Even before writing a single word of this post ,I know that I will be receiving lots of brickbats than bouquets for this post.But I would like to put forth my views on this subject inspite of having cricket obsessed members in our family.
Olympics,a global ceremony which occurs once in four years has always displeased Indians with its horrific Medal Tally which shows India in a poor ranking position.A country of more than 100 crores people just fetch a medal or two.After all the Athletes bashing and discussions our News media go to hyberanation and wake up after four years to again bash up our coaches,sports persons,facilities etc.All the other time they are more interested in discussing cricket,cricket player's love affairs,their liasons and what not.Even burps and farts of Cricketers become Breaking News in India.Indians love such information about their beloved cricketers.
Cricket which is treated as a money minting machine in India has already started to be a lucrative business for Politicians and Cine stars.
IPL is the vulgar display of this cash rich cricketing associations and related persons.IPL has literally turned cricket into a business.Players nowadays get crores and crores for this willowing game and cricket frenzy nation is wallowing in the hot dust to watch this disgusting display of wealth.
Just compare the situation in which some Hockey team players had to stay in Railway yards and they had to take bath with the pipe fitted near Rails(This was shown in NDTV few years back) and our posh cricketers are immersed in richness,stay in five star hotels etc.
How can we demand medals from them after we have treated the players of other sports in such a nasty manner.
Abhinav Bindra could get gold medal because his father could arrange a AC shooting field and a german coach for his son to practice.what about others who dont have money?
Why discuss about National level,Look at the grassroot level of Indian sports.
Archery ground where my son was practicing is in a horrible condition.I had to just watch helplessly the sportspersons who were practicing fencing,basket ball with minimum facilities .If that is the situation in a city like pune which has lots of enthusiasts for alternate sports,then imagine the plight in other cities!
Here I would like to appreciate the steps taken by L.N Mittal's Trust and Prakash Padukone's Gold Quest trust which has brought some talented sports persons to limelight.
But why cricketers are not interested in supporting other sports?Why dont they spend a percent of their crores in developing alternate sports in our country.Why politicians show least interest in other sports?Why our Bollywood stars are not sponsoring talented sports persons of other fields and provide them with good facilities?I think they don't find any reaping prospects or rich dividends in those fields.
One more chunk to blame is our cricket maniac Indians who just celebrate cricket like mad people.Our Indians don't have any respect for other sports.Did they watch the olympic games with the same interest with which they are watching the silly cheer girls of IPL?DD was telecasting olympics and the TRP ratings were not even equal to a so-so serial.Such is the support we are giving to other sports.
Only advice which I would like to give our Indians is,If you are more obsessed in this money minting game and not interested in other sports, then just shut up and watch the pathetic medals tally of India because you dont have any right to comment on our hard working sports persons who sweat more than our Crorepathi cricketers.When you have not given them anything ,dont expect anything from them!Not even peanuts!
CU in next post ,Cinema-India's Curse!
