Who the hell is Charles Miller? Long ago, I knew as much about him as the computer-inventor Charles Babbage. But Miller, a Scotsman, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil and returned to UK for his studies. When he returned to Brazil in 1894, he brought a football with him, something not so familiar to Brazilians. He organised teams with sailors and locals and organised football matches. In just over half a century, Brazil had become a powerhouse in football. The grave and memorials to Charles Miller (1874-1953) still stand in Brazil:
When did modern football come to India? Cricket first came to India around 1721 but football came around 1854. Naturally, football came to Calcutta which was the HQ of the British but it came to India much before many British colonies in Africa or South America. So, naturally, we have to wonder why so many of their countries became so good at football and we didn’t:
In fact, in all the colonies that took to football, it was the poor and working class who took to it while the elite had their own indoor card-games or courtyard games (That’s why it’s called a Tennis or Badminton Court) or in case of England, they had Cricket. Thus, India with all its poverty and backward people should have naturally taken to football. But, Indians of all classes happily took to cricket instead. Thus, lack of mass participation led to poor administration, poor infrastructure, poor local leagues and football suffered in India.
India has often been invited to the G7 meets because it’s a vast country and not because it is any great power. India’s vastness makes it a huge market for everything that the developed countries can sell to from Toothpaste to Tesla. The Americans have a nice way of describing their good towns. They define it as a “good place to live, work and play”. India missed that “play” part in defining their life. Just look at all the G7-G20 countries. There is only one sore country that has never been in a football World Cup final tournament – India:
One of the great signs of a developed nation or “Vikshit Nation” is that it is also good at sports. The top-10 GDP countries are all good at sports except India. That is ironic, because given the poor masses that India has, football offers more professional careers than cricket will ever do. Even famous players like Baichung Bhutia or Sunil Chhetri have earned well in lower level leagues abroad than most people in Indian sports (except cricket). And cricket has lesser opportunities worldwide than football does:
So, let’s get down to business and ask the question – Why does India do so badly in football. Many have argued that we are good at hand-eye-coordination games like cricket, hockey or TT. That may be a reason but the biggest reason is that Indians are some of the poorest “team-players” in the world. And football requires a very high level of team-play. If you cite cricket, it is a team game only by total number of players but at any single time, all the players are not in action together. At the most one batter, wicket-keeper, bowler and a couple of fielders are in action every time the game is in motion. All players are not in action together. The “unity in diversity” is another hoax that is fed to Indians without the essence of “teamwork”. Indians are pulled apart by States, languages, communities, castes, colour, religion and that fire of division is fueled more by politicians. This article from long ago explains this a bit:
I could argue that though cricket is not an entire team-game the way football is, at least hockey in terms of team-play is similar to football. And in hockey we have been good and still in the Top-10. The reason for that is in hockey, the competition is not that worldwide. The best hockey playing teams in the world are no more than 20-30 whereas football goes way beyond 100. In cricket too, the real cricket playing countries are no more than 8-10 so we are able to compete well. In all other games like Volley-ball or Basket-Ball, we crumble because all the players of both teams play in the action.
The other big reason is one that will offend many Indians but it is mostly true. Indians are weak at Spatial intelligence (often the reason why our modern architecture is average or sometimes even ugly), the masses are low in IQ and other cognitive and decision abilities. Unlike cricket, fast-moving games like football require spatial awareness, cognitive abilities and dealing with environmental chaos. For instance, the “decision density” (meaning the number of decisions you have to make per minute) is far higher in sports like football or tennis than say in cricket. Thus, Indians are comfortable with a slow-paced game like cricket in the competitive world. Except for the former colonial countries in Asia, cricket is not the most popular game in any country in the world. Mental agility requirement is lower in cricket than many other tough sports. So, we not only perform badly in football but even in most sports in Olympics:
However, many Indians are good at running down others. During the current World Cup, Portugal didn’t make it far and Christiano Ronaldo didn’t win any world cup, so the idiots at Timesnow were quick to run him down as having a “Black Mark” on his career or resume. There is no such black mark in sports. Everyone plays to win, everyone does their best. Football is high emotion in almost every country. Even in India fans are emotional and passionate about their favourite teams like Argentina, Brazil, Germany or England. They watch European league games and are fanatics for Manchester United, Arsenal or Liverpool or whichever their favourite team is:
Can India become a world player in football? Of course, we can. Kicking is a natural instinct for every human – it’s fun. Football started in China around 200 BC as kicking a leather ball through a hoop. England masses started playing football in the 14th century with the bladder of a pig. Young school kids walking home kick a paper box or a small rock all the way home. Many of us have done it during our childhood. It keeps their mind occupied, gives a psychological feeling of control and uses up the time productively.
Modi and his BJP goons only fed cricket which was already popular and rich while they ignored all other games. Hosting a football world cup brings a lot more respect and money than even Olympics. Because private institutions were never strong in sports in India, the govt has to step in and controls most of the sports. If the govt decides to promote football in a big way across all schools with training, competition and rewards, I am sure football can grow in a big way. Naveen Patnaik revived hockey performance with special interest and programs. Remember, the Brazilians are not physically as strong as some of the Europeans are but yet they remain a big powerhouse in football. Too much hype of cricket has made India redundant in most other sports. And cricket does not provide jobs to more than 1000 players at any time. Football is a far bigger economy and a much bigger employer worldwide.
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