Let’s start with two numbers 1,192,277,000 and 46,030,109. I know first of all you must be thinking what are these huge numbers doing in a sports article and what in the world are these numbers. These numbers are the estimated population of two different countries first being of India and other being of Spain
Now coming on to my subject I being a soccer fan have always dreamt of one thing to see my country play in FIFA World cup. I suppose its not only my dream but a dream that all the soccer fans one or more than once must have dreamt in their life. Specially living in a country which has always been more than that they expect themselves to be. I know its not totally about population but don’t you think we cant find 22 players in our country. Who will prove to be a super power may be not now but 10 years down the line. I can say that it is possible as we Indians feel pride to excel in all domain of life let it be business, politics, sports.
Hats off to Mr. Lalit Modi to give its brain child IPL a life which has actually made BCCI one of the richest board all over the world. No doubt that hasn’t been an easy task but the investors need to believe there is huge profit return in the sports domain which has actually made it possible for us to host cricket world cup this year. I would like to quote “On 12 September, 2006 BCCI announced that it will spend $347 Million (Rs. 16 Billion) over the subsequent one year to upgrade the cricket stadiums around the country.” May be if 70 % of this statement is true it has actually brought world cup tournament to our sub continent and I am so sure after the tournament BCCI would be richer than ever. Its high time we realise some of the richest businessmen in the world have invested hugely in sports. I would like to quote few of the names Glazer family- Manchester United, Roman Abramovich- Chelsea, Silvio Berlusconi- AC Milan and more recently Laxmi Mittal with Queens Park Ranger, Venky Group- Blackburn Rovers and Ahsan Ali Syed- Racing Santander. Yes last three being all business men from Indian origin.
If we want we can actually make it possible for Indians to be a super power on the soccer front we just need to concentrate on few fronts starting from building a world class infrastructure and by that I just don’t mean only Nike being our official jersey sponsor but we want world class stadiums, gymnasium and trainers to make our players competitive enough so that next time if another Sunil Chhetri doesn’t get physically pushed by some other player, we need to look for a coach whom we can call our ‘THE SPECIAL ONE’ who belives we can and not just sail along, set up a training camp in all the corners of our country cause our strength actually does lie in the hearts of our villages and after which we can bring up 11 men who can hold their heart on their sleeves and play like champions never mind their might be some heart breaks initially there has always been a saying we are stronger than ever when we rise from the dust. But before that All India football federation sweetly known as AIFF to get up from their sleep and make the investors believe yes we can do that so that we can actually make Subrata Pal, Rakesh Masih, Syed Rahim Nabi, Sunil Chhetri a house hold name other than Sachin or Dravid or Dhoni and by doing so the investors will be richer than ever.
At the end I would like to end with a quote by American author Henry David Thoreau
Let go of the past and go for the future. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you imagined.
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