We lose, because we deserve to lose

India will never produce sporting champions. We, as a nation, do not deserve to.

For why? Because we, as a nation, vote geriatrics into office. We install, foster, perpetuate, a gerontocracy.

And old men cannot produce young champions.

Every so often, we ask ourselves, why oh why does the second most populous nation in the world fail to produce even one sporting champion?

Wrong question. The one we should be asking ourselves is, why should we? Who cares for sport anyway?

In the United States, NBC won the rights to telecast the Olympics. Given that the time difference between Australia and the US is around 15 hours, NBC realised that if it relayed live, the prime time events would be shown late night, US time, and would thus miss out on the prime time audience.

Which of course makes the commercial sponsors unhappy.

So the NBC took a decision to delay telecast, by as much as 20, 24 hours. A decision that has sparked protests of such magnitude that on its website, NBC was forced to disable its email link, in order to stem the flow of hate mail.

And yet, the protests continue. On a chat site just now (this is being written at 6 am, India time), I noticed US-based sports lovers attempting to coordinate a campaign whereby they flood NBC offices around the country with telephone calls, create a snail-mail storm wherein disgusted natives would write of their determination to boycott goods produced by any of the sponsors of Olympics telecasts in America.

Their reasoning, as a guy by the name of Matt explained to me on the chat site just now, was simple -- it is because of the sponsors that American sports-lovers are being deprived of the greatest show on earth. Therefore, it is the sponsors who deserve their collective wrath.

Now check out the scene in India. Though there were a host of channels bidding for telecast rights, the IOC awarded it to Prasar Bharti. The reason given was that Doordarshan, while not being the highest bidder (it never is), could ensure the maximum viewership.

DD delivered, and how -- in a nation that crossed the one billion population mark and is still counting, the number of people who got to watch Olympic action live is, hold your breath, zero.

Why? Because DD in its wisdom decided that the Olympics was an ideal money-making opportunity. And without warning, without notice (I wonder, was this covered under the Official Secrets Act?), converted its Sports feed into a pay channel.

It was not thought necessary to alert cable operators ahead of time. It was not thought necessary to ensure that decoders had been made available (for a price, of course) to cable operators around the country.

The government is like that. One day, the DD Sports Channel is showing you live kabbadi and dead footage from past Olympics. The next day, there is an electronic snowstorm on your TV screen, where the sports channel used to be.

In the first day of full competition, a legend was born when 17-year-old Ian Thorpe effortlessly broke a world record he had set up just under four months ago, then came back in less than an hour and produced yet another incredible effort.

We here in India, of course, know of this through hearsay.

On the same day, badminton hope Aparna Popat lost a won game and crashed out in the opening round. We know that through email newsletters.

But perhaps I am being a bit unfair here? DD did in fact send a camera crew all the way to Sydney to chronicle our performances. Given the paucity of time, the Aparna game could not be telecast, but the DD anchor provided us with some wonderful insight in the capsule. As the player walked off, head hanging, eyes blank with the awful blankness of shattered hopes, the DD television reporter walked up to her, stuck the mike under her nose, and asked, "So, Aparna, how do you feel about the result?"

That is insightful coverage for you.

I thought I had seen everything, right on day one. But this morning took the cake. When I turned on the TV, I was treated, on the national channel, at 3.30 in the morning, to the entire men's individual time trials event in the cycling velodrome.

Have you ever watched one? One after the other, competitors get on their bikes, and go two rounds. There is none of the excitement of a race -- the only opponent is a clock, tucked away in the corner of your television screen.

Then they showed me 15 minutes of women's beach volleyball. Eye candy, certainly, all those babes jumping around on the sand in their well-filled bikinis and all that.

But what was the point, really, of the two programmes? If the argument for telecasting sport is, in essence, that it serves to inspire wannabes, then DD picked the two sports that have zero chance of India ever participating. Do we have a velodrome in this country? Can any four women set up a net, on one of our beaches, strip down to their bikinis and play volleyball without, in minutes, losing their bikinis and much more besides?

Okay, call that a crib. At least they were showing something, right?

So, at 5.29 in the morning, precisely, the beach volleyball images vanished, to be replaced by a clock. The digits ticked down, to the 5.30 mark. While we here in the Rediff office pulled up our chairs, and settled down to watch the live telecast of India's first Olympic hockey fixture.

Hockey is our national game, right?

