The Hindu Business Line : Who's playing bridge?

The accelerated courses at IITs, coupled with long working hours in the corporate world has virtually sounded the death knell on prospective bridge experts from managerial ranks.

Devoted patrons: The fraternity of bridge players struggles to attract Gen Next - MURALI KUMAR K.

There is a curious paradox confronting tournament-bridge in India. The prize money on the circuit is better than ever before, sponsors are ready and forthcoming, there is no dearth of competitive events across the country or overseas, but the number of takers is rapidly dwindling. It's official. The tournament-bridge player is currently the sportworld's most endangered species.

Consider this: A little over a month into the New Year and three major tournaments are already part of history. The Tolani Grand Prix had Rs 5 lakh on offer as prize money, the kitty at the Holkar tourney was Rs 3.5 lakh, while sponsors Sri Cements had put up a similar amount at their Kolkata event. And we haven't even begun talking about the other must-dos on the annual calendar; Rs 7-8 lakh on offer at the HCL computers event in New Delhi, the Golcha Trophy at Jaipur, and the Singhania-invited pairs event at Kanpur. With the cost of organising a four-day event added on, it all works out to a cool couple of crore being expended annually.

Ironically, just when bridge is being given its place in the annals of sport — stress-buster par excellence, contributor to physical wellbeing (by keeping the cerebrum/cerebellum combine in fine fettle) and other sundry accolades, the tribe of players who have promoted it to a fine art-form is vanishing from the scene.

Paucity of new entrants

If tournament players are threatened with extinction, it is because of the paucity of new entrants to the fold. With the `younger' lot of the current crop pushing 50 at a conservative estimate, it is clear that unless drastic measures are adopted today, there will be no Gen Next in this fading fraternity 10 years on.

Typically, in the yesteryears, the IITs and engineering colleges were the places where prospective bridge maestros were initiated into the tradition. At the workplace, as young managers, they fine-tuned their skills, egged on by in-house competition. Then they logged in on the national circuit for more thrust and parry before being anointed monarchs of the baize.

The accelerated courses at IITs, coupled with long working hours in the corporate world has virtually sounded the death knell for prospective bridge experts from managerial ranks. For the first time this year, the inter-offices tournament hosted by Tata Motors, Pune, was an `open' event. The reason? Participation by `offices' alone would have seen miserable numbers.

Tata Motors mirrors the trend perfectly. Where an in-house bridge event would attract 20-25 teams a decade ago, the number of teams it can muster today is a mere three or four. Explains Milind Gunjal, Sports Officer, Tata Motors, "Earlier, young managers learnt or improved their game in company buses during the hour-long commute to and from the factory. This was disallowed following some complaints. The immediate fallout is more than visible. Given the long working hours, no one has the energy, inclination or time any longer to devote to bridge."

Devoted patrons

Ironically, some of the Indian bridge world's most devoted and generous patrons are corporate heads. Ashok Goel, Chairman, Dhampur Sugar Mills, sponsors a team, and confesses to spending Rs 15-20 lakh a year on promoting the game. Kailashpati Nivettia, Head of the Kanpur-based Jaguar Group of Industries, incurs an expense of Rs 25-30 lakh annually.

C.V. Rao, Head of Navayuga Engineering, Visakhapatnam, who prefers to work behind the scene, sponsored the nationals — dubbed the best ever nationals — in his city a couple of years ago, calling for similar or greater money-power. And of course, there is Mumbai's own Dr N.P. Tolani, whose monetary contributions to the game are legendary. Equally well known are the pro-bridge inclinations of Bajaj Auto chief Rahul Bajaj, HDFC head Deepak Parekh, and Goenka scion J.P. Goenka.

Against this backdrop, it is tragic that infusion of new talent is so lacking. Corporate heads, too, have willy-nilly contributed to this condition. "Organisations like the Railways employ people to play bridge, and no wonder their team's top class. The corporate sector has no such provisioning," points out Suhas Vaidya, many times national champion.

The fact of the matter is that though corporate sponsors are aplenty, virtually no one has actively scouted for new talent amongst the ranks of in-house employees. The combination of the youngster's quest for a northbound career-graph and the management's preoccupation with the bottomline has robbed this mind sport of lustre. Today, the world championship for juniors has no Indian team, as we cannot muster up the necessary number of sub-25s!

Currently the Padampat Singhania Bridge Academy at Kanpur is the only one of its kind in the country. The good news is that others too are waking up to the impending crisis.

Says Ashok Ruia, Chairman and Managing Director, Phoenix Mills, and sponsor - the India Blues team, "We propose to take up the issue during the men's selection trials in February." They have a solution to the career-conscious IITian keeping bridge at bay: scout for talent elsewhere. Kolkata is where there might be some action happening.

That augurs well for the game. With the low point nearly there, things can only improve.