Cricket, once an enchanting English Summer game for the British in India before Independence. But, it is now a multi-million dollar game for the nation's entertainment. In modern India, cricket is the most popular sport, manically followed by most Indians, uniting them in all their diversities. The number of fans with cricket craze in India is humongous. On the other side, Hockey- the National Game of India lacks the necessary backing and attention from the audience, government and media. India, performing poorly in the Olympics. Despite such a large pool of population, comes from the fact that India constantly fails to foster players from sports other than cricket. Even a large amount of public and private investment in sports has failed to produce substantial results.
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The failures so far have been attributed to sports governance in India. And problems like nepotism, fiefdom, non-answerability, and financial insufficiencies in sports federations have been existent and consistent. The scope of control lay in hands of only a few who managed and controlled the sport. Which has certainly been disadvantageous in many ways to the free and unbiased patronage. Hockey is an example; India which was once unbeatable, now finds it difficult to secure a place in Olympics, due to political interference and influence, compromising the quality.
At late, the scenario seems to be changing as our Prime Minister and the states of India, have been taking a keen interest in many sports. Prime Minister Modi’s recent interaction with Olympic-bound athletes, for a morale boost, just before they took off for their Tokyo Olympics tournaments, was just one of those steps towards this direction.
The funding that increased for programs like Khelo India Games witnessed a surge hike of Rs 316.29 crore bringing the figure to Rs 974 crore in 2021-22. The payoff will surely be seen in the coming years and we will know if this budgetary allocation will stimulate any energy for our sports groups.
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The sponsors are biased towards cricket as it attracts a large audience base. The solution to this lies in the beginning. Things need to change at the outset, where parents themselves need to encourage other sports. There is a need for more sports associations and government intervention for the proper utilization of funds towards the prosperity of each sport. Now we have the answer to why cricket is so popular in India. As a matter of fact, cricket should not be blamed for India’s underperformance in other sports. Probably working at the root level, by bringing up the talent in each sports’ space should be absorbed into our strategies, so that not just cricket, but India flourishes in all other areas of sports. There are many sports in India with huge potential but we are giving more importance to cricket.
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