Cricket – Just A Sport or A Craze!

This entry was officially supposed to come in on April 2, 2011; the fateful day when the Indian Cricket Team, led by MSD (Mahendra Singh Dhoni) were to clash with the Sri Lankan Cricket Team, led by Sangakara. Who would have thought that this day would go down in the History of Indian Sports as the day when we crushed the hopes of the opposing team in the Clash of the Titans and that too after 28 ‘freaking’ year’s. It is indeed a great day; it can’t get better than this; a moment of glory; an honor for every living Indian across the globe; a day when, with one stroke over the boundary, we all became a part of and witness to history in the making.

During my growing up years, I struggled to play this sport (or love it), especially when people from my generation would listen to our fathers talk about the glory it brought to Indian Sports under the able leadership of Kapil Dev in the 1983 World Cup Cricket. All of us, irrespective of Race, Class, Creed, Religion, Region, Nationality, Color, are competitive; whether it is in the class room, the battlefield or a sport; all of us love to achieve the Foremost Position. I can’t remember the last time I, personally, managed to achieve this feat (I think it probably was in swimming when I was in the 9^th Grade!); but as a nation in my short life, it first happened in ’83 when I was just getting out of my diapers with the ’83 World Cup win; further accolade brought to the Indian soil by the likes of P.T. Usha (not included Milkha Singh as his honor’s were much much before I was born; however that’s another legend who has made us really proud). Then years passed and so did decades, but nothing much, until 2010, when we hosted the Commonwealth Games and what a proud moment that was for us all. Unfortunately, like all great things in our country, this was also short lived due to the black medals (read Corruption) of the Leaders of this Great Republic! Then came the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011; the 10^th CWC; 3 host nations; 14 participating countries from 104 entrants; 49 matches played; 45 days of absolute craze and One Proud Nation!

From my younger days, I have been privy to the craze surrounding this game. However, during my growing up years, this craze seem to have taken the shape of a Religion, in its own right. Cricket, probably is the only thing that binds the very essence of the Indian society; it is like Opium for Indian’s; a 2^nd religion. After Team India Bled Blue through these 45 days, each member has become a legend; now we will just immortalise them!

Coming to a promise that I made to some of my friends in the past month; a promise to share the reason (s) why I am not such a huge fan of this sport. Out of the numerous reasons that I have am listing a few, below.

Without pretentions, the foremost reason remains that as a child I used to suck at it; I never could throw one straight ball, let alone an entire over! Yes people, that’s the absolute truth…there you have it! Get over it now!!! However, moving from there, it’s a damn slow game, and if you are watching it on television, one is further tortured with the countless advertisements after every over. Thirdly, I never could understand how 1 guy could eagerly await the other to throw a ball so that he could hit it and the other 10 from the latter’s team be running, shouting & screaming at each other to stop it, catch it, throw it back, blah, blah, blah! Am sure out of the miniscule number of those reading this, there would be a rare 1 or 2 who may agree with me; but then am not here to clarify or debate the various possibilities on this thought…trust me, in the past 2 decades I have had enough of that! Coming back….lastly, one of the biggest reasons are divided into two parts, but boil down to one point – Monetisation of the Game! Somewhere around the late ‘80’s, early ‘90’s we saw the advent of the infamous bookies in the clean sport of Cricket. Now, gambling and betting on sport has been in existence for ages, my problem came up when the bookies started to “pay off” players, coaches, etc. to throw away the game (as per various news reports & investigations over the years). This is when it became, what I like to call a – Black Game! Today, what is the guarantee that a game is not fixed? Without sounding unpatriotic or undermining the efforts made by each of the member of the 2011 Indian World Cup team in getting the CUP home, I could not understand how a ‘one time’ Champion (with not a single member being from the same team as that of ’83!) could not defeat a country like ENGLAND, which was visibly a match we could not have lost from a long shot but ended up in a DRAW, and ended up defeating FOUR time World Champions Australia (1987, 1999, 2003 & 2007), ONE time World Champions Pakistan (1992) to finally defeat ONE time World Champ Sri Lanka. It’s not undoable (after all we did it, didn’t we?), it’s just unimaginable! My theory on this has been (obviously with much resistance) that  the India – Australia match could have been fixed, for the simple reason that there would have been more money at stake (bookies, obv.) on India – Pakistan, as if India beat Australia, we had to face Pakistan and if we lost, we were out of the World Cup. Go Figure!!! Now, after we beat the shit out of Pakistan, like we usually do in most cases (just being wicked here!), facing Sri Lanka on home ground wasn’t tough. Now, I know by now I would have infuriated quite a few readers….hence, I would like to say that I’m just going by pure logic, I have no proof what-so-ever of whatever I have stated above, neither is this an effort to undermine the hardwork and efforts put in by the entire team in making all of us proud. With this feat, they have made us (me included) a part of History and this sure is a lifetime opportunity and the proudest moment for all of us (the final sixer hit by Dhoni will be embedded in our memories for the rest of our lives). 

That was part one of my last point. Part two of the same is basically the absolute monetisation of the players that we have done in the name of brand ambassadors, hosts, MC’s, anchors, entertainers, etc etc etc. Add to that, BCCI’s decision to award each of the players on the team ONE CRORE EACH after they got the Cup Home, is just ridiculous. Use that money for the development of the country and not to make Rich, richer! As if they really need the money, they are making enough of that through endorsements of various brands. I loved what a commentator said when Ravi (Shastri) announced this reward on the Green after the final – “Money is all good, but you can’t take the focus of the Number 1 spot away from the World Champions with that gesture, it is time of their Glory”. Most apt and in-the-face for all those who want to leverage and politicize such occasions. I find it plain old ridiculous; don’t you? Oh! Did I mention the money payments that each player on the IPL team gets every year? It’s just fascinating!

A sport needs to be played (and respected) as a sport instead of people trying to use it as a political or monetary platform for their own vested interests…that’s just wrong! I don’t mind watching a good game of cricket (Ashes or India vs Pak) but then I don’t want to be thinking about the ‘match being fixed or not’ while watching it; that just takes away the essence.

Finally, the above are strictly my views and as mentioned above, most of the thoughts are supported by logic and in a place or two from past events (no proof what-so-ever) and I apologise in advance if I may have stepped over some sensibilities, no deliberate intention of doing so.

We showed Three World Champs what it means to Bleed Blue and are done bleeding….now is the time to just color the world ‘Blue’!