Killing the capital’s sporting history

The Delhi Administration and the DDA are demolishing landmarks in the country’s sporting past in order to renovate and build venues for the 2010 Commonwealth Games; new structures should instead be built

By Norris Pritam

Delhi is a city of mighty empires and powerful kingdoms. According to historians, the city rose and fell at least seven times at different sites. The buildings and monuments of each period and dynasty coexist with one another. Purana Qila, Tughlaqabad, Qutab Minar and Red Fort all speak of Delhi’s chequered past. Addto these, Lutyens imperial structures such as Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Cathedral Church of Redemption and Parliament House and you have a city that is tailormade for tourists. However, no one seems to have bothered to chronicle Delhi’s glorious past as far as sporting venues are concerned. Venues like the National Stadium near India Gate have heritage value while the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the main stadium for the ninth Asiad in 1982, is a landmark of India’s resurgence in modern sport.

Several top Indian sportspersons have honed their skills on Delhi’s playing fields and the city’s stadia have been witness to major international sporting events. Now, thanks to the 2010 Commonwealth Games in the city, Delhi’s sporting heritage is threatened -- many venues will soon be razed to the ground. Stone and mortar at the National Stadium, the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and the Talkatora Stadium have already begun crumbling. The Delhi Development Authority may manage to erect new structures at these places in time for the Commonwealth Game. But, in the process, the sporting legacy of the city would be buried.

“The Talkatora (swimming) pool was like a home where I spent the best part of my life. It is sad to see it being demolished for a new structure,’’ said India’s top swimmer Khajan Singh, during a recent interview in the Sports Magazine programme of the BBC Hindi Service. “Even now when I pass through it I stop to pay my obeisance,’’ said Khajan.

Sriram Singh, a double gold medalist at the Asian Games and an Asian record holder in 800 metres, holds similar views about National Stadium. ``Indian greats like Milkha Singh and Gurbachan Singh Randhwa trained at the National Stadium and I began my international career from the stadium but soon it will be all things of the past,’’ lamented Sriram.

Both Khajan and Sriram feel that these stadia should have been preserved as sporting heritage venues of the city and brand new venues constructed for the Commonwealth Games. ``Where is the development if we demolish existing venues to renovate them or erect new venues at the same spot,’’ asks Khajan Singh.

It was at the National Stadium that the Asian Games movement began with the inaugural Asian Games held in 1951. The Stadium was built in 1937 with a huge sum of money thaty was gifted by the Maharaja of Bhavnagar. Earlier known as the Irwin Amphitheatre, the stadium had staged the World Wrestling Championship in 1967 and the hockey final of the ninth Asian Games, besides several other important international sporting fixtures.

Athletics greats like Jesse Owens, Emil Zatopek and Bob Richards and boxing legend Muhammad Ali have visited the stadium as goodwill ambassadors of sport. ``At least for the sake of honouring these legends we should have let this stadium be,’’ said Sriram Singh.

Other countries follow a different practice. In 1983, the inaugural World Athletics Championship in Finland took place at the same stadium in Helsinki where legendary Finnish distance runners Paavo Nurmi and Vilie Ritola had set several world records. This was the case with the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006. The main stadium of the Games was the historic Melbourne Cricket Ground. Once the Games were over, the stadium went back to hosting international cricket matches. Why then are Delhi’s stadia being demolished and new structures beng erected at the same spots? This is not understandable. Will the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games be able to erect the new structures or renovate existing venues in time for the Games? ``Yes, I am sure all the venues will be in place well before the Games,’’ assured Randhir Singh, Vice-President of the Organising Committee.

“I wonder where Delhi’s sportspersons will train till such time as the new venues are ready,’’ asks Khajan Singh. ``It has pushed us back by at least three years,’’ he says. ``The only saving grace is that stadium will not be available for musical nights and melas for the next few years, ’’ observes Khajan cynically.

Many ague that the DDA and the Delhi Administration should have spared existing sports venues and built new ones. ``The National Stadium could have been converted into a hockey stadium-cum-sports museum. It could even have generate funds for its maintenance and become financially self-reliant,’’ a former Delhi athlete said.