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| Design: Niral Patel |
Blog written by: Kartik Nair
Note: The views stated
by the author are strictly personal.
Before
you start reading this write-up as a normal blog which talks about political
interference in sporting operations or how political decisions or related
factors influence or shape the world of sport, let me ask you to pause
for a moment. Stop right there-Don't let your constructed ideas lead you far
from what I want to address. Yes, a lot of articles, blogs and write-ups cover
issues about how politics influences sports. This one is from a neutral angle,
from a different perspective. A different thought point altogether.
The thought process of
narrowing the topic to this point has been due on ongoing events of importance,
controversies and bold statements made in the professional sporting world, in
recent times and in past, and due to few personal experiences to say the least.
Well, I've been lucky enough to train under excellent coaches, with exceptional
athletes and owing to a few high-level competitions (including national
championships) I've played, I've got to directly interact and share my thoughts
and ideas with a couple of sports persons representing our nation at the
international level. When any decision of importance is taken by a governing
body of a particular sport at any given level, it has a direct effect with the
players participating in the sport, right from his mental mood to his
performance on any given day. The 'decision', if I may call it that way, is
relevant, at least to the sportsperson, if not anyone else. But what if that
sports person commands influence? Followers? What if that sportsperson is
considered a matter of supreme importance in front of their fans and/or
followers? What if statements made by them end up influencing you? Or your
opinion? Or how you see or perceive things?
I've often heard this,
"Yaar, politics ko alag rakhna chahiye sports se." (Dude, Politics
should be distanced from Sports). This being said, many would argue about the
right of freedom of expression of the very player concerned, that every player,
as a citizen of any country has. Sports persons are citizens first and players
next, right? And this is not concerning India alone. I'm talking about the
global scenario, all of it. Others would take a different stance, though. They
would tend to separate sports and politics as if they were North and South
Korea. (Even though one tries to make a distinction, there’s no love lost
trying to get to each other). That being said, many regard the two as two
separate entities. Theoretically speaking, they are two different domains. But
in today's world, how valid is that? If you can regard media as a tool of manipulation, then, the figures of influence are not to be left far behind,
either. In today's digital age where nothing is hidden from the eyes of
ordinary people, it is not uncommon to see professional sports persons (or
'icons' of sport) if you may call them that way, increase their proximity to
the political class. Lots of 'candid' images, pictures of luxury goods and
photographs shot in luxurious foreign locations seem to increase the life-sized
value of the sportsperson. However, more often than not, in today's context,
you may also see them with a popular hands-folded gesture (in a popular social
sharing app) endorsing and happily promoting the government's policies, stands
or schemes for that matter.
To give you a better idea,
consider a national team cricketer and an Olympian. Both are people of
importance and influence in their own realm (the cricketer, for some reason
asserting more authority given our nation in context). The high valued
cricketer is dependent in some way on the governing body, the Board of Cricket
Control in India (BCCI) whereas the Olympian is entirely dependent on the
funding and training programs as decided by the Sports Ministry. The
understanding is therefore, simple. Also, sports persons may not be just
restricted to sport alone-In the present world, they are influencers. I don't
know how ridiculous my next statement may sound to you: Virat Kohli, the
captain of the Indian National Cricket Team (Men), has over 64.5 Million
followers on Instagram, compared to 3.2 Mn (BJP), 0.74 Mn (INC) and 0.32 Mn
(AAP)—mathematically analysing, over 1500 percent more followers than a few
political giants in India combined. (Again, this is wrt. a particular app). Let that sink down. Consider 2020 and the
subsequent lockdown caused due to the Corona Virus. In the early days of the
lockdown, the Indian Prime Minister (PM) interacted with eminent sports persons
of India including the likes of Vishwanathan Anand, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat
Kohli, PV Sindhu, Hima Das, PT Usha and Baichung Bhutia among others. A lot of
these names have two things in common: Performance and audience reach. The PM
thanked them for their performances but spoke of 'an important role' they
needed to play to boost the morale of the nation, spreading the message and
importance of social distancing.
