Despite of its love affair with cricket, India is a big failure in sports. Since 1896, India has won only 26 olympic medals, most of them in field hockey. How to explain such poor performances since so long ? There is no obvious explanation. Many ( more or less valid) reasons could be advanced though : poverty, lack of political will, education ( succeeding in school is considered to be much more important than playing any game),…

Yet, despite of their meagre sports results, Indians have a competitive spirit. ( For centuries, the Rajput and Maratha princes have been known as fierce warriors. And Indian traders have been successful through the centuries…) But why struggling to win over an opponent for something as “superficial” as sports ? Indeed, the Indian tradition teaches it is much more beneficial to achieve your spiritual potential by dominating your desires, overcoming your fears,…than surpassing yourself physically.  Since centuries, pandits and gurus have explained that the way to progress was spiritual achievement…