By some historical misfortune, ie the British colonising India, we became part of a handful of nations that played cricket. Initially atleast it was restricted to the maharajahs, princes and the nobility who played this game just because their counterparts in the british aristocracy were into it. Even after independence there was limited following for this game. At that time the most popular team sport that the masses followed was hockey in which the nation was the reigning numero uno. Then began the decline in indian hockey as gradually other nations caught up and also because of circumstances like change in playing surfaces etc. A nation of billion people didn't have any world class idols to look upto.Even the universaly wildly popular sport of soccer doesn't have an appeal in India just because our teams don't do well in the world arena. Just the fact that fourth place finishers in the olympics like Milka singh and PT Usha are considered as legends whereas in countries like United States, even gold medal winners vanish into obscurity within a year(Case in point anybody anywhere remembers who won the golds in the races that Milkha Singh and PT Usha ran?) shows the paucity of talent in Indian Sports. It was in this void , in 1983, that a team of heroic ragtags created history by usurping the world cup of cricket. And a nation starved of sporting heroes warmly and readily embraced them. Here was a team and a sport where India mattered in the world stage albeit forget the fact that only 5-6 countries played it seriously. Decent successes in the future years maintained the iconic stature of cricketers. Once in a while the Indian team won some tournaments, beat strong teams and produced a boatload of fantastic individual talents.All this maintained their status as the masses's darlings. But the jolt at the current world cup could prove to be fatal if not already fatal. The fans are disgusted in the way that their beloved men in blue , their supposedly unbeatable heroes let themselves to be shown the door by minnows like Bangladesh and not so minnows like Sri Lanka. Hope this jolt brings some sense of balance to both the team and administrators as well as to the common fan. Cricket need not be a big part of our life and cricketers don't deserve the reverence that they now get.Sincerely hope other sports get better attention and we produce some world beaters there too so that we can have other heroes to look upto and not depend on only one bunch of guys.
RE:Cricket and India
by Amit Shah on Apr 03, 2007 03:47 AM Permalink
Great article. India did have hockey champioships before 1983 world cup cricket but I agree with the fact that we, indians have made cricket a big part of life. We treat cricketers like GOD.
Vishwanth Anand, Mahesh Bhupathi, Dhanraj Pillai and all other stars of other sports (current and in last 10 years) deserve a big thanks from us that they chose that sport even though there was hardly any fame or a big reward when they chose that game.
Few things can help: (a) Corporate sponsorships to the cricket should be diverted towards promoting other sports. (b) Cricket calendar in a year should be limited to one or two months where they can have all international games. This will force people to look into organizing, hosting and pariticpating in championships of other sports. (c) Sports ministry should have active programs and goals for promoting other events and sports. (d) Some Govt. sponsored and some private companies sponsorted scholarships might be good (somewhat related to (a) above.
RE:Cricket and India
by radhika kumari on Apr 03, 2007 03:32 AM Permalink
i can see our guys making a mark in the 100m dash, soccer, swimming, diving, badminton, basketball(ah!), man, you name it. physically we are not really there to excel in certain sports. the other fact is, what is wrong with liking cricket? in US they are mad with football and the local superball is like a world cup. it may sound and look funny but the bottom line is let the people enjoy and spend(waste) time with whatever thay want. may be it is part of british culture. the only problem with the average indian cricket fan is that they take losses too personally. but then life moves on. our team tours bangladesh in may and i am pretty sure we will make them pay. that will make our fans happy again albeit a certain section who will say, hey it is BD? it is not aussies. its all part of it. lets enjoy whatever cricket is around. rt now most fans are not able to come in terms with india's exit. some one will win the sup on april 28 and then we start thinking about the next series and so on. let people enjoy cricket and there is nothing wrong in some hero worship and money spending. thats the way india is and its fine. the only thing that shouldnt happen is attacking player's families, houses, properties etc.
