Over the years, in India, we have seen immense growth of sports fan following. In recent past we have seen that the Indian audience has gone beyond celebrating cricket, we are now celebrating games like Football, Badminton, Kabaddi, F1 Race and even Tennis matches, much more than before.
Blame the coming in of the new media or the greater interaction with the western countries, for Indians, every game finale has now become a reason to socialize and celebrate.
Remember the 2011 cricket World Cup, while half of the nation’s population was watching the game at a bar or at the gymkhana, the other half of it was watching the game at home. What interesting to see is that no one was watching the match alone, everyone was sharing the screen with either a bunch of strangers at the bar or with friends and family in their living room.
Ever since then, there has been steady growth in the sports celebration. Now days socializing place like bar, cafes, and restaurants in India conduct the special screening on the match day and come up with various promotional offers and discounts.
What interesting to see is that these offers are not only restricted to cricket matches but is now taking over to different games like football and kabaddi.
What adds the glamour edge to various sports is the involvement of the celebrities. We have seen the involvement of the Bollywood stars and politicians in the IPL and Kabaddi League. Owing to their involvement, we have seen the growing fan following in every sport.
Lately, the Indian government has been making efforts to transform sports into mainstream career option and not as a co-career option.
Over the few years, the government has done some infrastructural development for sports which includes FIA formula one race track in the Greater Noida and the complex for hosting commonwealth games in 2010.
India has always been a vibrant hub for sports, with the wider acceptance of both domestic and foreign sports, we hope to see sports not just a reason to socialize but also taken as a serious career option.
