Editorial | National Sports Day

The nation marks its Sports Day today. The day is expectedly being celebrated with huge fervor and spirit which commemorates the birth anniversary of the legendary Hockey Olympian, Major Dhyan Chand. As a sports maniac nation, India is at the cynosure in Sports by virtue of its immense Sports talent and potential far and wide. The Sports fertility, ranging from rural to urban areas, far-flung villages to small towns, across the different regions of the country is incredible, with players equipped with extraordinary potential to defy all the odds and reach to the highest standard levels. Every year a good amount of the budget is allotted for the development of Sports in the country and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports looks after the various Sports activities, projects, infrastructure at the central level while as the respective ministries of the states operate at the state level. Despite all this, keeping in view the population and area of the country, there is a lot yet to be done to realise the full Sports talent in the country. A country which has produced the greatest Sports wizards like Sachin Tendulkar, Dhyan Chand, Kapil Dev, Rajavardhan Singh Rathore, Abhinav Bindra, Neeraj Chopra and the list goes long. If provided with the international level infrastructure, training and development can surely find its place in the top ten medal winning nations in the Olympics. Though, India is predominantly an ardent Cricket loving nation, while its national game is hockey, it is showing its international presence in many other Sports fields like Tennis, wrestling, boxing, shooting, athletics, etc. The need is to not rest on our laurels but to boost Sports activities at the local levels to make this nation reach new heights and touch new avenues. This land is full of gems and the need is to find and furnish them.