Madhya Pradesh: India’s new sporting arena

fIn just over a week, ace rifle and pistol shooters from around the world will gather in Bhopal alongside the sport’s top executives for the ISSF World Cup, which begins on March 20th. The prestigious International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) tournament will be one of a series of domestic and international sporting events hosted by Madhya Pradesh over the past two years.

Be it the National Championships in Pistol Shooting, Equestrian Sport and Women’s Boxing towards the end of 2022, or the ITF (International Tennis Federation) Women’s Tournament in January and the Khelo India Youth Games – which drew nearly 6,000 young athletes from across 27 disciplines – in February the capital Bhopal was full of sports activities. Then, last year, among the events on the city’s sports calendar were the National Canoe Sprint Championship (March 2022), the Men’s Hockey National Meeting (April), and the Junior Track and Field National Championships (September).

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Backed by government funds and state-of-the-art facilities, Madhya Pradesh – and Bhopal in particular – is fast becoming India’s sports capital. Several sports academies and stadiums have been built here in the last ten years. In addition to promoting budding athletes, they have given the state a platform to host national and international events.

At the opening of the youth games at Bhopal’s Tatya Tope Stadium on January 30, Prime Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had pledged that “there will be no shortage of funds to promote the sporting talent of the state” along with Rs 5,000 for each medalist announced by MP. In the 2023-24 state budget unveiled on March 1, the allocation for sport was Rs 738 crore, more than triple the Rs 235 crore allocated last year. (Although the sports budget for 2022-23 was later increased to Rs 476 crore to hold the big youth games.)

“We saw Bhopal’s shooting infrastructure during the National Rifle Association and found that it met international standards,” Sultan Singh, Secretary General of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), tells INDIA TODAY about how Bhopal won the coveted ISSF event it will bag 325 shooters from 33 countries vying for the top honors. “On this basis, we proposed the city as a possible venue for the World Cup, which was accepted by the international federation.”

The world class infrastructure has also produced medalists such as Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, 22, a product of Madhya Pradesh Shooting Academy and junior world record holder in rifle competition. Then there are trappers Manisha Keer, 23, and Varsha Varman, 28, who have won laurels for the country on international platforms. Also Vivek Sagar, 23, who was part of the Indian men’s ice hockey team that won bronze at the 2020 Olympics. With 96 medals, including 39 gold, 30 silver and 27 bronze, the state’s athletes helped the state finish third at the Youth Games, behind only Maharashtra and Haryana.

Today, the Ministry of Sports and Youth Welfare runs ten sports academies, six in Bhopal alone: ​​shooting, water sports, equestrian sports, martial arts, men’s hockey and athletics. The women’s hockey and badminton academies were established in Gwalior and archery and cricket academies are located in Jabalpur and Shivpuri respectively. Equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure and world-class national and international coaches, these academies help to identify Madhya Pradesh’s sporting talents at an early stage and provide them with residency, nutrition and training to excel in their discipline. Then there are the numerous stadiums—multidisciplinary and individual sports, indoors and outdoors—that have sprung up on a large scale, not just at the district level, but also at the subdistrict, tehsil, and block levels. With the construction of 44 more stadiums expected to be completed by the end of this year, sports department sources claim that the number will increase to 150 from the current 107.

That is not all. Sports Minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia, who has been pushing the government’s efforts, has set even more ambitious goals. “We’re looking ahead now,” she says. “We will build an indoor stadium in each of the country’s 230 assembly segments and a multidisciplinary sports stadium in each of the 52 districts.” “This will help identify and nurture talent at grassroots level.”

IIn the new budget, the MP government has allocated Rs 149 crore for construction of sports stadiums, Rs 130 crore for academies and Rs 349 crore for infrastructure construction under Khelo India. This zeal and impetus dates back to the state’s New Sports Policy of 2005, which gave a major push to create a “healthy pool” of athletes by organizing regular sporting events and improving infrastructure. Shortly thereafter, in December 2005, Scindia was appointed Sports Minister. But after she was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2007, most initiatives stalled, only to be revived in January 2014 when she returned to the helm.

The country’s sporting rise has also proved to be a boon to the real estate and hospitality sectors in the capital. “The number of major sporting events being held here has opened up new opportunities for the hospitality industry,” says Faiz Rashid, Director of Bhopal-based Jehan Numa Group of Heritage Hotels. Amid a skyrocketing demand for rooms for the athletes, coaches and administrators who have landed in Bhopal for training camps and tournaments, many new guest houses have mushroomed near the shooting range and other academies. But Bhopal’s poor air links remain a major drawback, locals say. The state’s athletes and coaches also often complain about delays in paying for their trips due to alleged bureaucracy when it comes to disbursing budget funds.

There is also potential for greater heights in the sporting arena. For example, at the 2007 National Games, MP finished 12th overall with 63 medals, of which only 12 were gold. Fifteen years later, at the last edition, held in Gujarat in 2022, the state finished seventh with 66 medals, including 20 gold medals – an improvement but still well below potential. Given the current momentum, Madhya Pradesh needs to reach for the stars.