual storm of “Is he the PM of Gujarat only”, “Why does this poor country need to do this?” and “We don’t need another CWG-like fiasco”, with little space for reasoned debate on its merits.

Do we really need an Olympic Games in India?

Looked at, from a purely sporting angle, (before ranting from the rooftops about the chance to showcase the India of 2015) the realisation, that the Games must come to India, stares us in the face. Almost all of India’s individual Olympic medals are due to the praiseworthy dedication of individual sportsmen, and an efficient coach/mentor. Not one association can claim credit for having made available world class facilities that have paved the way for sustained Olympic success. What we need is institutionalised success flowing out of the fountainhead of a sound system that is grounded in adequate foresight and will-power, instead of expecting the odd inspired individual to turn up with fire in his belly, and perform way above what his upbringing and training normally allow him to. If we must put in respectable performances in the international sporting arena, our sportsmen need to train in world-class venues. Apart from cricket, in how many disciplines is India capable of holding an international event of repute? Admittedly, not too many.

Let me now throw up a small quiz question. In which country is the nondescript city of Gold Coast? Did you for example, know that it’s in Australia? That city, by the way will host the 2018 Commonwealth Games. There aren’t too many murmurs about how there’s a new venue when venues from the Sydney ’00 Olympics, Melbourne ’06 CWG and even the 1982 Brisbane CWG could have been used. That’s the sign of a nation that invests in its sportsmen, their future and that infrastructure, in a non high-profile city, (the second largest in Queensland behind Brisbane), and doesn’t ask them to sleep on shop stairs, with minimal food and training facilities, and then get the nation international sporting success!

As of now cricket seems the only sport where the players do not need to go on foreign “exposure” and “conditioning” trips at considerable expense. Can we reasonably expect a stadium used purely as a training venue to be of any quality, considering the quality of venues in those lands? Only an international event, would guarantee a quality venue. In a way, hosting the Olympics would be like holding a gun to the administrators’ heads: Put up proper infrastructure and good facilities under pain of having our country shamed in front of the world. This is the only way to get the powers-that-be to deliver.

Having said that, the Beijing ’08 Olympics provides a few simple examples on cost minimisation. There were four university stadia that hosted the Olympic events in eight disciplines. Yes that’s right. University venues hosted the Judo, Taekwondo, Wrestling, Table Tennis, Badminton and Volleyball. True, the Thyagaraj Netball Stadium was the only CWG’10 venue that was completed to truly world-class levels, carbon positive, and done sufficiently early, but did we really need to incur expenses for a stadium built from scratch, when there surely was a half-decent basketball venue in Delhi that could have been shored up for its sister sport of netball? Yes, Rugby Sevens was of course held at Delhi University, but the same could have been done to many other sports like Badminton, Volleyball and the like, which are played extensively at college level anyway. They could have just revamped college venues to required specifications, as with Beijing ’08, at considerably lesser cost than it takes to ready new venues. And if a University venue can be brought up to Olympic standards, just imagine the benefits it will have, to participants of grade-level events, who can avail of the best of facilities!

In the name of “beautification” a lot of money is spent on giving the host city a “presentable” face to our foreign guests. Traffic regulations, general cleanliness, public transport and security are looked at and revised suitably in order to have a hassle-free event. Why would anyone want to grudge the expenses for beautification of a city and to improve facilities for its residents, irrespective of whether it is done in view of the Games of not? And what is so wrong with imagining say, the Olympic regatta rowing events on the now-refurbished Sabarmati waterfront, an area infamous for its filth and unbearable stench not so long ago? One only needs to look at the small example of what was done to Beijing’s taxi drivers in the run up to 2008. They were given a massive image makeover, with English and etiquette lessons, with a view to dispelling the image of the rude boorish taxi driver who often left foreign tourists in the lurch! Also, the initial chaos caused by the traffic diversions for the CWG in 2010 were quickly solved when citizens resorted to simple, follow-the-rules disciplined lane-driving, something Delhiites are not habituated to, giving the lie to the argument that the event only caused chaos! Plus, if Delhi can have stable traffic with one lane reserved for CWG, there surely could be a way this could be made permanent, and reserved for ambulance/police/emergency services!

With sound financial planning, both concerns, poverty and sporting infrastructure, can be addressed. Indeed, to host the previous CWG in 2006, it took Australia just one-third of the money it took India to host the 2010 event. Had the CWG’10 organisers limited the expenditure to these levels (a marginally higher cost for each subsequent host is inevitable), this difference, (roughly ₹7200 crores) could have been used admirably in the fight against poverty. This again drives home the point that a well-managed event does not divert substantial amounts of money from the fight against poverty. One other area where we could go one better on the CWG is the unseemly turf wars. It took FIVE years just for the CWG organising committee to be finalised, with the SAI, the Sports Ministry and the Indian Olympic Committee all wanting a share of the pie! Britain solved this beautifully when they hosted the Olympics in 2012. They had an Olympics Minister, in whom all government decisions towards the games vested, and a respected Olympian in Lord Sebastian Coe, now an MP, as the Organising Committee chief! This neat division of turf ensured decisions were taken fast.

And if we want to wallow in saying that the CWG’10 was an avenue for corruption so let’s not have another event, let’s also stop expending energy on removing poverty, fighting corruption and black money, because earlier attempts in this direction were also failures and avenues for loot! The Games must come to India, independent of earlier fiascos. Bring it to India, find the money for it, and do it well!

Ultimately, the necessity for this nation to host a grand sporting spectacle cannot be decided, without considering the views of the biggest stakeholders in Indian sport – the sportspersons themselves. It is no secret that Indian sportspersons of various disciplines had, in the run up to the Commonwealth Games made a fervent pitch for more such events to be held in India, as they relished the prospect of competing in front of their home fans, in addition to having world class stadia available to them for training. If practitioners of various other professions can request for, and obtain monetary support to carry on their work, why must sportspersons be denied the right to government support in order to perform in their home country in front of home supporters? In the interest of getting the public to witness and take to top-level sport in India and to allow our beleaguered sportsmen a chance in the limelight, top-level events must come to our country.

However, more than anything else, the biggest focus should be on the legacy of the venues. They should not be allowed to languish like white elephants, or be reduced to hosting rock-shows or political meetings. The best thing that can be done with the stadia constructed is to use it regularly for the district school/college level tournament in the respective discipline. The awe with which the participants will remember the experience of playing in such good venues, will no doubt stand them in good stead for tougher international battles.

All in all the case for using public money on a corruption-free, fiscally prudent and world-class sporting event has never been this strong. It is only hoped that good sense prevails and the men and women who matter put the interests of our sportspeople above everything else.

Let’s hope we can Make a succesful Olympics in India!!