India’s legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who recently created a stir after expressing his Rajya Sabha speech in a video, continued to comment on the nation’s sports structure on Wednesday.
“We need to transform India from a sport loving nation to a sport playing nation. India is set to emerge as the youngest nation in the world by 2020. Unfortunately, the assumption that young hai toh fit hain is wrong. #LetsPlayIndia,” Sachin said in a tweet, along with an inspiring video message.
"Being a sportsman, I am going to talk about sports, health and fitness of India. My vision is a healthy and fit India. Jab swastha hai yuva tab desh me kuch hua (when the youth is fit then we see growth). India is set to emerge as the yougest average age nation in the world by 2020. So the assumption that yeh young hai to fit hai (if he's young, he's fit), is wrong in India," the 44-year-old expressed.
Talking about his vision of healthy and fit India, Sachin added: "We are a diabetic capital of the world with over 75 billion people affected by this disease. And when it comes to obesity, we are sitting at no.3 spot in the world. The economic burden of these diseases will not allow our nation to progress. Many of us only discuss and don't play at all. We need to transform India from a sport loving nation to a sport playing nation."
WATCH: What Sachin has to say about India’s sports structure
On December 21, Sachin was forced to leave the Rajya Sabha without delivering his speech. The batting great, then, decided to use social media to comment on the structure of sports in India.
"I loved playing sport and cricket was my life. My father, professor Umesh Tendulkar, was a poet and a writer. He always supported me and encouraged me to be what I wanted to be in life. The greatest gift I got from him was the freedom to play, the right to play," the Bharat Ratna recipient had said in the beginning of the soul-stirring video.
