I think it is natural that people from different countries focus on different sports.  For example, baseball is a popular sport in America.  Cricket and soccer are not as popular.  Countries tend to be better in sports that are popular nationally and historically.  This is because more people play them and have access to them, so there is a larger pool of players.  Also, more kids will play them at a young age (including in school) and discover talent, which leads to better teams.

India is a multi-faceted country and good at so many things.  Why does it matter if they are considered a world performer in sports?  However, some good points have been made by Post #2 and #3 about India's skill at cricket.  Perhaps cricket is India's sport and they should devote themselves entirely to it.  After all, there are other countries that have only one or two sports in their favor.  Look at Brazil.  For years they were synonymous with soccer.  Now there are other countries that play soccer, too, and Brazil has branched out into other sports such as track and field. 

I might turn the issue on its head. Cricket is a massive game worldwide, with billions of fans. It is perhaps second only to football (soccer) in global appeal. And, if I'm not mistaken, India won the World Cup in cricket a year or so ago. So I'm not sure if debacle is the right word, as India is quite accomplished at a sport that it focuses on. India's failure to develop quality footballers is probably partially attributable to the fact that there is no high-quality professional league in India, which, I read recently, is about to change. As for other sports, I don't know enough to really offer an opinion.

Since I am not from India, I cannot really speak to this as well as I would like to.  But the one thing I would ask is how you will account for the fact that India is so good at cricket if the educational system and conventional thinking is to blame for India's poor performance.  Does the educational system in some way promote cricket but not other sports?  The same question applies (though to a much lesser extent) to hockey.