@Karthik, what you said is true, but teh question is not just about media concentrating on cricket. It is merely an indicator of the frenzy and popularity that cricket has evoked. It is also the fact, and it cannot be denied, that the rules and policies of the govt. with respect to sports is doing nothing for any sport except cricket!
Examples such as Sania Nehwal are far few compared with the overall population of India and the diversity of the sports being played!
We have already forgotten our true heroes who bought home Olympics accolades such as Vijender, Sushil Kumar Abhinav bindra etc.
"I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally." - W. C. Fields :)
Well , absolutely , I feel it is as obvious as a kangaroos huge pouch, you just have to open your eyes and notice it. Well , why is there so much people flocking to watch cricket alone ? The reasons according to me are
1- DADS INFLUENCE - I take myself as an example and the reason why I started watching cricket . Everybody in my family watched when Sachin played and sent the balls of Akhtars and the Lees to the fences . Since everybody watched I didn't want to be left out and started watching it too , I guess that is how most kids starts watching . Take for instance the mad crush about football in England . You will find each member of the family supporting a different premier league club like Manchester United , Chelsea and Liverpool to name a few , their cricket is not huge , they only watch the Ashes . All kids I guess see their dad as an idol, when you are young atleast and If your dad is busy watching David Beckham bending the football you would surely feel like watching it and bending one yourself . So when all the dads in our country are watching cricket you will follow his footsteps ..
2 - Sachin Tendulkar - Since 1989, Sachin has been reducing the number of atheists in our country - a post by a fan in crowd . Do I have to say more? . Where has there ever been a kid in India who doesn't want to watch the little genius carve his masterpiece on the cricket field and doesn't want to emulate him . I m sure there are tonnes of kids who just watched Sachin play once and immediately got inspired and decided " CRICKET IS THE GAME FOR ME" . I'm not sure we would even be having this topic if it was not for Sachin . I don't mean to be offensive about Sachin , but hes the main culprit in a good way and has kept the game alive for years .
3- Look at the state of the other sports like Football , hockey and Tennis in India -Do you want a bigger reason ? Or Indians are given enough opportunity but haven't done anything with it ? . Take football for instance , I have been such a big football enthusiast and I have been looking for years to find a proper football coaching centre and boy Im 20 and still searching . There are 1 or 2 but they are too far for my convenience , where as you can find a cricket coaching centre in every area that you live . Tennis courts are few and far too , Sania Mirza is no way a success if anybody is thinking of her , has she ever crossed the 4th round of a Grand Slam ever ?
4-Media - India Pakistan cricket matches are hyped to the core in every Indian paper possible , where they allot a whole page to interview what every single player in both sides thinks about the game and even after the match is over, they talk about it for two days . But have you ever noticed any articles or news feeds about the football match between Indian and Pakistan recently ? We cant deny that media plays a huge factor in our lives and the Indian media is sadly focused more on finding if sreesanth can do hip-hop and teaches samba dance while they don't give a damn to Baichung Bhutia who recently played with all the footballing greats of the world in a friendly match , well then , you are not gonna notice anything .
Conclusion - Is it affecting? Well a huge, yes. We are not able to assemble 11 men from a billion population in tennis or football or hockey and that's surely not because of a lack of talent but a lack of awareness and lack of facility and lack of attention to other sports.
Well , absolutely , I feel it is as obvious as a kangaroos huge pouch, you just have to open your eyes and notice it. Well , why is there so much people flocking to watch cricket alone ? The reasons according to me are
1- DADS INFLUENCE - I take myself as an example and the reason why I started watching cricket . Everybody in my family watched when Sachin played and sent the balls of Akhtars and the Lees to the fences . Since everybody watched I didn't want to be left out and started watching it too , I guess that is how most kids starts watching . Take for instance the mad crush about football in England . You will find each member of the family supporting a different premier league club like Manchester United , Chelsea and Liverpool to name a few , their cricket is not huge , they only watch the Ashes . All kids I guess see their dad as an idol, when you are young atleast and If your dad is busy watching David Beckham bending the football you would surely feel like watching it and bending one yourself . So when all the dads in our country are watching cricket you will follow his footsteps ..
2 - Sachin Tendulkar - Since 1989, Sachin has been reducing the number of atheists in our country - a post by a fan in crowd . Do I have to say more? . Where has there ever been a kid in India who doesn't want to watch the little genius carve his masterpiece on the cricket field and doesn't want to emulate him . I m sure there are tonnes of kids who just watched Sachin play once and immediately got inspired and decided " CRICKET IS THE GAME FOR ME" . I'm not sure we would even be having this topic if it was not for Sachin . I don't mean to be offensive about Sachin , but hes the main culprit in a good way and has kept the game alive for years .
