It gives roots to lots of corruption at every level. It is also wastage of time and resources of nation just for the sake of a very small section of the society.

A B Mehta: In India this is true primarily for Cricket. However in the West Football, Baseball and Wrestling are some of the sports that become extravaganza particularly when a specific team or player is playing.

In our country the standard of outdoor sports except cricket is nothing much to talk about and hence they remain simple game competition. Media coverage and involvement of celebrities, which has become all the more noticeable in the IPL 20-20 format of cricket, has converted it to a full fledged extravaganza. The money invloved runs into crores and the players are treated to 5-star facilities.

Only we the cricket crazy persons are to blame and the players are treated to 5-star facilities.

Only we the cricket crazy persons are to blame as we spend so much of our time in talking, viewing, criticising and reading about cricket. We encourage our children to play cricket hoping that some of them may become Dhoni or Ishant. The simple reason is the hope to earn lot of money through fee and advertisemnet by our children if they even become Ranji player.

But why crib about this as any entertainment is welcome for our citizens a large number of whom are usually worried about their next meal. Even for middle class these provide cheaper entertainment in the stadium and at home. We can only hope that some of this money is spent on other sports like Hockey, Football, vollyball, Atletics and similar games.

Sushmita Shrivastava: Yes, the sports have become extravaganza these days. The sports like football, cricket, tennis, boxing etc fetch big money. In our country, cricket is most popular. Compare the todayâ€(tm)s cricket with the cricket of say 10 or 15 years back and you will see that the cricket has changed entirely. The cricket players are like film stars. Even more affluent and popular than them. Forget the hard-working players of yesteryears who toiled for five days in the field. Todayâ€(tm)s players are glamorous and super rich. The game of cricket is fully commercialized. The art of cricket is being forgotten. After the one-day, we have Twenty20 with big companies and stars sponsoring the game. Money is showered on cricket players. Ironically all this money comes from the pocket of poor and middle class. The multinational companies pay millions of rupees to

these cricket stars. From where all this money comes? Do they pay from their own pocket? No, there are over one billion pockets in India to pay to cricket stars. I think modern cricket is no more cricket. It is showbiz.

Syed Zia ul hassan Naqvi: Yes it is true in our times sports have become an cause these sports are a great source of enormous wealth. Extravagance on sports is affordable in proportion of earnings from these sports.

There are many sports in which there is lot of money for players and organizer, for instance cricket, tennis, football, wrestling and car racing etc.

We can very well estimate that the extravagance on sports is negligible small when we see the recent auction of cricket teams which was held in January 08.In that auction of team's film stars and industrialists participated, in this auction the base price was only US $ 400 Millions. But that auction fetched around US $ 724 millions.

With the above mentioned bid of auction we can very well understand about the earnings (which will be many folds) from this game.

There was a time when in every walk of life there was predominance of simplicity , honesty and reality in those days we use to play kabbadi , gilli-danda , kho and many other such games in which there was no extravagance . But now that time has gone with the wind. At present we are leading a life which is artificial and full of pomp and show. And because of that even sports are not spared.

RJ Khurana: In the name of sports what we see in our country today is a kind of mockery in the form of betting (in the case of Cricket ever since a former Cricket Captain of South Africa â€" Hanzi Cronjea revelation), exchange of money for selection in the team (the recent revelation in the case of Indian Hockey where the all powerful IHF Secretary Jyothikumaran was reported taking Rs. 2 lakhs for selection of a player).

Factually what failed Indian sports is the kind of Autonomy granted to the Sports Authorities â€" be it the BCCI, IHF or any Sports agencies. Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Chairman Suresh Kalamadi need to come up with a fact sheet why, despite having been given a Cabinet Ministers authority in dealing with Indian Sports he is not in a position to reign in any of the Indian Sports Agencies.

The Indian Cricket is now rudderless as it is divided into umpteen number of camps from North to South and East to West of India. What we now witness in the form of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is a kind of full blown extravaganza where the whole of Bollywood plus a host of other young celebrities right from the Indian first family (presence of Priyanka Vadra and Rahul Gandhi to witness the Kolkata Knight Riders match owned by so called King Khan is noteworthy) assembled to view the match which resembled like a carnival rather than a gentleman game like Cricket of yore.

What really happening is the utter conversion of our Sports into money spinning factories owned by the high and mighty of the society. We now lost the charm of our Sportsmen and Sportswomen playing for the country but playing for certain corporate bodies to whom these persons are indebted to. They have been purchased for a heavy premium. Here what we see is that they are putting their heart and soul together to win and win it at any cost as they know a failure would be disastrous for them and they will be kicked out. Whereas, it was the same Viru who miserably failed the Indian Cricket team several times earlier but now he is winning match after match for the Delhi Daredevils. What really transformed Viru to play so stroke-fully. Of course, it is money that makes all the difference rather than loyalty or patriotism.

Now, better late than never, the Indian public started demanding through the Indian Parliament that Autonomy should be taken away and Government strict supervision on Indian Sports should be introduced. That itself is yet again an indication that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. But the irony is that even when the government starts supervising our Sports what is the guarantee that the system will improve for good, given the gigantean corruption in politics that we witness today?

