Vultures will feast, nothing will change

Indian sport should probably anoint 2004 as the blackest year in its none-too-resplendent history. Just when we were recovering from the debacle and shame at Athens, another maddening episode has unfolded in Bangalore.
The sad part is that we continue to lead our lives, grappling with mundane problems, indifferent to the misery and suffering around us.A few days later, we will all forget Cristiano Junior, the frenetic and mindless activity as he lay motionless on the field, and his eventual tryst with death.
What is it with the country, with us Indians, that we don''t even react when the same people keep returning to abuse the same system, the same sport?
Just a few months ago, we watched in horror as our weightlifters were paraded as cheaters, as drug-abusers. Yet, Suresh Kalmadi promptly comes back as president of the Indian Olympic Association. He stands there beaming, with huge garlands around his neck, proclaiming that elections have been unanimously won for the first time.
There is no sign of remorse, no vision statement for the future. Life goes on.
Somewhere around that time, the Indian cricket board too squandered Rs 1,400 crore by bungling the television rights deal. Yet, there is not even a murmur from the corridors of the BCCI. Instead, Jagmohan Dalmiya is rewarded with the post of the Patron of the Board. The matter is still pending in the Supreme Court but nobody can stop him from entrenching himself.
Just last week, Cristiano died on the field, mainly because the local football association refused to shell out Rs 1000 per day to have a doctor on standby. Yet, in a few days, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi will be elected president of the All-India Football Federation. Nothing can stop him.
There may be an underlying anger in football circles; some may really believe that things have gone well beyond the threshold point. Yet nobody has the courage to stand up and take him on. We have been reduced to a bunch of helpless onlookers; we care but not enough to be spurred into action.
You can see the same story across all sports. Indian hockey is slipping deeper and deeper into an abyss but K P S Gill remains the boss; he will continue ruling the game like it is his fiefdom. It doesn''t really matter how the team is doing currently in Pakistan because that doesn''t matter in his grand design.
Yes, it''s time for a revolution in Indian sport. We need young blood, fresh legs and new ideas; and no, not among sportspersons but among its administrators. We need people with passion, with time and the desire to change things, to make India a proud nation.
Sadly, nothing will happen. Indian sport will quietly die but people like Kalmadi, Dalmiya, Gill and Dasmunshi will live on forever. They will hover in the air, like hungry vultures, swooping down every once in a while to feast on the carcass of their respective games until nothing''s left.
And that day is probably not too far.