By Promod Puri

As the hullabaloo accompanying Sachin Tandulakar's retirement is easing off that the cricket bugged India can now astutely consider retiring the game as well from its number one position and take up football as its most favorite national sport.

Like Tandulakar, the country has reached its pinnacle in the game of cricket that an honorable exit from its elevated status is worth for the survival and flourishing of other sports.

Over the past quarter of a century, perhaps more, cricket, without doubt, has so much dominated the sport scene in India that most other equally worthy sports have been relegated to discriminatory lower grade.

The entry of cricket in India as an elite sport and thus acquiring its status symbol in the middle and rich class is in reality an expensive outdoor indulgence that a vast majority of country's poor youth can only enviously enjoy watching it ( only on TV ), but not actively participate in this "gentleman's game".

Compared to that the "common man's game" of football, undoubtedly the most popular of all the world sports, is dirt cheap costing only few hundred rupees. In cricket the total cost for all the equipment, bats, balls, wickets and the protective gears runs into thousands. 

Not only that, in cricket of all the 22 players comprising the two opposing teams just three players, two batsmen and a bowler, actively play the game at a given time. The rest of the 10 players supporting the bowler are fielders who come in action only when the ball is delivered in the direction of any of them. Still, the nine players from the batting side are sitting idle waiting their turns to bat which may not come at all for some or most of the players. Is it not a wastage of time and money when one is in the game but not playing it. 

And many times the stretched out game just drags on creating the situation for thrill awaiting fans to either have brief naps or yawn endlessly.

Now, let us compare it with the strenuous game of football. One ball and that is it. Twenty two players, and all of them, are vigorously involved in the play, running, jumping, hitting and bouncing in an action-packed meditative focus on the ball during entire duration of the game. Full value!

Certainly, it won't be a remorse feeling to downgrade cricket under the rising football popularity worldwide, but for the sake of involving every section of India's youth for their much-needed physical activities it is worth the sacrifice.

After all in Britain, where the game originated and exported to its colonial domains, cricket is gradually receding in popularity and is being replaced by more lucrative sport of football. 

It is about time to end the cricket hype in India, it has gone too far.