Great article. India did have hockey champioships before 1983 world cup cricket but I agree with the fact that we, indians have made cricket a big part of life. We treat cricketers like GOD.
Vishwanth Anand, Mahesh Bhupathi, Dhanraj Pillai and all other stars of other sports (current and in last 10 years) deserve a big thanks from us that they chose that sport even though there was hardly any fame or a big reward when they chose that game.
Few things can help: (a) Corporate sponsorships to the cricket should be diverted towards promoting other sports. (b) Cricket calendar in a year should be limited to one or two months where they can have all international games. This will force people to look into organizing, hosting and pariticpating in championships of other sports. (c) Sports ministry should have active programs and goals for promoting other events and sports. (d) Some Govt. sponsored and some private companies sponsorted scholarships might be good (somewhat related to (a) above.
