Devil's advocate...
As the whole country thunders and celebrates the win of young Indian team in the latest avatar of world cricket, so called “T20 championship”, probably it’s time to step back and relish this moment. True that such a moment comes rarely, especially in a country like ours with abundant talents and volatile temperaments. Even truer is the fact that we are perennially short of worthy national heroes who could inspire a generation to look forward with pride and self belief.
I am not a cricket pundit and hence wouldn’t go into technical details of how this could benefit our cricket and sport in general; neither would I think that this is a miniscule performance even if my attitude towards this new formed “tamashaa” has been hostile. But, I do reserve my comment about the potential of Indian cricket. The fact that these young boys jumped into adulthood with such poise and commensurate ease has pleased me beyond my expectations; Dhoni’s refreshing attitude towards captaincy, Yuvi’s daring shots while batting and Sharma’s poise in the death – should augur well for the future. If only we could manage to provide a supply network without congestion, a channel to harness temperament and a structure to fall back in distress – we could challenge the mighty Aussies in their own den. But, I am doubly sure that such things won’t happen in Indian sport, cricket in particular and hence this euphoria is short lived.
I call the modern T20 version a use and throw format – where you live by the sword knowing that anyway your life is not precious, you play for the gallery because that’s what you aim for in this tourney, you pray only for a burst of brilliance as sustenance wouldn’t bring any extra laurel. So, there is absolutely no doubt that marketability of cricket would increase only at the expense of glory, stamina and perseverance – traits any sportsperson would vouch for. Cricket has never been a rival to soccer; neither has it been thought of as global as other sports because of its very nature. But, that has not made ICC a beggar; neither has it stopped countries from playing provided they get the infrastructure. Probably, ICC’s greed has overshadowed its responsibility towards the game and lured it into using players as mere pawns to generate revenue. They don’t bother about the sport as long as crowd says – “I’m loving it”.
By now, majority of readers must be cursing me for being a spoilsport at such a joyous moment or even think of branding me anti national. I agree that I have always believed in giving sense precedence over emotions and personally I have always benefited.
What holds true for a singular collectively holds true for a nation also. Recent splurge of money into players coffers, attitude of governments in deciding the priority as well as drama of BCCI to grab attention in the glory of unexpected windfall – all these show a wholesale callousness prevailing in the society.
On Tuesday, 25th of September 2007, there were two news which were relegated to the second stage following India’s victory in T20 championship. The first one about a lady doctor being raped in a Delhi hospital and the second about the recent controversies in Pakistan and Thailand. Even if for argument’s sake I accord to the point that news of Indian team attracts more viewers than say events in Pakistan or Thailand, but I failed to get any excuse in the first case. Even horrific has been the reactions of government. There are two ways I look at it –
The government (starting from her highness to Delhi CM Ms Sheila Dikshit and honorable PM) is only trying to look around other way and fool people by giving money to cricketers who are rich anyway and at the same time abducting its responsibility towards providing safe society. The public has been equally guilty. There has been no protest whatsoever, no uproar in the parliament, no discussions on TV and total ignorance of priority. Delhi government has given 5 lakh each to Shewag and Gambhir, but not a single penny to the doctor who is in coma now.
The second is even more pertinent. T20 is not equivalent in stature to a World Cup and without dwarfing Dhoni’s achievements I can say that there is no sure winner in this format. Simply because, the format is such that everybody is vulnerable on a particular day. There was a proposal for BCCI (which is cash rich) to come out and support other sports to grow – but recent things don’t point in that direction. The players have been extraordinary, they have brought laurels for the country and I appreciate their work. There is a huge market for them where they would get more than what they want. But think of a player in chess, in badminton, in shooting, in weightlifting or for that matter in hockey. What is the attitude of Indian public towards such events? I am sorry to say, but ignorant Indians value T20 more than they value a gold or silver in Olympic – even though it is tougher to get the latter one. My memory fails to recollect such a welcome for – Rajyabardhan rathode, Karnam Malleswari, Leander Peas, Prakash Padukone, Bula Sen or even P.T Usha. Each of them has been great in their field but probably the only mistake they did was not to play cricket. The irony is, even a baseball player turned cricketer would earn more respect here than a champion swimmer or stylish badminton player.
