With less than 40 days to go for the 19th edition of the Commonwealth Games, the deluge of bad news around the event shows no signs of abating. Even with the Prime Minister’s handpicked team stepping in to take up key roles in the ahead of the October 3-14 event, skeletons continue to tumble out of the closet. It all makes for very

depressing reading. If that is the case for those who have an external — or even passing — interest in the Games, the state of mind of those who give their everything to represent their country can well be imagined. After all, events like the Olympics, Asian Games or Commonwealth Games are for, and about, the participants. They and their performances are what make such sporting extravaganzas memorable — Usain Bolt’s magic runs will be what the Beijing Olympic Games will be best remembered for, and not the undeniably stunning facilities that were specially constructed for the 2008 Summer Games. Unfortunately, what we have here is a bunch of greedy or inept administrators and their shenanigans that are hogging the limelight. For the athlete, who would have spent years toiling to get where she or he is, it is bound to be a disheartening experience. This is after all what they have worked for, a chance of putting their best foot forward in front of their countrymen. Instead they find themselves even now in the hands of callous officials more interested in a fast buck or a juicy appointment.
To have young people still coming forward year after year to toil away in the shadows for that one magic day they will run, box, swim or shoot before their own people is an inspiring tale in itself. From obscure villages in Haryana where boys dreams of following in the footsteps of Vijender Singh or girls in Kerala who want to become another P.T. Usha, sports is all about following one’s heart. A million sacrifices go into the making of sporting careers — parents with empty bank balances, teachers who will have put up patiently with long absences from classrooms and worked overtime thereafter to help their children pass those vital examinations, and so many more... Repeat this picture worldwide — there will after all be 71 nations represented at this year’s Commonwealth Games — and one begins to get an outsider’s idea of just how many dreams, hopes and aspirations will travel to New Delhi in just over a month’s time. A vast majority will return home empty-handed, the glory reserved for the very few who would have won the medals, but the saga of the unknown athlete would have been no less heroic than those who will find themselves on the podium with medals hanging around their necks.
In another sense, India’s limited engagement with sport as a culture makes it almost inevitable that the spotlight fixes itself firmly on the winner. That is one of the key reasons the national cricket team gets star treatment, why so much time and money is invested around them, to cash in on the successes they generate. So when the occasional winner from another sport comes along — an Abhinav Bindra on the shooting range or an Arjun Atwal on the golf course — they too are swallowed up in the hype and hoopla of success. What a vast majority of those celebrating such feats will miss out is what went into creating that moment. And they will wait for the next one to come along, forgetting the unknown toiler in the shadows. But it is in the shadows that tales of real heroism are to be found. And celebrated.