On hearingthat BCCI has been registered as a "charitable" trust and that it hasbeen enjoying tax exemptions, if you didn't fall out of your chairlaughing, then you are either profoundly slow, or Mr Lalit Modi. I'll come back to this point later.
As someonementioned here earlier, "It is a myth that to a cricket fan, everyplayer is just that, a player who entertains the sporting attitudewithin him. A true cricket fan is one who wants to stand up for thegame and preserve its sportsmanship…"
I amwriting this because I genuinely feel that the spirit of cricket cancontribute not only to the society, to developing a nation, andfacilitating international diplomacy, but I would go as far to say thatit can contribute to preventing a possible war!
No?
Read thestory of the Afghanistan cricket team. And if you don't see a potentialthere of achieving all that I have mentioned above, allow me to explain.
It isalways unfair to generalise, and Afghanis seem to be one of the biggestvictims of this. Not everybody in Afghanistan is a terrorist, not allpeople there are extremists. But have we ever heard the media speakanything good about the nation? They are humans like you and me and itis so heart wrenching, but at the same time awe-inspiring, to see theircricket team struggle their way up without facilities or any majorsupport. Their dream of making it to the 2011 World Cup hangs by athread after they lost a crucial match.
Now imaginean Indian entity, say the BCCI or any of the corporate/film tycoonsfrom among the IPL franchisees were to go ahead and support/sponsorthis team? What kind of positive signal and message would that send tothe entire subcontinent? The extent of impact this one act of anyIndian can have is potentially humongous. It could motivate many othersto join in. It could give more media visibility to the reality of thegood Afghani. It could stem the mental rot of extremism that manyAfghani's may be facing and show them that there are morepossibilities. And thus it might stop feeding the evil forces with moreyoung lives and thus prevent a possible future war (on terrorism).
I have beenreading stories of how these guys have learnt their cricket in refugeecamps. It has been quite a journey for them as they enter the lastqualifying stage for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Over and above thelove for cricket and the possible fame that it begets, their motivationseems to be a craving need to change the image of their country infront of the world. Cricket can do it for them. I am just dying forsomeone from India to pick this up and start forging bonds with a socalled terrorist nation.
Let meclarify that I am not their manager. I have never met even one of them.I don't have any political or financial stake in it. The one and theonly thing that I have in common with them, is the love of cricket andthe belief in its potential to change the social and politicallandscape of a nation and the world.
And thatbrings me back to the earlier point I made in my first column. If therewas a single voice representing the Indian Cricket Fan, would thatvoice announce a glad acceptance of the above proposal or hide behindthe farce of a charitable trust in order to save taxes?
