We live in a country where cricket is deemed as a religion when our national sport is hockey. Isn’t it supposed to be a vice-versa? Majority of the Indians follow cricket and that’s a fact. Media promotes cricket-related stuff more than anything else. This goes to show that how cricket alone is dominating other sports in this country.
Another most important thing to notice is the annual salaries of Indian athletes. It varies from sport to sport but the annual package of Virat Kohli shows that there is a massive gap between cricket and other sports athletes. Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli is one of the most recognisable personalities in today’s world.
Kohli earns around INR 150 crore per year which includes BCCI contract, IPL, endorsements and advertisements. He earns through BCCI contracts, IPL, endorsements and advertisements. On the contrary, our Indian national caption Sardar Singh earns just INR 15 lakhs per year according to India Times.
When hockey is the national sport, isn’t it that the hockey players should receive staggering money more than the cricket? How is that supposed to be crores per year for a cricketer when cricket is not the national sport?
Sardar Singh received three important awards in his fantastic career. He was conferred with Padma Shri in 2015, Arjuna Award in 2012 and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 2017. Sardar Singh became the youngest player to lead Team India and he steered the side at 2008 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.
Sardar Singh was the Player of the tournament in 2012 Summer Olympics where India clinched gold. He was adjudged the player of the tournament in 2010 Sultan Cup where India won gold. He also participated in Hockey Asia Cup at Chennai 2007 where India won Gold.
Another interesting thing is that Sardar Singh also has scored more than Virat Kohli in the recent fitness test. Sardar Singh proved that he is the worth the weight in gold when he secured a terrific score of 21.4 points in the Yo-Yo fitness test, an incredible score which is rated higher than all the reported scores of the players of the Indian cricket team.
Why do we fail to appreciate our hero Sardar Singh? We all give more importance to cricket but not other sports. In fact, all the personalities represent India with pride. People were stunned after seeing Sardar Singh’s score which was comparatively higher than Indian cricketers.
Even Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli was short of Sardar Singh’s test score. It is well known that Kohli is the fittest player as he keeps hitting the gyms more often than not but Sardar Singh still beat him by 2.4 points. Isn’t it a great achievement?
In case you don’t know what is yo-yo test
Yo-yo test is a parameter in which every athlete is supposed to go through a fitness test where each athlete’s fitness standards are determined. Only those who manage to pass the test are allowed to be a part of the team. Virat Kohli, who is deemed one of the best athletes in India has managed to score 19 points.
