Punjab’s sport slide

Gaurav Kanthwal  in Chandigarh

Why does Punjab lag behind Haryana in sports? The question pops up each time athletes from the two neighbouring states compete in a national or an international event. Though Haryana has lately established itself well, it is Punjab’s decline that has rankled sports lovers in the state. Punjabis, after all, are known to be sports loving people who take great pride in their achievements on the field. The also-ran status is indeed shocking.

The recently concluded Khelo India School Games (KISG) reconfirmed the reality. Haryana topped the tally with 102medals (38 gold, 26 silver and 38 bronze). Punjab won only 35 medals (10 gold, 5 silver and 20 bronze), finishing a lowly seventh. This is about two states with identical geography and identical climatic conditions, similar natural resources, identical physical attributes among the youth and a shared history of sporting successes. The significant aspect is that Punjab’s loss is a national loss in terms of talent pool.

Losing grip and how

Apart from hockey, cricket, basketball, shooting and a few other disciplines, Punjab’s medal-winning sportspersons are getting fewer in national tournaments year after year. The decline is more evident in athletics where Haryana sportspersons enjoy a virtual monopoly.

“In other disciplines too, Punjab athletes pale in comparison with athletes from the neighbouring state. If everything is identical, then the results should also be identical. As long as the sports administrators and the state government do not show the will to regain the lost status, Punjab will keep going down further,” says triple jumper Arpinder Singh, a Glasgow Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, who was awarded Rs 6 lakh cash prize by the Punjab government for making the state proud in the multi-disciplinary event. “The same year (2014) Haryana awarded the same amount: Rs 6 lakh cash prize to one of its junior national championship winners,” he said. Arpinder, like scores of Punjab athletes do so every year, joined Haryana.

Then we have wrestler Navjot Kaur, who won gold at the Asian Championship last Friday. A bronze winner at the 2014 Commonweath Games, she tried to get a Punjab government job but failed. Like many other athletes, she eventually got a job with Railways.

In the Khelo India School Games team events, Punjab could win only one gold medal. Seven boys from Ludhiana Basketball Academy, a Punjab Basketball Association (PBA) run academy, helped the Punjab cagers win the coveted gold. The other nine gold medals were won in the individual categories (Chanveer Kaur: 200m, Komal, Ekta: boxing, Harmanpreet Singh, Manpreet, Mehakpreet, Jasvir Singh: judo, Vinayak Verma: archery and Arshpreet Kaur: wrestling).

Is govt willing?

Punjab’s dwindling medal count is not new. Coaches say the children peaked in November-December during the School National Games. “It was impossible for children to give peak performance at such short notice. Our children are not used to taking part at this time of the year (February). Exams were round the corner,” said Sarabjit Singh, an athletics coach at Punjab Institute of Sports (PIS) Jalandhar.

The biggest impediment is the lack of government’s willingness to invest in sports. After toiling for years and tasting success, meritorious athletes are made to wait for jobs and cash prizes. The state has overlooked its sportspersons for two decades. For every Haramanpreet Kaur, there are countless athletes who have been applying for jobs under sports quota without success. The cash awards are not even half the amount offered by Haryana. Critics doubt that there is any such thing as sports policy. “It may exist on paper but in reality it is the discretion of the higher-ups that gets the work done,” says a sports watcher. 

Who loses, who gains?

The lucrative offers of Haryana have led to talent drain as every Punjab sportsperson who does not have a job or a steady income looks for ways to shift to Haryana. 

“What option do we have? A sportsperson’s career is short-lived. We are not getting a job in the prime of our career. Who will give us a job after we retire?” asked a Punjab race walker who is a part of the national camp in Bengaluru.

The situation is grim but all is not lost yet. Experts who are in touch with the sports at the village level say it is not that Punjab has lost all its talent overnight. In rural areas, there are still athletes who inspire hope with their hard work. Giving a boost to sports can be a very effective way to curb the drug addiction in Punjab.

“Although Punjab’s medal count is low in Khelo India School Games, let’s not forget that these 35 medals have come without much support. We need to incentivize medal-winning sportspersons so that parents encourage children to take up sport. Give them jobs, cash prizes and due respect so that more children are attracted towards sports. If you see a good athlete looking for Rs 10,000-job why would a parent ask one’s child to take up sports?” asked SS Pannu, a former India triple jump coach.

There are infrastructural issues that need to be sorted out at the earliest. Jalandhar and Ludhiana, considered the hub of athletics, have not seen an infrastructural upgrade for a long time now. “I don’t know of other places, but the synthetic tracks in Jalandhar and Ludhiana are in tatters. The sports department and the government have forgotten after laying them once,” said a coach in Jalandhar.

Coaches’s appointment

Ad-hocism has demoralized the newly appointed coaches, and the infrastructure at the major hubs has not been upgraded for decades now. Coaches’ appointment is a vexed issue in almost every state of India, but in Punjab, the successive governments have found a novel way to deal with this. And how? The sports department ropes in coaches from the Punjab Armed Police (PAP) on deputation. “These are athletes from the police department with an active career of a few years. They are not coaches, and hence, are not trained to coach athletes,” said an athletics coach. 

In 2015, the Punjab U-19 football team was champion during the 61st National School Games in Srinagar. The Punjab U-17 girls hockey team were the runners-up in the 63rd National School Games in Ambala last year. However, a notable trend that has come to light is Punjab’s school teams’ growing clout in non-Olympic sports in 2017.

Last year, the Punjab U-17 girls kickboxing team were the winners in the 63rd National School Games in Bilaspur (MP). The state U-17 girls team also won the minigolf championship during the 63rd National School Games in Nagpur. 

Haryana athletes, on the other hand, are fiercely motivated to achieve Olympic glory, and nothing else.