File photo of Sunil Chhetri© X (Twitter)
Indian football icon Sunil Chhetri isn't known to mince his words when it comes to sharing opinions on the sporting culture in the country. Chhetri earlier spoke his mind when asked about India's lack of success in the Olympic Games, where a total of 7 medals (in the Tokyo Games) is the country's best tally ever. As India looks to do better in the Paris Games this time, Chhetri explained the reason behind India's lack of medals despite a population of 1.5 billion people.
In a podcast, Chhetri said that India fails to get medals on the global stage because of its lack of success in identifying and nurturing talent at the grassroots level.
"We don't win medals (at the Olympics) despite a population of 1.5 billion is not factually correct because we are not able to identify and nurture the talent of 1.5 billion people. China, US, Germany, Japan, Australia, Canada -- the ones who do well in the Olympics -- are miles better than us," said Chhetri on the podcast, and the video has gone viral.
Why India win less medals in Olympics: Sunil Chhetri pic.twitter.com/WF9PrmUFIs
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A country of about 1.5 billion people should be able to produce more talent, and Chhetri feels though India have talent, there isn't much focus on nurturing them to take them to the next level.
"When people say, 'talent ki kami nahi hai hamari country mei' (there is no dearth of talent in our country), it is 100 percent right. A five-year-old kid in Andaman, who was good in football or javelin throw or cricket, he didn't even know. Threw it once or twice and then disappeared, working in a call centre," Chhetri asserted.
The former India football team captain said that he believes in speaking facts, even if someone kills him for it.
"In identifying the talent and nurturing the talent at the right time and with the right procedure, we are way behind. And I don't care if people want to kill me for this; this is the reality."