World Cup

I saw this article out there the other day and thought it was quite interesting. Despite having a huge following for the sport over here, the Indian team just doesn't stack up to the competition. This article claims that India is ranked 133rd in the world (and obviously is not in the World Cup). Seriously? As the article states, the country has over a billion people and they can't find eleven players to compete with the global powerhouses, even those coming from extremely small countries. For example, Fiji is mentioned in the article as ranked 132nd. According to Wikipedia, the population of Fiji is approximately 850,000. I'm sure there are several even less populated countries that are ranked higher, but I'll let someone else (Brent) perform that research.


Let's narrow this down a little bit. Think about how high school athletic associations are set up. They basically level the playing field by creating different divisions (i.e. 1A, 2A, etc.) so that the schools with more students compete against each other because, in general, the odds are in their favor to produce more talent (please no one say Briarwood is the exception). So how is the 6A team getting drilled by the 1A team? Maybe it's small feet.


What I really liked most about this article were some of the reader's comments. Here are a few that I can't help but agree with:


"I think cricket is more suited to the Indian psyche of being a non-contact and a more thinking sport...Football/Soccer on the other hand requires hard running and greater physical exertion in the dusty and hot plains of India. It is a sport which requires shoving and pushing and the Indian psyche is not really in favour of such things. We are a bit of a wimpy people."


"It is a sport which requires shoving and pushing and the Indian psyche is not really in favour of such things."
"Have you ever ridden on a train or bus in India?


"Or try to make your way through traffic at any time of the day. Or try to buy a ticket at a movie theatre. Have you sat through any classical performance of dance or music and witnessed what people are like even there?"