A nicely-written piece, but I'm confused, due to cross-culture rifts, about what the conclusion is saying.

Tantalisingly holistic irony? I remain tantalised ;)

Dear Rahul,

After India didn't make it to the Olympics, among a lot of other things that came to mind was one thought: Luckily these guys are not cricketers or there would be mobs attacking them and their families. So there is a silver lining to it as well. It is a sad commentary on all of us.

Dear Heather and Edmund,

This article is a comment on the attitude of most Indians towards sport in general, where being an outstanding sportsperson is never given its due. Unless of course the sport is cricket.

Regards
Dara

Talking of the advent of mercenaries in the professional leagues ICL and IPL in Cricket in India, one should not forget the Professional Hockey League with domestic and foreign players that began before the Cricket leagues, and not to forget Soccer in India going way back. But unfortunately, Hockey and Soccer(even in pockets like Kerala and Bengal) did not capture the imagination of Indian public and chidren taking to sports and not just concentrating on academics at schools.

Cricket craze in India can be compared to soccer in Latin Amercia and Africa. Its a culture and it is here to stay. Other sports if any have to catch up. Soccer has a potential given it is a truly world sport unlike field hockey. Cricket is still viable and has a long hsotory in common wealth countries, so it will survive primatrily driven by booming Indian economy and market. But one should not blame the non-development in other sports like Hockey in India, on Cricket. USA is a good example of managing and marketing popular games; Basketball, football, baseball and hockey with their own niche of sport audience. When you remove nationalism out of a sport and make it truly professional, the competiveness and the sport spirit generally grows.

Thank you, Dara and John. I get it now.

(Since the box office success of Chak De! India eight months ago, I thought India's hockey players would be being mobbed by fans, by now. :-) Seriously, that's what I thought.)