Building a Culture, Bridging a Gap - From the Grassroots

PART II - FROM THE GRASSROOTS

Humans are bounded by a theory famously known as "Evolution". It emphasises on the metamorphosis of all the living species on this planet. It talks about the species adapting to its habitat. Now, as a matter of fact, habitat determines the evolution and behavioral patterns of all the mortals as time goes by. Consider the situation of creating an environment more suitable to sustain and develop a particular growth; it requires a certain amount of change in the existing system. This change is more influential and beneficial, if it is aimed at the grassroots level.

In this second edition of my series, I want to talk about the importance of coaching the youth to bring about a change and inculcate a sense of discipline, imparting the knowledge and guidance from the experts at the grassroots level. Bangalore Youth Football League (BYFL) was started on similar lines.

BYFL was conceptualised in 2007 by Adhip Bhandary, who himself is a football player in his own right. His involvement in football administration goes back to late 1990's when he was a football sub-committee member of the famous Bombay Gymkhana. Over the next few years, he worked in organising many football tournaments across the country and more importantly realised the need of structured youth programs.

In 2009, Adhip was part of the Sports Master's programme in Lausanne, Switzerland through which he was able to absorb a lot of knowledge and expertise which BYFL has benefited immensely since the start of this year.

“Be the change you want to see in the world”, a famous saying by Mahatma Gandhi. It is no coincidence to see a parallel between the above said line and the creation of BYFL. It is interesting to know the idea and the legacy of such an idea. A man of few words, he took his time out to give some insight on his initiative.

Creation of Bangalore Youth Football League (BYFL) –

[AB] - The idea for Bangalore youth football league came as I witnessed there was no proper league structure for the kids to play every weekend. Also the quality of coaching was below par in many parts of the city. Also since I had played professionally in Mumbai, I had decided to give back to the kids what i had received from Football, which was discipline and sense of pride and belonging. It inculcated good habits and a healthier way of life.

How is it being run in the present and the legacy of your initiative?

[AB] - Well as of now it is being run by a team of 8 coaches in 3 different locations; we have over 200 children, both from underprivileged and privileged backgrounds. The legacy of this initiative is to develop skilled, confident and creative players and above all to make the game fun for everybody.

Future Plans:

[AB] - We at BYFL are looking to branch out not only within Bangalore but also to smaller towns like Mangalore and Coimbatore. Also organize a seminar for coaching the coaches’ programme.

Currently based out of Bangalore, Adhip can be seen organising inter-school tournaments, coaching camps or sit in his office developing plans to take initiative a step further. BYFL started with a membership of 15 students and now it has grown into a pool of 180 students in a short span of time.

For those of you who want to know more on this initiative, Adhip Bhandary can be contacted through e-mail and phone.

Email: adhip.bhandary@gmail.com

Mobile: +91 – 9686098644

www.byfl.in

Building a Culture, Bridging a Gap is a forum to share some of the initiatives taken by indiviuals for the development of Indian sports.

Building a Culture, Bridging a Gap - Gather the Mass for the Mass Sport

PART 1 - GATHER THE MASS FOR THE MASS SPORT

Culture, every nation has its own unique way of presenting themselves and the same can be applied to sports. The challenges of a developing nation are plenty and one such for India is to build a sporting culture. To build a culture, there needs to be a sense of belonging. A little effort in the form of tiny drops must agglomerate in making an ocean. We have a population which can be used to harness the support for the athletes. One such initiative is for the game of football in India.

India will be participating in the forthcoming Asia Cup, held at Qatar, 2011. Mahesh Reddy, a sports management graduate from Lausanne, Switzerland, has launched an interactive fan support website to gather goodwill messages for the Indian football team.

