Its all good to hear about integrity, skill and honor when talking. How many sports in India or Sub continent have survived based on integrity, skill and honor? There is no sport in India that survived based on its own. Every sport needs money, infrastructure to survive. Football (Soccer) in India was famous since long but we only made progress when it was televised and "money" was invested with ISL. Its all honey talk when you say its a sport and not a movie and we should not run after viewership. Viewership includes in ground crowd and televised games. In India cricket is so popular because A) we know the cricketers and B) we know them because it was televised very early and a lot of money got invested and we did not pay attention to any other sport despite Hockey being our national sport.At the end, its a sport and not a movie, that it should only run after viewership. We need to mantain the integrity and skill involved in playing the sport, or else, it will become a money minting business only.
Let me tell you again any sport be it be hockey, cricket or anything needs money. Money comes if there is viewership because viewership gets you deals with sponsors who invest money. That money is used for building infrastructure. That infrastructure will give you an opportunity to test your skill and integrity. Without that where will you test your skill?
(@zimrahil surely post of the day )