Despite the Force India team taking second place at the podium at the Belgian Grand Prix there is no rethinking in the sports ministry on its view that Formula One is not enough of a sport.

Sports minister M.S. Gill congratulated Vijay Mallya on his team’s win but labelled Formula One as ‘expensive entertainment’.

The sports ministry has refused approval to the promoters of Formula 1 in India, JPSK Sports, to pay 1.7 billion rupees to the Formula One Administration for the proposed Indian Grand Prix of 2011.

The ministry has reasoned that the Formula One race “does not satisfy conditions which focus on human endeavour for excelling in competition with others, keeping in view the whole sports movement from Olympic downwards.”

It wrote to the promoters that Formula One is not purely sports, it is entertainment and the venture by JPSK Sports was a commercial initiative.

The sports ministry’s argument stands on two legs. Formula One is expensive entertainment and the outcome is determined by technology hence it is not ‘pure sports’.

Is sport supposed to be boring — that’s a question which can be posed at least rhetorically?

Sports like golf and tennis aren’t exactly cheap sports I can play in my backyard, assuming I had one.

As for human endeavour in Formula One, former world champion Michael Schumacher couldn’t return to the sport because of fitness concerns. Surely there is more to Formula One than just zippy cars and technology.

Technology and better training determine the outcome in all sports. Use of polyurethane swimsuits has been debated in swimming.

Commercialisation of sports has for long been debated. Cricket is probably one of the most commercialised sports in India.

Should we go back to some pristine version of the game when it was played on the village greens?

Cricket is heavily tilted in favour of batsmen because the gentry used to bat and the commoners used to bowl when the game was evolving, according to a school text book I chanced upon once.

Can any sport be divorced from its social context? Are there any sports in the country which can be called ‘purely sports’?

Commercialisation and flow of money in sports has surely helped sportsmen get by better.

Periodicals have carried stories of old sports warhorses living the last days of their lives in penury.

Sports certainly became respectable in the middle-class society I grew up in after they linked up with money.

Otherwise sports was for the academic losers and failures, seen as the cause as well as the effect.

India’s absence in most sporting arenas didn’t help either.

My six-storey school building did not even have a playground. It was built over for the science labs.

The Olympics, mentioned by the sports ministry, have allowed professional athletes to compete in certain sports like tennis since 1988.

Is the ministry’s view justified?

India can boast of taking a major stride in Formula One after Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella drove from pole to second on the podium at the Belgium Grand Prix on Sunday.

The first points for the team owned by India’s liquor and airlines baron Vijay Mallya was a pleasant surprise, the team having failed to make an impact since it was launched ahead of the 2008 season.

The Indian media lapped up the news, indicating that F1’s popularity in India will only grow more rapidly as Indian fans gradually embrace the team as theirs.

Although home fans would have hoped an Indian driver had produced the achievement, India would still celebrate Fisichella’s success.

Indian F1 hopes were given a huge boost when Narain Karthikeyan was signed up by Jordan in 2005. However, an uncompetitive car and his lack of experience at the highest level meant India’s first F1 driver stayed very briefly in the limelight.

Karthikeyan’s subsequent role as a tester for Williams pushed him behind the scenes and he has now moved to the A1 Grand Prix, the world cup of motor racing, with his Formula One hopes all but over.

The Force India podium could not have come at a better time, as India gear up to stage an inaugural Grand Prix in 2011.

It comes after local media revealed this week that the sports ministry had refused a request to remit $36.5 million by JPSK Sports, the private company building the race track near New Delhi,  to the Bernie Ecclestone’s British-based Formula One Administration.

The sports ministry felt Formula One was more entertainment and less sport and rejected the company’s request, but Mallya believes the decision, due to India’s exchange control regulations, is unlikely to prevent the 2011 Grand Prix.

Force India’s success will definitely lift the mood in Mallya’s camp as he was facing questions about the future of the team due to issues in his businesses.

However, Mallya can take credit for shuffling the management and taking direct charge of affairs earlier in the season, having refused to bow to sentiment while choosing the drivers.

He picked Fisichella to use his experience, alongwith German Adrian Sutil, ignoring Karthikeyan as well as the promising Karun Chandok.

I have to admit I am not a Formula One fan but I did jump to the offer of going to Singapore for the floodlit race and am I glad I went! The experience of watching a race live is incomparable to what you get on television especially since this one was a night street-race and an Indian team was competing (Never mind the fact that one of the team’s drivers crashed out mid way and the other ended the race in the last spot.)

As a non-F1 enthusiast it was only when I was at the race that I learned how much the team matters in a sport that seems like a one-man show. It is the mechanics, the analysts and the managers that make or break the race for the team driver. A case in point is top qualifier Felipe Massa who lost his lead in the race because he was given an incorrect green signal while he was in the pit refueling and drove off with the fuel pipe in his car only to drive back and lose those precious seconds.

Hysteria apart, the Grand Prix showed the tiny city-country of Singapore’s unbelievable capability to host 300,000 people over three days with impeccable organization, top security and an entertainment appeal… It had some like me pledging to come back for more!

The attention to detail was immaculate. An otherwise dull and plastic city infested with bankers and professionals, managed to come of its own displaying a festive spirit for one of their biggest weekends to date.

What impressed me about the event was undoubtedly the organizational skill of the Singaporeans. There were plenty of English speaking staff directing you with a wide smile on their faces, young locals cheering you on as you left the venue, well demarcated gates and public transport to take you to your gate, a Singapore Sling bar to give you a local experience and most importantly - punctuality.

Monaco which also has a street circuit is considered the glitz and glamor capital of the world and a tall order for our Asian brothers to match up to. But I have to say, Singapore managed to reach the bar and set it higher for the rest of the countries organizing F1 races in the near future!

Singapore has undeniably set an example that needs to be matched and improved upon… Now the million dollar question is- will India be able to pull it off in 2011?