So, at 5.30 sharp, we got Bhajans! Very uplifting it was, too -- I felt considerably more purified in spirit, after that.

Then we got Gyan Dharshan. Made perfect sense -- having first elevated me to a high moral plane, DD was ensuring that I did not lag behind intellectually either.

First spiritually uplifted, then intellectually stimulated, I wondered -- what next? I should have known -- it was Entertainment! Brought to me by that other official body -- the National Films Development Corporation.

Rangoli, the programme was called. It featured -- at least, the part I watched before I finally shut the screen down in sheer disgust -- Dimple Kapadia talking of her screen experiences, interspersed with song clips from Sagar.

How many years ago did Sagar hit the marquee? When did Dimple last act?

Who cares? Not DD, which was hell bent on entertaining the hell out of me.

Meanwhile, India took the field. And blanked Argentina 3-0. To follow that game (unlike DD, we are in the news business), we had to call up colleagues and contacts in Australia and keep the phone line open while they talked us through it all.

For which we are duly grateful to the Indian government. I mean, if our pace in communications matched our speed in other areas, we would be sending inland letters (brought to you by the Post and Telegraph department, amen!) still.

The Olympics is into its second day, today. Have you, till date, heard either the Information and Broadcasting minister, or the Sports Minister, or the Home Minister, or in fact any minister at all, offer up a single word of explanation (never mind apology) to a country completely, utterly, deprived of the greatest show on earth? A show, mind you, that we have telecast rights gifted to us for?

Worse -- have you heard of any citizen's body, anywhere in this country, staging a protest, a demonstration, a dharna? Have you heard even the faintest murmur of protest? From anyone, anywhere?

That sums up our sports ethos, ladies and gents. We have none. Not the government, nor the people.

If we had even the slightest interest in sport, we as a nation would by now have made things searingly hot for the government, and forced it to act.

Is there a solution? Of course there is -- assuming that anyone wants to solve it. Right now, DD Sport is shut down because it is encrypted. So how long does it take to reverse the process, and stream live, unencrypted images, again?

Will that not cause financial loss, could be the next question.

Is a blank screen -- which is what DD Sports is now -- financially profitable? Is showing Dimple Kapadia's reminiscences on national television financially profitable, anyway?

There is a huge argument in favour of immediate de-encryption, or whatever the right word is for the reverse process. DD won the rights from the IOC on the premise that it would make the Games available to people all over the country. And the bulk of our population resides in the small towns and villages. By the time the decoders -- if they ever materialise -- are supplied to the small-time operators in our hinterland, Athens 2004 would probably be into its final day. So, if the government wants to live up to its promise, it needs to de-encrypt, and show the Games, free, now.

Will they? Will they, hell! Why should they, when we have through our silence and apathy so clearly shown that we don't care?

But let me not paint a completely dismal picture -- there is hope on the horizon. The cable operators and the government are both desirous of solving the impasse. Therefore, they have decided to have a meeting to find ways to solve the problem.

That decision -- to have a meeting -- was taken on Friday. Unfortunately, the next two days are Saturday and Sunday. You don't expect governments to work, and ministers to attend meetings, over the weekend, do you? After five days of intensely draining work running this vast and wonderful country of ours, they are entitled to their weekends off, aren't they?

Shouldn't they be allowed, for just two days in the week, to put their feet up and, like me, watch Rangoli on DD while the world thrills to the Olympics?

So the meeting will take place on Monday. If the ministers and cable operators can fix a time when they are both free, that is....

Which is not to say that our government has been completely idle over the weekend. Realising that cable operators might tune in to neighbouring channels (like Pakistan Televison, for instance) that are showing at least part of the Games live, the government moved swiftly.

Thus, on the national channel, every 15 minutes, there is an announcement being flashed. It says that Doordarshan has acquired all rights to telecast the Games. That as per the Cable and Television Network Regulatory Act of 1995, only DD's signals may be shown. And that any violation will be prosecuted.

It does not specifically spell out the death penalty, but it is implicit in that weighty warning, carried in bold white type over a black background.

Ever heard of the dog in the manger? Which would neither eat the straw, nor let the hungry cow eat it?

Tell me -- if this is the priority we give to sports, what incentive is there for any young kid out there to take to the field of play?

He would much rather run away to Bombay and try to become a film star -- at least then, they show you on Rangoli, five years after you have retired.

You know what? We are losers at sport, for only one reason -- because we deserve nothing better.

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