Sports in India have had a rich history with the country making its presence felt on the world scenario much before independence. The country’s much-touted diversity has not limited itself to castes, religions, languages or cuisines but has also infiltrated sports played in the country. India has not stopped with hockey, cricket or tennis but has produced talented sportspersons in other sports such as badminton, athletics, golf, shooting, chess, squash, boxing and weightlifting.

India participated in the Olympics as early as 1900 and won three gold medals in field hockey. Thereafter, Indian hockey team remained unchallenged champions from 1928 to 1952 and later struck gold in 1964 and 1980 as well. However, since then, the standards of Indian hockey have fallen drastically, and history was created in the lead up to the Beijing Games as hockey’s one-time superpower failed to qualify for the 2008 Summer Games.

Similarly, India's football team was also once amongst Asia's best and saw some major successes until the 1970s - like gold in the 1951 and 1962 Asian Games, fourth position in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and qualified for the World Cup. But when global football was upgrading itself, Indian players still played barefoot, which became the primary reason for them to miss out.

Post the 1980s, Indian sport saw a major decline. Hockey, after winning its previous gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, was struggling to survive while football was already on life-support and other sports continued to struggle. While the 'Flying Sikh,' Milkha Singh, missed an Olympic medal by 1/10th of a second in the 1960 Rome Olympics, the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics saw 'Golden Girl' P T Usha missing a medal by 1/100th of a second. Nevertheless, what they achieved then was outstanding.

But just three Olympic medals have come India's way since – a bronze in tennis by Leander Paes, another bronze in weightlifting by Karnam Malleswari and a silver in double trap shooting by Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The lucky charm

However, while sports in general were on a decline, the 1980s proved lucky for cricket in India. 'Kapil's Devils' lifted the 1983 Cricket World Cup by beating the mighty West Indies. That one moment changed the face of the game in India, as cricket became, unofficially, the national sport.

Although Indian cricket cannot boast too many exceptional achievements, it deserves appreciation for introducing professionalism into Indian sports.

With the money and glamour quotient attached to the sport, Indian cricketers become popular quickly. Irfan Pathan, only five years old in the national team, was the highest paid player ($925000) in the Kings XI Punjab team of the recent Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament. Cricketers also star in commercials and endorse many brands.

The credit for this goes to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Be it packaging, marketing or selling the sport, it has done it all.

When world cricket audiences were getting bored with the test and ODI formats, the BCCI introduced England's Twenty20 game in India — it proved to be a runaway success. The board managed to rope in big names to buy various IPL teams.

Several Bollywood actors, including Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta, businessmen Mukesh Ambani, Ness Wadia and Vijay Mallya and corporate houses poured millions into the IPL.

Earlier, Shahrukh Khan starred in a Bollywood hit, Chak de, based on the struggle of hockey in India. His role as the coach of the national women's hockey team was appreciated but after talking a lot about the dire state of the sport in India, he spent $75.09 million to buy Kolkata Knight Riders for IPL.

Khan said in an interview, "I invested in cricket because there was an opportunity. I think investment in sports should come through a sensible business plan."

Cricket's popularity over other sports has shown that everybody is looking for profit. 'Investments' come in for one who is either already a star or on the verge of stardom and if the government and respective board can make the sport look profitable. Therefore, there is no point in blaming cricket for the decline of other sports in India.

Indian sports system

It was only after the Indian hockey team went through the humiliation of failing to qualify for the Olympics that the 15-year tenure of the then Indian Hockey Federation chief K P S Gill ended. And now, days before the Games, the Indian Wrestling Federation was in a row with the sports ministry over the selection of a coach. This shows the callousness of the authorities even when it comes to the nation's pride.

The Indian sports system needs immediate attention. A structure that is not headed by bureaucrats or politicians but by people who understand the sports concerned should be established.

It is easy to expect players to win laurels but facilities to nurture their talent should also be ensured. These include proper training grounds, nutritious food and coaches who know the strengths and weaknesses of players. Shelling out big money to foreign coaches is futile. Since sport is considered a profession now, every sport should try to get into the 'make a profit' mode and involve professional management.

When hockey legend Dhyan Chand passed away in 1979, he told his doctor that Indian hockey was also dying. He died penniless after devoting his life to the sport.

Indian sports need to reach standards where it can garner the recognition it deserves. Let there be more medals and trophies on Indian shelves and a longer list of Indian achievers in sports. Then, Indian sports will be once again free of the limitations it imposed on itself.

"Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially." – an excerpt from India's first Prime Minister Jawaharal Nehru's speech towards midnight on 14th August, 1947.

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