Venkatesh Prasad Advocates Dinesh Karthik's Statement Of Labelling Cricket As The National Sport Of India

Former India bowler Venkatesh Prasad has backed cricket to become the national game of India. While many believe that field hockey is the national game of India because of its historical significance, the truth is that India does not have any officially recognized game as the national game.

In 2020 when a school teacher named Mayuresh Agrawal filed an RTI (Right to Information) query with the government to know when hockey was declared the national game of India, he received a surprising answer. The official reply of the Union Ministry of Youth read:

“The government has not declared any sport/game as the National Game of the country, as the objective of the government is to encourage/promote all popular sports disciplines.”

And while the government’s response received praise from several quarters, there are many who believe that cricket should be declared the national game of the country. Cricket is undoubtedly the most popular game in the country and it would not be wrong to say that millions of fans follow it religiously.

Venkatesh Prasad backs cricket to be the national game:

With cricket being the most popular game in the country, Venkatesh Prasad believes that it should be recognized as the national game. The former cricketer, on Friday (September 29), took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his views. He was reacting to a recent remark from veteran wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik.

In a recent discussion, Karthik had supported the idea of making cricket the national game of India, and Venkatesh Prasad agreed with it as he wrote: “My friend @DineshKarthik supported cricket becoming the national sport of our country in a discussion on ShareChat ! I agree with him.

“The kind of pride and joy it brings to the people of India, it’s about time that we recognize cricket as the national game,” he added.

My friend @DineshKarthik supported cricket becoming the national sport of our country in a discussion on ShareChat ! I agree with him.

The kind of pride and joy it brings to the people of India, it’s about time that we recognize cricket as the national game.

— Venkatesh Prasad (@venkateshprasad) September 29, 2023

Meanwhile, India are currently gearing up to host the ICC World Cup 2023. Having co-hosted the tournament thrice in the past, India will host it alone for the first time this year. The tournament is scheduled to be played from October 5 to November 19. A total of ten teams are participating in the event.