Games are meant to be played to keep you fit and fine
Playing of games like cricket and football are very common and they are mostly enjoyed by everyone. Cricket is a game which is mostly loved by the youngsters or teenagers to play. We all know that recently the match fixing scandals in IPL has left a bad impact on T20 viewers. It is very much true that due to these kinds of scandals majority of the people have lost interest. In the other hand football continues to be a shining star in terms of games in India with clubs signing new players and television networks screening matches from top leagues played by countries all over the world.
The bad factor is that being such a popular and adorable game football it is lacking in attracting people’s attention. This is due to lack of infrastructure, investment, and it also includes development of the game. Football hubs named as Kolkata, Pune, Bangalore and most of the North East region, excluding these states other areas are mostly concerned with cricket because they are in a belief of cricket as worth following and playing (mostly it is due to the wealth involved in it). It is seen that football which is played by the young kids, very much it is similar to the matches and rules taken into consideration of European clubs. Football is not considered to be a charismatic career option (opposed to cricket) the kids after getting graduated from school, starts running in the race of life to be a professionals in some sort of other fields where from they could earn a good satisfactory livelihood. This is because there is not enough money in this sport. Whereas the amount of hard labor and skill required being a professional footballer is huge and the returns are quite meager. An enormous amount of talent is thus wasted.
It is also because of the culture taken into consideration. When British left the country, cricket was the only sport which we Indians were aware of. Sports or games developed earlier were, kind of, lost somehow in the struggle for independence. To gather knowledge on these you could take the bollywood movie “Lagaan” as an example of how cricket was so popular at India, it gives a better explanation. Time has been passing but till today Indians hold high regards for cricket in their genes. This is how it became cultural phenomena in India. It went on gaining importance by the majority. India is a country where cricket is worshiped.
Holding this point where the national sport hockey was not being adhered how you could think of football to get a lucid warm place. India has never qualified for FIFA World Cup, though in 1950 FIFA WORLD CUP where 34 teams entered the qualification India gets qualified. But due to problem with proper equipments they were rejected which ruined the confidence. In the same point of time you could also see that in 1983 and 2011 India grabbed the World cup, and acquired enormous popularity.
Cricket generates money, and the corporate world rushes to promote it because cricket will help them in developing their financial strength. Similarly in the case of football it is never promoted.
To the mass football is still in its dormant stage and it is also quite genuine that majority of our population comes from a time when Cricket was highly popular; due to this also football is not flourished in India.