Make sports affordable, a more serious career option, says Sunil Gavaskar
Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has called for India to become a multi-sport nation and for that to happen in the country, it is crucial to make each sport a serious career option. Gavaskar believes that our population is the biggest possible advantage as it is easier to find 'champions'.
While speaking at a panel discussion organised by the Embassy Group and Ashwini Sports Foundation, Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar spoke about the need to consider sports as a serious career option in India, a country that offers such a huge population that finding talent won't be a big of a deal. In the show that was moderated by former athlete Ashwini Nachappa, Gavaskar said that Indian cricket has done so well since it is but a serious career option in the country.
“Our biggest plus is our population,” he said. “It is not difficult to find champions. But there are three important things -- to make sports affordable, to make it part of the school curriculum and the most important thing to make it a very serious career option. Cricket flourishes because it is one. If you just play Ranji Trophy, you can make more money than say having an airline career or being in the Railways.”
Gavaskar gave more of his inputs as to why cricket became so successful in India stating that the following for the game started with royal patronage, something that worked for people till independence. He also made a point by saying that the Indian board has the best set-up for young aspiring cricketers.
“Initially, I think royal patronage worked for cricket,” Gavaskar added. “It was not about winning or losing. After Independence we were repeatedly getting thrashed. But when a royal played the game, irrespective of whether people understood the sport or not, they used to watch. That kept the sport going.”
“Then in the 1960s.... I am not being frivolous here.... we had some of the most good looking Indian cricketers. Pataudi, Salim Durrani, Abbas Ali Baig, ML Jaisimha, Farokh Engineer, just to name a few. So you had a following. We were then captained by a royal and after that we started looking our opponents in the eye, especially the generation that came after Independence. And then BCCI created the best junior cricket set-up in the world."
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