Mr. Ronald Allen

Hi all, “Cricket should not overshadow achievements in other sports,” my column in TOI today. Posting text of column below for ease of reading. Given that we are at the start of another World Cup, we expect the excitement to peak in the coming weeks. Social media, office water coolers, public transport, parks, and any other gathering will have cricket discussions. Will India reach the semi-finals? What about the finals? Can we win? It’s all great. But while cricket shines brightest, there seems to be another amazing trend emerging as well. That is, the rise of Indian excitement in other sports, particularly those which Indians historically have cared little about. This has happened mainly because of recent Indian achievements in these sports. Suddenly, a medal win for India in the Olympics or Asian Games brings a surge of interest and attention. After all, were we ever interested in javelin throw before Neeraj Chopra won that Olympic Gold? There is a whole new list of sports where Indians are achieving like never before. Shooting, wrestling, weightlifting, badminton and athletics have all had new Indian stars in the last decade or so. In the current Asian Games, Indians have won medals in equestrian, roller skating, rowing, squash, golf, sailing and wushu (martial arts). Can you believe this? Indians becoming champions in all these sports other than cricket? Sure, Asian Games aren’t the Olympics, but they are a stepping stone. The trend suggests India will win medals in these sports even at global-level competitions in the coming years. Asian Games medals also involve real intense competition, with plenty of developed and far wealthier nations taking part in the competition (Japan, Korea, and China, for instance). These aren’t small achievements. They are as hard to achieve as winning the ICC Cricket World Cup, if not harder. Cricket in India today is backed by an organisation like the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), whose net worth runs into billions (around $2.25bn, according to reports). To put it in perspective, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and New Zealand cricket boards have net worth of around $55m, $50m, $20m, $15m and $9m respectively. BCCI’s net worth is more than that of all the other cricket boards around the world put together. Even Australia and England, the next richest boards after India, are less than a sixth of BCCI’s net worth. When we say we are playing international cricket, are we even fighting worthy opponents? Does the World Cup truly have global participation? Not really. Around a dozen countries play cricket to some serious level. A dozen isn’t the world. Also, we have a cricket board that is way richer than the others. Is it still as much fun to defeat other teams when you put all this in perspective? There was a time when it was fun for us brown guys to defeat the white guys at the latter’s own game. It is still fun, but those days of defeating the ‘lagaan’ collectors are long gone. This is not to take away from the hard work of Indian cricket players who give their life, blood and sweat for the game. This is more about us, the Indian sports fan, looking at other awesome things that are happening in Indian sport apart from cricket. The competition is intense at the Olympics and the Asian Games. India is often at a disadvantage unlike in Indian cricket where we have a huge resource advantage against the competition. And yet, our new budding stars have shined. Hats off to them, and to the huge efforts of private organisations, government bodies, coaches and staff that have worked relentlessly to make this magic happen. It is, however, time now for us, Indian sports fans, to do our bit. We should post about these other sports and their athletes on our social media feeds. We must read up or watch interviews of these players, and discuss them in our office breaks with other colleagues. We need to attend non-cricket sporting events or watch them on TV whenever we can. That, in turn, will translate into more advertiser and sponsorship money for non-cricket sports, which will further improve performance. This positive loop is only possible if Indian viewers give these new sports some real attention and love. Sporting victories are more than just moments of national pride. When we see an Indian with a humble background achieve something on a global stage, it gives us hope. A handful of medals can inspire a billion-plus people. India’s time in other sports has come; it’s time we give it a further push.