Cult of Cricket in India!

Cricket is India’s unofficial religion and cricketers are god.

There is madness and frenzy when India plays any match. The recently concluded Indian Premier League series reflects how mad the people are for cricket. This craze is good, but the sad point of the story is that in this craziness, the other sports are virtually ignored.

This is not from the people alone but the government too, who do it in a slightly subtle way.

Cricketers have their coffers full partly by way of their professional earnings and partly by way of endorsements. Some of the cricketers, I must add, seem to have decided on their post-retirement plans. If, nowadays, they are not playing in any tournaments, then the cricketers attend social parties and take part in reality shows.

When the first Twenty20 World Cup [2007] was won by the Indian cricket team, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) gave around $1.1 million to each player which totaled to around $15.4 million for the 14 member squad.

The sports ministry lavishes it's attention to the cricketers while our national sport, hockey, is languishing.

The cricketers get the best foreign coaches, the best infrastructural facilities, while hockey has nothing but passable coaches and almost negligible amount of infrastructure.

Because of such treatment, the Indian hockey team in 100 years, failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics and we have been Olympic champions not one, not two but eight times.

But all the BCCI was concerned with was that T20 is the right format for the Olympics. It was a sad day for Indian sports!

Our partisan attitude against other sports is one of the main factors contributing to our paltry medal tally at the Olympics. Whatever medals that we have are because the sportsmen have slogged on their own and not because the government has helped them.

Take Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi for example, two players who have been playing consistently and bringing laurels to our country. One won’t find Leander or Mahesh giving interviews, they fully concentrate on their game.

Similar is the story with Mr.Abinav Bindra, who won India’s first individual gold medal in shooting at the Beijing Olympics. Before that, I am positive that most of the Indians wouldn’t have known him. Now everyone is chanting his name.

But whatever Mr.Bindra has achieved, is not because of government patronage, but because his father encouraged his talent and honed it.

I do not harbour any rancour against my country’s sports ministry or it's cricket loving fans. But, I have seen over the years how we have placed other sports into blatant obscurity. If being a viewer, I can feel this, then the athletes themselves might be feeling the same thing, and the day they come to a final conclusion about the lack of encouragement and admiration for their efforts, will be the day my country’s sports will face disastrous consequences!