Imkong Walling
This January, Nagaland was all set to host what was touted to be the biggest international sports event in the state until the Omicron variant of COVID-19 put the brakes, delaying the event to a later date. For a state that hardly sees national events, let alone internationals, the postponed SAAF Cross Country Championships and the 56th National Cross Country Championships have been packaged as one that would propel Nagaland in the international sports arena. That’s what the brains behind have proclaimed and the “international” branding adding much needed glitter.
The lack of basic infrastructure, financial and technical support in the state is all too evident but the event provides what sports needs to bask on— publicity and glamour, an area that athletes here, with potential, have been heftily deprived of. There was Dr T Ao and then there was Chekrovolu Swuro, both household names and sports stars in their chosen disciplines, but it stopped there. Nagaland has yet to produce fresh talents of their ilk, who can capture public imagination.
This brings forth the question: How do make sports attractive that would pave the way for making stars with public followings and which would in turn attract sponsors?
It sounds too much of an asking, expecting corporate or government investment in each and every ‘gully’ sports event. But the state can make a start, localised it may be.
Nagaland already has an annual multi-sports event that has been on for the past 4 decades, organised by the Nagaland Police for its personnel. The most recent was held at the Nagaland Police Complex, Chümoukedima in December 2021. With enough space and basic infrastructure, the complex has become the go to venue for the state police to host its annual sporting extravaganza and occasional regional/national-level police football tournaments.
This event is a prestigious one within the police department and one with potential to make stars. It however lacks one important ingredient— it is called publicity. It makes the local news pages, albeit, only the opening and closing ceremonies, and that too, the speech of the “chief guests” consuming a major section of the news reports. The actual competitive events that transpired in between remain blank with the organisers declaring a generalised result – medal tally and champion team – at the closing ceremony. The event, which actually is held over almost a month, gets no more than two days of media coverage.
Imagine the state government giving it TV-style packaging and a dedicated PR team churning out animative pages of the competitive events, while coordinating with the media. It will certainly call for a big enhancement of the budget, but it would be worth the spending. It would also provide sports-writers motivation to cover the events, not only for the local papers, but also for all other media forms.
Alongwith talent and logistics comes “star power,” which, as has been the norm, happens mostly through professional handling of the PR side of things.
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
