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It's all about how the population resource is being utilized.
New Zealand, with a population smaller than the city of Ahmedabad, has won a total of 143 Olympic medals compared to India's 35. Remarkably, despite its small demographic, the country has also managed to build strong teams in cricket, rugby, sailing, rowing, and netball.
It isn't remarkable.
New Zealand is a first-world country where sporting activities are encouraged for kids. You don't have to worry about your economic future, even if your sporting career fails. Unlike in India, where the fear of a deprived economic future stops 95% of parents from allowing their kids to take up sports,.
100% of New Zealand kids will be supported by their parents in sports, compared to maybe 5% of Indian kids who will be supported by their parents in sports.
I myself was among the top 2-3 best batsmen and bowlers in a tier 3 city with a population of 5 lakhs until class 10. Other schools used to pay me 100 INR every Sunday to play for their school against other schools.
I stopped cricket after 10th grade as I wanted to prepare for my engineering entrance. This is the story of almost every single talented kid in India who can't afford to take up sports full-time.
Thankfully, my kids won't have to do what I did. I won't even blame Indian parents, to be honest. It's normal for them to be worried about kids wasting their time with a career where less than 1% make a living out of it. The only solution for this is to get richer as a country. Getting richer as a country will allow us to harness talent to the full extent.