The game is lost

Over the past two decades, sport in India has been through a peculiar transformation. The collective interest in games holds only as long as Indians are participating in major tournaments

Babu Mani, who was captain of the Indian football team some 35 years ago, died a forlorn but perhaps not impecunious death at an early age of 59. Prominent newspapers had not covered it. Not in Delhi at least. His being penurious would not have been surprising. Many Indian footballers, famous ones to boot, passed away in those circumstances. But when football in India, more so in Calcutta, was part of a certain socio-cultural frame, the unnoticed death of a player who had once achieved stardom would be inconceivable.

Over the past two decades, sport in India has been through a