Cricket in India, its popularity and effects and a personal experience

In India, Cricket is considered as a religion. But, blinded by the limelight of cricket, other sports are being sidelined. They aren’t given serious attention by the sporting authorities, the government and the people. The problem starts at the grass root level where sporting talents other than cricket are not given enough recognition and encouragement.

Growing up, I always dreamt of being a soccer player. I represented my club internationally. Thus, my hobby had turned into my passion and I began to take soccer seriously, as a career. I was faced with a quandary, to choose academics or soccer. I wanted to go for soccer, but after having realized that the chances of having an efficacious career in soccer in India were less, I chose academics. There were two main causes for my decision.

The first was the lack of facilities, recognition and infrastructure for soccer. For instance, the number of world-class cricket grounds in India is far more than the soccer grounds though soccer is the second most popular sport in India. The second reason was the lack of scope and low income. There is a great income disparity between cricketers and other sportspersons. Sunil Chetri, the captain of the Indian soccer team is paid about 1/10^th the amount paid to the captain of the Indian Cricket team.