A necessary evil ?. Review on Cricket

I will not be singing praises of the game of cricket or any player in particular here. Rather I want to put forth a theory I have had for some time. It is not critical of Indian cricket in anyway, I am as ardent a fan as anybody, but rather the villain in my theory is the game of cricket, through no fault of its own.

The Asian Games began in Busan a few days ago, and Indian has started in typical insipid fashion. As I write this, we are in seventh position behind such sporting powerhouses like:

1. China

   
   




2. Japan

   
   




3. South Korea

   
   




4. North Korea

   
   




5. Kazakhsthan

   
   




6. Thailand

   
   

To put things in perspective China has more than TEN times as many golds (47) as we have medals in total (4). It would be fair to say that we are a very poor sporting nation. No I think that would be a colossal understatement, as much as it will sound self-demeaning, we are pathetic sportsmen. Besides sporadically successful cricket and hockey teams, a chess player, a doubles team in tennis, and a few assorted carom, billiards and badminton players, we really have very little to show for a fifty-plus year old country. Not only have our neighbours in Asia overtaken us in a number of fields off the playground, they have thulped in almost all facets of sports as well.

So where does Cricket come into the picture? Well according to me the single most significant reason, why we are distant also-rans in the world sporting arena, is because of the Mammoth shadow cricket casts on all other sports in India. Which is ironical because we have rarely been the best team in the game, (personal feelings aside). We have that one world cup in 1983 to show for all the millions of rupees spent on the game, and the fanatical following the game has.

Sport in India is now synonymous with only one game, Cricket. The game has taken the life out of any other sport, and today being a non-cricket Indian sportsman, generally means a job as an inspector in the CRPF, with a pittance of a salary, and a rusty few medals and cups in a run down cupboard in a corner of one of our metros. After their brief, under-paid and under-recognized careers, they pass into oblivion, only to reappear years later when they die. Then a small outdated photo in a corner of the newspaper, and a few artificially kind, and a factually erroneous centimeters of newsprint is all that is left of a sportsman. Many of them can only dream of making in a lifetime what Sachin makes in a year, flaunting a sticker on his bat, giving cheesy smiles sitting on Italian cars and sipping on MNC blood supplements. No fault of Sachin though, he deserves it to no end.

But do these poor non-cricketing souls deserve their due? They tried as hard, gave the essence of their lives for our country. Is it their fault that our country is obsessed with a game that has hardly brought us any glories for the last 20 years or so? For the second most populous country in the world, is one world championship in a game of less than 20 full fledged playing nations enough ? Does having the some of the best players in the world, but one of the most inconsistent and under-performing teams, justify the squalid negligence all other sports are banished to ?

Many people say that cricket is a good thing because thats the only thing we are good at. Yes but then are we good enough? Any member of any media seldom has India on the prospect list for world cup winners. We are always almost there. Never there. Is it because the millions of people we have cant produce one team of 11 people who are world beaters? Or is it because winning or losing does not matter anymore? If being good at something was the criteria why do our world class billiards players have one table to practise for international events? Why did Jaspal Rana have to wade through mounds of paperwork and legalese to get a new gun for his shooting? Why does the Indian Government refuse to bear expenses for many sportsmen for meets like the Asian Games? But aha... Sachin gets a custom duty waiver on his new Ferrari.....

There are many reasons why we should promote other games in our country too. We cannot expect each of the hundreds of athletically adept youngsters we produce to play in the Cricket 11. There are thousands of brilliant wasted young talents, because if its not Cricket, its not important. And the sporting ministry is an appendage to the government, one more office to fill, one more chair to haggle over.

It will do a world of good to the psyche of our country too. We need to look beyond our oppressive and stifling boundaries of race and religion and look to be proud of our nation, not for its potential, but for what it has done with that potential. We need more heroes, isn't twenty years enough to expect a second miracle from one sport?

I have heard voices of opposition saying that we are a poor country, that we cant afford to spend money on sports, god point. But we can afford to poo poo away Sachins Ferrari, pay astronomical sums of money to our cricketers, blow up bombs, crash air force jets, host World Cups, etc. etc. But ask for a new Volleyball court, and your asking for too much.

We need a sporting revolution, we need to see what other countries like China (in no way a millionnaire country, mind you), North Korea, Thailand etc, have done and develop our country into a presence on the global arena. We need to stand united for more than just political or religious passions. Every ball of an India - Pakistan match is watched irrespective of whether it takes a Christian to bowl, a Muslim to field, and a Hindu to whip the bails off. More sports, can kindle that secular fervour even more.

Our country is probably at its most patriotic when we play a thundering game of cricket. If victory is what our nation wants, if heroes are what our nation is yearning for, if only champions can make us hold our heads high, lets give it to ourselves. Lets learn to look beyond just a game of 11 men, and look at a sporting powerhouse of a nation of hundreds of world-beaters, and millions of fans and enthusiasts.

I do not mean to say that sports is the pancea for all our evils by any means. But it is something we can do, and we can be proud of. We dont need anything else, besides the thousand of talented youngsters and the confidence to help them go from the local schoolground to the global arena.

When the world gives us respect, we will too. Come on India dhikha dho !!!