Are Indians ready to move away from cricket?

On peeping onto the street, one can find children and teenagers holding bats and swinging them in the direction of the fast approaching ball. Riding on the strength from the batsman, the ball crosses the imaginary boundary and joy ebbs into the minds of the players who find themselves on the same side as the one holding the bat aloft and celebrating like one of his idols whose actions he is trying to emulate.

Cricket is synonymous to sport to most in India. But what we fail to realize is that sport is beyond swinging a bat and spinning a ball. One wonders if we have learnt just this sport from our colonizers.

Too much of anything is poison. And cricket has proven that. Crazy following substantiated by arenas packed to the rafters even for matches played by lower division teams, has resulted in the game becoming richer by the day while just a few urban residents with access to internet and international channels act as connoisseurs of other sports.

In many young children lie latent talent which when awakened could translate into laurels for our nation. Comparative ignorance to other forms of sport has seen many a talent go waste- some rearing cattle, some even working at brick kilns and most ending up in poverty for they have spent all the time they had working hard to finesse their prowess in their sport and later found no aid to showcase what they had nurtured all those years.

Support from the statutory authorities is not very sufficient. Infighting in federations, unsuccessful conduct of international events, feud with players and many other problems have hindered them from delivering well.

For the past year or so, the tainted Indian Olympic Association is refusing to give in to the International Olympic Committee’s condition to not include charge-sheeted individuals in the sporting body. Continuous deliberations and discussions and unmet deadlines were all that followed. No clear progress. In spite of many of our athletes protesting this shameful act of the IOA, the association is refusing to place the interests of the athletes before

But, other sports have started to fight their way into prominence in the recent past.The past few months have shown that we are not just a cricketing nation. Indian teenagers from Jharkhand were placed an honorable third in an international football tournament. These young women who are praised today were not so long ago humiliated at a Panchayat office when they sought their birth certificates.

Indian junior hockey team won the bronze at the junior women’s world cup. At the World games, for the first time Indian bagged a gold and a silver medal, the only two after its lone bronze from the 1981 games. Wrestlers put up a very good show at the World championships with three medals and helping our nation qualify for its very first World Cup. Many more inspiring performances have come from our Indian athletes, even from sports which are not considered our strongholds like rowing.

With such a huge population, finding talents is not very difficult. Even if they are not encouraged, at least a few players would emerge to adorn the top echelons of their sport. But, for a nation which homes more than a billion, a few medals at international events is no honor. True honor would be to emerge as a formidable force in the international arena and set a standard for future players to emulate or even exceed.

Nevertheless, other forms of sport have started to come into the limelight as of late.

One such sport is badminton. Prakash Padukone, Pullela Gopichand, Saina Nehwal, Jwala Gutta and others have excelled in the international arena. They have in turn inspired thousands of young children to take up the sport. Today, India is on the verge of becoming a formidable force in the badminton world, at least in singles.

Seen as precursors to a glorious future are some teenagers’ valiant performances at the top level. K. Srikanth and PV Sindhu recently won Grand Prix Gold titles. Sindhu also won a bronze at the World Championships, a feat which even Saina found hard to achieve. Again, the world’s richest badminton tournament IBL was a huge success with support pouring in for players from the home crowd. It is going to benefit a lot of youngsters- more recognition, better facilities, encouragement and so on.

But think of sports with a higher degree of complexity in all aspects like tennis. It is difficult for middle class parents to avail good coaching for their wards and again playing tourneys becomes even more burdensome, financially. On top of all this, victory is not assured. There are players who put in lots of effort to reach the pro level but fail to break the 250 mark even if they play till their early thirties.

Opportunity in India is so far limited for such sports. The ITPL could garner some attention. But, it is not based entirely in India. There were two to three ATP and WTA tournaments in India a few years ago. Today, it is just the Chennai Open. There are handful of youngsters who can win at the futures level and are consistently doing so. Progress to the Challenger tour means travelling abroad as there are no tournaments held in India in this category, at least not now when many players are emerging victorious repeatedly at the Futures level. There are some players who are sponsored and sent abroad for training. But, the program is confined to certain states and does not pertain to players from all over the nation.

Many NGOs are supporting sports persons in their careers. Corporates have also found good markets in other sports. International leagues in Hockey, Badminton, Golf and other sports have started in India, emulating the IPL. Our only wish is that these sports too do not follow the path cricket is taken and are enjoyed and played in the purest of spirits.

Sporting frenzy in India is burgeoning today. Despite all odds, our athletes are now on trying to make it big in the world arena. Will the Indian impact be strong enough in the forthcoming years? Will the we be able to better our performances at the Asian and Commonwealth Games? We shall all do our part in cheering our heroes and hope for a strong show from them.