Re: A long post - your opinions sought
- From: Geico Caveman <spammers-begone@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2007 12:43:03 -0700
JPD wrote:
On Mar 31, 10:05 am, Geico Caveman <spammers-go-h...@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
For starters, I do not think that we Indians are particularly athletic
people. Not because of lack of genes (the world's strongest man for a
while was Indian) or for lack of money (just watch the sick amount of
money that is being funnelled by the government into sports) or for lack
of facilities (almost any major town in India today has fairly decent
facilities). I think that we are not athletic because of a deep seated
cultural choice, a choice that most of us do not even notice when growing
up, a choice that still equates physical activity and associated
lifestyle with a juvenile mindset.
And I don't see why it should be so, frankly. A nation of a billion
people should have enough competitive types to offset a cultural bias
which relegates sport to a low importance. For example, you suggest a
Those are the competitive types / rejects from other lines of work, etc.
that you see playing sports. If you define two sets :
A = Set of competitive, physically fit and talented Indians who are naturals
for sports.
B = Set of Indians who take sports as a profession for whichever reason.
The intersection of A and B is an extremely small set in India. Sometimes,
being a member of set A often implies being not in B (parent-induced
channeling of that competitiveness into non-sports fields once you go
beyond a certain age). In this set you see once in decades players like
Milkha Singh, P. T. Usha, Sania Mirza, etc.
middle class of 450 million - so that is 50% more again than the total
population of the United States, not all of whom are middle class. If
sports-driven people exist in that pool in the same proportion as in
"Western" nations then you would still have an oversupply of the
required mentality.
They don't, which is what I have tried to point out. The middle class is
perhaps the most sports averse economic class in India.
Perhaps the early World Cup exit is the sort of shock therapy,
Montreal-style, which Indian cricket needs. A shock to make the peak
I surely hope so, because cricket happens to be one sport that the average
Indian has some level of emotional connection to. If enough people can get
past the initial short sighted blame games (I am not looking at certified
morons like Don here), and ask the right questions, maybe something good
will come of this.
However, I think that the leadership will need to come from above, with
someone thick skinned enough to clean house in the way I have described.
authorities open up every facet of Indian cricket to question - a SWOT
analysis. In particular, I would be examining the way in which
juvenile talent is being identified and developed. It is possible
that by the age of 20 it is too difficult, in such a large sample, to
quantify how and why any 20 batsman are better than any 20 other
batsmen, so well-organised national competition at under-15, under-16,
under-17, under-18 and under-19 level is the way to go. By the end of
five years playing in such a system, it will be easier to identify the
core of players who will graduate to the Test team. Let 'em play
Ranji Trophy after that apprenticeship.
All good points. I have suggested some steps based on my knowledge of the
conditions prevalent in India that can in a decade or two, solve the basic
problem.
--
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