Aug

27

Sports ministry toys with the meaning of sports

August 27, 2009 posted by indiatime |

India’s Youth Affairs and Sports ministry has now officially ruled that Formula 1 racing or F1 is not sports. The ministry’s ruling came in response to a private promoter’s request for about $36 million remittance for a license fee payment to the Formula 1 admin body. “…The proposed F1 race does not satisfy conditions which focus on human endeavour for excelling in competition with others, keeping in view the whole sports movement from Olympics downwards…”, ruled the sports ministry. A spokesman for the ministry, however, clarified the ministry’s stand, adding “….This project is absolutely beyond the realm of the common man. We expressed our inability to consider it…”.

The JPSK sports, floated by a private venture and officially and secretly backed by the Indian Olympic Association, had been closing in on the issue with their partnership with the UP chief minister Mayawati. So Mayawati, last year, created a special economic zone (SEZ) for her business partners in F1 racing, slating 2500 acres of prime land for the venture. But the differences between the ruling Congress and Mayawati’s BSP party, turned into a red flag for the F1 project. The Indian Olympic Association, has been controlled and ruled for years, by Congress party loyalist Suresh Kalmadi, whose connections to the party headquarters seem to have come up short for now.

Cricket, India’s biggest business (ahead of outsourcing), biggest religion (ahead of Hinduism) and biggest entertainment (ahead of Bollywood) and biggest sports (ahead of itself) is already beyond neck deep in politics, with the state and central bodies completely dominated and under the whim of powerful politicians. It wasn’t so all the time, however. It took Indian politicians a while to figure out the money equations involved in the sports entertainment industry. But now that they have wisened up, their eyes are on the other big prize in sports - the business of racing. The real reason Formula 1 racing isn’t getting a jump start is not about whether it is sports or entertainment. It is purely about which political players stand to make the most money out of it. So until that decision is made, the bureaucratic wordsmiths in the government will keep coming up with ways to rain on F1’s starting lineup in India.

When does a sport stop being a sport? When does it become ‘entertainment’? And at what point does the entertaining sport become a business? Looks like those questions will best be answered once all the business interests involved have been assured of their take in the matter.


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5 Comments so far

  1. Saika on August 28, 2009 11:31 pm

    This post was enlightening. I was just thinking it was another whim of an ill-informed politician.

  2. Deepu on September 11, 2009 2:40 pm

    Hy

  3. Sports Betting Strategies on September 11, 2009 6:20 pm

    Really interesting and well written article.Thank you for the information.

  4. ideas business on November 3, 2009 1:33 pm

    It is purely about which political players stand to make the most money out of it

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