Is Cricket affecting other sports in India?

 

With a population of over 1.3 billion, there is a huge potential of India for excelling in many of the sports played in the world. But the reality shows us a different picture where Cricket is way ahead in popularity and success in India, whereas other sports crave for even a fraction of its popularity. So, why Cricket has overshadowed other sports in India?

 

Achievement of different sports team of India before 1980s

Once believed to be the “National Sports of India”, Hockey was the most followed sport of India at one time. Men’s hockey has consistently made India proud by winning various competitions in the world. In Olympics, it has won 6 back to back gold medals from its inception and in total 10 medals in consecutive years. Along with that, we also hold the World Championship title in the year 1975 along with 3 total medals in the competition. India has produced finest players including Dhyan Chand Singh and several others who have excelled in the sports. Currently, India ranks 4^th in the world out of about 90 countries recognized by International Hockey Federation.

Football in India dates back to the era of Colonialism when the British brought this game to India in the mid-nineteenth century. In the year 1888, Durand Cup was started in Shimla which is still being organized by the Indian Army and considered to be the 3^rd oldest tournament in the world and the oldest in Asia! Currently ranked 108^th out of about 210 countries recognized by FIFA, Football is the most popular sports in the world and records the highest viewership in the World Cups being played once in 4 years. The golden era of Indian Football, known to be during the period of 1950s-1960s, the Men’s Indian national team managed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup held in 1950 but had to withdraw their name due to several reasons mainly related to expenses. This team even played the Olympics held in the year 1948, the first tournament as an independent country. In 1951, India received their maiden trophy by defeating Iran in the finals of Asian games.

 

The revolution in Cricket that started post winning the World Cup

Back then, Cricket did not enjoy the similar status it had today, in fact Hockey was the most popular during that time. But the World Cup win in 1983 under the captainship of Kapil Dev changed the way the supporters saw this sport in India and there was a huge increase in viewership post that period which is only increasing till date. Not only that the national Cricket team was getting success constantly, but the other sports such as Hockey and Football failed to provide much of success in the international era especially Football which has failed to make any mark even in Asian competitions.

Cricket is considered to be a “religion” in India and none of the sports comes anywhere near to its popularity. Any match of national Cricket team gets a full house and TV viewership records a new figure each time, streets becomes less crowded and people gets glued to the TV screen whenever they see a TV on roadside shops.

While the captain of national Football team, Sunil Chhetri have to plead the nation to fill the stadium and support the team in the finals of an international championship, while a Cricket test match which is held for 5 days does not find any difficulty to attract spectators. The status and popularity of the Cricket players are at par with the Bollywood actors and way beyond any sports personality.

 

Why Cricket is the only sports that is so popular in India?

It’s not that none of the sports have done well in the world arena. Sports like boxing, shooting, wrestling, etc., have brought success in various competitions and have even given medals in Olympics as well. But they are all because of individual brilliance of a particular personality; many times it has been seen that an individual has taken initiative to train himself in foreign by incurring expenses on his own.

Lack of proper training facilities and infrastructure has made it difficult for the youngsters to dominate in any of the sports as a team. Even though there at least some instances of success in individual sports, we have not done well in team games in the recent past except cricket. In Hockey we have still fight it out with the top teams of the world, but in Football we have failed miserably to leave any mark even in continental competitions.

The reason is, excelling in these sports is only possible if the infrastructure needs to be at the same level as that of the world. Individual brilliance can earn medal in the competitions of individual sports. But in team games, there needs to be at least a set of 20 players who can dominate the game in the world level and a particular player can’t win the game.

So why Cricket has been successful? If we see the ranking of the sports although there are more than 80 teams listed, it’s just 8-9 teams which actually compete with each other and this makes Cricket less competitive as compared to Hockey and Football. In Hockey if we see, there are about 20-25 national teams which participate at the top level and compete with each other. Coming to the most popular game in the world i.e., Football, the no of teams that competes in various world and continental competitions is about 150! So we can imagine how tough it is to dominate the above two sports as compared to Cricket.

Is Cricket hindering the development of other sports in India?

There is no specific answer for this question and it is unfair to blame a particular sports for the failure of other sports, but it is us who are responsible for this scenario. We as a spectator or supporter, are very impatient to see our team win. There’s nothing wrong in it, but the problem with this is, Cricket is an easy alternative to watch the national team succeed and we ignore other sports and stop showing interest. We can see many nations including England, Australia or New Zealand who dominate in many sports including Cricket, Football and Hockey and hence shows that we should not stop dominating in only one sports. It’s not like there is just one slot available and we have to support only one sports, why not encourage every sport the similar way? When India national team plays any tournament, a win always makes the country proud no matter which sport it is. If we look at the infrastructure that Cricket has, the popularity of the sport is very much responsible because it attracts the investor in spending money.

The scene in “M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story” movie where the coach asks M.S. Dhoni who used to play Football at that time, “since you are good at goalkeeping, play Cricket as a wicket keeper”. It depicts how we treat other sports when Cricket comes into picture. Yes, we got a legend in Cricket, but who knows we could have got another Gurpreet Singh Sandhu in Football or might be someone better!

The Indian media is also to be blamed here; a win in Cricket takes a 1 hour slot, but other sports gets a 10 min slot. Unless the channels supports other sports, how will the young talent get enthusiastic about them and think that playing sports other than Cricket also can make them famous one day?

 

Conclusion:

The introduction of various professional tournaments like Indian Super League, Hockey India League, Pro Kabaddi and Premier Badminton League has given a new ray of hope to the various sports in India and hopefully those will be successful in the future as well. When the spectators will fill the stadium, that will give boost to the players to perform well in the international arena and make India proud not just by competing but by winning and getting medals. Hence, it is our duty to support each and every sport and be patient to get success. We have to remember that success is not an overnight thing that will happen the next day especially when we are competing with 100+ countries.

It is also the responsibility of Government to set up academies that will help grow young talents and nurture them to success. The huge population of India gives us the advantage of unlimited such resources where we can scout players for the future.

What is your view on the issue, let me know in your comments...