Do sports need carnivals?

This is the seventh article in the Daily FT’s fortnightly series titled ‘Business of Sports,’ focusing on the back office of the various sports administered and played in this country. Readers are invited to share their views and express their opinion via email to [email protected] on the features carried in this column so that a greater public participation in sports matters can surface and be debated for the benefit of all

A recent news report of the Ministry of Sports complimenting its Director General for saving Rs. 25 m in the organisation of the 37th National Sports Festival is indeed commendable and praiseworthy, in spite of detractors not necessarily happy as to how it was done! In our land, often times all you get is the brickbats no matter how hard you try or how much you achieve.

However, the pertinent question that surfaces is the whole purpose and objectives of the myriad festivals or carnivals that most bodies indulge in without a real benefit for the development of its particular sport.

We have the famous IPL which have spawned a slew of commercial benefits that far surpasses a legitimate day in the office. Sports stars now strut around like petty prima donnas without the pride of representing their country which in days gone by was a lifetime achievement.

Cricket carnivals

Today it is the big bucks that talk and the star quality only endures by picking and choosing where it must best perform. Take the Sri Lanka Cricket Team that is now grovelling in the desert with a Captain lost in the middle order and the stars of yesteryear playing out their inevitable career goals. That the carnivals of cricket have taken its toll is plain to see; like Gayle asking his Board of Management what he has to apologise for before his suspension is lifted!

Many other sports go through similar rituals, perhaps not on the same scale or presentiment as our Cricket Board. We are just witnessing the Carlton Rugby Super Sevens in the Hills while only a few weeks ago we played host to the South Asian Beach Games in Hambantota.

Frankly not all these sporting frolics are bad. Some of them clearly fit into the regime of sports development and are a natural extension of its technical and administrative programme. And that is the way it is meant to be.

A mega or apex event is a cynosure of the sports ultimate prowess as we saw in recent days with the Rugby World Club that concluded in Auckland. The Ashes Series between England and Australia or the One Day Cricket World Cup as much as the World Championships or its National equivalents for any sport are all the ultimate judgment of its International or local standards.

All such events must fit in to the very fabric of that individual sport as do the Olympics for Athletics or the World Cup for Football. At the local level, the National Sports Festivals – be it for the schools or for all comers – must exponentially tap in to the talent of the nation.

If it must be an extravaganza, let it not be at the cost of the sport. Let the political overtones be muted in favour of performance manifestation where merit shines and all other considerations play second fiddle.

Commercialisation of all sports

Commercialisation of all sports is now a grim reality. No more is a sport pursued purely for the amateur satisfaction of honour and glory. These values, important as they are, are superseded by monetary considerations that far outweigh the drama of showing up for king and country.

No doubt, professional sport has enabled people in this modern age to go where man has never gone before. A pantheon of organisational muscle has gone to give the sportsman of today a quality of life that their predecessors could only dream of. And that in itself is not the sin.

What are bemoaned are the heavy compromises and the blatant machinations employed to exploit sport for pure mercenary ends degrading and mercilessly consuming the very nature of sport on the altar of disfigured commerce.

CWG bid

That the Sri Lanka bid to stage the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Hambantota is facing mounting criticism goes beyond the political dimension for similar reasons. Sri Lanka lacks basic sporting credentials and organisational aptitudes to put itself in line as a worthy candidate. It has much more priorities to deal with.

In a sense it is therefore admirable that the Government has bucked the rationality of prowess as a fundamental criterion and commenced a hop, step and jump to win the Hambantota bid. It has assembled a top tier team even placing the exchequer at the helm, perhaps to underline the thought that money will not be in short supply!

The President himself has used the Commonwealth Forums in Perth to challenge the Australian bid in its own backyard. It has also campaigned heavily among member nations to give Sri Lanka this great opportunity, promising that all expectations will be in readiness and carrying the argument to its own citizens that the benefits will outweigh the costs.

Again, the question that confronts us is the determinant. Do we need an extravaganza to propel our nation into the vanguard of the Commonwealth or should we pursue a more refined evolution as a sporting nation and wait our turn in the future?

Nerve-wracking examples

The example these fun and games give our champions of the future is indeed nerve-wracking. Even in the schools system, we see unregulated carnivals organised at the drop of a hat. The Sports bodies have no clue nor do they supervise these shenanigans that are hijacked by politicians looking for another platform.

Not left behind are businesses seeking to inflate market shares or merely work out a CSR derivative that offers a cosy relationship with the power brokers of the day. These tentacles are extracting a lot of energy from our youth and budding sportsmen, leave alone the superstars. For these vultures, it is the show that matters.

What price, carnivals?

Therefore, whatever we do, the basic tenet must return to haunt us. What price, carnivals? Should we within the policy framework now being formulated by the Ministry of Sports lay emphasis on a measured and sustainable development of each sport?

Or should we resort to carnivals and festivals to pull the wool over the eye? Should we thus settle for the doubtful intention of improving the sport amidst the cacophony of a few uproarious days?

No doubt we need the adrenalin rush that the carnivals provide. That may be a justification good enough for the sports promoter hell bent on making his cache while the going is good. All it will then need is a few pumped up supermen strutting their stuff. That will sadly be a degenerative standard we may well be forced to embrace. When all is lost, make believe is good enough!