And, I attribute this phenomenon of step motherly attitude to nothing but money and glamour. The hungry public only sees the dancing of money and this dangling carrot forces millions to think that everybody in their home could be a Tendulkar. People want their children to be a cricketer not because they love the sport, but it would bring more than they could dream about.
Sounds cynic? Feels like I have spoiled the mood of the nation? If so, I am happy to do that. There should be times when unnecessary histrionics and madness of the public at large needs to be condemned, even at the risk of being branded “pessimistic spoilsport”.
Good luck to “Team India” for their upcoming upheavals.
I am not a cricket pundit and hence wouldn’t go into technical details of how this could benefit our cricket and sport in general; neither would I think that this is a miniscule performance even if my attitude towards this new formed “tamashaa” has been hostile. But, I do reserve my comment about the potential of Indian cricket. The fact that these young boys jumped into adulthood with such poise and commensurate ease has pleased me beyond my expectations; Dhoni’s refreshing attitude towards captaincy, Yuvi’s daring shots while batting and Sharma’s poise in the death – should augur well for the future. If only we could manage to provide a supply network without congestion, a channel to harness temperament and a structure to fall back in distress – we could challenge the mighty Aussies in their own den. But, I am doubly sure that such things won’t happen in Indian sport, cricket in particular and hence this euphoria is short lived.
I call the modern T20 version a use and throw format – where you live by the sword knowing that anyway your life is not precious, you play for the gallery because that’s what you aim for in this tourney, you pray only for a burst of brilliance as sustenance wouldn’t bring any extra laurel. So, there is absolutely no doubt that marketability of cricket would increase only at the expense of glory, stamina and perseverance – traits any sportsperson would vouch for. Cricket has never been a rival to soccer; neither has it been thought of as global as other sports because of its very nature. But, that has not made ICC a beggar; neither has it stopped countries from playing provided they get the infrastructure. Probably, ICC’s greed has overshadowed its responsibility towards the game and lured it into using players as mere pawns to generate revenue. They don’t bother about the sport as long as crowd says – “I’m loving it”.
By now, majority of readers must be cursing me for being a spoilsport at such a joyous moment or even think of branding me anti national. I agree that I have always believed in giving sense precedence over emotions and personally I have always benefited.
What holds true for a singular collectively holds true for a nation also. Recent splurge of money into players coffers, attitude of governments in deciding the priority as well as drama of BCCI to grab attention in the glory of unexpected windfall – all these show a wholesale callousness prevailing in the society.
On Tuesday, 25th of September 2007, there were two news which were relegated to the second stage following India’s victory in T20 championship. The first one about a lady doctor being raped in a Delhi hospital and the second about the recent controversies in Pakistan and Thailand. Even if for argument’s sake I accord to the point that news of Indian team attracts more viewers than say events in Pakistan or Thailand, but I failed to get any excuse in the first case. Even horrific has been the reactions of government. There are two ways I look at it –
The government (starting from her highness to Delhi CM Ms Sheila Dikshit and honorable PM) is only trying to look around other way and fool people by giving money to cricketers who are rich anyway and at the same time abducting its responsibility towards providing safe society. The public has been equally guilty. There has been no protest whatsoever, no uproar in the parliament, no discussions on TV and total ignorance of priority. Delhi government has given 5 lakh each to Shewag and Gambhir, but not a single penny to the doctor who is in coma now.
The second is even more pertinent. T20 is not equivalent in stature to a World Cup and without dwarfing Dhoni’s achievements I can say that there is no sure winner in this format. Simply because, the format is such that everybody is vulnerable on a particular day. There was a proposal for BCCI (which is cash rich) to come out and support other sports to grow – but recent things don’t point in that direction. The players have been extraordinary, they have brought laurels for the country and I appreciate their work. There is a huge market for them where they would get more than what they want. But think of a player in chess, in badminton, in shooting, in weightlifting or for that matter in hockey. What is the attitude of Indian public towards such events? I am sorry to say, but ignorant Indians value T20 more than they value a gold or silver in Olympic – even though it is tougher to get the latter one. My memory fails to recollect such a welcome for – Rajyabardhan rathode, Karnam Malleswari, Leander Peas, Prakash Padukone, Bula Sen or even P.T Usha. Each of them has been great in their field but probably the only mistake they did was not to play cricket. The irony is, even a baseball player turned cricketer would earn more respect here than a champion swimmer or stylish badminton player.
