Cricket without boundaries
The future of Indian cricket
Bindra’s gold medal – pointer to future?
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Abhinav Bindra’s first-ever individual Olympic gold medal for India has showed his countrymen they can now on dare to succeed at the greatest sporting stage.
His victory in the 10m air rifle after a tense finish on Monday spoke volumes about his composure and has given his team mates the confidence they can go on and claim more medals in Beijing to shake off the unwanted tag as a “one-medal” nation.
While Bindra’s success is being toasted as a great sporting moment in India, it will also go a long way to help prove the country is much more than a cricketing nation.
His triumph ironically came on a day when the cricketers slumped to an eight-wicket defeat in Colombo, handing hosts Sri Lanka a 2-1 series victory following another batting debacle.
So, will Bindra’s effort inspire cricket-mad Indians to look beyond cricket and push them to excel in other sports?
Overnight leading golfer Jeev Milkha Singh, in superb form this season, almost did the unthinkable after he finished in the top 10 of a major when he tied for ninth in the USPGA championship.
Much needs to be done in terms of sports administration and infrastructure, but have the seeds of future success beyond the cricketing fields been sown?
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The Wall
bindra put pullistop to indian gold drought in the olympic.
it is not only a victory to him,it for whole india.
i m so excited during live actio.
MY HEARTLY WISHES TO BINDRA
This is the beginning!!!!!!!
Cheers for India.
Chak de India.
naturally this the time to cheer for our india
in the country of population above than 100 crore there are only such afew atheletes who can challenge other countries for gold and other medals of such a reputed olympics ………. but we can say that this the the great beginging after 28 years and the first solo gold for our country. now this time we this the dury of our game ministry to provide more & more facilities to our players to give more ABHINAV BINDRAS to next coming competetions ……………. and finally
CHAK DE INDIA JAI HIND JAI BHARAT
Abhinav, you have done India and yourself proud. Well done. I hope you continue your form well into the future. As for people suggesting that this is just the start…implying India will win many more gold medals, please take a hike. It is a pipe dream. India does not have a sports culture. Though sports is a part of the school curriculum it always takes a back seat when compared to academics. We Indian like to work smart and not hard. It is hardly surprising that we do good in Cricket as it has always been considered a lazy man’s game.
Rock on INDIA,,.This is just the start n abhinav showed that there r many things other than cricket,its right time to wake up..So people please join the club with him..Best wishes for his future..
Apart from congragulating Abhinav on this glorious achievement I also take this oppurtunity to thank the industrial group (I believe it is the Mittals) who has provided him with the financial support and not the least, the coaches who stood behind and inspired him.
In a developing ountry like India, where the government has limits in spending on sports, more industries shall come forward to support talented athletes. Apart from bringing glory to the country such gestures will bring immense goodwill to the company.
Heartiest Congragulations Abhinav!! You really inspire us and make us proud..
Don’t you mean “sown?”
wow…a billion people in all of india and this is the best they come up with?
gorramn pathetic
Thanks Jason.
Congrats to BINDRA and India from China.
India can definitely do much better in winning more medals only if the country invested in sports like its populous communist neighbor does. India has more than a billion people and the chances of winning more golds definitely looks better.
with more than a billion population , at last , india got an individual gold metal . thats great! bravo.
Look at our neighbour china. Govt. of india has to do a lot more to catch up.
Hurray India on your gold medal!
it is the begining of the gold medal’s in INDIA by the way of ABHINAV BINDRA in olympic’s.
heartly congratulations.
Government of India needs a separate ministry only for olympic games, represented by young person, who is dedicated and give his thought only to get medels for India.
Hurray for India… The largest Democracy on earth..
Abinav’s achievement is just one off. His expolits have so far not inspired fellow shooters or the high-profile Lee-Hesh combine. The fab four in Cricket seem to have lost all the motivation. An overall improvement in the standard of Indian sport appears to be distant dream
Very thoughtful article by Anathanarayanan. Seeing the responses, I just shake my head in wonder.
Some of the respondents feel that with one gold medal by Abhinav in this Olympic Games, we can expect a flood of medals (gold of course) in the next games.
One swallow does not make a summer.
And unless India’s inefficient sporting structure (particularly the government) can spruce up its act and we get over our childish obesession with cricket (since we don’t win in any other game, we keep looking to cricket–it is a vicious circle), India will not become a global sports superpower.
Once the Olympics is over, and we move on after heroworshipping the lone Bindra and a couple of boxers, we may slip back into our bad old ways of regionalism, factionalism, officials making useless trips at the expense of budding atheletes, and sometimes bribery by aspirants to get into this or that national team.
It will be interesting to see if we have learnt anything from these Olympics or is it talk, talk and talk with little concrete action–something for which we will definitely get gold and break a world record!
India should really look to improve in world sports
China 1st in the olympics just now
should be India 2nd if looking by population!
But there wont be near the top 10
I think it points to present and not the future. Really not much thought & encouragement is given to the people who participate in Olympics from India.
How many of us knew Bindra before his victory… that’s the point we don’t even care who all are participating for Olympics…
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