When talking of sports extravaganza, don't talk of all sports. Talk only of Cricket though only 12 out of a total of 179 countries of the world play Cricket. BCCI runs a multi-crore business concen. Cricket players are paid in crores. Film stars, business tycoons and politicians have turned Cricket into an extravaganza with cheerleaders, bands and buntings flown across the continents to liven up the shows. Cricket players are bought and sold in crores. Crores are spent on publicity to build up the hype. Newspapers devote screaming banner lines and several pages to cricket news and analysis. Whereas not even a few hundred spectators are present at the match venue when the India Hockey XI is playing an international match, there are lacs at any stadium when a cricket match is being played between two state level teams not to talk of international matches. Hockey, football, volleyball and basket players of national repute have remained paupers. This is despite the fact that hockey is our national game. Celebrated hockey coach, Negi who inspired "Chuk de India" movie once said that in his long career he didn't receive even a 500 rupees gift cheque. Cricket alone is the Lord of all that it surveys. All other sports don't matter.

Rajiv Nair: Extravanza in sports is restricted to Cricket only. Somehow, the game caught the eye of the officials and the industry. Slowly it has become the national sports now and craze of almost all youth of the country. Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) is said to be the richest board in the world. Where did they get all the money? Extravaganza in sports is right now on the TV these days.

The state and central government has almost forgotten other sports like hockey and football. Hockey, once our national game which won six times in Olympics is now not qualifying to reach the final stage. The condition is so pathetic that the Indian Olympic Chief had to face a lot of criticism from all quarters whenever the hockey players fail to perform in the international arena.

As there is no money in any other sports, very few are interested in playing other sports and fewer to watch on TV.

If the industrialists back up cricket, they cannot be blamed. They always wanted to earn more money and publicity. And money is in cricket only.

Rajat Abhinav: Sports have not become an extravaganza in our time. This may be the case with cricket only and that too with currently going T20 IPL Leage matches where huge amount of money is at stake. But other spsorts like hockey, football, athletics, Judo, Wrestling etc are not at all and never be an extravagant event. Hockey, which is our national game has lost its previous glory due to callous and negligent attitude by the government.

Hockey and other sports do not get support especially financially from the government and private companies too. Private companies do not want to lend money on these sports. Reasons are many, like cricket these sports lack audience attention, infrastructure is poor, players are not popular among the people. And companies want profit and full return of their money. That's why they see a greener pasture in cricketing world only. Cricket is considesr3ed and believed religion in India. People worship their favourite players like a God. Players too are very very popular in the nook and corner of the country.

The way in which money has been forked out for the IPL T20 matches, it creates a hype among the mundane that sports are getting an extravagant event. But this is only one part of the story. The other which I have mentioned is far from the truth. If other sports like cricket also get god responses from the government as well as from the private companies, only then we will be able to term sports have become an extravagant event. But I don't see that possibility in near future. It will take a lot of time to happen.

Anil Kumar: Yes, partially. All sports cannot be considered an extravagant event. In fact one sport - Cricket - comes under this category. Other sports are there for their name sake only. Nobody or very few watches hockey, athletics, football or other sports either in on the TV or live. The TV live relays always show that 90 per cent of the stadium seats are empty. Then how can the organisers manage to organise the events extravagantly? Where do they get money to organise annual events in these sports? The government is least interested when it comes to spend money on such events. The corporate world is looking towards the Cricket matches only where they feel their money is safely spent.

Therefore, we can say that there is no extravagant event in sports except cricket where the money lies. And this is the only sport liked by the child, young and the aged alike. This was due to continuous telecasting and reporting in the newspapers about cricket. Whether you like it or not, in a long time, one is forced to change his taste. Hence cricket got this popularity in our country.

R.K. Kutty: I would like to submit that Pepsi business extravaganza which have spent millions of dollars on sponsoring. Similarly Indian and country-region Pakistan country-region cricket teams the real shocker is this little piece of information: The money they spent on a 40-second ad on Sony TV during that historic match could have fetched them the sponsorship of 1st country-region Major sports such as Football, Baseball and Basketball games are syndicated all round the world for fans to watch on TV. But nothing quite beats being there in person, cheering with the crowd, taking in the electric atmosphere many holidaymakers are timing their holidays with sporting events in the country so that they can add a bit of variety to their holidays. There's plenty of regular season games for all the big four (Basketball, Baseball, Football and Hockey) and tickets are rather easy to get hold of, with many arenas and clubs. In other cases most hotels' concierge services have connections to the stadiums and may be able to pull a few strings for visitors looking to make the most of their holidays and this indicates clearly that sports have become extravaganza in our times. The main attraction of sports is how much effort and style goes Superbowl with not only an All-Star game but an entire weekend devoted to the festivities. Apart form the game itself showcasing the cream of it's NBA basketball players there are other events such as a celebrity game. These are just two stand out spectacles on offer, people that have gone on holidays to stadiums and seen sporting events like these have had a great time, especially families. Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan led a three-day Asian lifestyle and culture extravaganza here over the weekend. The event, at the National Exhibition Centre, was billed as the biggest indoor celebration of Asian lifestyle and culture Called Mela 2004, the event got under way Friday, giving visitors the chance to experience the latest in Asian fashion. Hrithik appeared on stage together with Indian dancers and bhangra musicians from across the country. I agree that sports are becoming extravaganza in our times.

The Football has Superbowl, a national treasure in itself. Indian football is as popular (possibly even more) than other country's football. This is the ultimate in sporting entertainment with fireworks a plenty, pulse pounding action and the halftime shows. The NBA basketball goes above and beyond