Sports in India: Girls Are Getting There

[Guest guest]

(Sept 12, 2006): When it comes to girls, excellence in academics is

welcomed, but in sports?

 

Sports equals P.T. classes, perhaps a spot of tennis or a cool summer

swimming camp. Sports means an excuse to buy fancy shoes and

accessories. Sports entails occasionally watching the last few

nail-biting overs of a cricket match, en famille. Sports, well, is a

guy thing and doesn't really amount to much in most girls' lives.

 

Though the love affair with marks, textbooks and engineering seats

does cut across the gender barrier, boys fare slightly better than

girls in sports. Even if all boys don't aspire to be a Tendulkar,

sports still remains a rite of passage (is there any street in India

without its own amateur, yet terribly professional, gully cricket

team?) But it remains, according to the parents of most girls, a

"waste of time and money". The attitude, that's the problem...

 

"Girls are actively encouraged to learn an art form — dance or music,

but rarely sports," rues Vidya Pradeep, manager in a private bank.

Excellence in academics is welcomed; in arts, encouraged; but in

sports? "If a girl gets really interested in a sport and wants to take

it up, there are a string of objections from grandparents, uncle and

aunty," reasons her husband Pradeep Raghunathan, software professional.

 

Shiny Wilson, trail-blazing athlete, Asiad champ and four-time Olympic

participant, points out that studies take a definite preference over

sports. "Moreover, during P.T. lessons, kids are simply sitting under

the trees and talking; it's only before the annual sports day do you

ever see any activity at all in the grounds!"

 

The proof lies in television. Or rather in its viewers. Look closely.

When a major match is telecast, the `adoring' crowd in front of the

television is largely hirsute and mildly delirious. Jagannath, IT

consultant, reminisces about a bachelor party that was organised to

celebrate (surprise, surprise!) the live telecast of a cricket match.

"The noise level increased, conversations led to arguments on the best

coach, best player, the way cricket should and should not be played,

and ended in an outburst of aggression and emotions."

 

Pradeep also admits to screaming at the batsmen — `tap it on the

legside and run man!' — while feverishly watching matches with friends.

 

Honestly, how many women will throw a party to watch a cricket match?

Or fight bitterly over who scored the maximum goals? (Or is it runs?)

As Nithya, HR professional, retorts: "Unlike men, very few women would

lap up repeat episodes of a match played 10 years ago and our world

definitely doesn't end because there is a match on TV." She concedes

that there are now more women viewing sports, though she doubts if

they would, if ever, passionately shout out instructions to a team

playing a gazillion miles away.

 

Rohini Rau, Asian sailing champion and medical student, is however

thankful that some things are fast changing. "When I started sailing

there were hardly five or six women sailors in India. It's heartening

to see almost 50 of them who're keen on it today. But then, people

still come up with excuses like outdoor sports tans the skin or makes

one too muscular."

 

There's also no avoiding the fact that sportspersons face several

constraints. Juggling sports and studies, doing justice to two taxing

fields can be rather demanding. "But it is possible. Everybody is

capable of doing it... just as long as you believe you can, and love

what you're doing," says Rohini. Incidentally, Rohini is the only

sportsperson in the international sports circuit who is also studying

medicine.

 

Vidya points out that the careers of many sportswomen come to a

grinding halt right after marriage and a baby. But Rohini reasons: "As

long as the guy is understanding there is absolutely no need to give

up something for which you've given your all."

 

Shiny Wilson believes that with determination and hard work, it is

possible to overcome impossible odds. "Nine months after I delivered

my first child, I was the Indian champion; in less than a year, I was

the Asian champ. Naturally, I had trained very hard for it."

 

She further elaborates that there are now many incentives to take up

sports. This attracts and retains talent. "Prize monies have

increased; sports quotas (in colleges and offices) make it possible

for sportspersons to straddle both worlds; and, more important, there

are several role models for girls to follow!"

 

The last bit is perfectly true. Sportswomen are currently the rage —

when they're not winning medals by the dozen, they're beaming at you

from billboards, they're glamorous, they're gorgeous, and best of all,

they're giving cricketers a run for their popularity. Sania Mirza

(Indian tennis "Goddess", as one fansite calls her!), Joshna Chinappa,

Rohini Rau and Anju George have certainly given little girls plenty to

dream.And Sania is solely responsible for the serpentine queues of

pig-tailed hopefuls at tennis academies.

 

Then again, who really wouldn't want to be a Sania?

 

SOURCE: The Hindu, Chennai. Girls are getting there, by APARNA

KARTHIKEYAN.

URL:

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2006/09/12/stories/2006091201760300.htm