The poor state

A familiar question that is asked whenever India loses any sporting event is - "How can a population of 1 Billion, fail even at this?". That's the question that a lot of people were asking yesterday, after India's 4-1 loss to the Windies.

Now for a moment forget Cricket. Take Football. Trinidad and Tobago, Lara's country, has qualified to the 2006 World Cup and their official page is here. According to the CIA Factbook, the population of T&T is about 1.1 Million. That's far less than the 13 million who live in and around calcutta, the bastion of Indian Football.

The Carribean is not a hot bed of soccer talent and neither is India. Yet, we find that even a small country like T&T qualifies for the world cup.

What is the reason behind India not even qualifying? In my view, the following reasons are at play

1. Lack of encouragement at School. Most Indian parents do not want their children to look at Sports as a career. Why? That's the second reason.
2. Sports in India does not provide adequate compensation to even the most talented sportsperson, unless you are Sachin Tendular. Why? That's the third reason
   
3. TV and Media do not provide sufficient coverage to any sport other than cricket.
   

A sorry state of affairs indeed.

Myopic view of india, football