The Hindu : Putting a price on patriotism? You must be joking!

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 07, 2003

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Putting a price on patriotism? You must be joking!

By Nirmal Shekar

Be Indian, Buy Indian has taken a whole new meaning in the context of Indian sport. Apparently a 17-year old girl of Indian origin, who learnt to blast forehands and backhands in the spiritual home of modern tennis — sunny Florida — is willing to "become" Indian.

But it is going to cost the All India Tennis Association a packet. Rs. 5 crores, to be precise, if the girl's father, who sounds more like Shylock and less like a man who should be proud of his origins and thrilled that his daughter might get an opportunity to represent his native land, is to be believed.

For Indian tennis to `buy' Sunitha Rao, 17, and for the teenager to `be' Indian, the All India Tennis Association will have to part with the sort of money that it did not spend for the combined services of Ramanathan Krishnan, Vijay Amritraj and Ramesh Krishnan over three of the finest decades in the sport's history in this country!

Welcome, then, to the market square of modern sport! And, before it slips my mind, it must be said that Ms. Rao is ranked as high as No.162 in the world, heights never before reached by any Indian woman.

Yet, the point is, Sunita is as Indian as McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Like those popular fast food outlets, she might go on to make her presence felt in this country but only if the AITA parted with Rs. 5 crores, which, incidentally, is the money that her father Manohar says he has spent on his daughter to help her climb to No. 162.

Of course, the All India Tennis Association, for its part, has clearly said that while it would happily part with several thousand dollars a year to support Sunita Rao, it had no intention of compensating her father to the tune of Rs. 5 crores to `buy' for India a secret weapon that, in time, would challenge the Williams hegemony in the women's game.

To be fair, the point of this essay has nothing to do with the talented young women's potential. She is obviously a very focused and hard working teenager who has it in her to make it to the top 100 in a season or two.

And the point is not even about where Sunita would carry Indian women's tennis in the context of the Federation Cup. It takes more than one competent/good/great player to earn success in team tennis.

On the other hand, the point is about values. What kind of NRI would allow his daughter to `become Indian' for a price? What kind of man would brazenly quote such figures to the press and then threaten to withdraw his application to the International Tennis Federation for permission to have his daughter represent India?

Surely, it has never been a case of embarrassment of riches in Indian tennis. And when it comes to the women's game, it was only a few years ago that an Indian first won a single round in a Grand Slam event in singles — Nirupama Vaidyanathan at the Australian Open.

Then again, no matter what Sunita Rao can accomplish for India, does this great nation need to `buy' the services of NRI children brought up in sunnier — so to speak in terms of sporting infrastructure — climes?

This is a land where a humble middle class gentleman gave up his day job and many creature comforts to nurture his talented son into a great champion with scarcely any help from the national association. T.K. Ramanathan and his son Krishnan endured a long journey by sea before Indian's greatest player of all time could first play on the famous lawns of Wimbledon.

To be sure, the late Ramanathan did not quote a price for Krishnan to represent India in Davis Cup. Since those unforgettable days — Krishnan went on to make the Wimbledon semifinals twice and piloted India to the Challenge Round in Davis Cup in 1966 — several champions have worn the country's colours with pride and without a thought about the money that their role would bring in.

Ramanathan and his great son travelled dozens of miles in blazing heat on an old motorcycle to play in tournaments, at venues where such basic facilities as changing rooms were non-existent.

And more recently, Prakash Amritraj, winner of three successive Futures events, applied for — and received too — the status of a Person of Indian Origin so he could play for this great country at some point in the future. And Prakash did that long before success came his way.

And now Rs. 5 crores for No.162? You must be kidding. It is immoral to pay that kind of money even if you were `buying' the world No. 1.

For, at the end of the day, you have to, at the bottom of your heart, want to be Indian. You cannot ever demand a price for being (becoming) an Indian.

At a tiny fraction of the amount quoted by Mr. Rao, thousands of our brave men guard our borders through night and day in hostile conditions. They have never, ever demanded preposterous bonuses for `being' Indian.

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