THE immense popularity that the game of cricket has assumed of late in India is without doubt something that has to be given a serious thought. Fifteen to twenty years ago the game was literally nowhere, except that the Nawab and the maharajahs patronized it a great deal. In fact, one or two of them Ranjit Singh and Dileep Singh did the Indians proud in England.
In a country like India where very few can afford the luxury of playing and enjoying the game of cricket, it is ironical that it has assumed the status of the national game.
We ask ourselves why the treatment to sports other than cricket? What has happened to the glory we enjoyed, almost unchallenged in hockey for close to four decades and the champion in Asia for soccer in the first Asian games. The fact is that games like hockey and soccer (football) are no more popular in government and business circles. How else does one explain the sound financial background of all the players who have played cricket for India at national level . The level of hockey and soccer in India is so low that one feels that these games need to be scrapped altogether and the Indians should switch over to “Gulli Danda” or “Kabbadi” if they have to save their face. A nation which is the second most populated country in the world, does not even have a world beater in any game. It is not only shameful but something that’s worrying as well.
The point is that all the big shots be they in politics or business prefer cricket, a game which only a few countries, mainly the old English colonies, the commonwealth play. Hockey and soccer which enjoys ‘worldwide popularity is regretfully relegated to the background by the powers that be. ‘Any honest Indian will ask what the hell is happening to sports in India. Are we going in the same direction as the politics in the subcontinent? There is no encouragement worth the name for sportsmen in India. Many of them, after sacrificing so much have died paupers and still it he Indian government sleeps. Are they doing anything? Yes, they are but only for cricket, a game which only a few countries play and where there is s0 much as ‘one week’s waste of manpower, simply because India happens to be playing either England, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, ‘West Indies, or Sri Lanka. A pity that a game enjoyed more or less in seven countries at test level so popular in India that the whole nation can afford to waste ‘as much as a week playing another country and still be without a result. Can India afford cricket mania at the cost of other sports, certainly not But why is it so?
Raj Singh.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 14, 1986
