Cricket - The Money Game: (English)

Cricket - The  Money Game: (English)   

Now that Indian team has lost the Test series in Australia as also the 20-20 match it is high time we need to sit up and take stock. This is the second white wash Indian team has faced in succession. The team which had climbed up the ladder to number one position only a year ago has had a steep fall and could not retain that position for long. For such a fall there must be some reason which needs to be examined.
Unfortunately in India we are an emotional people who build temples of ordinary mortals and start worshipping them as Gods, be it Amitabh Bachchan or Sachin Tendulkar, while the Corporate lobby and the Mass media use these images to their advantage to rake in crores from the gullible consumers. These Gods repeatedly project themselves as philanthropes but do not tell the truth to the ordinary people that it is their hard earned money that they utilise in such philanthropic activities.
One has to look at the history of Indian Cricket and find out how many matches have been played by India since she started playing international cricket and out of these how many have been won.  Since 1983 India could not reclaim the world cup till recently and it took them almost 27 years to do so. Just 8- 10 nations play cricket out of which India is the most populated, yet we cannot win a world cup at five or six year interval. Why?
Can't India produce fast bowlers, dependable batsmen and dedicated fielders? The answer is NO. Just a win here or there and we start fire crackers and celebrations in every street worth the name. On the contrary Australians did not lose a single test for a decade, yet there were no celebrations nor did the Australian Government come out with doles to their cricketers in the shape of free residential houses, free allotment of plots of land or cash gifts.A misuse of national resources. After all what is it that these cricketers do which others do not do. They too play for earning a living. Had such gifts been given to soldiers who die for their motherland fighting militants in Kashmir or naxalites in Andhra or standing guard at sub-zero temperatures with frost bites on their feet and thousands of kilometers away from their families one could understand the logic but what sacrifices do these cricketers make in order to deserve special attention. I have not seen any honest Army soldier or Officer residing in a house of more than 50-60 lakhs not to speak of hundreds of crores.
And now these Cricketers want the Bharat Ratna too without any contribution to the welfare of the nation. All that some of them have done was to pile up personal scores endlessly by staying put in the team without reason when their performance was at the lowest ebb and by blocking the younger deserving replacements. A comparison of two cricketers will show what lobbying does. Gavaskar faced a battery of fast bowlers of West Indies unmatced to date and fought battles single handedly that too without wearing a helmet or other body guards while Sachin has been playing with all the armour on. So who is greater in his technique and contribution.
Leave aside Cricket see the results of Olympic games. Indian participants, with all the doping instances that have surfaced of late, do not return home with more than one odd gold medal, a few silvers and half a dozen of bronzes as against China which claims second or third spot in the medal tally with countless gold, silver and bronze medals. What a shame for our Nav Ratnas and Padmas!
Surprisingly the politicians are also making hay while the sun shines. Otherwise why is it that such Political Stalwarts as Sharad Pawar or KPS Gill should accept posts of BCCI or IHF. And then we have already seen the ugly face of Suresh Kalmadi in the Common Wealth Games. Given a choice these politicians would never leave these posts all their lives and like to make them hereditary.
I only wish that good sense prevails on our politicians and they bring in public accountability for all these institutions and make BCCI, IHF and IOA and the like accountable to the public.