India became Twenty-20 Champion recently; this gave almost all the Indians a reason to rejoice. This triumph unlocked the door of awards for the cricketers. Cash prizes were being bestowed on these players in such a way that made me comprehend that they have done a thing that no Indian have ever reached closer to this in sports. Cricket is professionally played in England, NewZeland, West Indies, Australia, Bangladesh, South Africa, Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and obviously India. In England, generally old people follow cricket, reading newspaper and watching cricket. In New Zealand generally people don’t recognize cricketers. In West Indies cricket is fading against basketball, football and baseball. In South Africa, people usually come to stadium not to watch cricket but to enjoy the sunlight. Out of Sub-Continent only in Australia cricket is followed up to a certain level. Then who observes the matches that take place? Without doubt they are the people from Sub-Continent, and mostly Indians. Then what is the fuss about this achievement? Leaving Australia, New Zealand and England, there is no other country that ranks in top 30 in world sports plays cricket. A short time prior to this accomplishment, our hockey team won the Gold medal, being unbeaten in the recently concluded tournament, which involved Asian teams. I think, that most of us might not know about this, since, leaving cricket we don’t have time for other sports. Subsequent to 1996 Atlanta Olympics, one headline flashed in the most acknowledged newspaper of USA that stated, “Population nearly 1 billion, but no gold medal”. When I heard this news in our local news channels I was really taken a back, and this made me realize that we stand nowhere in sports arena. Countries like Germany, Japan, Poland, Norway, S Korea, Belarus, Italy, France, Cuba, Hungary and many more, which position no where in population and size contrasted to ours, but they rank in top 15 countries in sports. What they have which we don’t? I think answer for this question has to be found out very soon.
Let me throw some light over this question’s answer from my point of view. Most of us might argue that we don’t have sports infrastructure that can counterpart the countries revealed earlier. Take example of Kenya, Ethiopia, Morocco and Nigeria, all of them don’t enjoy even the basic amenities like water, electricity, better education, better medical facilities and the list continues, but then also they are able to produce paramount athletes in the long running events. Take Cuba, they hardly have anything better then us, if measured with economy, technology, and basic infrastructure. But then, they produce finest boxers in the world. Asafa Powel comes from a tiny Caribbean island of Jamaica, and he is the fastest athlete in the world. How come Iran is better then us? The country encircled by factional war and receding financial system. How come Irakh won the Asian football competition lately held? Everyone knows what the condition of Irakh is at present. Do we say we are physically not as good as the Europeans or Americans? Then the S Koreans and Japanese should be standing way behind us, but this is not the case. Ukraine, Romania and Kazakhstan, where they locate in global economy or any other major global activities? But they have the top gymnasts and weight lifters in the world. There are myriad examples for me to state, but this out of scope, pointing out here.
The only thing hampering us from realizing great success in sports from my view is our attitude towards sports. We perceive, take pleasure in, feel and converse is only cricket. Cricket nowhere stands if compared with number of countries playing this game; consider football, basketball, volleyball that is played generally by all countries. Athletics, gymnastics and swimming are the vital events in other countries. We have to acknowledge other sports if it has to grow in our country. Cricket is remote from being a universal sport. It is just the outlook that has to be changed towards other sports. They want followers, recognition, money, TV coverage to tempt promising citizens take the game as a profession. This will certainly help encouraging parents permitting their children to attain something in sports. This will automatically thrust sports authorities to build infrastructure for these sports. It will be just a matter of time before we begin producing world class professionals in sports as we do in education. I look forward to to see India being in the top 10 in the Olympics medal tally. Finally, it is up to us to realize this aspiration.
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