It is often said that due to so much importance given to cricket other sports are suffering in India.
It’s not only wrong but also wishful thinking. It is not correct to say that cricket has prospered at the expenses of other sports in India. Most Sports body in India are controlled by the Government like Hockey etc or by some individual perpetually like tennis.
Cricket in India is governed by BCCI which is not a government body. It is more or less a democratic set up with forward looking people controlling it.
Why has cricket prospered in India? Why is it so popular? Why are advertisers vying to advertise their product through cricket? To answer these questions we have to go back to 1983 – when India won the Prudential World Cup. It was the turning point for cricket in India. As the fate of other sports like Hockey started to look bleak (India won the only world cup in 1975) after total dominance in 40’s to 60’s, cricket triumph in 1983 World Cup came as a pleasant surprise. It is after this world cup triumphant Cricket started to gain popularity. If BCCI would not have capitalized on this success than te fate of cricket would also been just like some otter sports. BCCI was quick to gauge the mood of the nation and started to build the infrastructure (like new stadiums, floodlights etc) that took cricket to another level. Unlike other sports where sportsmen were paid peanuts BCCI slowly but surely paid their players adequately so much so that now Indian Players are amongst highest paid players in the World —– and Why Not? It is because of them that BCCI is earning so much and why won’t they get their share of the pie.
If other sports federation cannot operate probably cannot compete internationally ot if they cannot pay their players adequately, it is not the fault of Cricket. It is there drawback if they cannot operate professionally and make there sports popular amongst Indians. Who stops them to operate professionally, who stops them to win allocades for India – certainly not cricket. Instead of blaming cricket they should try and take a leaf out of cricket’s success. Most of the sports body is being run by the whims and fancies of their head without an iota of professionalism. Today India is as market economy, money follows success. First show the results and then one gets the money which again go a long way in sustaining the success, this is a vicious circle. Monsey in cricket has come only after the world cup triumph but it was also very important at that point of time to en-cash this success. After winning so many gold medals in Hockey why is it in such a bad taste — because due to lack of foresightedness and unprofessional attitude of there federation they could not en-cash their success. Why blame others for your impotentness.
Even if sportsman who earns laurels for their country in other sports earn next to nothing, is it because of cricket — certainly not. BCCI pays from its own resources and other sports should build their own resources too. You can’t force people to play or watch any sport. They watch or play cricket because today India has some standing in world Cricket. Due to success of cricket it has virtually become religion in India. It is aptly said that one gets what one deserves and Cricket certainly deserves all the Success.
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I dont think cricket is responsible..just that people look for easy scapegoats…and cricket is one.
I agree with you but then equal exposure is needed for all the games in country which isn’t there.
Therefore I wouldn’t disagree is someone says so as you mentioned but then it is responsibility of Sports Authority of India to take other games forward by spotlighting them one by one…
Cricket is not killing others but its just working independently.
Reasons why cricket is doing good:
1) Every 90 out of 100 knows how to play cricket and have played it, most importantly they have an opinion about it.
2) Now it is talkable in India.
3) It has some stars from India.
4) It was the first sport to cash in the available sports market.
5) It had marketing minds behind it.
Reason why other sports are not doing that good:
1) Missing above 5 points
2) Often they end up copying cricket strategies, it wont work for all sports
3) People looking to achieve the same popularity in short term.
Aji
According to me, India has not reached the same performance level in other sports compared to cricket to compete with the high challenges of the world.
Additionally, Team India is improving in following respects:
1) adaptable to any climatic condition and environment.
2) being mentally and physically strong like the foreign players. (I liked Ponting’s word about power.)
3) applying brains, taking tactical decisions as per the situation, professional training and attitude.
4) more importantly, playing as a team unitedly.
If these apply for other sports, probably we can be a sports prosperous country in future. People will auto-talk about it.
There was a time when soccer was more popular as a sport in India. History holds some glorious moments that fill all Indians with pride even today. We have some golden memories associated with Indian soccer, as we became the first Asian nation to reach the Olympic football semi-final in 1956.
India (chiefly comprising its Bengal state-team members), finished fourth in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics defeating an English Australia 4-2 in the quarter-finals. Prior to that India had qualified for the 1950 FIFA World Cup, but failed to participate due to FIFA’s demand for all players to wear boots.
The popularity of cricket as a game has risen in the recent times with some distinct factors contributing to its success. Cricket - a game that developed more upon its skill-sets than upon physical competency showed the world how Asians too have a point to prove now!
It is a very controversial topic I will say. Directly we can not blame this game. Because it has got spontaneous response from most of the people of India. Cricket have become popular and a glamorous game due to ourselves. We are the people who have made the game very popular.
As most of the people of India love to watch cricket so naturally media will also run after this game and when media will run after anything naturally that has to be popular and then glamor will also add to it.
If a bats man scores a 300 we can see that the person get the front page coverage but how often we see that Jhulan Goswami,Narain Karthikeyan, Viswanathan Anand or Jeev Milkha Singh gets the Front page coverage though they are brining some great trophies for India.
presently we can see ICL is going on but how many people are aware of it. As u will hardly see any coverage about ICL. But on the other hand you can see many news coverage about IPL. So people are more aware of this tournament. So Media is very much responsible for this. They are not covering other sports they way it should be covered.
I will say cricket is very “place-friendly” game
I mean you can play in at any place, at the roof top, in small narrow road etc. But can you play Glof in the roof top?
But we should fight for this topic. I hope Media will highlight other sports as they are highlighting cricket.
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i am one of the fan of cricket, as today cricket has got such a huge success just because of its great quality. now a days cricket plays a vital role in human life specially in india,
but because of cricket the other sports getting affect
its just because of private organisation, well i am not humiliating it but i think these type of organisations should really help financially
in fact they also are an indian
so really think about it