Guest Author - Clare Chambers
The most popular sports in India include - cricket, chess, badminton, field hockey, tennis, football, and golf. Hockey, in which India has an impressive record with eight Olympic gold medals, is officially the national sport. Recently however, it has been argued that cricket is beginning to dominate the sport scene in India. In fact one report went as far as to say that cricket is presently ‘killing’ the development of other sports India. It has even been said, that a great number of people in India treat cricket as their fifth Veda or fourth Religion and to substantiate this further, the Indian Cricket Board, (BCCI) is currently the world’s richest sporting organisation, with a valuation in excess of $2 billion.
An Historical Perspective
Tennis has been a popular sport in India since around the 1880s when the British Army and Civilian Officers brought the game to India. Soon after regular tournaments like the 'Punjab Lawn tennis Championship' at Lahore (Now in Pakistan) (1885); 'Bengal Lawn Tennis Championship' at Calcutta (1887) and the All India Tennis Championships at Allahabad in (1910) were organised. In the history of major tournaments, India has already beaten among others France, Romania, Holland, Belgium. Spain and Greece in Davis Cup ties (1921 to 1929). India’s strong and consistent, albeit small-scale, Wimbledon participation since the late 1930’s has been underappreciated. There are however many improvements that need to be made to the way in which people perceive tennis in order for successive generations of elite Indian players to continuously move up through the world rankings and gain international media interest.
Cricket v Other Sports
So what about the importance of other sports in India – perhaps you disagree with the strong view that cricket is killing them. Statistically, however, thanks to excessive media coverage the sport has more followers and is a bigger source of entertainment when compared to other sports such as tennis. A similar situation prevails in the UK and America where one or two sports dominate the sport scene. In the UK football is, of course, the major sport, which for many young boys at least, tends to diminish their interest in other sports such as tennis. Whatever the reasons for cricket’s or football’s popularity anywhere, the question for tennis fanatics remains - can tennis ever gain as much popularity as these other sports? In the case of India for instance, sporting organisations ought to be aware that cricket is played in only about 8-10 nations in the world. Therefore, even if India reaches the top in this game, it will not get true international sporting recognition and appreciation as a result of that feat. It could be argued that it’s far better to be in the top 30 in a wider variety of sports than be at the top in cricket. In the case of Indian tennis, a stronger tennis culture must been cultivated and maintained to rival that of other top-ranked sports nations, so that great achievements in all sports are recognised and celebrated.
Cultivating Enthusiasm for Tennis
The question remains, how exactly do we develop a tennis culture? The unmentioned victories of world class Indian tennis players even today show that Indian players are more hindered by the lack of tennis culture within India in moving upwards in world rankings rather than a lack of physical ability and athletic attributes. A disregard for a sport in any country means that funding sources for sport are not channelled into developing new training facilities; investment in sports science research relating to the sport in question is not promoted, and access to the sport at grassroots level is not encouraged. The old adage, that tennis is a rich person’s sport still rings true in most countries and cultures. Furthermore, it is claimed that the rampant growth of Indian cities is taking place without regard for the development of parks and sports centres – even schools have become too crammed in number so that the development of a child’s sporting talent or cultivation of their interest in sport, is often neglected.
I believe there are key co-dependent factors which enable a country to create tennis stars:
• Engagement of BOTH girls and boys in the sport from a young age at low financial cost
• Encouragement of children by adults to see the long-term benefits of tennis, which are: fitness, good sportsmanship in competition, mental stamina and social skills.
• Affordable coaching and easy access to training facilities
• An investment in sports science and training facilities to foster a culture for professional sport and awareness of the importance of fitness and health for life.
• A sport-media culture whereby advertising, public relations and sponsorship have a direct connection with tennis in the hope, that more Indian tennis role models will fuel tennis interest.
• Enhance people’s coaching and playing skills through free-for-all tennis summer camps and volunteer coaching schemes such as those run by the South African organisation “Growing Tennis” (www.growingtennis.co.za)
It is undeniable that kids in all countries, including India, have lots of pure talent and skills. These attributes must be honed and developed with expert supervision. It’s the lack of this expert intervention which causes a corresponding lack of fitness and strength at the top-level rather than a lack of natural athletic ability in Indian players. As India’s world class player Leander Paes said recently: “You can have immense world class talent, but if you can’t run, you can’t win.”
The largest tennis organisation responsible for the development of tennis in India is the All India Tennis Association (AITA) established in 1920. The AITA in conjunction with the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF), an affiliate of the International Tennis Federation, aims to increase participation in, increase awareness of and raise the general standard of Asian tennis. They organise regional and international tennis events, coaching certification courses, tennis officiating seminars, administrative workshops, junior development programs, travelling teams, and school tennis initiatives amongst others.
Indeed there has more recently been major improvement in the exposure of tennis in India through the increased numbers of Future Tournaments which will hopefully feed young talented players through the ranks to the higher level world grand slam tournaments. As a result of the increase in futures tournaments, India is the fifth member nation to adopt the ITF world rating system as their official rating system. A new non-profit organisation called ‘TennisJunction’ run by a team of like-minded corporate professionals with a burning enthusiasm for tennis has joined the list of those, who want to promote a new tennis culture across India. Details of their organisation’s activities can be found on their website: www.tennisjunction.in
To conclude, it is clear that involvement with the sport and successful marketing of tennis in India is the key to its continued development. The indirect products of a thriving tennis culture across India will no doubt include an increase in tourism through the hosting of more grand slam tournaments and increased investment and funding, which would rapidly grow a stronger Indian tennis culture to begin to rival cricket.
