Is India the worst country in the world of sport?

In the summer of 2018, numerous Indian mens' T&F records were broken:

200, 400, 800, 1500, 400H, steeple, high jump, javelin, long jump, pole vault, shot put

Some of these marks would be top 5 or top 10 performances in the US. Chopra threw 88m, much farther

than anyone else in the US did. However, in many events these records would still not be competitive on a world level,

particularly in sprints (200, 400).

What is going on in India? Are they finally developing talent? State-sponsored doping?

Just some (spicy) food for thought.

Indian cricketers like Virat Kohli & MS Dhoni have net worths approaching $100 million, not bad for a poor country and certainly well in excess of someone like Usain Bolt or Mo Farah. In terms of world population numbers, they're massively better known than *any* US football or baseball player.

Pakora wrote:

Seriously, for such a massively populated country, why does India only really care about cricket?

I can't think of any Indian sports stars and they've absolutely no impact in track and field.

I know it's a poor country but this hadn't stopped many other poor countries from excelling in sport.

There is a 10 million person caravan headed to Vancouver,BC , from India . India is destroying western canada.

Jujhar Khaira?

I would imagine a short crash rules program in rugby for any random group of NFL players would allow them to crush every other rugby team in the world.

By destroying, you mean seeding the country with high achieving, high income immigrants and their children?

LOL. I imagine the NFL players would struggle just a little with 80 minutes of continuous play rather than bursts of a few seconds spread across several hours interspersed with tv advertisements and someone telling them exactly what to do next. Or maybe you think a short crash course would turn Usain Bolt into Mo Farah. Plus they'd have to ditch all the girly shoulder pads and helmets.

zxcvzxcv wrote:

I would imagine a short crash rules program in rugby for any random group of NFL players would allow them to crush every other rugby team in the world.

But only if they could keep their suits of armor on?

A friend is from Bangalore. Cricket is one of his great loves but he gave up playing at the age of 10 so he could concentrate on school. As above, they concentrate their entire lives on work - and that's why our universities, software houses, hospitals and businesses are full of smart, productive, hard-working people of Indian origin. They're due a lot of respect.

zxcvzxcv wrote:

I would imagine a short crash rules program in rugby for any random group of NFL players would allow them to crush every other rugby team in the world.

I think you would find that they would be taken apart, Rugby Union is way more technical than you would believe and as someone else pointed out, 80 minutes of continuous play is not something they could do.