Sport Bias?

Published on July 23, 2004 By Confusing Musings In Sports & Leisure

There was a comment by greatuser regarding the bias towards Cricket in India. Other sports like Hockey are not given there due attention by media and sponsors.

Here I would I say, as far as media is concerned, they would cover what people like to read. Same is the case of the sponsors. Sponsor won't do any charity, they want to earn money. At most , they can go for no profit no loss. How will they earn money? They will earn money if more people are interested in the game.

People watch game primarily for two reasons. A- If Sport itself has attraction. B- If Players perform.

For e.g. a game like Football is globally popular. It's charm is tremendous. Even Indians were going crazy during the Euro, which had nothing to do with India. At the same time, not many know that India has finished runners up at Four nations Hockey warm up in Germany only last week, without losing any game. We have to accept that the Hockey itself is not as appealing as Football or Cricket . It is not the number one sport of any country. Even in Australia, which is equally good in both Cricket and Hockey, it's plain people are interested in which game more.

Now, the performance part. If we remember, we will realize that advent of Cricket and Hockey took place in India roughly at same time i.e. pre -independence. We were world champions in Hockey while minnows in Cricket. Old timers still swear by Dhyan Chand, K D Singh, Capt. Roop Singh. People watched Hockey Tests with more relish than Cricket Tests. Cricket was considered elite's game while Hockey was commoner's. One has to only see movie Golmaal to realize this where both, a Sports hater, Utpal Dutt and young sport enthusiast, Amol Palekar went to see a Hockey match -lying to each other.

Unfortunately, India's Hockey performance started dipping since seventies, while with advent of exceptional talent like Gavaskar, Kapil and Tendulkar, India started performing well in Cricket. It won a World Cup, World Series, successfully hosted two World Cups. Sports loyalties were switched, once for all. Cricket was no more a royal game. Also, Cricket evolved itself with One Days and Day Nighters. Hockey hardly moved an inch.

People like players performing, winning matches and tournaments. This trend is there in every country. With standard of their Cricket declining, Brian Lara not withstanding - Basketball and Baseball are now more popular in West Indies. In England- the country which invented cricket, Football and Rugby are more popular than Cricket. Rugby is still number # 1 sport in NewZeaLand as it is more flamboyant than Cricket plus their performance is much better in Rugby.

So unless and until, sporting authorities does not bring innovation in games and players does not motivate themselves to perform, people cannot be forced to watch sport like Hockey . After all, after days hard work, people want entertainment instead of frustration.

Comments

Muggaz

on Jul 23, 2004

Good article...

I live in Australia, and Cricket is ridiculously more popular than hockey... the only reason I know about hockey is because my cousin plays state level, and Australia is world class! often Champions!

We never play hockey in the yard though, we all play cricket... to play cricket, you only need one bat, and a ball... to play hockey, you all need sticks... I think that could be a reason that cricket is more popular? I think they are both entertaining sports!!!

BAM!!!

Confusing Musings

on Jul 23, 2004

Ok, you say one only needs a bat and a ball to play cricket. Very True! For Hockey you need sticks, nets as well. That's cumbersome.

But what stops you from seeing it? You need only a television or a ticket to the stadium. But still you, people don't go in those numbers. Both games are entertaining, but cricket is far more. Hockey hardly has six goals through out the match, while in Cricket you have a hit every ball

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