3- Look at the state of the other sports like Football , hockey and Tennis in India -Do you want a bigger reason ? Or Indians are given enough opportunity but haven't done anything with it ? . Take football for instance , I have been such a big football enthusiast and I have been looking for years to find a proper football coaching centre and boy Im 20 and still searching . There are 1 or 2 but they are too far for my convenience , where as you can find a cricket coaching centre in every area that you live . Tennis courts are few and far too , Sania Mirza is no way a success if anybody is thinking of her , has she ever crossed the 4th round of a Grand Slam ever ?
4-Media - India Pakistan cricket matches are hyped to the core in every Indian paper possible , where they allot a whole page to interview what every single player in both sides thinks about the game and even after the match is over, they talk about it for two days . But have you ever noticed any articles or news feeds about the football match between Indian and Pakistan recently ? We cant deny that media plays a huge factor in our lives and the Indian media is sadly focused more on finding if sreesanth can do hip-hop and teaches samba dance while they don't give a damn to Baichung Bhutia who recently played with all the footballing greats of the world in a friendly match , well then , you are not gonna notice anything .
Conclusion - Is it affecting? Well a huge, yes. We are not able to assemble 11 men from a billion population in tennis or football or hockey and that's surely not because of a lack of talent but a lack of awareness and lack of facility and lack of attention to other sports.
Country of billion and just 1 Gold medal
Highly deplorable condition it is ... really just ponder if Bindra would have just missed the final shot den we would have been devoid of opening our account in the olympics list. According to me ..The reason behind the lack of our performance during olympics game is just because every game in our country is not promoted as compared to Cricket. The whole world ,,every state ,every street people just practice "Cricket" and foremost all other sport player are just lacking in killer instinct. They are never been heavily awarded and appreciated for their small win if they r playing sport other than Cricket. Media also doesn't hype bout those player ,,so it's lacking effort from everywhere which forces the young players to think as if their career in any sport apart from cricket will be in doldrums!!
Yes.. Gautham Balaji has also put forward nicely. Some TV channels dedicated to sports, may be telecasting all events, but major attraction in TV and paper is cricket.
It is time that other sportspeople and the sports ministry together with the government work together to set up the necessary infrastructure and training camps to promote other sports.
Also, the matches for other sports need to be increased and professionalism in governing bodies for overshadowed games like archery and shooting be ensured.
Apologies to moderator and members for posting it twice , Im a new bee here and I didnt intent to post it twice , dont know what happened . I cant say any delete button to remove it, can someone tell me how to remove the post . thanks in advance .
@ Karthik
You are right it has been appreciated well and it is out in newspapers and news channels . But I have a question . How many people the path that lead to where she stands now , No 3 ?
. News -Saina won back-to-back titles, India Open Grand Prix and the Singapore Open Super Series in the last two weeks and jumped 3 spots from no 6 to no 3.
Im not gonna pretend I knew she won both the titles and that is why she is up here now . Where did the media go when she won the above said two titles ? I guess, they were busy finding out if Yuvraj is crying in his mothers lap or fathers lap for excluding him from the team . I sure didn't see any news about it or any whole page dedicated to her achievements .
You said that media is mainly concentrating on Cricket which is absolutely false. If you open any news paper (not papers like THE HINDU etc where 3 or 4 pages are allocated for sports news) some regional news papers like Eenadu etc where there is only page allocated for sports column you can clearly see that the most of the page is filled with soccer with just 1/10th of the page allocating to cricket. Presently Indian cricket team is taking part in Asia Cup and there is no Indian team in Soccer world cup but higher priority is given to Soccer world cup only by the newspapers. Similarly news channels are also mainly concentrating on Soccer world cup.
Dude , I hope you understand football is the biggest game on planet earth with the most passionate fans you will ever find . I noticed you keep on comparing the world cup with Asia cup, that's like comparing Mercedez benz with a Tata Nano car . And Media is not doing this to promote football , dont you believe , they just dont want to be left out . Media are like a cat and they go behind where there's milk (FIFA world cup ) , they will do anything that catches peoples attention . Lets see what happens after the world cup gets over . They will suddenly turn a blind eye to football and come back crawling like a hungry deer for some grass(cricket)
@Gotham Balaji, you have very well illustrated your point of view!! That is what exactly I have been saying!!
The reason you won't find a proper coaching centre for football is opretty obvious. No individual can take up such an enormous task on his own and those who can afford to do it will not simply because its not cricket!!
SImilar to football and hockey in India, there are many other sports suffering the same lack of attention. Take Mallakhamb for eg. Truly truly Indian sport in spirirt, it is as demanding, exacting and challenging sport as figure skati8ng or gymnastics or any other similar sport. But have we been able to give it International recognition???
What about the likes of Narain Karthikeyan, Karnam Malleshwari etc??
All these sports have suffered the same neglect owing to teh frenzy that cricket evokes. and now with the entry of filmstars into the circus arena that cricket has become, it just has become more farcical.
"I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally." - W. C. Fields :)