His campaign titled “Ji Le India” is all about collecting the support in the form of messages from different parts of the country. India currently ranked 144th (latest FIFA rankings) requires a support system in order to revive the state of the game. Having involved heavily in cricket, Mahesh realises the importance of upbringing other mass sports such as football into the market. I had three simple questions to him related to his project:
What was the motive behind Ji Le?(MR) - The FANS of any sports team play a massive role in influencing the performance of the team in a game. The encouragement and support provided by fans during the thick and thin of a national side goes a long way in restoring confidence amongst the players and helps in bringing out the best in them. In an attempt to provide the Indian players with as much support as possible to excel at the 2011 Asia Cup Championship in Qatar, the Ji Le team intends to attempt a feat that has not been done ever before.
What are you doing as part of the Ji Le Campaign?
(MR) - “Ji Le” is an interactive community driven exercise to garner support for the Indian Football Team competing at the 2011 Asia Cup Championship in Qatar. Ji Le will be a completely unique and one of its kind initiatives featuring fan support through videos, hand written messages, photos, on the spot competitions and many other unconventional methods. Emphasis will be not only be on garnering as much support as possible but also to do it in the most unique form. Ji Le India will by far be an unparalleled show of fan support in the history of Indian Football.
What legacy do you intend to leave behind?
(MR) - Legacies are left behind by events that are over and done with. We at JI LE INDIA do not believe in being just a one off spark in the wilderness. We rather wish to be the spark that has the potential to ignite a raging wild fire that can bring down with it all the negatives attached to Indian Football and hopefully bring in the much needed transformation not only in the minds of the administrators but more so in the minds of the 1.2 billion odd Indian citizens. Ji Le India will be an ongoing campaign to foster as much support as possible to the Indian Football fraternity with the only change being that it would take different avatars to suit different needs!
This initiative is first of its kind in India for football. Football, being a globally renowned sport definitely needs a revamp in the second most populated country. Collective effort is necessary to make this happen and one such endeavour is Ji Le.

The website - http://www.jileindia.com/ was launched in the third week of September and so far managed to register 1300 fan messages in the form of text, photos and videos. With the Asian Cup football scheduled in January, expect the support numbers to grow. After a gap of 26 years, Indian football team will arrive in Qatar to participate in the XV Asian Cup football.

The best showing from the Indian team dates back to 1964 where they finished second, behind Israel. Israel then was part of Asian football Confederation (AFC) till the early 1970’s before they were expelled and now currently part of UEFA.

With many of the fans having expressed their support through Ji Le campaign, its the turn for the Indian football team to live the dream of their supporters. Ji Le India

Building a Culture, Bridging a Gap is a forum to share some of the initiatives taken by indiviuals for the development of Indian sports.

Dawn of New Sporting India - A reflection on Commonwealth Games

We are done with the XIX Commonwealth Games and as a 11 day event and having involved personally in few of the projects, I can say, we as a nation and sports fraternity managed to pull it off amid a lot of allegations and corruption.

I have my views on our shortcomings and how one can improve and the sort of benchmark which the Indian sports fraternity has built. Asian Games 1982 certainly was a landmark event to India just like the 1950 inaugural Asian Games. But India, in general of the 50's and 80's looks alienated in some way to the present day India. I can even go on to say, media industry has grown from the time we were successfully awarded the games way back in 2003. The entire media trail being conducted currently deserves some merit, but it is merely highlighting the problem which is prevailing in all the sectors of business across India and in the world. It has so far not put the facts in the right place and has failed to present the total picture to our public. In short, it is strong facts mis-interpreted here and there to make it a sensation.

India is an emerging market globally and unlike London, host city of Olympics 2012 and Glasgow, host city of Commonwealth Games 2014, we never faced the crisis regarding budget. While the talks of cost cuttings are on across the British Isles, we always managed to escalate the costs. We are a force to reckon, by the looks of it. In short, India and in particular Delhi, the capital city managed to host the games and the event in general was a success. I would say best ever games Indians could have managed with the present reality and problems that prevailed. I have removed the idealism from the above assessment and have based my opinion of where we stand in practical terms.

From my personal experience as a sports enthusiast, I can safely say, India as a nation is more interested to know the extremities of winning and losing. It gives us a sense of pride to know whenever we win and a dramatic tragedy if we lose. But very quickly, reality bites. It gives us a sense of belonging, but the effect does not last long. We, as citizens have other issues to deal in our personal lives and as a country we have multitude of problems to resist and overcome. In a long time, Sports caught the attention and never one knew sports, with the exception of cricket are funded heavily by the Government and not through private funds.

As a citizen, I might be made to believe by the media reports about us being a long way short of achieving perfection in holding an event. But, to me the real assessment was our past record. After all, we are just the second Asian country after Malaysia in 1998 to host the Commonwealth Games since its inception way back in 1930.

