I watched the Indian team triumph at the AFC Challenge cup 2008. Right after the match I checked if any news channel was announcing the victory - there was none. I woke up this morning and checked the newspaper, it wasn't there either. I felt very disappointed and quickly scanned through it and there it was, in the last page. When will this step-motherly treatment of 'other' sports end?
The front page of the national newspaper had Michael Phelps’ photograph. Who in India knows him? We know the greatness of his achievement, but our victory at home is not small either. Or are we trying to say that we will only notice if it is at the world stage. What a shame! When the country for the first time won one of the biggest football tournaments in 25 years, shouldn't it make headline news? And the funniest thing is one of the news channels is still basking on past glory saying that the biggest sporting moment was when Leander Paes won the bronze in Atlanta. There is no mention of the latest triumph – a triumph that gives India a direct entry in the 2011 Asia Cup.
I watched the morning sports news on TV and they only talked about what is going on in Beijing. In the capital of the nation, the local boy scored a hat-trick in a final and that does not make any news. This is sad. Nobody knew Abhinav Bindra a week back and now he has become a household name. Abhinav rightly said that Cricket is not going to make us a sporting nation, because it is played only by 10 nations in the world. If I run with two fastest sprinters of the world and there are only three participants, I will definitely be third.
The root of the problem lies in this; that we do not nurture or not even notice a tree until it bears fruit. We only reap the benefit afterwards. When will this hypocrisy end?
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