If suburban schools are doing better thanschools in the town, it's because they have their own grounds. I have been a teacher for 30 years in Holy Name, Colaba, and I found out that the Indian education system doesn't encourage sports. Schools should finish by 2 p.m so that students can have time for other activities. Players at school level become jaded by the time they enter junior college. Most Indian parents feel that children will not get much out of sports as there is no guarantee that playing well will get him a lucrative job.
Football is accepted as a profession in European and Latin American countries.
We need a professional set up which will give initiative to players to come forward and take up football as a profession. I agree with Sunil Gavaskar when he says that television is an idiot box which is killing the sport at grass-rootlevels. Our collegiate set-up is bad. If you see the record breaking performances the world over, they are from the Universities. To make things worse, the entry of politicians in sports have ruined everything.