East Or West, Desi's The Best

CRICKET, clothing, career choices and a surprisingly strong swadeshi sensibility are the principal underpinnings of a young Indian's life. That's what the ground-breaking survey, New GenerAsians '98: A Study of Youth in the Asia Pacific, reveals. Commissioned by TNT & Cartoon Network and conducted by ACNielsen in TV-owning homes across 18 cities in 12 countries of the region, the survey's findings, says Celia Chong, senior vice-president and general manager, TNT & Cartoon Network Asia Pacific, range "from startling to shocking".

In India, cricket has no competition. Nearly 50 per cent of the respondents—aged between 7 to 18 years, boys and girls—opted for it as their favourite sport. Surprisingly, badminton emerges as India's second most popular sport—soccer ranks fifth and tennis doesn't figure in the top five.

In contrast, in none of the other 11  countries surveyed, not even in Australia, is cricket the number one sport. In Australia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, soccer is the most-favoured sport, while in Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan, basketball ranks as the favourite. In South Korea, soccer and basketball are the joint favourites. Basketball's popularity cuts across boundaries in the region and Michael Jordan is the most-loved sportsperson in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

 "It is the largest multi-media study of its kind in the region," says Duncan Morris, director, media research division, ACNielsen, China. "The survey will be useful for marketing among children," explains Anthony Dobson, director of research, TNT & Cartoon Network Asia Pacific. The findings will be shared with advertisers and marketing professionals in all 12 countries.

Other interesting findings in India, where 825 children in four cities—Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai were interviewed: when asked what job or career they would like, only four per cent of the boys and three per cent of the girls said they didn't know. An amazingly decisive bunch, these kids. In Hong Kong, as many as 26 per cent of the children admitted they didn't know what profession they wanted to pursue. While only 33 per cent of Indian children read books that were not part of their syllabus, an impressive 60 per cent claimed that they read a daily newspaper.

Despite globalisation, Indian kids remain swadeshi at heart: Ruf N Tuf and Newport hold their own against foreign jeans brands, Bata and Action edge out Nike and Reebok. That should warm the cockles of India's self-appointed moral guardians.