There has to be lot more corporate support in sports outside of cricket, says Abhinav Bindra

07/14/2018

Stating the obvious financial prosperity observed by cricket in India, Abhinav Bindra believes that the corporate houses should go beyond and support Olympic sports as well. He mentioned his ideas when he was in Delhi to talk about his career and efforts he has invested to reach his ambitions.

Abhinav Bindra had created history for India as he went on to grab a gold medal in 10m air rifle event at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. He is exclusively holding the title of being the only India to have won an individual gold at the Olympics. On Friday, during his stay in Delhi, he spoke about his career and efforts he made to reach his current glory as a player while adding that corporate houses need to devote more resources in devoting time and money to help the Olympics sports become financially stable.

“I think couple of things need to change in the landscape of Indian sports. There has to be lot more more corporate support in sports outside of cricket. Lot more investment needs to come into Olympic sport,” Bindra said.

He mentioned about the United States Olympic Committee which has been totally supported by the corporate money. He believes that support should be distributed and should reach the baser levels as well, without being concentrated on elite athletes only.

“I can give the example of United States Olympic Committee, the US Olympic committee does not get one dollar as subsidy from the government, they are completely funded by corporate support. Things are different between USA and India. The second point is about governance, I think sports governance is something which needs to change in this country. Good governance needs to come in. That change will only happen when that change is mandated. People don’t like change, people like to be where they are. The need of the hour is sports legislation which shows a degree of good governance. I think work is going on in that area. It requires political will and if that happens, it will give a great boost to Indian sports,” said Bindra.

“Unfortunately, everybody wants instant gratification and you don’t get instant gratification in grassroots. It requires perseverance and persistence and patience to get the desired result,” he added.

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