Indian athletes have won the hearts of the entire public and in the end; the games are made for the sake of athletes. It is their stage to showcase their prowess in their respective disciplines. This was and still remains the definition of Sports to many of us in India. But sadly, the business which should have remained back of house of any event came to the fore and hogged the limelight, outshone the athletes and even threatened to hold the games without the athletes. But it didn't, and this was possible through few people, who really worked hard to make this event happen and they deserve a lot of credit. These are the people who managed to shed their egos and dedicated themselves to a cause.

The event in Delhi opened up the Pandora's Box to even the organisers about building the stage so that athletes can just focus on performance. It is this building of the stage, we failed.

In Delhi, we were presented with the opportunity for a lot of work forces to be aware and get the knowledge of various disciplines involved in making a Sports event successful.

Co-ordination between various committees and parties involved was appalling. Live wire can never be live, unless it has a good connection. This event gave us the need of having a good connection. Failure of administration, Failure due to lack of sports culture (except cricket) and in short, the organising committee was a collective failure. It is the foundation which is important to wither storms and other uncertainties.

"Forget about the consequences of failure. Failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success." - Denis Waitley

In the end, it was just Commonwealth Games and it is not to be confused with Asian Games or Olympics, which has wider audience and more disciplines of sports in them.

Commonwealth Games Federation can look to benefit from the media attention they got from Delhi. It is a start in many ways for Commonwealth Games Federation to market their position better now that people from various parts of the world are aware of such an event. Frankly, Commonwealth Games was never such a big event in the Sporting World. India, in its own ways, with the problems we had, managed to make it look really big infact made it look like a Mega Event.

I would say with the kind of lessons we have managed to gather; all we (Indian sporting fraternity) need is introspection, direction, application and dedication. I am confident, although I do not have the right statistics to back me at this point, we have only to rise and I do not see us falling in the future. Every milestone moving forward will be looked upon as a benchmark. India is diverse and all the countries in many aspects are not like us.

Why don't we compete with our past to become better instead of competing with rest of the world? Instead of being in the rat race, why don't we run our own race? and be good at it each time. 

It Just Happened for the third time in Test Cricket - Halley's Comet of Cricket

Last year India's tour of Srilanka, I was eagerly waiting for this event to happen. It is such a unique thing that, it has happened only twice in the history of Test cricket. Unfortunately, it didnt happen and I had to wait a full year and few months for this moment to come.

This happens to be just a thing for cricket fans like me and their silly desires to watch something that is comparable to that of Halley's comet (rarity). I am not sure whether I will ever watch Halley's comet in my life, and this cricketing moment looks very much heading that way.

When the night watchmen, Amit Mishra got out this morning, out walked Sachin Tendulkar, needing 35 runs to get to his 30,000 runs in International cricket. These records come and go, I was more keen on him taking strike. At the end of 57th over, Sachin faced Muralitharan for the first time since 2008.

This was the moment, I have been waiting for. The prospect of watching the Test's highest run getter facing the Test's highest wicket taker.

For the record, it has happened twice before in the history of Test cricket, previous one being that of Brian Lara facing Shane Warne at Adelaide Oval in 2005, when he went Allan Border's record to become the highest run getter.

The first instance was way back in the history, at a time when test cricket was evolving. It was in 1886-87 season when Arthur Shrewsbury of England faced the might of Fred Spofforth.

Looking forward, I can safely say, it will take a while before something like this can happen. My only guess is Ricky Ponting facing Muralitharan, being a Sachin fan, I wouldnt like this event to happen.

Oh Kimmie..... Its not a dream after all

One of the most exciting news this year in the world of tennis was to see Kim Clijsters back in action. A wild card entrant, went on to defend her 2005 US Open title in a special way (she didnt play in 2006 owing to injury and retired in 2007). Records are meant to be broken, the first unseeded woman to win the Open and the first mother to win a grand slam tournament since 1980 achievement of Evanne Googalong Cawley at the Wimbledon are just some of the facts that appeases the statisticians. This victory means more to the ever changing world of women's tennis.

It was a rare sight to see married women competing and winning against top tennis players; Chris Evert and Henin previously were just the few names that comes to my mind to have won a grandslam title while being married. Clijsters went a step ahead.

Kimmie (as she is affectionately called) broke the resurgence of William sisters, none of the Russian women came close and ensured, the Dane (Carolina Wozniacki) chose yet another day to win her maiden title.

