I guess India is not absolutely the right place to write about the World Cup but then I am constrained for choices. As it happens, the on-going football World Cup, the 4-yearly pilgrimage for old-style fans of the beautiful game ( I say old style because these days most football followers stick to the various domestic leagues only, whereas I prefer the nation vs nation format) has again raised the question of where are we as a country in this game!

Well, Sunil Chhetri is definitely trying to do his best in the studio (a poorly conceived and executed pre and post match show by Sony). The social media is flush with tweets and shares and likes for all things football. The newspapers are giving prominent page-space to the event (even Hindi ones, which definitely means more people in the hinterland following the sport now). And the Janata can’t stop talking about the late night games and the sleepy eyes one encounters every day. And all of these are definitely encouraging signs for us all…

Yet, when we look at India’s standing in the world order of football it’s way dismal. Watching one of the matches my brother commented, when Nigeria which is such a woefully underdeveloped country can qualify and give some of the better ones a run for their money, what’s wrong with India. And my instant answer was – we don’t have grassroots development.

If we look at it objectively, as I did after making the comment (yes, like most of us, I was just trying to sound cool and authoritative at that time), this theory does ring a bell. Why?

To begin with, Indians are taught from their childhood that sports and games are bad. “Padhoge, likhoge, Banoge Nawab; Kheloge, Koodoge, Banoge Kharab”. This is such a deep psyche with us people that it takes a typical rebel to go against the grain of the society and emerge on a field to play sports professionally.

Yes, we are changing and it is becoming common now-a-days to find sportsmen everywhere in India but then most of them are cricketers, trying to make some quick bucks in the only sport that pays handsomely. People don’t want to look at sports as a serious profession because they are unsure about earning their livelihood from it. And this can only change when we develop…

Cutting it short, this bias is basically there because Indians haven’t seen the other side of the coin – people can follow whatever their passion or liking is and they will be able to make a living out of it. And it doesn’t matter if you are educated or not, the views are almost the same. So how do we change this?

My take is – if India develops fast and people start seeing opportunities everywhere, the propensity to get into alternative fields will be more. We will then not only have more sportsmen but more teachers, more scientists, more of all professions and people will be happy in their chosen line, something akin to the US or other highly developed countries!