A country made for sports

It was nice to see Lionel Messi enjoying his time in India a few weeks ago It was by all official accounts a successful trip he will undoubtedly want to repeat as quickly as possible In fact I wouldnrsquot be surprised if he bucks the decadelong trend of Indians desperate to permanently leave these shores over 200000 give up citizenship every year for some strange reason and relocates to an Indian city after retiring given the type of reception he was given everywhere he wentIn Bombay the legendary footballer looked genuinely happy as he was paraded around a stadium It was an exotic experience of the kind all Westerners hope for when they apply for their tourist visas so Irsquom glad we rolled out that red carpet for him I could see how overwhelmed he was in what Irsquom sure was a good way It almost looked like shell shock He must have also been honoured to meet people as famous and talented as himself mdash Ajay Devgan Tiger Shroff even the wife of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra The next time he visits I hope the government does something more magnanimous like renaming Kandivli station after himThen there was that ultimate honour the unveiling of a 70foot statue in Kolkata Apparently some people wondered why the statue of an Argentine footballer was necessary given that Messi isnrsquot Indian doesnrsquot play for India and has nothing to do with Indian football I had no such questions because I have always believed that this is a country devoted to honouring sportspeople They may be foreigners but all that matters is whether theyrsquore rich and famous Also even though India is currently at 142 on the FIFA world ranking for men it does better than Lesotho Burundi Guyana and Moldova which reveals the seriousness with which we are approaching world domination in that sportHerersquos another thing that happens when we honour someone like Messi it sends a strong message that we are a nation committed to excellence It also diverts attention from unfair accusations of corruption and mismanagement that have been plaguing the All India Football Federation AIFF for a long time According to a newspaper report published in July this year the menrsquos national team donrsquot have a coach and the countryrsquos top football competition is in danger of collapsing but those are precisely the kind of problems that can be tackled by putting up statues of foreign playersI donrsquot know anything about Kolkata but I assume the city has a lot of football grounds training facilities and access to professional equipment to foster the kind of sporting culture that ends up creating champions Bombay lags on this front because open spaces tend to get in the way of the real estate industry but I foresee a time when every suburb will offer young Bombayites access to the right kind of infrastructure too India has never played in the FIFA World Cup finals but Irsquom pretty sure that has nothing to do with the governmentrsquos prioritiesThere is a lot of attention paid to sports here but it is often lost in the noise about mismanaged sporting bodies weak investment at a grassroots level or unfounded accusations of nepotism involving the sons of politicians Just because seven or eight sporting bodies are headed by talented young men who happen to be related to cabinet ministers doesnrsquot mean a country isnrsquot aware of the importance of meritI genuinely hope Messi goes back to Argentina and tells the rest of his team about this trip I hope more legendary sportspeople like him mdash Cristiano Ronaldo LeBron James Novak Djokovic Usain Bolt Simone Biles Emma Raducanu and a host of winners like them mdash start to spend time in India so they can be inspired and spread the word too The quality of air may be a minor inconvenience a few recent cricket matches have reportedly been cancelled because of the AQI but I donrsquot see why health concerns should get in the way of appreciation from a sportsloving countryHerersquos another reason I think India takes sports more seriously than most other things like healthcare food security or hygiene Messirsquos statue which is supposedly the largest statue of him in the world was built in just over a month Imagine how committed one has to be for that to happen In Bombay for instance it can take more than two years to just replace paving blocks on a street in BandraWhen he isnrsquot ranting about all things Mumbai Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet He tweets lindsaypereiraSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper