Friends, post independence India was trying to recover from the atrocities of the British. Our economy was not in sound health and our people struggled to meet the basic needs of their families.

People in post independent India, therefore never thought of promoting sports as a career for their kids. It was always felt that more hands to work on the field meant more income thus leading to prosperity.

However, in the years later as we have started to move up in the list of developing nations, we as a nation and a society are trying to emerge as a soft power too. Merely emerging economically and with military strength may not be the way forward. It is also important to show the world that India can produce world class sports persons.

In this quest, perhaps sports academies at the ground level in our schools, cities and villages will play the most important role by identifying talent early and grooming them for higher levels of the sport. The great sporting nations today who have a higher success in International Games have sports training starting at the age of 5 for most sports. Children are then groomed to become sports professionals.

While too much addiction also takes away the innocence of the child, efforts like the Maharaja Umaid Singh Trust that promotes sports and gives children decent exposure through a structured program.

I hope that by 2020 we emerge as among the top 5 sporting nations in the world and that stars like Saina Nehwal, Sania Mirza, Apoorvi Chandela, Yogeshwar Dutt and even Mohammed Shami are found in every nook and corner of India and groomed as early as possible to rise and shine.

– Dhananjai Singh Khimsar