I experience despair for reasons which are obvious. The fanatical obsession called cricket has just joined hands with the film word to create a new pastime [I consciously refrain from calling it sport] where it will gain even further visibility and media hype fuelled by  both cricket and Bollywood. This in turn will almost certainly divert sponsorship which could have gone to disciplines with a genuine chance of winning India that Olympic Gold. But economics, be it in the IT industry, telecom, oil or in sport has proved that the big get bigger through mergers, aquisitions or through organic growth. This is the way of the world and cricket and it's administrators are presently in this euphoric state which has seen them grow from strength to strength.

This fantastic success of cricket packaging is being played out at a time when our Olympic medal hopes who will pit their skills against the best in the world in only five months at Beijing are starved of funds. But pragmatism lies in understanding and accepting that we live in an unequal world.

But I garner hope from India's booming economy and our finance minister's promise of 8% to 9% growth. With this growth, India will stake its claim to be a super power perhaps in the next two decades. There is a strong correlation between sporting performance at the Olympic platform and the state of a country's economy. Growth will divert additional funds to diverse sporting disciplines. This, along with cricket succumbing to 'the law of diminishing returns' with respect to public attention over the next two decades will pave the way for a bright and vibrant sporting culture in India where an Olympic gold winner will perhaps be auctioned by sports management companies for as much if not more than the then equivalent of a Sachin Tendulkar.

Till then lets get ready for more cricket ...

Geet Sethi