Why do Subcontinentals suck as Sports?

[Fenrir]

I think culture and available resources has a lot to do with a people's interest in a particular sport. Look as us Norgies at the Winter and Summer Olympic games.

We do well at water sports like sailing and canoeing, which coincides with our massive quantities of water.

And anything involving skiing. We have a lot of snow too.

We don't do that good at things not relating to snow or water. It's part cultural, we're a historical sailing people with a proud tradition of exploration, and a love of all things cold and snowy. But it's also part resources. We have water in abundance:

And a whole bunch of snow:

I don't want to hazard a guess at what motivates people on the subcontinent to pursue or not pursue sports, but culture and resources have played a large part in our athletics.

I became engrossed in swimming because I've always lived in close proximity to coastal regions. I'm from here:

And now I live here, where water is also aplenty:

Bike riding and skiing are my other favorite forms or exercise/sport.

 

[pak-marine]

Have to say over population is a burden. People over world expect that with more numbers more superhumans with superhuman skills will come out.

There must be .. question is how do one vets them all

 

[EAK]

Who says's we suck..We dominated Squash like no other country in the world for 40+ years..Pakistan amassed over 30 British Open titles, 14 World Open titles and a lot more PSA professional titles. Jahangir khan won 555 matches consecutively. This was not only the longest winning streak in squash history, but also one of the longest unbeaten runs by any athlete in top-level professional sports.

 

[takeiteasy]

As I've always wondered, Sri Lanka is almost at the top of the medal tally despite it's puny size compared with India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Perhaps Pakistan and Bangladesh have cultural or religious obstructions when it comes to sports?

Sri Lanka is much better and orderly than a vast country with different cultures, languages and religions like India. In fact, even Tamilnadu, the closest group to Srilankans in India, are much better in terms of development and order (sans their language chauvinism and Tamil nationalism).

 

[Divergent]

And people call my threads useless...smh

Lmao

 

[Proudpakistaniguy]

Why are we so bad at them compared to other poor countries?

Only sports ?

We are bad in everything. How many nobel prize winners? How many top scientists? How many inventions? How many conqueror?

I guess we are just good in oppressing each others

 

[Indus Pakistan]

I guess we are just good in oppressing each others

Hey, it's not all bad. It goes to show your a guy who is 'proud of Pakistan' !

 

[Kaniska]

Too much curry. When you jump up and down after all that spicy food then nothing is held inside.

 

[Śakra]

Only sports ?

We are bad in everything. How many nobel prize winners? How many top scientists? How many inventions? How many conqueror?

I guess we are just good in oppressing each others

We aren't even good at that. Nazis and Brits had it down to a science.

All we have is good music and good food.

 

[Khanate]

You have to look at the best region in the sports in the entire south asia and why they are better than the rest - HARYANA.
and you will get your answer.

2016 south Asian games.. although you are right this negative mindset of the OP is not good.

I gave you examples of world class sportsmen, i.e., Jahangir Khan, a man considered to be the greatest player in the history of squash. Jansher Khan, another #1 ranked squash player who dominated the world of squash. Imran Khan, the man who together with Sarfraz Nawaz invented Reverse Swing and won the '92 World Cup for Pakistan etc. Imran Khan was named Captain by Geoffrey Boycott of the World XI. No Indian made it to the list.

You can't even begin to compare these global icons of sports that Pakistan produced with whatever garbage you are peddling.

To clear your delusion, here's medal tally for Olympic 2016. For reference, Great Britain's population is 60 million. India's population is 1.3 billion. Congrats.

 

[Proudpakistaniguy]

Hey, it's not all bad. It goes to show your a guy who is 'proud of Pakistan' !

Topic is not about Pakistan but people of subcontinent and their overall performance as compare to rest of the continent ..and proud Pakistani can also acknowledge the harsh realities which is the first step towards improvement..just saying that you are great would not make you great unless you open your eyes and see how you are doing compare to others

 

[Salik]

Have to say over population is a burden. People over world expect that with more numbers more superhumans with superhuman skills will come out.

Sometimes you've to change the water. Living in same pool doesn't produce the required results.

