Drawing parallels
Olympics silver medalist Col Rajyavardhan Rathore and former Indian hockey captain and Olympian Viren Rasquinha draw parallels between sports field and life

Create the definition of success yourself and you’ll be happy…the lesser it depends on external world, the better it is,” said India’s leading shooter Col Rajyavardhan Rathore at Tycoons 2008 Leadership Summit. Self-motivation and inner communication are must to be successful, Rathore said.

“I was such a puny guy with absolutely no strength. When I took off for a camp, I remember precisely one of the coaches saying you will never ever play big hockey because you have no strength at all. But the strength doesn’t come from muscles only, it comes from your mind and heart. So, don’t ever underestimate yourself,” said former hockey captain Viren Rasquinha to the audience.

Both achievers in their specific sports arena, the duo are an inspiration not only for sports lovers but people like you and me who might not understand the technicalities of a game but can appreciate the efforts.

Col Rathore firmly believes that sports field is truly a place where character and confidence, comes up and that right from childhood till the time one dies, one should keep playing sports. He feels that in any society, any time, sports has bonded people. Sports has shown true character of men. “Team spirit, sacrifice, leadership, following, everything that you can do in life, you see in 90 minutes of a football game or hockey or any other sport,” said Col Rathore.

Rasquinha on the other hand felt that Indians have to change their attitude towards sports. He felt in India sports is seen purely as an extra-curricular activity and every parent says first go and study and if you have time, you can go out and play for half an hour. “It’s not treated as a way of life, something that comes naturally to us. That is the biggest attitudinal change I think we need to incorporate in us if we are to become a true sporting power,” said Rasquinha, who is going to join Indian School of Business (ISB).

Referring to the recent debacle of Indian hockey players at the Olympics qualifier, he said those who were criticising were not playing on the ground. There were so many factors. “The responsibility for the non-performance of so many sports, not just hockey, is with each one of us today. I think the attitudinal change is important for all of us. We need to have a much more of the sporting culture,” said Rasquinha.

Expressing his unhappiness about the prevalent conditions, he said that infrastructure was a big hurdle. He shared his travel experiences and said, “Bombay has such a big hockey culture and tradition and we have just one hockey turf ground. Last year, I went to Stuttgart in Germany which is a small city. It has 15 astroturf grounds. In whole of Germany they have around 450 astroturf grounds. In India we have just 15 astroturf grounds in working conditions. And the infrastructure difference is not just in hockey but in every other sport.”

However, both Rasquinha and Col Rathore accepted that India has an immense potential. It’s just that the tremendous raw talent available to us need to be groomed.

“The guys are talented. Indian sportsmen are sweating it out there without any external motivation. Their internal motivation is huge and this is where our strength lies. People come from humble background. They are ready to go to any extent. They have that light in them,” said Col Rathore.

Backing him, Rasquinha voiced his admiration for the Indian players. He said, “I have travelled all over the country and all across the world and in hockey particularly I don’t think there are more talented kids with raw natural hockey talent in India than in any other part of the world. That’s why I am ever so optimistic that India can do it because with raw natural skill, we are second to none.”

However, the two sportsmen in unison confessed that to make it to the top in all sports, adulation is required from the people of the nation. According to them it is very important that culture of sports and encouragement to each and every sportsmen start from each of us. Only then we (sportsmen) will be able to perform on the highest level.

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