Will India ever qualify for a World Cup?
| 07:00 UK time, Thursday, 1 July 2010
We discussed this on World Cup Have Your Say on Thursday 1st July. to the programme.
When India goes crazy for sport, it's normally over a bat and a ball - Sachin Tendulkar, the Indian Premier League, the game of cricket.
But has also spread through the nation of cricket lovers with a massive audience watching on TV.
What are asking there now is why can't India itself find 11 decent footballers from a population of 1.17 billion and take part?
is lowly - they're 133rd, sitting between the tiny island nations of Fiji and Bermuda.
G Rajamaran that football as a exciting spectacle on TV doesn't necessarily motivate youngsters to play the game
We are fast being reduced to a nation of young couch potatoes who are happy to watch the Ronaldos and the Rooneys, the Kakas and the Messis.
And despite being the third most viewed sport on TV in India, the it's not yet broken out of heartland states to be the truly national sport which could propel it to a World Cup.
India's so far away from qualifying, there's over their chances of ever getting there!
It's worth saying it's not the only country where football has mass viewership but no decent team.
When England lost to Germany last week, the top trending phrase on Twitter for a while was - Indonesian for "stupid referee".
We've spoken to fans from places including Sierra Leone, Uganda, Kenya, Liberia, Afghanistan, Nepal on World Cup Have Your Say - places where football is very popular, but where the teams were not even close to qualification.
When will India qualify for a World Cup? How can they get there? Or will people there continue to sit back and enjoy watching the established countries taking part?
What do you want to happen in your country to get your team to World Cups in future? Or don't you really care, as long as you can watch Brazil, Argentina, Spain and the rest?