For example, if Amir Khan (Boxer) was born in Pakistan and his elders hadn't moved to England, he would be playing cricket or doing any other routine job. Its obvious.

 

[Gibbs]

Even if we go by your argument that subcontinent people are not athletes (whatever that means) please explain us why is that no country from athletic continent Africa has ever won FIFA World Cup or why is that only a handful of countries do good at it again and again? Maybe something to do with culture? Skills? Tactics? Or nah?

Don't be so daft.. Ofcause people of European, African and East Asian descent excel in many sports that South Asians in particular cannot match up against.. Like many other have pointed out here it's got to do with many things like genes, Climate, poverty, Nutritional and cultural habits.. All these combined make South Asians the most nonathletic people on the planet.. Massive share of the world population with little or no sporting achievements to show

How many African countries have qualified for the FIFA world cup over the years ? How many South Asian nations have ? , How many African players are top ranked football players in the top leagues of Europe ? Name atleast a couple of South Asians ? Africans and those of African descent dominate athletics, American professional sports, Even in physical sports like Rugby many top raked players from France and England are of African descent

Now there will be a few exceptions to the rule with a few wrestlers here and there or a single boxer(From India), Few Squash players(From Pakistan) and a athlete who can compete at world class events (From Sri Lanka).. Given the odds of having a billion plus population, Dont that let fool you

Prime example of how sub continentals lack athleticism, Is field Hockey, India and Pakistan dominated the game when it was played on grass fields and was much slower, When they chose to change it to artificial turf, Both teams couldn't match up to the physicality or the stamina that entailed and now is totally dominated by European and Australian sides

Here is the full ODI rankings for cricket
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_ODI_Championship

Lol.. 31 ranked nations and out of that half a dozen are British territories.. Apart from the test teams how many of those non subcontinental teams have home grown players (Non south asian diaspora ) ?

It's funny i've seen this self obsession of cricket by many Indians, You'll dont realize how a insignificant sport Cricket really is outside South Asia, Except for Australia which Cricket is the no 1 summer sport,(But AFL is bigger overall) It's not even the post popular game in NZ, South Africa, England or the West Indies

 

[Indika]

Topic is not about Pakistan but people of subcontinent and their overall performance as compare to rest of the continent ..and proud Pakistani can also acknowledge the harsh realities which is the first step towards improvement..just saying that you are great would not make you great unless you open your eyes and see how you are doing compare to others

There you go we have one reason , we are interested in only throwing shit among ourselves instead of aiming for better things.

Poverty is one of the reason but even countries like kenya do better. We simply dont have the attitude to be the best in any thing.

Prime example of how sub continentals lack athleticism, Is field Hockey, India and Pakistan dominated the game when it was played on grass fields and was much slower, When they chose to change it to artificial turf, Both teams couldn't match up to the physicality or the stamina that entailed and now is totally dominated by European and Australian sides

True our genes are disadvantage, but westerns put in more professionalism than us in every sphere of life.
For argument sake lets agree that we are bad athletes but are we good in other things like innovation,society,culture..etc? Nope. If say we have bad genes then lets compensate it with good technics or practice. China was the same 30 years back but now they win medals , how ? discipline & hardwork. Well we would not agree with all the methods they adopt but strive for excellence will take you there if not now but some time later.

 

[Gibbs]

True our genes are disadvantage, but westerns put in more professionalism than us in every sphere of life.
For argument sake lets agree that we are bad athletes but are we good in other things like innovation,society,culture..etc? Nope. If say we have bad genes then lets compensate it with good technics or practice. China was the same 30 years back but now they win medals , how ? discipline & hardwork. Well we would not agree with all the methods they adopt but strive for excellence will take you there if not now but some time later.

Yep.. See the question by the OP was why some countries do better at sports than people from the sub continent even though overall they're poorer.. The Answer to that is genes, Some races are naturally athletic than others due to natural selection due to the environments they come from

And ofcause i agree with your point about compensating the lack of physical attributes with professionalism, and enriching a sporting culture.. And it's not just China that adopted such practices successfully though china dominates given the numbers but also the likes of Japan and South Korea