Ever since my childhood, I thought cricket is our national sport. The reason behind this was very clear, as for sports I’d always watched cricket in our home , whether it was the astonishing innings of Sachin Tendulkar or deadly shots of Rahul Dravid, my family made sure to not miss even a single ball. However I don’t remember my family watching any other sport besides cricket. This is the impact of this sport in our country.It’s bitter but very true that one single game blotting many other games in India. Cricket fever has even overshadowed our national sport hockey. Theoretically, we all know that hockey is our national game but in practical vision its cricket maniac all over. No one remembers that in Shooting, Gagan Narang won four gold medals in Common Wealth Games 2010, or Indian World Champion Wrestler Sushil Kumar has won the gold medal in FILA 2010 World Wrestling Championships , but we surely know how many times the Indian cricket team has won the World Cup. You ask a child on the streets like whom do you want to become? they will instantly answer “Sachin Tendulkar” or “Virat Kohli” , but why no one ever answers “Dhyan Chand”? The reason is very simple, it is because the kids don’t even know who he is, and this is very shameful to us as a society that our children do not know who Dhyan Chand is.

Many budding players in sports like shooting, lifting, hockey etc. cannot continue their passion due to lack of governmental aid provided to them at international level which is not the case with cricket. Huge crowd pack the cricket stadium when there is India- Pakistan match, but the the stadium’s seats are found empty during other sports. It is such a shame for us that Sunil Chhetri , our Indian football team captain, had to seperatly make a video urging all the Indians to come to the stadiums to support our football team. It is such shame that our football captain have to ask us for our support, to boost their moral by marking our present at the stadium because we never care to go to the stadiums to watch their matches, which will never happen in cricket.

If this cricket mania continues, India can never perform well in the Olympics for years to come. Hence, there is a need of administration, infrastructure, training and facilities given to players of other sports than cricket so that they can shine more brightly with their stunning performances and we as an audience need to give all the attention and appreciation to the players of every sport, which we currently only give to the cricketers.