Ringside view by Tushar Bhaduri: In India, sports and studies do not go hand in hand – Opinion News

Now that the Olympics are behind us, we return to the harsh reality. The hype surrounding India during the Games was rather disproportionate to the medal haul (one silver and five bronze). And just over a week after the closing ceremony in the French capital, one of our athletes has decided she has had enough.

Table tennis player Archana Kamat has given up the sport to pursue further education in the United States. Archana was a bright student throughout her academic career and aspires to become an economist. She believes that it is not feasible to continue her duels on the TT table.

In the Indian sports world, athletic pursuits and academic studies hardly go hand in hand unless the athletes themselves plan to study simultaneously. Once a youngster is deemed promising and gets admission to a national camp, academic studies take a back seat. It is not like the university system in the United States, where scholars cannot afford to neglect their studies even if they get a sports scholarship.

In India, the higher educational qualifications for an athlete, if they are not themselves keen, ensure that their prospects after their sporting days will be largely limited to the sport they play. Many of these degrees are only on paper, as the athletes have rarely been to the classroom and do not have the knowledge or aptitude that a degree is supposed to provide. For a country that wins only a handful of medals at the Olympics every four years, the way it treats its elite athletes borders on single-minded obsession, not that it helps much in the pursuit of success at the highest level.

For this reason, most of the athletes who enter the system come from lower and lower middle income groups and rural backgrounds, for whom sports are a means to their economic advancement. A stable government job with a steady income is quite a satisfying outcome for most of them. Putting all their eggs in one basket is a risk worth taking, as it is the best and easiest option for them.

Better option

It seems that Archana had the means and ambition for much more. When she realized, after a frank conversation with her coach, that a medal was unlikely, whether at Los Angeles 2028 or beyond, in a sport completely dominated by the Chinese, she decided to focus on academic excellence at an elite American university.

Education is not only a source of income, but also a way to learn more about the world around us, to broaden our mindset and our thinking. It is no surprise that most athletes who do not have a viable way to keep themselves occupied after their playing days find it difficult.

They can become coaches or get a job in the federation or a job in a government company under the sports quota but it hardly offers any job satisfaction and they have to be subordinate to higher government officials or a politician or a sports administrator heading a national body. People working in a PSU hardly work during their playing days but once they retire they do not get any preferential treatment, they are expected to work like their other colleagues and can even be transferred to far off locations.

2008 Beijing Olympics gold medallist Abhinav Bindra comes across as an eloquent individual who has experienced the ultimate in sports and also sees things from a broader perspective. The former rifle shooter never misses an opportunity to emphasise the importance of elite athletes having an alternative calling as a back-up. Bindra believes that this would reduce the pressure on them as success and failure in the sports world do not necessarily define them as individuals. Thinking 24×7 about their sport and how to achieve their goals can make one obsessive, which may not be a positive character trait and can also be counterproductive in a sporting sense.

It also helps to have an objective, unbiased view of one’s prospects. Archana knew that as long as she remained part of the national table tennis body, her sports expenses would be covered by the government and the NGOs set up to provide various forms of support. But there is no viable income model for her in the long run, once she retires or someone takes her place. There are a host of competitions coming up in various sports, which offer athletes much more in financial terms than they could have imagined before. But that is still limited to the very top athletes and Archana may have figured that she would be better off as a highly qualified economist.

Limited distribution

As it stands, people from the aspiring middle class and the affluent upper class are rare in Indian sport, except in disciplines that have significant barriers to entry in terms of equipment and access. Stories abound of parents having to sell or mortgage their families silver or other valuable assets to fund a child’s athletic dreams. Such hardships and struggles often result in a single-minded determination where anything outside the narrow sphere becomes an unnecessary distraction.

If they don’t quite make it to the top, they suddenly don’t have much to do. Even if they do get anywhere near the top, the nature of sports makes it a temporary phase, often leaving them with an empty feeling when they still have most of their lives to live.

In cricket it is always useful to have two strings to one bow, as an all-rounder has a greater chance of being selected and making a contribution. It is the same in life. Sport is an unpredictable domain. Injuries, non-selection, poor form and sheer competitiveness can take a toll on an athlete’s prospects.

Successful athletes in our country are showered with prizes and rewards, but grassroots facilities are still lacking. All these factors often prevent parents from encouraging their pupils to take up sports as a career.

The trick though is to develop a love of sport at a young age and provide facilities to play locally, not necessarily to take it up professionally or win Olympic medals. That will produce better, more well-rounded individuals and also broaden the base from which high quality talent can emerge.

Academics and sports can and should go hand in hand. It should not be an either-or situation.