And, I attribute this phenomenon of step motherly attitude to nothing but money and glamour. The hungry public only sees the dancing of money and this dangling carrot forces millions to think that everybody in their home could be a Tendulkar. People want their children to be a cricketer not because they love the sport, but it would bring more than they could dream about.
Sounds cynic? Feels like I have spoiled the mood of the nation? If so, I am happy to do that. There should be times when unnecessary histrionics and madness of the public at large needs to be condemned, even at the risk of being branded “pessimistic spoilsport”.
Good luck to “Team India” for their upcoming upheavals.
Labels: Jehadi
7 Comments:
Perfectly said. The game will become popular, no doubt. But cricket is all about Test cricket. That is where the true test of character is exhibited.
The drama and histrionics have just started. This will go on in India for some time. And we have to live with it.
Like someone said "Now the water has reached 6 feet, 8 feet..." ;)
Don't worry .. Hopefully Aus will give such a sound thrashing to India during the ODI series that all the hype and hoopla will come crashing down
Your blog seems to be written by a red army general army. Come on..India was a Centrally planned economy with equal money being spent on Hockey and Cricket by the government. Those days have gone past and market days are here again. You can not force the public to like Karnam Malleshwari more than Dhoni.Public jo chahegi wahi hoga.And ICC is aptly playing tune to the market
@ Spidey...
The danger is that after few more years Test cricket will see results within 3 days, going by the recent trend. And even more horrific is the fact that majority would think that's an improvement due to this T20 version.
What a shame to the understanding !!!
@ Lone ranger...
I hope u r proven wrong this time.
And do please reveal your identity.
@ Anindya...
From when did this notion of sports being played to the marketing gimmick has been institutionalized? Let's take a look at two most capitalist countries - USA and Australia. Go through the list of spending by the government and others on different soprts and their proportions. I am not sure sports in these countries are driven by TRPs. To give a small idea, Rugby and Baseball are the two most popular sports in Australia and USA respectively. Yet, those players are not the richest or media grabers there. It happens only in India.
According to your judgement, if for some god forbid marketing sense public wants to have more of Sharapova, you would make sure that no Graff or Williams is ever present in the court !!
And now about the sense of public. My argument was that public don't love the sport, they love the money associated with it. And I am not very sure about the benefits of this approach.
Last but not the least - I thought ICC was formed to fulfill its responsibilities towards the game, if public and popularity were to be its measure of success then why put cricketers there? Enroll marketing MBAs and you will have better results.
Whom are we fooling around?
dude... this is INDIA!
ppl alwez go over board, when it comes to cricket, politics and bollywood...
i'm in fact happy tht other sports dont evoke this kinda emotions... they r better off w/o it... i'm not sure a Rathore or a PT Usha would appreciate ppl breaking down their house, if they happen to lose sometime... which is wht happenned to he country's darling captain MSD...
as for the Govt ignoring social problems, it is a bit far fetched... by tht logic, till poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and other ills of this society are removed, none of us should be celebrating... pls note tht i'm not supporting the politicians' apathy, but i'm just pointing out tht ur ire is mis-directed..
as for T20 itself, i guess it is the same as traditional five course southie meal versus instant upma mix... i'd love the former, but i hv to make do with the latter :(
and Aus will give India a thrashing... am sure of it!
@ SRK (original in SP)...
I thought balance is the bauty of the nature, yet amazed how Indians defy them so naturally.
My question was not about reaction, but support. I neither support the stone pelting post WC debacle nor do I think that other sports should be treated "step motherly" at the expense of cricket.
Govt is absolutely within limits to spend lakhs on already rich stars, but I was just wondering if a doctor, raped within her hostel room and fighting for life was less important than break dance of Sreesanth..
Yeah I guess T20 will stay and flourish but its fall outs might b dangerous. We might do away with 5 day test as most of those wud b over by the 3rd day.
The last one - I seriously pray that you are proven wrong this time.
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