Is India a one sport nation?

Cricket is religiously followed in India, while our national sport (supposed to be Hockey) has always taken a back seat, especially in the past twenty years during which India has not won even a single gold in Olympics Hockey.

This is a very popular question in the minds of many – and this question comes up more often after we see any poor performance in any sport.

I happened to read a very interesting article in The Hindu on this topic called Let Us Accept The Truth . The author has clearly laid out every single point that has been widely debated every time this topic comes up for discussion. Reading this article was like someone told the simple, plain truth in even more simpler terms that it hit me hard when I read it.

How could we be spending all our time, money and energy on Cricket, while we expect the performance in other sports to be on part at international level. I remember when I was playing serious badminton when I was told repeatedly that badminton will take me nowhere. Thank God, I reluctantly and angrily agreed to my father’s demands at that time and gave up on badminton. Today, I continue to play badminton, but only because my studies helped me get to a point where I can continue to play badminton.

I sincerely wish we change the situation with badminton so that kids can take up other sports besides cricket seriously and continue playing at a professional level. Tejesh Sports Academy (I have personal interests in the growth of Tejesh) aims to take it to the next level, and I hope it can continue to attract the interested badminton lovers in and around Chennai.

Wish there are other takers for other sports also…otherwise we would definitely end up the slave of cricket, though we are out of slavery for over fifty years now.