Dutt can make a difference

The new sports minister will have been inundated with laments and regrets about the state of Indian sports, but Mr Sunil Dutt is better off looking ahead rather than behind to succeed in his extraordinary assignment. There are enough encouraging signs that the future can be infinitely better than the past.
Never mind the nervous sensex, the economy is on a roll, and if wealth is being created, there is reason to hope that sports standards will improve.For that, of course, the government should provide rich incentives to those who support sports. If money is raised under duress or charity, it is spent unwisely and also the supply line dries up soon.
Yet money is only a means to an end. To raise the bar, as it were, there is a need to get a ''sports movement'' going in the country. It means changing the ethos, the mindset __ the way Indian will think and live. Which is why I am optimistic that Indian sports has a future, because the way we think and live has already undergone a huge change in the last decade or so.
Urban and rural India alike today aspires to be world class. Media penetration is all pervasive, international standards of achievement are now brought to every household instantaneously, and the young of the country are aspire to
The new sports minister will have been inundated with laments and regrets about the state of Indian sports, but Mr Sunil Dutt is better off looking ahead rather than behind to succeed in his extraordinary assignment. There are enough encouraging signs that the future can be infinitely better than the past.
Never mind the nervous sensex, the economy is on a roll, and if wealth is being created, there is reason to hope that sports standards will improve. For that, of course, the government should provide rich incentives to those who support sports. If money is raised under duress or charity, it is spent unwisely and also the supply line dries up soon.
Yet money is only a means to an end. To raise the bar, as it were, there is a need to get a ''sports movement'' going in the country. It means changing the ethos, the mindset __ the way Indian will think and live. Which is why I am optimistic that Indian sports has a future, because the way we think and live has already undergone a huge change in the last decade or so.
Urban and rural India alike today aspires to be world class. Media penetration is all pervasive, international standards of achievement are now brought to every household instantaneously, and the young of the country are aspire to be winners rather than also-rans in every walk of life.
It may take longer for us to catch up in sports than, say, information technology for historical and cultural reasons, but there is every reason to believe that with the support systems in place, Indian athletes can compete with the best.
There is still some bewilderment that Mr Sunil Dutt, a 74-year-old veteran, was given this portfolio (and youth affairs). But age is a state of mind, and over the years, he has proved himself to be a helluva go-getter in every endeavour. Mr Dutt now has to get, set and go. His term is only five years, but what he does in this period could make a difference for the next century.
This is the season of renunciation, and while it is unknown if Nasser Hussain was inspired by Sonia Gandhi, his retirement immediately after scoring a match-winning Test hundred caught cricket followers with as much surprise as did Mrs Gandhi''s refusal to hold office after the triumph in the elections.
I first met Hussain on India''s 1996 tour of England when he was consolidating his place in the team. He was an intense player with an air of mock casualness about him. He was a cricketer with modest ability, but everyone around him seemed to know of his deep ambition. And respected it.
After he became captain, the facade of casualness dropped rapidly to be replaced by a hardness that won Hussain as many critics as it did admirers.
Some critics reckoned he was like Douglas Jardine. I thought he had similar ambition without having a hate-subject like Bradman to focus his rage and strategies on, which is why Hussain often ended up being peevish or a moaner. But if recent form is any index, England have benefited from his reign in the sense that they have come to appreciate winning.
Should he then have gone after making a hundred? I believe Hussain has done the right thing. He knows that glory comes with pitfalls. Always better when people ask why than why not.
And finally, Real Madrid''s five defeats in a row, including four at home, tells me that eleven superstars may make banner headlines in newspapers but may still not make a team.