Earlier this year, as the proceedings of the Dr. T Ao Inter District Football Championship unfolded in our backyard, many concerned citizens and sports fans expressed opinions on how Mokokchung fared, both on and off the playground. If the team was performing poorly much to the chagrin of the home team fans, the even poorer condition of the playground was a source of major embarrassment for all concerned. Fast forward three months and the 2nd Nagaland Olympic and Paralympic Games 2022 have proven that all is not well with Mokokchung when it comes to games and sports. A look at the medal table of the Games is enough to show how poorly we performed. The fact that we finished 12th on the medal table is a sour pill to swallow. Even some of the recently formed districts performed better than us. No, it is not about undermining the new districts but it is about how badly we performed. We did not win even a single Gold medal, let alone find a place in the top 3 or top 5 or even top 10! It was more like a contest between Kohima, Phek and Dimapur. There were 101 Gold medals to be won but somehow, the medal table shows that there is not a single person in Mokokchung who is best in Nagaland in any given sports discipline. That means, there is no one in Mokokchung who has the talent to compete in the NE Region level, the national level and the international level.
This is not the time to play the blame games, but this is not the time to console ourselves with misplaced optimism either. If we want to be serious with games and sports, we have to reconcile with the reality – that we are among the worst in Nagaland – and then rebuild from scratch. It is time to ask ourselves some tough questions. To begin with, the Mokokchung District Sports Council (MDSC) must be revamped – immediately. If the council is not ready to do so on its own, then, perhaps, it must be forced to. Secondly, adequate funds from all legitimate and available sources need to be pooled. Thirdly, there has to be in place a time-bound district-specific sports policy to be executed on a mission mode. The focus should be on the long-term. In the process, we need to create a conducive ecosystem for games and sports. Once we get to that level, the rest will fall in place and the sports industry will take root and grow on its own. Sport industry is an industry in which people, activities, business, and organizations are involved in producing, facilitating, promoting, or organizing any activity, experience, or business enterprise focused on sports. So, when we have a respectable sports industry, there is no doubt that we can produce the best in the state, the region, the country and the world. But, in order to get there, we have to first get the basics right. The onus is on MDSC.