When people say that other sports in our country, India, are suffering due to lack of money, I feel like laughing at them. Don't they remember the days of the 1950 era when a team of 11 barefooted football players made it to the Brazil Olympics? Who can forget the great Aslam Sher Khan, who learned the basics of hockey with broken sticks? Please, it's not the money but passion and enthusiasm which is missing.

The urge to be recognised on the world stage - which was evident at that time in various Indian sporting teams  - is probably missing. This is the same sort of urge, which today we can see in African teams that have qualified for the last few tournaments. But those days are now history, and one wonders what is holding back Indian football. Well, the problem is lack of grass-root Infrastructure.

Children on the streets play almost all the games, like hockey and football, but because there is no development at youth level. Unlike the system followed in Europe, the passion just fizzles out without proper training. Plus, there are so many discrepancies that cannot be explained.

For example, the All India Football Federation, a committee-based body funded by FIFA, controls football in India. But the Sports Authority of India, which gets no money from FIFA, traditionally controls national youth football. The other loophole, which is prevailing, is that people who run sports are politicians, not professionals. This makes it doubly difficult to run a successful youth development programme. For these people, regaining and staying in power is much more important than improving the game.

Cricket is facing the same problem today. Though our board is the richest in the business, improvement in the game is not visible. It won’t be until the day money is made the basic priority of the board. I certainly have a feeling that in this board, the first priority is to hold on to the President’s post, which makes news more than India’s victories. The second priority is commercial interest, and the third is the game.

It has to be mentioned here that the best days of Indian cricket were at a time when money wasn’t a crucial issue. I won’t be a cynical person who would say that money is not important; the point is when would success in the game be considered more important than the factor of money?

We are now known across the globe as a nuclear power, an IT giant, which is the case among the fastest growing economies, and we are content with that. Possibly this is the reason for our continuous failure in almost all sports. We have the frenzy in this country to celebrate sport but not the passion to follow it with ambition.

The day the population of our country starts following the game with a sense of ambition, we, too, shall see our flag soaring high in the sporting arenas. We, too, shall be in football's World Cup as a serious contender. That’s why I say passion and enthusiasm is all we need.

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