"F1 is not purely sports. It is entertainment and this venture by JKSP is a commercial initiative," said a ministry source. F1 will not have an impact on Indian sports "in terms of either participation, broad-basing or promotion of excellence".
"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,"
The above statement was given by the ministry of sports when JPSK sports proposed to build a Formula one racing track in India. This statement had a huge impact on the world of motorsports.
I wont say formula 1 is not an entertainment. But how the ministry can say its not a sport. Do they really mean what they say? On what basis they classify between a sport and an entertainment?
Every sport has entertainment as its ingredient. Cricket, Soccer,basketball,baseball,Badminton,tennis and the list goes on. And formula 1 is no different. Lets see the reasons why Indian ministry rejected the venture.
- Formula 1 is not a sport,its an entertainment
- Formula 1 is a very costly sport
- Formula 1 is not in Olympics
- Much crowd wont turn up to watch the sport
The above four are the premier reasons given by ministry.
The first point.It seems our ministry wont encourage entertainment in our country.
Lets take cricket. Test cricket,One day International and 20-20. How much crowd will turn up to watch a test cricket when compared to T20? Test cricket is really good form of sport.It tests the skill,ability and energy of a player. And one day cricket is also acceptable because its played for a whole day and to an extent the player can prove his skill and ability.
Lets come to t20. A shorter form of cricket,purely commercial.In this form of cricket you just have to sustain for four hours to get lots of money. It is more entertaining and cool to watch the ball flying over stands.
When they say T20 is a sport. Why not Formula 1? This shorter form of cricket is no match to the high level of engineering,competency,skill,will power of formula one racing.
If you are watching formula one races,you might have seen a Advertisement.I have mentioned this previously before in one of my posts.
Imagine yourself being subjected to a G-force of 5G’s. (Don't know what's a G-force? for example: When we sneeze or cough we experience a G-force of about 2G’s.Then Imagine how 5G’s would be… G-force is nothing but the measure of gravitational force)
Imagine yourself being in a 50 degree C pressure cooker.
Imagine your Heart beating 210 times a minute.
This is what a Formula one driver goes through.Every formula one driver loses around 1 to 2 kgs when they drive a one and half an hour race. Now would you still call t20 as a sport and formula one as a mere entertainer?
Lets analyze the next case… Formula one is a costly sport…. I do accept it is a costly sport and loads of money are involved in it.
But I really wont accept if ministry says they don't have money to spend. When BCCI can spend a lot for giving incentives and apartments as gift to Indian players, why not the Indian ministry spend on formula 1.
Third case is the most stupid one. Formula one is not in Olympics. According to our ministry other than sports played in India and the sports in Olympics, every other sport is an entertainment and not purely a Sport.
Just think how many sports are being played in Olympics and in how many India participates and in how many they are winning medals? And over the period of time there is no improvement regarding the participation of Indians in Olympics. But atleast they have started winning some medals. So this is the most stupidest of the arguments.
The fourth case…Much crowd wont turn up to watch the sport. I think the ministry must be kidding. Google very recently conducted a small survey about which communities have more number of Indians and the communities which involves active participation of our country. And to my surprise Soccer and Formula 1 were among the top ten communities in which there are lots of Indians and they are actively taking part in it. I am proud to say I am one among them.
There are fans for formula one who are ready and willing to go to every country where the race takes place. So huge crowd from other countries might turn up to India for watching the sport. And die hard fans(like me) would turn up to see the Scarlet car shining under the sun light. So this argument is not acceptable too.
And according to me there is a difference between World wrestling entertainment and Formula 1. The former called the entertainer as everything is predetermined and fake in that.The latter involves will power and courage. So formula is absolutely a sport which is much entertaining to those who have the knowledge about the sport and for those who like watching races.
And Indian ministry has the rights to deny the development of Formula 1 in India. But I guess they don't have rights to classify whether It is a sport or an entertainer and that too without a pure knowledge in the sport.
This sport is a great Hit at Singapore and Malaysia. When they can spend for a circuit.. Why not India? The night race at Singapore was great and dramatic one. We have already seen a Indian Formula 1 driver and an Indian Formula one Team. And the racing track in India is absolutely a dream come true.
These are my views upon the issue and ofcourse my views in this topic is biased since I am an ardent fan of formula one racing. I prefer India can spend In formula one racing than spending for the so called Idle mans game.
And Kudos to Vijay Mallya. It was really great to see the tri colour car racing for the pole position and fighting with a Ferrari till the end. Great work from VJ and team. Force India’s Budget is only one third of Ferrari’s Budget. But still it fought with Ferrari in Last race and Ferrari would not have managed without the KERS technology. Force India managed to get second position and they got the first ever points in Formula one after hard fought battle for over 30 races.
I would like to thank Ashwini for her two cute awards and venky for his timeless friendship award…
Image courtesy: Google Images
