Ask them to name the players of the Indian cricket team and you won't be dissapointed as they'll have your answer in a blink. The challenge begins when you ask them to name at least half of the players of the hockey team. By the way, hockey is supposed to be the national sport. Indian hockey team has won the highest number of Gold medals in the Olympic history and yet they have not been given much of the importance they deserve. People are so much indulged in spending time and money on cricket that they have almost forgotten that there are other sports to be looked upon. The amount and profit gained over cricket is more than all other sports taken together in India. May be this is the reason why sports are called sports and Cricket is considered as a religion. Taking advantage of this madness, the concerned authorities collaborating with business tycoons are making more money since the inception of county cricket leagues like IPL and ICL. They want to squeeze out every drop of what can be taken out of the this game like a child who sips out every drop of a fruit juice of a tetra pack till it gets completely squeezed and unshaped. Once known a gentleman's game, cricket, now is just a source of entertainment and gaining money, with no fair play and spirit. Joining the party are the evils like betting and ultimately, match fixings.
With a population so large, India could stand no where in other sports such as athletics. Football in India has never been taken seriously. The kind of comfort and attention that the cricketers get is never enjoyed by the other sportsmen.
SO far, out of 25 Olympic games, India could win only 20 medals taking all the games together.
The only reason I see is the bad facility and lack of sponsors in these 'endangered' sports.
If the national level players are treated so badly that they have to sell their medals for living, nothing can be worse. And seeing all this, even if someone is interested in joining a sport would be so demoralized that he would rather join his family business. That is like killing a sportsman.
The enormous amount of money spent on cricket, even if half of it is spent on building a proper sports facility in every state of India, giving proper fitness and physical training, the face of Indian sports will be completely different in coming ages. The youth could be motivated to join the sports they are interested in and get proper training in that particular sport. Auditions can be taken just like those talent hunt shows and the winners could be selected for higher level sport competitions.
But No, what will someone gain from winning a stupid medal? We the people are more practical. What will we do by gaining respect in the world level? We are poor people and all we want is money. Can't help.
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