A one-sport nation is nothing to brag about
No
sport should be a ‘child of a lesser god’. All sports are good, and they
all have special qualities that hone a particular strain. All sports
develop discipline, dedication, team-spirit, sacrifice etc. The point is
that not everyone likes Sport A and not everyone can be good at Sport B.
This is why we need to promote all sports and not have one sport
outshine other sports into oblivion and extinction
Sunday night, May 2, 2010 I went to an amazing place; a gymnasium
with all kinds of strange looking gadgets. Now I have been to gymnasiums
and have seen exercise machines. I’ve seen television programs where
well built men and women with what are taught to believe are ‘perfect
bodies’ go on and on about the virtues of such equipment. I haven’t
really paid much notice to these things.
This was the Sports Ministry gymnasium. I went to hand over something
to a friend. It was a holiday and so there were just three individuals
there, diligently going about their work. Well, ‘play’ according to
them: api hemadaama enava sellam karanna (we come to play everyday)’ my
friend said.
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One of them was walking on a machine. He increased the speed of the
belt he was standing on and soon he had to jog and then actually run.
Another was doing sit-ups and my friend was lifting weights. All of them
were muscled, ‘in shape’ and looked quite athletic. Being totally
ignorant about such places and such equipment, overwhelmed actually, I
asked questions. How is this one used, what does this one do, how often
must this one be used, are there alternatives to exercising in this way,
are those who don’t exercise more susceptible to sickness, I asked They
were kind, these young boys. They answered.
Being shut out
My friend introduced me to his friends. I got to know that one of
them, Ranjana Tharanga was the National Gymnastics Champion for more
than 10 years in a row. I was surprised because all exponents of this
sport I had seen on television seemed pretty young, especially the
girls, who didn’t seem a day older than 15. Ranjana was 36. I asked him
to explain.
‘It has nothing to do with me. You are right. The top people in this
sport have to retired before they reach 20. So the fact that I can win
the National title even at this age says less about how good I am than
about the current situation of the sport.’
Ranjana told me that gymnastics is a ‘hidden sport’. That was the
first time I had heard the term. He explained:
‘Children know about cricket. There’s a lot of money in cricket. It
is a glamour sport. So it is always in the news. It is in your face
whether you like it or not. Now this is not a bad thing. The only
problem is that cricket is so huge that other sports don’t get seen. We
are all in cricket’s shadow.’
I immediately thought of a huge tree with branches spreading out in
all directions, effectively shutting out all sunlight from reaching the
ground beneath and therefore making it impossible for other (lesser?)
plants to thrive. ‘It is good that cricket is getting that kind of
exposure and prominence,’ he interjected. ‘The problem is that when one
or two sports are privileged it is not healthy for the nation,’ he
opined.
Made me think of mono crop cultures, as such were promoted by the
Green Revolution (which promised much and ended up as a disaster). We
are a nation that gave the world a unique form of diversified
agriculture, ‘the Kandyan Home Garden’. Our people harvested things from
a few inches beneath the ground (manioc, sweet potato and other root
vegetables) to 40-50 feet above the ground (coconut). In between there
were all manner of vegetables, grains, pulses, a wide range of leaves (mallun),
spices, fruits etc.
Chandrishan Perera once said that a study had revealed that until the
age of 15, Sri Lankan children had superior hand-eye coordination to
children of all other countries. He pointed out that we don’t have a
system to identify potentialities and develop them and therefore after
some time these same children are surpassed by others who were blessed
with lesser natural endowments.
Clouded
I remember Ranjan Madugalle playing table tennis in the Royal College
gymnasium. ‘It helps develop reflexes and improves the eye,’ the late
Col A.N. Perera, one time Master-in-Charge of Cricket at Royal and my
neighbour explained to me when I mentioned it to him. He was talking
about hand-eye coordination.
Skill in one sport can feed into another. Chess will teach patience,
the virtue of effective strategizing, the importance of thinking and
out-thinking opponent. Not all ‘brawn-games’ are brain-less. I’ve had
numerous conversations with ruggerites and cricketers and have found
that there is more thinking happening than one might imagine. Col.
Perera, for instance, has told me many stories about how Col. F.C. De
Saram, long time cricket coach at Royal (and later S. Thomas’ College,
Mt. Lavinia) taught his charges how to think and to out-think the
captains of opposing teams.
We are proud of our cricket team. We are proud of Susanthika
Jayasinghe and the glory she brought to our country. We are proud of
M.J.M. Lafir for winning the World Billiard title in 1973. We are proud
of every achievement big and small of our sportsmen and sportswomen. We
are not exactly a top notch sporting nation, but we can always be
better, we can be as best as we can be (although we are not, right now).
We can be a one-sport nation of course. We don’t have to be. There’s
a cloud over ‘small sports’, Ranjana is absolutely correct. A National
Gymnastic Champion who is 36 years old is nothing to brag about, he
concedes. His is a lament. Someone should hear him out.
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