Does it happen only in India?

Picking up from my yesterday’s post where I mentioned I have limited access to newspapers, I have found a new way to stay in touch with news – Metro, a weekday newspaper. I have made it a habit to pick up a copy every day to keep in touch with news. I picked up before I board the train and read it on my way to Aquarium Station.

Today, when I picked up the newspaper, one report from the Sport column struck my eyes. It’s interesting, because the article dealt with a topic which reminded me of the sports situation in India. USA is participating in the Confederations Cup which is currently being held in South Africa. They are to play 3 matches in Round 1, of which their first match was yesterday with Italy. USA lost the match 3-1 of which 2 goals for Italy were scored by Giluseppe Rossi, a New Jersey, USA born chap, but he opted to play for Italy as his parents are from Italy. It raised a controversy then and now he is back in news.

However, in my opinion, an important point of the story should not be lost - even people in the US share the same feeling as Indian, A feeling of national pride for sports players who have their roots with the country.

India is not a sports nation. If you take out cricket, which almost everyone plays, there is not much of sports in India. Hence, whenever, there is a sports player around the world, who has his roots in India, we immediately start following him. All of us share a sense of pride in his success. People often say – this chap is an Indian, as his parents are Indian.

The one thing which is comes out from the report in Metro this mentioned, is that this kind of feeling is felt only when you are not good at a particular task. Take the example of soccer and USA. USA is a nation of basketball, baseball, American football and ice hockey. Soccer, though popular, is not a preferred sport. Maybe that is one of the reasons; loss of one good player can become a controversy.

Interesting, isn’t it? However, I am not sure if it’s the same in other countries. I think I would need to live in multiple countries to answer this one. But I know for sure, that this “Does NOT happen only in India.”