Covid miseries and escape through sport

Rohit Mahajan

One wonders — how much joy did sport ever bring to, say, those who travelled in a cement-mixer last year in order to reach their villages during the lockdown? Or those who perished in Maharashtra on the railway tracks on which they were sleeping, exhausted during their long march to their villages in Madhya Pradesh? Evocative photographs of their bodies and their rotis lying on the tracks were printed in the newspapers — collective conscience was pricked, but not for long. All that is now forgotten, for we’re buffeted by waves of miseries.

In ‘My Broken Love’, an account of German writer Gunter Grass’ experiences in India and Bangladesh in the 1970s and 1980s, he is disturbed by the cheerfulness of India’s most miserable people, such as slum-dwellers, who seem to have little more than their malnourished bodies; he’s bewildered by celebrations of festivals even as natural calamities destroy lives and property not far off.

It’s a series of calamities for the country’s most miserable — the collective conscience has become calloused.

Across the world, a few sportspersons have died of Covid; the list in India includes former cricketer and politician Chetan Chauhan. But the pageant of sport must continue, due to its utility if not for entertainment. Sport’s greatest utility lies not in jingoistic nationalism, but in making people healthier and fitter.

On March 25, one year after the government imposed the first lockdown, the Indian football team, with an average age of less than 24, drew with Oman in a ‘friendly’ match. Oman, placed 23 spots higher than India’s 104 in the world rankings, had won their previous match, in 2019. This time around, India did not allow Oman to score — an Indian player scored both goals in the 1-1 draw. Chinglensana Singh, one of the 10 debutants fielded by coach Igor Stimac, let in an own-goal after a defensive lapse by the goalkeeper, Amrinder Singh. Manvir Singh, a 25-year-old from Punjab, a product of the Minerva Academy, scored the equaliser after an accurate pass from Bipin Singh. Of the four Singhs named here, two are from Punjab, two from Manipur, two states as far apart as possible in geography and culture — a lovely conceit of sport. Holding Oman without the team’s best player, Sunil Chhetri, who is recovering from Covid, was a fine achievement.

The shooting World Cup in New Delhi, the first multi-national sports event in the country after the lockdown, too, brought cheer to fans of sport. India are on top of the medals table, though the level of competition was not very high due to limited participation. However, there were some very good performances, by the young shooters especially. Among those who won their first World Cup medals were two Chandigarh youngsters — 18-year-old Vijayveer Sidhu won silver in men's 25m Rapid Fire; and 20-year-old Ganemat Sekhon won three medals in skeet, including an individual bronze. Sidhu was shooting in his first World Cup final; Ganemat, who remembers falling two feet backward when she first fired the big double-barrelled gun as a 14-year-old, became the first Indian woman to win a World Cup medal in skeet. She’s a trailblazer who should inspire young girls to take to big-gun shooting in greater numbers.

Despite a few Covid cases at the World Cup — which were dealt with efficiently — and a few lapses and protocol infringements by shooters, the event has provided the blueprint for international sport to return to the country. Covid isn’t going anywhere in a hurry — and sport can’t be shut down indefinitely. That’s the lesson of the last 12 months.

Sport is an effective anti-depressant for many; others may turn to God, godmen or psychologists in an effort to purify or purge memory, to forget Covid and other accumulated miseries.

Cricket’s god, meanwhile, has reported he’s Covid-positive.