So what about the media?
The media shows us what we demand and that is right until it becomes a regimen that sets us on an obsessive diet of superfluous facts and eye candy. It is then the media’s responsibility to tell us what we ought to also see and follow, to usher us into unknown realms of viewership and to popularize all sports by resorting to smart packaging and hence arriving at a means of delivering discourse and detail pertaining to most sports on primetime television, driven by innovative campaigns on social media.
It is “honour restored” in some sense with movie houses beginning to produce movies on sports themes and biopics of legendary sportspersons. But as you will admit, it is still not a perfect means to give all sports an equal footing and to set them on a level field of play.
While millions of us are oblivious to any sport other than Cricket, there is slowly a small revolution taking shape. Money is beginning to flow through sports associations in India through sponsorships and grants and that augurs well for the Indian athlete of the 21st century. Investments in sports infrastructure and academia are also beginning to become visible and viable. We need to demand more of this from the government. But how much of it will be sustained is a question that has no specific answer.
The popularity race
Cricket is by far the most popular sport in our country and as the saying goes, it is more than just a sport for most. While this is not bad for any particular reason, it has steadily pushed away other sports to a very distant minimum in terms of popularity. We are beginning to not admire anything other than cricket and that erodes our sporting culture, rendering history useless and future worthless in the context of other sports-athletics in particular.
It is high time that we offer a steady hand of support to the struggling attempts to run and popularize these sports in India.
Also read: Know your Indian Olympian: Tintu Luka
Amidst the raucousness of our daily lives and our cricket, let’s do our bit for our brethren preparing for the Olympics. Let’s cheer them on like they mean something to us, like their success would ventilate our choked lungs, like their efforts would elevate our souls from misery!
Come on– Let the cheering not be average, let’s beat the drum and blow the Bugle as hard as we possibly can, let’s do our bit to ensure our folks’ walk to the podium!
Come on! For it will breed new dreams and conceive a rich culture of sport in India!
P.S: P T Usha, Prakash Padukone, Leander Paes, Pullela Gopichand, Anju George, Mary Kom, Gagan Narang, Dhanraj Pillay, Michael Ferreira are some of India’s legendary sportspersons- may be we could do well to learn more about them and a galaxy of other champions that I have not listed!
