| Tuesday, October 26, 2004 |
| Why India fails at the Olympics |
So asks Robb Hecht of PR Machine blog. The poor man is genuinely confused :)
Not so us Indians, are we? For one thing, we do not owe any answers to anyone.. remember our million-year old civilization.. we invented zero.. who caes about medals? :)
Seriously, there are several reasons:
1) We are focusing on academics and not sports so we can steal their jobs. Oops, that' not a serious answer.
2) Not enough facilities.
3) Inadequate focus on sports by the state and central governments
4) Sporting bureaucracy
5) Indians are not sporty as a nation. Sports are for the rich! (So what about Kenya and Ethiopia? Shaddup!)
6) India's favourite sports is cricket. The country is obsessed with it. Only about 6 countries play cricket, so not much scope to shine internationally there..
7) The billion people - 70-80% of them are somehow making it through the day, 10 % are happy that they do so on a consistent basis and go to sleep and work thanking God, and the other 10% are techies, upper middle-class families etc who are moneyed enough to enjoy life eating and drinking. When they look around, they see poverty, see how lucky they are, and enjoy life. Sports is just not in their agenda.
Sorry, even a PR agency can't do much for the state of sports in India. (Ever visited to India and spent some time here? Spend a month, go everywhere, and you will understand!)
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| posted by a correspondent @ 9:12 AM |
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