Kolkata, Feb 14 (PTI) Notwithstanding its obsession with cricket, India should not be seen as a single-sport country and the government is willing to do its best in improving other sports disciplines, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said today.
"We are not a single sport country. As a country of one billion people, can we not achieve greater heights in sports?" Mukherjee wondered and assured that the government would do whatever was possible.
The minister was releasing a CD of a film on cricket made by his ministry's Public Diplomacy Division.
Referring to India's winning of a gold medal in shooting and bronze each in boxing and wrestling in Beijing Olympics, he said, "Not many years ago, we were world leaders in hockey. Can we not recreate history?" Mukherjee revealed that although he played football as a young boy, he was invited to be the chairman of the BCCI about 28 years ago.
"I had become Finance Minister for the first time and so I told them, why me? But they insisted. Then I took shelter of my political mentor Mrs Indira Gandhi and she drove home the point to them that I did not have the time," Mukherjee said adding over time he had become fond of cricket. PTI
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