In the last few years, there has been a drastic change in the form of Indian sports journalism, due to which the players, officials, and sports administrators associated with the Olympic Games are puzzled. Of course, the big reason for the change can be said to be the growing popularity of cricket in the country. Especially since the 1983 World Cup victory, cricket has become a priority for the media. After that, day by day cricket progressed and today the situation is that all the Indian sports have been left far behind and the media has stopped taking care of them.
It is true that Indian sportspersons are winning Olympic medals, for which there is a competition in our newspapers, TV channels, and social media to get the news. But how many sports and players are there on which the media is kind? Every news of cricket's defeat, victory, and good performance finds a place in the media, but it is not so with other sports. Publicity mediums are kind to them only then when a sportsperson wins a medal or earns a great honor at the Olympics, Asiad, or World level. There is no place left in the country's media, especially for local news.
The big and small newspapers of the country, from the first to the last page, are filled with statements of leaders, their false praises, false statistics, beatings, rapes, dacoities, and loot. TV channels have become a box of lies and sycophancy. If something is missing from the media, then local sports news, which newspapers like to avoid.
Going back a few years, Delhi's newspapers were full of football news of Durand Cup, DCM Cup, Delhi Football League, and street matches played at the Ambedkar Stadium in the capital. The Jawahar Lal Nehru Hockey Tournament, Shastri Tournament, Local Hockey League, and many other events played at Shivaji Stadium were the highlight of the sports page. Similarly, small and big tournaments like Delhi wrestling, dozens of riots, basketball, volleyball, kabaddi, table tennis, swimming, and badminton used to find a place on the sports page of newspapers.
It is true that cricket has captured the media by taking advantage of the glut of money, its reach, and reach. Some of the other sports have even made a big mark. But Indian sports, which are fed on government money, become the choice of publicity media only when one of our players does something big on the international stage but somewhere in our own promotional channels for budding talent at the grassroots level and school, college, and local level. There is no place left.
Don't know why the opposite Ganges is flowing in the matter of promotion and means facilities for the players in our country! The search news of players is not taken at the school-college level, but when some of these lucky players make a splash on the world stage, then our media gets involved in serving their selfish interests by tossing them to the extent of madness. The shameful thing is that only cricket journalism is left in the name of sports journalism in the capital of the country.
The doors of newspapers and other news media are closed for other sports, so how will sports progress? Who is bent on killing sports journalism? Cricket alone cannot be responsible.
