Friday 18 May, 2007

The progress of a nation can be judged by its performance in various sports

This statement is true as it can clearly be seen from the medal tallies of various international sporting events that the most developed countries are the ones that perform best in the maximum number of sports.
It might be because of the fact that developed nations have a better human potential and its people are endowed with the facilities and opportunities to take up a career of their choice whereas people in less developed nations are trying for survival and hence naturally opt for jobs that would ensure a steady income. It might also be for the fact that developing nations like India have completely forgotten about overall development of its human capital and are hell bent on making its people intellectually advanced. And to what extent do they succeed in this goal is a matter of doubt.
It would be wrong to say that we are not a sporting nation, keeping in view the magnitude of fan following and insanity related to a couple of sports. To be precise, its just one sport that Indians fall for, and that is Cricket.
We don't have many countries that actually play cricket as seriously as India does. Despite this fact, we are still not the number one team in the world. Sporting devotion does not only mean painting your face in the tricolour every time your country faces an international team. It means being passionate about it with the true sporting spirit. If we are really passionate about our cricket, why don't we know the names of the players that make up our state teams? Is this real fondness to our one-and-only sport?
We are entangled in a complex net of conceptions and misconception that a 'complete nation' must have a sport it worships. We are blatantly doing things just because other countries are doing it as well. Neglecting the true sporting spirit that we should instill in our students, we aimlessly go about idolizing rich cricketers and evolving all the wrong reasons for association with a sport. Children dream about becoming cricketers, and recently tennis players, just because there's huge earning potential plus popularity in these sports. Nations that stress the true sporting spirits are the ones that have winners in whatever sport their countrymen choose. And that is the reason their countrymen choose a whole array of sports and live up to everyone's expectations.
Oxygen... a movement view

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