Domestic leagues aren’t doing any good for national sports
The English Premier League hosts
some of the best footballers the world over. In the recently concluded FIFA
World cup England was the only team to have every player in its squad
affiliated to one or the other EPL club. They had some of the best names in the
business and multi million contracts that did more than justice to their
skills. The end result, the British team could not break the jinx of winning
the most coveted sporting trophy in 52 years. Marquee names like Cristiano
Ronaldo of Portugal and Lionel Messi of Argentina have shelves full of Spanish
Premier league accomplishments, but don’t have a National title to their name.
In the year 2007, the inaugural ICC
T20 World cup changed the landscape of Twenty20 cricket across the world. India
who was rank outsider - with a barely any domestic T20 setup in the country
owing to BCCI apathy – lifted the title beating arch rivals Pakistan.
That year also saw the launch of the
most extravagant sporting league the Indian Premier League (IPL), which opened
doors to the World to compete alongside India's T20 champions. In the following
tournaments Pakistan, England, West Indies (twice) and Sri Lanka won it and
India never regained the World T20 title.
Going into the 18th Asian Games
in Indonesia, India had never lost a single men’s Kabaddi match at the Games.
India had won the men's Kabaddi gold in all the earlier seven Asiad after the
sport was introduced in 1990 in Beijing. Earlier last week, that record was
broken when they lost a group stage match to South Korea, the team somehow
reached the quarters. However, that loss did not prove to be an aberration all
fans had hoped for, as Iran pulled off a massive upset, beating the seven-time
defending champions 18-27 in the semi-final. India will now have to settle for
bronze alongside Pakistan who lost to South Korea in the other semifinal.
It’s pertinent to note that the
Pro Kabaddi League, a professional-level Kabaddi league in India, was launched
in 2014 with much fanfare. From the first year the sport garnered massive
following and soon waning viewers on TV away from the much-maligned cricket
viewership. The doors were opened to international players to participate
alongside the Indian stalwarts. Pro Kabaddi regulars South Korea's Jang Kun Lee
and Lee Dong Geon, and Iranian defenders Fazel Atracheli and Abozar Mighani
knew the Indian game much better now.
The Indian team which had PKL
stars like Ajay Thakur, Pardeep Narwal, Rahul Chaudhari, Deepak Niwas Hooda,
Mohit Chhillar, Sandeep Narwal will return home without the Asian Games Gold
and soon lock horns again in the professional league.
Is professionalism
killing the sportsmen’s national aspirations?
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Pics Courtesy: Internet
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