sanyasi: World cup football -Where is India?

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

1 comment:

RAJESH said...: While i agree with your comment on the overemphasis of cricket in our country as one of the contributing factor i also feel that no matter what we can never be as fit as the latin americans or europeans & that is one of the key to football.

Unlike cricket it is game of might & hence we are less likely to feature even in future

In a way it is good that india is not featuring, so now you can enjoy the game rather than feeling good/bad about your own team winning/losing

So boss just grab a beer can, pick a team (out of two featuring in the final) and enjoy the game..; 13 July 2014 at 11:19

crying babies have milk

Dear all, The prime minister''s independence day speech was disappointing to most of the ex service men . According to them the PM did not deliver what he had promised to them during the elections. Yes, I mean the one rank one pension scheme (OROP) . The TV channels showed flocks of ex service men predominantly people from Punjab, Himachal and Haryana cursing the PM as a traitor. We all know that it is easy to make election promises but when it comes to implementation , reality strikes. The same is the case with OROP . This is a great idea in principle , but the cost to exchequer is said to be nearly Rs 10000 Crore . Who will bill this ? Lets now go to Bihar. Our PM has now gone and pledged around Rs 1.3 Lakh Crore for Bihar's development. Well, I do not know whether the learned people from Bihar will bite the bait or whether they too will have to go for a Dharna later. Time and the election results will speak. The larger point here is about the culture of freebies and rent seeking by interest groups. This has been part of India's body- politic since long and have made large Vote banks . Is nt this at the cost of others ? . Guys I am not being parochial. You go to a railway station , airport and any Central Government office , don''t you get a larger taste of Hindi, Bihar and the stench from the cow belt. I am afraid I don't see any diversity here. ( except the occasional face of some dark coloured Southees or marathees in the CISF security team at Mumbai airport). I don't have numbers to throw and prove statistics but the point is that there seems to be a collective bargaining and a reciprocal political blessing based on election needs, be it from UPA or NDA. ( In fact both seems to be two parts of the same coin). If Bihar can claim Rs 1.3 Lakh crore (if at all it happens ) why not Orissa , Bengal and Telengana. Are'nt they also underdeveloped. The resource pledging seems to skew unequally over the geography of India particularly away from the South and East; Well that is for you to think , but what worries me is on the tax that I pay. I don''t mind that the tax taken from me is given to the right people or if the government comes up with some schemes which percolates my income down the pyramid, but what annoys me is that I don't want my tax to be pledged for votes . Anyway as somebody said crying babies always have milk. That is what democracy is for. Jai Hind: