In a short span of time, India learnt that discus thrower Neelam J. Singh was the only athlete who tested positive for a dope violation at the WorldAthletics Championship in Helsinki. As if that wasn't enough, the Indian football team lost three successive games- hold your breath - to Fiji, and the hockey team did not fare any better in the Robobank Trophy eight-nation tournament in Amstelveen.
The Athletics Federation of India, expectedly, laid the blame for the biggest doping fiasco sincel'affaire Sunita Rani in 2002 at Neelam's feet. For years, the more strident anti-doping campaigners in India have been questioningthe AFI's wisdom in recommending coaches, trainers and recovery experts from central Asian republics like Ukraine.
In the distant Fiji islands, the Indian football team crashed to three defeatsin as many games. And to think that India could not even complain of hostile crowds in thestands, it was playing in a home away from home atmosphere! The All-India Football Federation was quickly blaming the lack of fitness and selection of players.
In Amstelveen, India went down to Spain, Germany and Pakistan, causing coach Rajinder Singh Jr to ask some of the senior players to quit. The ones who must really quit are the bosses who lord over the destiny ofthe players - and the future of the sport that India had once dominated but hassince struggled to make its presence felt.
To make matters worse, a woman cricketer who has represented India over a long time was helplessly reduced to tears by the machinations of some who ensured that a state award would go to a player with far less experience and distinction.
Instead of putting up their hands and owning up responsibility, federation officials are ever ready to point elsewhere. They will blame the government, players, corporate houses, cricket, coaches, the public, media, weather, dissidents in the federation and just about anything and everything but take no share of the blame upon themselves.
It is the easiest thing to blame cricket for all of India's sporting ills but it must be said that corporate houses do support sport and sportspersons who offer promise of good results, high visibility and entertainment to those watching them on television. A Narain Kartikeyan or a Sania Mirza will bear testimony to that statement.
There really is so little room for cheer. Viswanathan Anand and Sania seem to be the only ones bucking the trend. We really have to ask ourselves why things are in such a bad state that we go to town when a Sania breaks into the top 50 ofwomen's tennis rankings or an Aparna Popat wins a round at the World Cup badminton championship or an Arjun Atwal does well on the PGATour.
Hanging by slender threads all the time and looking for the silver lining to theperennial dark clouds has become our favourite pastime between spells of watching England and Australia dish out heady contests in the Ashes series or the English Premiership, the German Bundesliga and the F1 races.
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When will that ever change? When will we have the fortune of watching Indian heroes parade their skills at the highest levels?
