I would like to comment on PT Usha’s absence in the Olympic torch relay in India. It was a National shame to omit one of the most celebrated sport personality from this event. Usha is a respected ’Olympian’ who was in the past the sole gold medal winner for the country in major international events. She also missed an Olympic medal by 100th of a second which made other International athletes wonder whether there is Athletics in India.
There is something Dravid doesn’t seem to know when he made the comments regarding cricket being the most popular sport in India. Athletes in India doesn’t get sponsors in even now. Anju Bobby George, one of the medal prospects from India in the 2004 Athens Olympics, spends her own money to get equipments from abroad and that too after paying customs duty etc. Why, because they are not popular like the Tendulkars and Dravids of Cricket to get Millions of Rupees worth of duty to be written off. I hope Anju doesn’t have the mind set of an average Indian sports fan. Had I been in her shoes now, I would have boycotted the Olympic event in retaliation.
True, Cricket is a sport and the most popular sport in India. That itself makes cricketers eligible to bear the torch. But movie artistes ahead of the likes of Usha, Vishwanathan Anand, Ramesh Krishnan, Geeth Sethi??!! This could be the worst PR disaster the Indian Olympic Association could have asked for in their bid to host Olympics and other International sporting events. Even after getting months’ notice in advance they missed out on an opportunity of a life time to showcase India’s achievements in sports.
Shame on you IOA.