India v/s Brazil

As the soccer fever is gripping the world, the obvious question to us is Why is India not able to make it to the World Cup Finals? Instead of finding fault with others, let us sit back and analyse the system that is prevailing in our country. That is exactly what myself and Karthik Chandramouli did. As a young kid, one has a lot of aspirations to make it big in something other than academics. But is he really able to pursue what he wants? There is a notion among the elders that their children can come up only in the conventional way. Score good marks right from first grade to engineering, get placed in a good software company and earn good money for the rest of the career. Why can't our thoughts progress beyond this? Why can't we deviate from the normal and try to seek a career by pursuing our interests rather than the beaten path?

Coming back to football, how many schools in India support a good extracurricular system? I come from a school where let alone a football field, we did not even have sufficient space to play running and catching (remember?). We were always infused with academics right from the start. We are forced to believe that that is the only path to assured success. How in such a situation can we produce world class sportsmen? A handful of them play cricket and that too against a backdrop of tremendous peer pressure to concentrate on academics. How many of us were involved in athletics, football, cricket, tennis or even table tennis? So, there is no point in hurling an accusing finger at one another at the state of affairs of the Indian sports system. It is not just a few changes, but a major overhaul is required at the grassroot level to take Indian sports to a new level. I hope to see the light of the day when India might be playing Brazil in the finals. What a dream come true that would be!