Indo-Sport

As soon as FIFA world cup comes along, there is a revival of the age old debate, why has India not been able to make a mark in any sport other than Cricket.

I have seen and heard so many people giving stereotypical advices and strategies to Indian Government to improve the infrastructure, work at the grass root level in schools to encourage sports and sudden insurgence of patriotism deeming that India can make it big in every field/sport if given the support.

Now I am of the opinion that fair enough, the government needs to do umpteen number of things in umpteen number of fields. This though can’t be the only reason, I think there is a strong cultural reason for our lag behind in sports.

Economy can’t bar passion, best examples being the latest third world entrants to FIFA eclipsed by civil wars. Having said that I don’t think passion for football is the only reason behind the success of these nations at the sport. I don’t have a definite answer to their success but I have an example which gives some insight.

I happened to see a very moving documentary about the situation of black people in France. The documentary focussed on an Afro-French lady who worked several jobs in order to get one of her sons trained to be an athlete. Now she wasn’t doing that for the passion of sport or to make her country proud, she was doing that as sports was the only decent livelihood available to her family.

So the fact is sports are considered to be a very strong career option for kids around the world specially in troubled nations and disturbed communities, whereas for us having several other high paying and secure career options, sports are not equally appealing.

On the other hand, sports in the developed countries are so advanced that they are looked upon as a secure career option. Being a PE teacher at school is considered to be a very safe and sound career option in western countries. The added fact that these countries have role models in each and every sport promotes it further amongst youngsters .

I do not have any suggestions to make to the government or the sports ministry, but if you do please feel free to voice them on my blog.

Thanks for reading!!!!