Asian Games: Fat and full of bling

Have the Asian Games become too all-inclusive and bloated with ‘esoteric’ sports that are making the management of the Games too unwieldy? Perhaps the answer might lie in relocating some of them to an Indoor Asiad.

By V Krishnaswamy

There were 39 disciplines and more than 10,000 athletes at the Doha Asian Games in December 2006. And the future suggests that this number could increase —unless, of course, wiser counsel prevails. The addition of more disciplines could lead to chaos if it is not controlled.

Now, with the 2010 Asian Games scheduled in China, India is bidding once more to host the Games in 2014 —four years after the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

With each host wanting to get into the books as the one with the biggest Games, it was no surprise that the Qataris have not missed a single opportunity to tell the world that the 2006 Asian Games were the biggest ever. The words dominating discussions and media reports all focus on “biggest”, “largest”, “expensive” and so on—but what no one wants to discuss is whether the Games are actually growing too large and becoming too unwieldy in the process.

In the weeks running up to the Games, there was talk on how the organisers had suggested to some teams that they cut down their numbers—so much so that the Japanese, who were bringing in close to 900 athletes and officials, felt offended and even went to the extent of saying that they would get and manage their own sleeping bags and airbeds. But the real point is whether many of the disciplines that figure on the schedule should actually be there at all. There are, in fact, many disciplines that find a place because of the insistence of some influential member countries. And once they are in, there is little chance of them sidelined, leave alone dropped.

For instance, there is no way that India, host of the first Asian Games and a prime mover in the Asian Games movement, would allow kabaddi, in which India has won four successive gold medals, to be struck off the list. Similarly, the Chinese would not like Wushu being excluded. Then there is Sepak Takraw, a very popular sport in Malaysia and Thailand, but little known elsewhere.
Kabaddi came in as a demonstration sport in 1982, but all three ‘exotics’—kabaddi, Wushu and Sepak Takraw—made their Asian Games debuts in 1990 in Beijing. It is widely believed that China was keen on keeping all National Olympic Committees within the Asian Games fold happy.

Cue sports like billiards, snooker, and carom made their debuts in 1998 in Bangkok. Four years ago, Body Building made its appearance at Busan. And, now, here in Doha, Chess and Trampoline were among the sports making their bows. Chess is likely to yield some gold medals for India, given that it’s the country of its creation, and India will not allow it to be dropped from the Games without a good enough reason. It is not one’s intention to belittle any of these above sports—they all enjoy big patronage and attract the crowds. I am told that the tickets for kabaddi in Doha were sold out long ago. Especial attention was also paid to how spectators into the Sports City (renamed the Aspire Zone) would be regulated from overcrowding the Kabaddi Hall, which could accommodate 1,000 spectators.

A possible solution might have been found in the establishing of a biennial Asian Indoor Games, the first edition of which was held in Bangkok in November 2005. Shifting a few Games into that segment will make the Asian Games more compact and enjoyable. The Olympic Council of Asia had nine disciplines in the first Asian Indoor Games in 2005: they included Dancesport (which, curiously, had once figured in South East Asian Games, too); Aerobics; Thai kick boxing, Muay Thai; Extreme Sports; and Futsal, an indoor football game.

It is quite possible that wiser counsel may yet prevail and many of the disciplines like Chess, Wushu, Bodybuilding, and even cue sports might be shifted indoors. Making the Games more compact will give them a better profile and ensure better television coverage, which naturally translates into better revenues. In this huge melee, it is these very sports like Chess that might get edged out in the overall coverage. So, shifting them to the Asian Indoor Games might actually be more beneficial for them. Finally, digressing a little, very interestingly, when the Asian Games were first introduced in 1951 in New Delhi, they had just nine disciplines, the same as in first Asian Indoor Games. Now, the main Asian Games have 39. That’s quite a few steps that the Games have taken. Maybe it would now be wise to retrace a few of those steps and make the Games more compact in the larger interest.