Former tennis stars Goran Ivanisevic and Tim Henman feel that Indian tennis needs a top-10 singles player for the sport to become popular in the country
Cricket in India means big bucks, stardom, five-star treatment and a religion that every adulating fan swears by. It is nothing short of a 'national obsession' that excludes all other sport. A fact that the world kabaddi champion team learnt the hard way when the players had to hire auto rickshaws to reach their respective homes.
Consider the harsh reality: Being a cricketer means that a player like Yuvraj Singh, who is not even a member of Team India, would be paid in crores of rupees and chased by every sport lover and be featured in IPL jingles/ promos on FM for having hit six sixes in an over in 2007.
Tennis legends Goran Ivanisevic and Tim Henman also learnt about cricket's massive popularity in India the hard way during their current visit coinciding with the eighth season of the IPL.
On a trip to India as part of the 'Road to Wimbledon' programme that will culminate with the Delhi Masters here on Saturday, Wimbledon champion Ivanisevic and British tennis icon Henman felt that "nobody wanted to play any other sport other than cricket here in India". The duo discovered the India's obsession for cricket during their travel to cities like Kolkata, Chandigarh, Delhi and Mumbai to coaching clinics.
"What I observed was everyone wants to play cricket here. It's the No. 1 sport in India. There's so much talk about cricket. We need to have more of them playing tennis," Ivanisevic said on Thursday.
However, Henman went a step ahead and blamed cricket for the loss of talent in other sports here in India.
"You have a lot of great athletes playing cricket and the challenge for tennis is to get more of the best athletes playing the sport. You have so many people and cricket is so popular here. In fact, you (India) are losing your best athletes to the game of cricket. Everybody wants to be a cricketer," Henman said.
There is hardly any doubt that commercialisation of the game of cricket has changed the spirit of sport in India and every youngster is dreaming about playing in IPL and earning big money. One needs to give this credit to the cricket administrators here who have marketed the game so well here without the support of government.
Both tennis stars said the scenario could only change if India is able to produce a Grand Slam champion of its own who can become a role model for tennis aspirants just like how cricket had a certain Sachin Tendulkar.
They said India need to look past Leander Paes and Sania Mirza in doubles to have top-10 singles players for tennis to become popular in the country.
"India needs one big singles tennis player because it's a huge country and you don't need a guy in top-50 or 100. You need somebody who is into top 10 and who can win the Grand Slams so as to make other kids take up tennis. You need one champion in future. What India needs is a top singles player. Look at my country Croatia, we are a small nation but still we produce good tennis players," said Ivanisevic, Wimbledon champion in 2001 and runner-up in 1992, 1994 and 1998.
On the other hand, Henman, a four-time Wimbledon semifinalist, said: "Indians are not good enough in singles. Paes was good and chose to play doubles and the other doubles players are not good enough to play singles. They have to be better in all areas. One must have physical and mental abilities to sustain the high pressure of tennis."
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