Haddock
Full Member
- Joined
- May 25, 2013
- Messages
- 729
I don't mean you OP, but most people don't seem to understand the sheer effort it takes to make a system that produces quality talent. Indian children begin playing football at age 10 not at 5-6. Schools have woeful infrastructure for sports at the best of times and the cities are not designed with children and playgrounds in mind.More than 2 billion people combined. You just know there is talent to be discovered but the scouting infrastructure probably is still lacking. But, will that change? Can we see world-class players coming from these two countries in the next 50 years?
A decade ago you could count the number of licensed Indian coaches on one (maybe two) hands and I had probably met most of them. I do know some people who are doing a great job of drilling the fundamentals in 5-10 year olds. These kids already play at an unimaginably high level compared to 14-16 year olds a decade ago. There's plenty of talent about, that's not a concern.
Cricket in India is supported by big business at the grassroots level. The big metros have dozens of clubs, cricket leagues, company teams and so on. Families have the sport running in their blood. Religious communities have support for their own. Retired senior pros do plenty of mentoring. Shops sell first rate equipment and there are thousands of excellent coaches at junior level. And despite all that, it is only in these last 10 years that India has stepped up its domination of that sport and now the national team is made up of people from nearly every strata of society.
Look at football daft countries like Egypt and Algeria. Even they struggle to produce world class talent on a consistent basis. In my lifetime Egypt have produced good players but Mo Salah is the only world-class player to emerge.
The only way India will produce serious talent is if a big club scouts kids early and brings them over, or establishes an academy. This is a decades long project.