Has Cricket killed all other Sports in India???
USA spends one third of its GDP on Sports. Even communist China has Olympic schools to groom prospects right from childhood. Ethiopia's name has not much been heard by world except when an athlete from this country lean for groping gold in their neck standing 'No. 1' of the sweet woodspot. Iran, Kazhakstan, Cuba and many other smaller nations have consistently been spotting a decent place in medals tally. It looks like India is devoid of talents. Is it so? A Big No!!! Then what is happening with us?'. We usually feel like, 'Sports governance is declining', 'Cricket has killed all other sports', 'Non-Cricket sports are not much popular', 'Government is not concerned about sportsmanship', 'Indian parents place sports as a last choice for their children', '40% in the nation are poor and sleep daily in hunger, Can they ever dream of sports?', 'World class infra-led US can be a nightmare for Indian athletes'. But we cannot deny any of these.Because sports in India is awaiting a 110 metre Hurdles race in upcoming decades.
Cricket is a religion definitely larger than Hinduism in India. Cricket can be comfortably divided into two eras. Before and after Sachin. Before Sachin, the most important achievement was the lifting of 1983 World Cup with Kapil's naughty smile. Viewership was much through Radios. That was not enough to change the fate of the sport. Then Logie Baird's invention (Television!) entered India around 1990s. So was the entry of Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly. Winning percentage shooted up and so were the idolizers of these victorians. Televisions presenting ball-by-ball feed!!! A Match day started making a home with TV or showrooms fan-ridden!! Majority of Indian citizens easily got connected to cricket. Even people who didnt watch it live, atleast were eager to hear the scores time and then or watch the last minutes of '30 runs in 15 balls' kind of matches in the hope of India's victory. Idolizing still through Dhoni or Kohli, today, Internet presents cricket in a very different way (Have you watched cricket text-live in espncricinfo while in office?). Winning percentage has gone higher and variety touching upto T20 and state level premier leagues !! What Cricket has achieved is not a mean feat!!
All this is about Male cricket !! But history started repeating again with cricket starting to be feministic. Women's cricket was one win away. World cup 2017 victory was that point!! Starting from India's qualification till nail-biting finals, Mithali Raj emerging as highest run-scorer, Harmanpreet Kaur all-rounding India's gears, its was all about idols and victories pulling a 300% rise in telecommunications viewership. Intense and fast-paced competitive matches stopped viewers from changing channels!! Reverse sweeps, Upar cuts, Diving saves, Pushing-back in catches on six lines, Reverse swings, Power hitting were all evident just like male cricket !! They were adamant in achieving to wear white jerseys and attract fans to witness five day thriller test matches!! Cricket is playing its deadly sweep shot to wipe all citizens !!
Ultimately, for a sport and the sportsman/sportswomen to emerge, its fans will be the basement. Fan following comes only after they gain confidence in the winning potential of any sport. From there, a sport has to succeed economically. That drives even a poor parent to send his ward to sports training expecting that sport to fetch a bright career. Its possible that a Hockey player can practice in a privately sponsored world class court. An athlete can undergo bio-mechanical testing to test his/her foot movements. Government has to find ways to repair and clutch-start the sports governance for initial decent success. As Idols and telecommunications add up, it will easily race itself to the top gear, jump over the hurdles one-by-one and win the race in record timing!! Winning may not be necessarily a habit!! But a sport has to be competitive within itself as well as across all other sports!! Then nobody can stop its emergence!!
Cricket is a religion definitely larger than Hinduism in India. Cricket can be comfortably divided into two eras. Before and after Sachin. Before Sachin, the most important achievement was the lifting of 1983 World Cup with Kapil's naughty smile. Viewership was much through Radios. That was not enough to change the fate of the sport. Then Logie Baird's invention (Television!) entered India around 1990s. So was the entry of Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly. Winning percentage shooted up and so were the idolizers of these victorians. Televisions presenting ball-by-ball feed!!! A Match day started making a home with TV or showrooms fan-ridden!! Majority of Indian citizens easily got connected to cricket. Even people who didnt watch it live, atleast were eager to hear the scores time and then or watch the last minutes of '30 runs in 15 balls' kind of matches in the hope of India's victory. Idolizing still through Dhoni or Kohli, today, Internet presents cricket in a very different way (Have you watched cricket text-live in espncricinfo while in office?). Winning percentage has gone higher and variety touching upto T20 and state level premier leagues !! What Cricket has achieved is not a mean feat!!
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| It all started here for Indian Cricket !! |
All this is about Male cricket !! But history started repeating again with cricket starting to be feministic. Women's cricket was one win away. World cup 2017 victory was that point!! Starting from India's qualification till nail-biting finals, Mithali Raj emerging as highest run-scorer, Harmanpreet Kaur all-rounding India's gears, its was all about idols and victories pulling a 300% rise in telecommunications viewership. Intense and fast-paced competitive matches stopped viewers from changing channels!! Reverse sweeps, Upar cuts, Diving saves, Pushing-back in catches on six lines, Reverse swings, Power hitting were all evident just like male cricket !! They were adamant in achieving to wear white jerseys and attract fans to witness five day thriller test matches!! Cricket is playing its deadly sweep shot to wipe all citizens !!
Ultimately, for a sport and the sportsman/sportswomen to emerge, its fans will be the basement. Fan following comes only after they gain confidence in the winning potential of any sport. From there, a sport has to succeed economically. That drives even a poor parent to send his ward to sports training expecting that sport to fetch a bright career. Its possible that a Hockey player can practice in a privately sponsored world class court. An athlete can undergo bio-mechanical testing to test his/her foot movements. Government has to find ways to repair and clutch-start the sports governance for initial decent success. As Idols and telecommunications add up, it will easily race itself to the top gear, jump over the hurdles one-by-one and win the race in record timing!! Winning may not be necessarily a habit!! But a sport has to be competitive within itself as well as across all other sports!! Then nobody can stop its emergence!!
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