SUCCESS, they say, is a journey not on an expressway, but on a committed path that takes time and effort. Those who look for and take, what appears to be, a short cut are destined to repeat the journey many times, with little or no progress.

We’ve to realise that there’s a natural timeline for anyone to become a champion. A recent research makes it explicitly clear that it takes eight to 12 years of training for a player to reach elite level. This is called the 10-year or 10,000-hour rule, which roughly translates to three hours of training daily for 10 years, making it obvious that there’s no short cut to success.

I wish some of our national federations and clubs too realise this and follow accordingly, committing themselves to develop talent and thus build strong teams over a period of time, rather than importing professionals just to gain instant glory.

A case in point is the just-concluded Super Globe Handball Championship which was well organised by the Al Sadd club, under the aegis of the Qatar Handball Association.

At the end of the day, despite flawless organisation, Qatari clubs drew much flak from international observers for fielding foreign recruits instead of giving enough opportunity for national players and thereby preparing them for future.

There could be arguments for and against this trend, but the bottom line is that both Sadd and El Jaish were looking for sudden success and fame.

It may be recalled that in our eagerness to achieve instant glory, we’ve made some strategic mistakes, like naturalising a few athletes and footballers, in the past. Though everything was done as per norms, we were criticised by every Tom, Dick and Harry. We’re still paying the price for it as a hostile section of the media is haunting us every now and then.

Let’s not make such mistakes again. Let’s bide our time and develop our own champions and stop basking on reflected glory.