Oct 02, 2002 01:40 PM
2430 Views
(Updated Oct 02, 2002 01:50 PM)
Boy! I just saw the list of never ending reviews on cricket! This itself shows that cricket is one of the most famous sports alive.
In India alone , cricket stars like Sachin Tendulkar,Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly are great icons.
Infact the fame of Sachin Tendulakar, one of the worlds best bats man, is in competition with the fame of film star and heart throb, Shahrukh Khan.
Shah Rukhs popularity at one time was threatened by the increasing number of fans for SAchin Tendulkar.
THere is a craze, almost to the intensity of madness, for the game of Cricket. MTV the teenage music television in Asia, prepared a mock show of a cricket match between film star look alikes like Saif Ali, Shahrukh, Anil kapoor, Amitabh bachan, Johny Lever, Kader Khan and many more vrs the look alike cricket players like Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar etc.
Even though the national game of India is Hockey,very few of the common people know the name of the hockey captain where as even the simple village boys, who dont watch much TV, know the names of the Indian Team.
Cricket may have something in it thats addictive, and keeps one glued to the TV screen, with hearts pounding and fists clenched,eyes focused, praying at every breath that your country wins.
It fills one with euphoria and also with deep dejection.
There is fierce competition between India and Pakistan.THe Pakistani Cricket team has also won laurels in the past.The cricket ground becomes a battle ground for the two countries when a match is going one.The audiences of either sides support their teams as they would support their warring soldiers.
VIctory becomes the winning of a battle while defeat becomes losing one.
THe latest Indian movie 'Lagaan', was also based on cricket. The movie starring Amir Khan, his first home production, portrays the first ever cricket match played between the Indians and the British. THe match in itself becomes sort of a deal between the British ruler and The Indian farmer.ITs a funny movie,in which the poor Indian farmer who wants to save himself from incurring revenues, learns to play a cricket match.If he wins the match, he will not have to pay revenue for the next two years but if he loses, he will have to pay double the amount. THe farmers toil hard to learn the game and a British lady offers to teach them.
Ultimately a team of twelve cricket players, one of which is dumb, another is handicapped,yet another is an old man; go ahead and play the cricket match, against the well trained British. They, ofcourse, win in the end or so the legend says...
This movie went on to become one of the biggest hits in India and it was even nominated for the Oscars in the International Film category for the year 2002.
Off late the game of cricket has lost some of its prestige as some cricket players have been involved in match fixing. Due to this a lot of bitterness and inner politics has come into the game. However it does not stop the ardent fans of Cricket from going ahead and hooting for their favourite players..
So much so about cricket...
Even though there is so much hype going on about cricket, I still dont understand what is in the game that is so alluring. For starters, I never understood the game. IT is easier to understand basketball and football where there are nets on either sides and u have to just put the ball in it.Voila! Its done, you have got a goal or a basket.
Simple and easy.
But in Cricket...well...hmmmm...what should I say....(lest all those fans out there, come hounding me!!)...well,its a nice game I guess, but nevertheless boring...coz there is not much action which meets the eye.
It just goes on and on and on....
Cheers to all cricket lovers!
