Sunday 13 July 2014

World cup football -Where is India?

Dear friends

As Argentina plays  Germany in this world cup, it is a fight between the individual centrist Latin America and the team run European football.Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Spain and Italy have proved to be the greatest football nations based on the previous  world cups.  Latin American food ball, like the Indian cricket during the Sachin era was always centered on one individual. Whether it was Pele or Maradona of the yesteryear or the Messi of today, the victory for the Latin American  teams were  always because of an individual. The loss of Neymar making  Brazil getting into a corner with a fourth place is a testimony to this fact. On the other hand European football was always based on team effort but not necessarily based on a name. Today’s match for Argentina is centered on Messi while for Germany it is game as usual. A few hour from now we will know who are the world champions again an individual or a team.
While Europe and Latin America leads in this game, Asian countries are never near the post. With occasional appearance of Iran or South Korea the Asian land mass with the greatest population is always away from World cup not to mention of India. Indian football has always made itself present in the Olympics during the 50s.  However, we still remain a non-entity among the comity of nations in the world football arena. Even since the times of Chuni Goswami to the present day sensation Sunil Chhetri we have had many names like Baichung bhutia, Bhaskar ganguli, I M Vijayan to name a few , adding glory to the game in India since independence. The Santosh trophy football match and the glory of the Bengal Clubs -East Bengal, Mohammedan sporting, and Mohanbagan- have all  been lost. As we watch today’s world cup it is a shame that an emerging economy like India is nowhere among the comity of footballing nations. It is not health or wealth which makes a footballing nation but dedication and support to the game. Our over emphasis on cricket and by making it a national madness, we have ensured that the greatest game among humankind is nearly dead in India. In the eve of this world cup football final, we need to think that it is high time that we revive this game. But the question is even if the government take policy initiatives will the commercial interests around cricket give it a chance?

Sanyasi