India’s legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar on Friday took a pledge to make the country a sporting nation, sharing a video where the cricketer was seen urging his fans to support and promote the sports culture in India.
On Thursday, 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 said in the soul-stirring video.
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."
In the video, Sachin heaped praise on North-East region of India for having a ‘vibrant sporting culture’. The cricketer further requested India must move on from being a ‘sport-loving’ nation to ‘sport-playing’ nation.
The inspiring cricketer didn't hesitate to laud the best spokespersons from North-East, such as Dipa Karmakar, Bhaichung Bhutia, Mary Kom and Mirabai Chanu, for their stellar achievements in respective sports.
“It is my endeavour to transform India from being a sport loving nation to a sport playing nation. I urge you all to participate in this effort and help make my dream, our dream. Always remember, dreams do come true! Jai Hind,” Sachin wrote on Twitter along with the 15-minute-long inspiring video.
In his two-decade-long career, the 44-year-old batsman from Mumbai scored 100 centuries for India, besides piling up 34,357 international runs across all formats.
