Does every Indian office – in the public sector, or private, need a CFiO – a Chief Fitness Officer for its employees? And is badminton best suited to be the chosen sport that blends recreation and fitness for India’s office population?
In a week when India’s national coach Pullela Gopichand went fairly bonkers giving middle class athletes a dose of realism, asking them to keep academics as back-up, if you wanted to secure a better lifestyle than your mother or father did, the former All England champion, was the first to spell out the nuance: he was extremely passionate, militant even, about universal physical literacy for Indians. He prized the health benefits of sport for a billion, more than the tunnel visioned goal of churning out a handful of sporting stars, while pursuing the very niche, elite goal of increasing 6 Olympic medals to 60.
Gopichand has been mulling over these ideas since 2017, stewing almost in the helplessness of bringing about this large-scale change. How athletes at the bottom of the pyramid get treated in sports quota jobs is a persistent peeve, though this last few days, the fury has boiled over. Even now he’s not asking for charitable jobs for athletes if they’re not equipped for the work desired. He’s infact telling the athletes they ought to skill up their bookish base, and give the scholars a run for their money. Jocks can be geniuses if they put their mind to it, he believes.
But he’s not blind to how utterly frustrating it can be for athletes who wing it all with adrenaline and spunk, to sit making PPT slides and be pinned to a desk with files and quarterly reports. His contemporaries tried. Even the academically brightest of them all shuttlers, Ajay Jayram, cruised through the ISB program, made the Dean’s list and landed a top tier gig at one of the biggest Consultancies. But when sport has been a calling, you just can’t be kept away from that world. He’s helping fund-raise and firming up training programs for elite athletes aiming for an Olympic gold at one of the top nonprofits now.
Say, India’s international athletes were roped in to take charge of fitness of an entire corporation’s work force, appointed Sports officers in start-ups and top companies to prop up fitness levels through various sporting activities. It could in the long term solve the issue of sedentary, screen-time saturated lifestyles, and all the physical and mental health aftermaths of corporate workers.
Sport-for-fun needs to be taken seriously. Corporate cricket is pretty popular. But not very inclusive – is there any avenue for women for instance? Sport tends to come to an abrupt end after school for 99 percent of the population. Sure, the fitness conscious ones, book rooftop 5-a-side football turfs, train for marathons, play squash and paddle now. But why mustn’t a school time shotputter, javelin thrower, hockey player, or wrestler, the TT and tennis players and sprinters, not continue to train in their sports after settling into financially secure jobs.
Badminton scores over many of these sports because of its backyard-with-building-gate-as-a-net starting points in India, where everyone has played it, even if they can’t smash like Sindhu or defend like Lakshya Sen or just play plain ethereal net flicks like Srikanth or trick shots like Prannoy. Cricketers from Sunil Gavaskar to Virat Kohli play badminton for fitness. And the general game-knowledge of Indians for badminton is pretty high. Playing it regularly while negotiating strains of a corporate job, will only help the employees and bring employers some goodwill.
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These things can’t really be mandated and aren’t really Instagrammable like Diwali rangoli competitions or team bonding retreats. But on board an international athlete, and they will be enterprising enough to plan these sports extra curriculars, help keep employees fit and motivated, and somewhere birth the sports culture that Indians keep talking about.
Everyone knew about the funding cuts that China effected on badminton after the 2012 Olympics. Not many noticed how this money was funnelled into a badminton-for-all program which sees even 60 year old men and women play impromptu games at the local indoor court. Nothing fancy. Just the joy derived from knowing badminton isn’t just about those 5 gold medals at the Olympics.
Japan, Korea are immersed in the sport because the corporations went big on recreational badminton for their workforce in telecom and electronic companies. Ditto for wrestling in Japan and football in Korea. Australia, USA and Europe have these avenues organically developed. Communist countries enforce these. India, though, can choose to adopt sport in offices, and leverage its elite athletes to drive the momentum. It will mutually benefit both.
Do it before Gopichand drops the next truth bomb, this time for rich parents. If pursuing sport without deep pockets confounds him so much, not playing sport when you actually have money to spare, will drive him positively ballistic. Waste of six-figure salary if you don’t play sport – he will mutter.
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