The very idea of such people
raising their voices is, therefore, more critical in the present day. More
recently, you might have witnessed the 'kneel-down' movement done by a large
number of people, including communities, government officials and the police
too, in a large number of places, especially in the US, following the death of
George Floyd, a black man who died at the hands of a 'white' police officer.
This incident perhaps knocked the first domino in a large arrangement, and we
are witnessing a paradigm shift in how people perceive people and cultures.
With all due respect to my readers, the kneel-down movement and #ICantBreathe
movements are not recent. Although it got wide-scale attention from various
celebrities who endorsed it, more recently on social media, actions of various
political authorities or campaigns have been time and again condemned by, in
this case, professional sports persons. Let me give you a couple of examples
where athletes, irrespective of what was to follow or what could've happened to
them didn't shy away from making strong political statements at the foot of the
authorities. They may or may not have been seen in good light after what they
did, but they made their mark. Here are a few I would like to talk about:
The Black Power Salute
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| Source: washingtonpost.com |
The #BlackLivesMatter Kneel-Down
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| Source: vox.com |
I do not know if you have heard of Colin
Kaepernick, a quarterback who played for the San Fransisco 49ers in the
National Football League (NFL). In the 2016 NFL pre-season, Kaepernick began
sitting during the national anthem. However, in the final pre-season game, he
kneeled when the national anthem was played. This is where it all started. A
protest form 'taking a knee' thus became popular and emerged. For him, it was a
form of protest for actions done by the police, including the regular murder of
black people. It was also in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
He too was heavily criticised (you can maybe still see people burning his fan
jerseys). However, a few weeks later, football players (NFL) across various
regions followed suit, and a new movement began. It spread to other sports such
as baseball, basketball and ice-hockey as well.
Refusal of Army Induction
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| Source: nytimes.com |
The Munich Massacre
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| Source: cufi.org.uk |
Again, these are
just a few examples. If I were to go on, the quadrennial event in the 'Cold
Era' period was a battle for foreign policy between the democratic and
communist nations. Countries used it to showcase their stance on political,
social and economic issues. In 1936, much before the Cold War, Hitler used the
Olympic Games as an image-cleansing tool, as a tool to strengthen the image of
the Third Reich and promote Aryan superiority. The United States boycotted the
Moscow Olympics in 1980, and the USSR returned the favor four years later at
the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. And it is not just the Olympics. LeBron James, a
famous NBA star, wore a t-shirt on which was written "I can't
breathe" to express solidarity in the killing of Eric Garner at the hands
of a police officer.
In a nutshell, popular
sports persons have the power to create a massive impact on the public while
making such political statements or statements on socio-political issues. Like
the politician, the athlete is bound to generate more interest and attention.
If they can take a stand on issues which affect the society in any manner and
can connect with the common man, their opinion goes a long way in creating and
shaping public opinion. Some may or may not give their views fearing a
commercial or public backlash.
You get the gist, don't you? In
today's times, the world of technology and social media has changed the
way athletes can interact with spectators or fans or even followers. It may
only be fair that they use the platform not just to promote themselves as a
brand, but also serve larger communities or people by leveraging the power of
attention that they can possibly generate. But again, it must be exercised with
caution. A shout-out by an influencer can give credibility to a rumour or even
a cooked up story. In this internet era, perhaps half the objective is already
achieved if this 'influencer gets influenced'. It is then the followers who
make it trendy and viral. We can just hope such tools are used by proper people
for an adequate purpose. Sports and politics are, therefore, no more separate
spheres or identities, in matters of social or political importance.
"If
you're going to say what you want to say, you're going to hear what you don't
want to hear." - Roberto Bolano
Let me know what you think.
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Openly it's a perfect content, thank you for sharing this,
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