I want to save my ass. F@#$ everything else. Including sports..

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I want to save my ass. F@#$ everything else. Including sports..

23 February 2010 No Comment

An article in the TOI today highlights, through an example, what is plaguing India. Its a must read. Go through it first, and then i’ll add my 2 cents.
”
IN THE NAME OF SECURITY
… Hockey WC Getting Killed; Organisers Add To Confusion
Biswajyoti Brahma | TNN

New Delhi: The strange ways of the stakeholders have ensured that the original objective behind holding the hockey World Cup in India — to revive the game in the country which taught the world how to play it — has been lost even before the event has begun.
With just four days to go for the event, there’s hardly any buzz around what is hockey’s showpiece event. There have been almost no attempt to involve the fans and give the event a broadbase; the media has been kept out of bounds even though the tournament is on our heads, thus not allowing it to let the public come face-to-face with the event. All one has been hearing in the run-up to the Cup are jarring voices over never-ending controversies.
An inexplicable blanket ban on the media in the name of security cover, as well at the puzzling approach of the organisers, have meant that no one is talking hockey. The organisers are simply hiding behind one word: security.
Almost all the foreign teams are here in the city and the scribes have still not got access to either the squads or the competition venue, the Major Dhyanchand National stadium, as they have not been given accreditation cards. They have even been barred from interacting with the Indian players despite the fact that they have been training here for almost a fortnight now. As things stand now, providing security has become more important than hosting the World Cup itself.
There’s no doubt that security is of paramount importance, but it should not be as oppressive as it is right now. It should not create a wall between the players and the media, for the very purpose of playing sport gets defeated here.
At the team hotel, if you are lucky, you can reach the players by identifying yourself as an ‘acquaintance’ and can talk about everything under the sun except the game! The moment the monitoring security personnel, hovering all around the place, hear the word ‘hockey’, they promptly intervene. Surely, someone has goofed-up big time here.
With no interaction with players and no means to enter the venue, the expected hype is missing, something which has even disappointed the players. “It’s really bad. We are disappointed that there’s hardly any build-up. They should allow media to cover our practice sessions,” said an Indian player.
Hockey India and the International Hockey Federation (FIH) have done little to improve the situation. Rather, they have added to the confusion.
Sample this. On Tuesday noon, FIH tournament director Ken Read issued a statement saying that media access to training won’t be possible until “accreditations are active, which is expected to be on February 27th”.
Six hours later, the World Cup Co-ordination Commission announced after a meeting that the accreditations would be completed by Wednesday, “so that the accredited media could attend an interaction with the teams during practice at the National Stadium on February 25.”
The TOI has been highlighting the shabby manner in which the Commonwealth Shooting Championships, going on in the Capital, have been organised. Add to that the World cup mess and you can’t help but feel uneasy about the prospects of the Commonwealth Games in October.
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What do you make of it?

The Commonwealth shooting championship came and went. Almost zero competition for Indians, whole lot of problems for citizens staying nearby, and coverage of all that went wrong. All in the name of security. We are incapable, even after all the technical development and advances, to provide for a good transportation and security systems. Our planning is almost perfect in most cases. And its not that we do not plan in advance, but as a golden thumb rule, we delay the tender process, the implementation etc, till it almost reaches a point of no return. Enough money gets spent in the middle, filling enough pockets, and the work still does not get done. Hence, the police resort to cordoning off the entire area, so that their backside gets saved. The traffic police reserves the road only for the chosen few. So that traffic snarls do not happen on their stretch. And their backside too gets saved. The organizers will finally pay the media, or use their muscle to say that the games were great. And the international federations too will go back happy, that another event gets completed, and their favored consultants and vendors got to be a part of the whole tamasha. So everyone wins, right?

Who doesn’t?

Whom were the games meant for?

With the Hockey world cup, India had a fabulous opportunity to revive our national sport, and ensure we reclaim our place in the sun. But with all the HI, AK, SK controversies, we have relegated the game to even greater depths of ignominy and shame. The media is not allowed inside, for security reasons. The new stadium is not given access to, for security reasons. With 4 days to go, there is hardly any excitement in the city, with only sehwag and priyanka crying their hearts out that they have given their hearts to the game. And that too, only because hero honda happens to be the lead sponsor. It could have been ranbir and imran khan doing the same, if it had been pepsi. thank god the lead sponsor was not a CBI or a jaago grahak jaago. imagine if they were.

As a common citizen who is no longer part of the commonwealth games system, i can say, at this moment, i do not care about the hockey world cup. you have failed to sell it to me. You have failed to create an excitement and a national fervor in me that would have made me want to go out and play.

And to me, at this point of time, with 7 months left to THE games, i can quite safely assume the story will be the same, as you are doing with your test events. Here’s what will happen during the games:

- Reserved sections on key roads, only for the privileged few. No thought will be given to the common man and his traffic woes
- Unattractive ticket packages and lackluster marketing will ensure that most tickets remain unsold, and the stadiums will get filled by students and whoever can be arranged at the last minute, willing to sit and fill the stadiums
- The telecast will be on doordarshan, and most people will not want to watch most of the telecast
- security will be the prime worry, and in that fort environment, most people will take hours to even get into the stadium, resulting in terrible experiences
- With stadiums not yet complete and the test events not really testing actual games time pressures, the risk of failure will be very high. i am not talking of major risks like the games not happening, but minor risks like the transport congestion not getting tested, the catering stalls not knowing how many to cater to, the accreditation systems taking much longer, resulting in chaos for the spectators etc.

The hockey world cup could have been one of the most important test events for us. Alas, the only thing they are keen to test is the security, and that is not through hitec gadgetry, but through restrictions, blockades, and people on the ground.

The sole objective: I want to save my backside. Fuck everything else. Including sports.

the TOI article has been sourced from:

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=CAP/2010/02/24&PageLabel=29&EntityId=Ar02900&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T