Why are we Indians so bad at football – the mystery of 153 - part 2
This is part 2 of the article. You can read the first part here.
Indian parents and careers in sports
Indian parents play an extremely important role in defining the careers of their children. Usually their approach is to take the safest, most proven path to a great life i.e. through education. When the child is 16 or 18 and its time to make your first career related choice, the parent of a talented kid will look at the worst case scenario of a sporting career before letting his child take the sporting path. There is an exception if the parent is an extremely successful sportsperson (or associated in some other capacity) and is more open minded about sports as a career and can also groom and guide his child to improve his chances
Other than that the parent will only let his kin take up sports as a career if
Few footballers qualify for the first situation. It comes down to precocious talent and except for Baichung Bhutia; we haven’t had one in years. On the other hand look at the amount of junior talent in cricket, tennis, football, chess, golf, badminton and squash.
The second scenario is common to most sports including football in India. Football still has a slight disadvantage as compared to cricket, hockey, athletics and boxing as the large public entities like the services, railways and the police are active participants in these sports and recruit heavily but not so much in football. Sometime back there were two exceptions in Kerala Police and Punjab Police which had strong sides in the national arena and encouraged football a lot. Sadly for the sport, that is no longer the case.
The third scenario largely applies to sports which are popular in the US. A young golfer, tennis player or squash player has a great chance of getting a US scholarship based on his sporting achievements. The strong support system in the US gives the player a better chance of making it big. Additionally he has his US degree to fall back on if things don’t work out. Look at most of the top players in these sports in the recent past – Jeev Milkha Singh, Mahesh Bhupathi, and Shiv Kapur – they have all benefited from this option and so has their sport
The last option is available in sports where even the second and third rung talent can make decent money from the game. This can happen if the domestic structure is cash rich and players can make good money through playing/coaching/managing/scouting/reporting/commenting/amalyzing or if similar opportunities are available abroad.
Cricket and hockey players have been playing in the foreign leagues since ages and now there is good money in the domestic game as well. Golf is another sport which has a cash rich domestic circuit. Running a coaching academy is another money spinner for tennis and cricket players. Even chess has many prize money events and offers scope for coaching. But what about football. The only time you make money is when you play and only the top club stars make good money. The sport clearly lags behind cricket, hockey, tennis, golf, and chess when it comes to making a livelihood out of sport.
As we have seen, Indian parents don’t a have very good reason to let their children take up football as a career. At least most of the sports have one scenario in which the parent will encourage his child to go all the way.
Therefore the answer to my question is this
Indians are fundamentally not very well endowed to play the sport; have no system to nurture the precocious few; have a cultural issue which afflicts a team game like football; have no ‘real’ support for the game (our passion is misleading); have not developed a football identity in spite of having played the sport for so long; and most importantly our career planning mechanism usually vetoes football as a profession owing to its poor ‘livelihood quotient’.
The journey to 153 is now complete
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Indian parents and careers in sports
Indian parents play an extremely important role in defining the careers of their children. Usually their approach is to take the safest, most proven path to a great life i.e. through education. When the child is 16 or 18 and its time to make your first career related choice, the parent of a talented kid will look at the worst case scenario of a sporting career before letting his child take the sporting path. There is an exception if the parent is an extremely successful sportsperson (or associated in some other capacity) and is more open minded about sports as a career and can also groom and guide his child to improve his chances
Other than that the parent will only let his kin take up sports as a career if
- The child is extremely gifted at sports and has already made quite a name for himself by the time a decision has to be taken. He is certain to go all the way and have a wonderful career.
- The child comes from a poor background and has little chance of getting an education. In such a case, sport is the only way to get away from life’s miseries. The parent usually has no choice in this case. The poor kid will at least land up a decent job in the sports quota of a public company
- The child’s sporting achievements can actually improve his chances of getting a good education. This happens a lot with middle class families who know the ancillary benefits of sports like securing a college admission or a scholarship.
- The child excels at a sport which is adequately rewarding even for those who fail to reach the top of the pyramid and therefore there is no risk of failure
Few footballers qualify for the first situation. It comes down to precocious talent and except for Baichung Bhutia; we haven’t had one in years. On the other hand look at the amount of junior talent in cricket, tennis, football, chess, golf, badminton and squash.
The second scenario is common to most sports including football in India. Football still has a slight disadvantage as compared to cricket, hockey, athletics and boxing as the large public entities like the services, railways and the police are active participants in these sports and recruit heavily but not so much in football. Sometime back there were two exceptions in Kerala Police and Punjab Police which had strong sides in the national arena and encouraged football a lot. Sadly for the sport, that is no longer the case.
The third scenario largely applies to sports which are popular in the US. A young golfer, tennis player or squash player has a great chance of getting a US scholarship based on his sporting achievements. The strong support system in the US gives the player a better chance of making it big. Additionally he has his US degree to fall back on if things don’t work out. Look at most of the top players in these sports in the recent past – Jeev Milkha Singh, Mahesh Bhupathi, and Shiv Kapur – they have all benefited from this option and so has their sport
The last option is available in sports where even the second and third rung talent can make decent money from the game. This can happen if the domestic structure is cash rich and players can make good money through playing/coaching/managing/scouting/reporting/commenting/amalyzing or if similar opportunities are available abroad.
Cricket and hockey players have been playing in the foreign leagues since ages and now there is good money in the domestic game as well. Golf is another sport which has a cash rich domestic circuit. Running a coaching academy is another money spinner for tennis and cricket players. Even chess has many prize money events and offers scope for coaching. But what about football. The only time you make money is when you play and only the top club stars make good money. The sport clearly lags behind cricket, hockey, tennis, golf, and chess when it comes to making a livelihood out of sport.
As we have seen, Indian parents don’t a have very good reason to let their children take up football as a career. At least most of the sports have one scenario in which the parent will encourage his child to go all the way.
Therefore the answer to my question is this
Indians are fundamentally not very well endowed to play the sport; have no system to nurture the precocious few; have a cultural issue which afflicts a team game like football; have no ‘real’ support for the game (our passion is misleading); have not developed a football identity in spite of having played the sport for so long; and most importantly our career planning mechanism usually vetoes football as a profession owing to its poor ‘livelihood quotient’.
The journey to 153 is now complete
2 comments:
Can you update this to include future potential? indian under 12 team was in the WC pre quarter finals as of friday; and corp funding is starting to make its presence
Will do Aditya...And not only that I will also try to update based on the success the national team have had under coach Houghton.
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