Wednesday 20 August 2014

The Rising Sun of Indian Sports

With the beginning of the Pro Kabaddi League on July 26, the traditional sport of India gets a thrust to become a popular sport. The initiative of Mashal Sports has surely worked wonders, with the likes of Abhishek Bachchan, Ronnie Screwvala and Kishore Biyani of Future Group as franchise owners in the league. The turnouts have been impressive too, and the stadiums have glittered in the presence of sportsmen like Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, to actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan to business tycoons like Anand Mahindra.
The marketing of the league has also been impressive, as Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra were roped in to advertise the physical game. The Official Broadcaster Star Sports has left no stone unturned in promoting the game as apart from telecasting live matches, it has also televised shows expounding the rules and briefing the viewers about the star players of the game.
This game of raids and defence, with its unique play and facets, seems to have won the hearts of people.

Definitely, the Indian Premier League has created great prospects for Indian sports, giving rise to various other leagues such as the Hockey India League, the Indian Badminton League, the Pro Kabaddi League, the World Kabaddi League, and now the soon to begin Indian Super League (soccer), and The International Tennis Premier League. With some of the best players and coaches of the world coming to India to participate and playing with the budding sportsmen, it has surely enhanced their learning, but it has also given them the much needed global exposure that one would always strive for when playing such sports given that they are not as lucrative as cricket is.

On the whole, India seems to have a good future in sports, provided that the respective federations are not lax as it has been argued uptil now and work even harder to promote sports. Hope to see India winning more medals at the Olympics.

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