Not worthy being a Sportsperson

This is regarding the responses by the Indian Public following Indian Cricket team's loss to Bangladesh in the opening round of the World Cup. Several youth wing members of a political party demolish an Under-Construction house of a Cricket player in Jharkhand, posters of the players are burnt, and protests and attacks occur outside the players houses. This is nothing new in India. It happened in 1996 and in 2003. In 1996, against Sri Lanka in the Semi-finals, angry crowds threw bottles on the field in Kolkatta leading to Sri Lanka winning. The reason being that the team performed below par. In 2003, following a dismal showing against Australia, several agitated "Fans" attacked a house of a player in UP and also there were angry demonstrations.

This is the scenario of Cricket in India. This is a nation that admires Cricket Fanatically, to the point where Cricketers are almost considered equivalent to a Supernatural force. Here in India, looking at these shameful events of the past two-three days, it is a tragedy that the Indian People are not good sportsmen. The Indian Public seem to have forgotten the basic fact that this is afterall a Sport, and in this, winning and losing are all part and parcel of it. The period in which Greig Chappell, the current Indian Coach, has witnessed the peak of unsporting behaviour by the Public.

The whole tenure was marked by the protests of dropping former Skipper Saurav Ganguly on lack of form. The public, with the help of the media, stroked the flames of their pasions and made it an issue each time India either won or lost. The axing of Ganguly has helped India, and also it has helped him personally, because now he is performing better. But, for me, the shameful and unsporting exhibition by the public on this highlights the point that Indian people are simply Unsporting. The height of this came in an India-South Africa ODI match, when the capacity crowd cheered for South Africa rather than India in Kolkatta.

Furthur incidences of some Oriya Political goon slapping Chappell for not including the Oriya players showed the unsporting nature of the people as well. It is because of these above reasons that one feels that being a Sportsmen in India is simply not worth it. Add to this, the constant irritant in the form of Advertising adds to the woes of the Sportsmen concerned. If somebody targets these Advertising firms, only then will Sportsmen in the country perform.

The list goes on. Whatever one says, i will always maintain two facts. One, We Indians are really unsporting people. Two, there is nothing called Sports Culture here in India. The Indian public are looking for the wrong benchmarks to get interested in other sports. By this, i mean that Indians watch with awe and inspiration the English football league or EPL. It is well known that the EPL is ZERO as far as quality is concerned, and yet people watch with blind fanaticism.

I shudder to think what will happen if India does not qualify for the next stage of the World Cup. I could very well imagine that the players might not be allowed to land on Indian Soil. When this kind of scenario confronts them, they will state that being a Sportsperson in India, despite all the glory and fame, is not Worth it.