Saturday 6 December, 2008

Is Cricket killing other sports in India?

(hinduonnet.com)

YES, cricket is indeed killing other sports in India. People of India treat cricket as their fifth Veda or fourth Religion after Hinduism, Islam & Christianity. Cricket is not our national game, but it is celebrated as a festival, thanks to our Board, Government, sponsors and the media.
Cricket has also been used as a bridge between two nations, as seen in the recent India-Pakistan series. The stunning live coverage of cricket is also a reason for the demise of other sports.
When Gopi Chand won the all-England badminton championship in Britain no one cheered or cared because in the same week Harbajan Singh took a hat-trick and V. V. S. Laxman scored 281 in the Kolkata Test against Australia.
No one remembers the Olympic bronze medals won by tennis star Leander Paes (Atlanta, 1996) and weightlifter Karnam Malleswari (Sydney, 2000), but Anil Kumble's 10-wicket haul, Harbhajan's hat-trick, and Virender Sehwag's 309 will be evergreen in memory.
People don't know how to play other sports or what the rules of other games are. But they are well conversant with cricket. Irfan Pathan has only five months of experience in international cricket, but he is famous because of advertisement assignments. In fact, hockey is our national game and India has won many gold medals in the Olympics, but all we remember is Kapil Dev's team winning the cricket World Cup in 1983.
As I mentioned earlier, the media, Board, Government and sponsors are the culprits for cricket ruling the roost, to the detriment of other sports in India.

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