From Monkey Menace to Pollution Fiascos: India’s Sporting Infrastructure Under Scanner

The recent monkey droppings, and other off- court happenings, which afflicted the Indian Open Badminton championships at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium recently, have brought a bad name to the country’s sporting facilities.

The non-participation of Denmark’s world No, 2 Anders Antonsen stating that the poor AQI had forced him to withdraw from the tournament was a big blow. All this poses a big question mark on India abilities to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games.

It is not just about the off-court happenings in the Indian Open which has cast a doubt over the preparations for a successful conduct of the big-ticket sports events, there has been a series of disruptions which has affected major events across multiple sports.

Anders Antonsen- PC IOC

The first leg of the Lionel Messi India tour in Kolkata in December was a big mess with irate spectators invading the pitch and the Senior National Boxing championships in Greater Noida saw some of the country's best boxers being thrown out of their hotels due to a gaffe by the organisers.

This culminated when the Lucknow tie of India’s fourth T20 match against South Africa was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to the high pollution level. These are major blips on India’s record of being able to conduct international tournaments successfully.

First Draft did a deep dive on why despite India being an economic superpower is unable to pull off successfully hosting international tournaments.

We have built a plethora of big stadiums which look shiny and jazzy but it’s the conditions inside which are in need of drastic improvement. It is in the basic areas like toilet cleaniness, hygiene, poor air conditioning, dust on the general seating facilities we are caught napping on.

''I feel while importance to the point of being undue is given to making the exterior better and glossier. It is certainly a case of wrong priorities,” says V Anand, who was in Athletic Federation of India (AFI).

Anand further went on to say that things like the bird droppings, monkey menace which don’t normally happen anywhere else in the world. The reason being that each and every perimeter of the stadia is sanitized and carefully checked, whereas in India, it’s only the VIP stands, corporate boxes and special stands which get close attention. The same care is not given to the general stands, and that explains why the bird droppings, monkey presence happened in the general stands. This undue importance given to VIP culture has to go, he added.  

The ineptitude and incompetence of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) officials are also a major reason for the embarrassment India faced. In Delhi most of the leading stadia like the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, IG Stadium come directly under the SAI. They are solely responsible for their upkeep and maintenance.

While the Indian Open is held by the Badminton Association of India, the badminton body has no role in the stadia hosting the events and other things. That part comes directly under the purview of SAI and, they made a royal mess out of it.

“There is no accountability when it comes to SAI officials. Once the stadium is handed over to an association or private entity for hosting an event, the SAI officials just disappear. They are nowhere to be found and know that being government employees they can’t be sacked,” felt Manjit Singh, a former Badminton Association of India (BAI) official.

No wonder that immediately after the conclusion of the Indian Open, Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya called the top brass of the SAI officials and gave them a thorough dressing down. He minced no words while telling them that any repeat of the events would result in severe consequences for them. They had caused enough shame and damage to India’s reputation on the world stage.  

The SAI has a history of messing up things in the past also. It must be mentioned here that the country’s leading sportspersons practise at their facilities at the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Patiala. On countless occasions, the elite sportspersons have spoken out about the pathetic conditions prevalent at the Patiala centre but all their complaints and pleas have gone on deaf ears.

Crowd control is another area where our organisers have been caught napping. Often, numbers of people who throng to watch an important match exceeds the organisers expectations. Sometimes, the organisers in an attempt to popularise or please the sponsors announce free tickets to the non-marked or general stands. This results in an overflowing of spectators which makes it virtually impossible to control the crowd. The Government should come out with clear cut guidelines on the bifurcation of free tickets and prevent last minute entries into the stadia.