Offlate, women's tennis has become quite unpredictable with several players winning titles. The victory of Clijsters may seem like a dream to most mother tennis players, but it is possible. I wouldn't just call this as being lucky, it was afterall the case of a former No 1 coming back to action with a better determination, focus and looked rejuvenated after a 19 month hiatus which saw her recovering from the injury she had sustained in 2006, getting married and becoming a mother.

The only other player I saw winning a grand slam with a wild card was Goran Ivanisevic in 2001 when he ousted the Aussie Pat Rafter in a 5-set thriller at the Wimbledon.

This victory acts as an inspiration to every aspiring mother to reach the top of their game in any field. Hope the success story of the Belgian paves the way for more players to live a dream like she just did. The very fact that a mother winning grabs the headline when compared to a father winning explains what she just managed to do.

On a personal note...... Thank you Kimmie for a wonderful comeback !!!

These pics (with her daughter Jada) will remain in my memory for years to come......

Back to the Old School of Cricket

After a long hiatus, it was good to see ball dominating the bat . For the past few months, minds around the world were fuelled in by the shots played all around the park in the 20-20 format; today at Sabina Park it was a different scene.
Oh yes, a 50- over match after IPL and T20 World Cup was a different diet for many cricket fans (new ones).
a. India struggling to score on a placid mirror track at Jamaica,
b. Indian batting undone by accurate bowling of the WestIndian pacemen,
c. There is nothing to look at the Indian score card barring, Dhoni's 95, R P Singh's 75-ball 23 and Yuvraj Singh's cameo of 35.

It was a pity, I couldnt watch this live after India were reduced to 82/8 in the 22nd over. The ninth wicket partnership of 102 runs gave India a formidable total to bowl at the Windies. In the end, it wasnt enough, Dhoni with his 95 has showed that, he hasnt lost his brains when most people thought he must regain his lost touch of striking the ball a long way.
Each cricketer goes through these phases, and Dhoni isnt just a slogger these days in the team. He is a wicket-keeper, middle order batsman and captain of the team. It was good to see him play a captain's knock.
Due credit to Windies and this game was easily won with 15 overs to spare in the end. This was a match that showcased, what 20-20 has done to most of the batsmen; the inability to hang in there and respect the bowlers early on when there is some assistance for them from the pitch.
No offense to the 20-20 format, its just that cricketers are at fault not 20-20. It's just a excuse when people accuse 20-20; and very few acknowledge that cricket is a different game because it gives a chance to showcase the versatility of cricketers in three different formats in International cricket. (5-day test match, 50-over One day International and 20-20)
It was good to see cricket going back to the Old school of having an even contest between bat and the ball.
Although games like this do not attract new spectators, it does keep the interests alive for the purists. Experiences such as today is a rarity these days for the Indian team and it can only help the team and indiviuals to work out their game thereby improving their approach to avoid similar situations in the future.

Complete match details at: http://www.cricinfo.com/wivind2009/engine/current/match/377314.html

Sports Imitates Life

The name 'Sports Imitates Life' is based on my experiences as a kid and my growing years; where I always related sports activities to life in terms of results, joy, sadness, tears, laughs etc associated with it.

Personally, I have benefitted from sports immensely, though I have never been an athlete at a elite level. I just played for the sake of pleasure, but I fought it hard and always played to win. I was a bad loser as a kid, with time, I realised, the analogies of sports and life; and this enabled me to accept things and look at things in a different way. I have attempted to look at Sports from a life's perspective.

Sports as a tool of motivation in everyday life. Yes, people have different ways or should I say create different ways to motivate themselves. Some are external and others are internal. But the external and internal parameters are mutually related and will always continue to be.
After having done my Chemical Engineering, winning few Sports Quizzes, having watched Sports, I have always felt the gamut emotions of Sporting world to be a constant source of motivation in my life.

The title was also partly inspired by a book I read early last year by Gary Kasparov titled 'How Life imitates Chess'. When i finished reading the last page of the first part, my perspectives on sports, life and their correlation were justified.

As a Candidate Master of Sports Technology and Administration, I am convinced each day about their inter-connection. Someday my aim would be to apply what I have learnt in life to sports. Hence I decided to create a blog as a first step on 'Sports' and how it imitates 'Life'