Ish's chest swelled with pride as Fred had called him equal in role.
I remembered something. 'You mentioned a scholarship yesterday. What's
that? In fact, how does the whole sports thing work in Australia.'
'You want to know why Australia always wins?'
it doesn't always win,' Ish said.
'Not always, thank goodness. We love to dominate opponents, hut also love a
fight. When there's a challenge, it brings out the
best.'
'Yeah, even if not every time, Australia does win a lot. Every Olympics, there is
pile of medals for Australia. In cricket, the domination continues. How come,
Fred?' 1 said.
'Plenty of reasons, mate. But it wasn't always like this.' Fred sipped his
sparkling water, in fact, in the 1976 Olympic games in Montreal, Australia didn't
win a single medal.' 'But you guys did well last year,' Ish said. 'Yes, in Sydney
- Australia won 56 medals, only after USA, Russia and China. All these
countries have ten times as many people.' He paused. 'Aussies saw the Montreal
fiasco as a national shame. So the government set up the Australian Institute of
Sports or the AIS and initiated the world's best scholarship programme.' Fred
finished his glass of water and continued:
'And today the AIS has hundreds of staff - coaches, doctors and physios. They
get two hundred million dollars of funding| and have excellent facilities. And at
the heart of it all, they offer seven hundred scholarships a year.' Fred pushed the
spaghetti plate towards me.
I listened as I struggled with the ribbon-like pasta. I calculated how seven
hundred scholarships for twenty million people would equate to for India. That
was the equivalent of thirty-five thousad sports scholarships a year for India to
match the ratio.
'What's the scholarship? Money?' Ish wanted to know.
'Not just money, mate. It is full on. Expert coaching accommodation, travel to
tournaments, sports science, medicine - you name it. And the best part is to be
part of that communit where everyone has a singular commitment to their sport. I
can't describe that feeling,' Fred said, as his eyes lit up.
'I know the feeling,' Ish said. Even though Ish's eyes aren't blue. they shone as
bright.
The waiters cleared our plates as we finished our food.
'Any famous players from this scholarship programme?'
'Heaps. Michael Bevan, Adam Gilchrist, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, Glenn
McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Shane Warne...'
'What are you talking about? These are all cricketing legends Ish said.
'Legends - that's a good word,' Fred laughed. 'Hope I get there someday.'
'You have a scholarship, too?' I said. Fred nodded.
'You are already a legend, Fred,' Ish said. 'Nah, I'm starting out. And let me tell
you boys, the whole legend bit is far-fetched. You take a bit of talent and mould it
properly, and good stuff happens. In that sense, Australia can create legends.'
'And we can't,' Ish asked.
'Well you could, though right now you rely on talent more than training. You
have a big population, a tiny number of them are born excellent. Like Tendulkar,
or maybe like Ali.'