I was lazing around cyberspace on friday night, having done with the last of my semester III minors and riding on a post exam high-low sinusoidal wave, and I came finally this place thinking I’d amuse myself by commenting on products and reviews I knew nothing about.
I checked out headers of some 60 odd reviews and had my last hopes of escaping the bloating cricket ballyhoo (omniscient, omnipotent, omniannoying) brutally subdued .. It seems tht even the domain of cyberspace is no longer a seclusion for a pitiable no-cricket-doesnot-own-mysoul recluse like me.
here r the reviewed ’products’ in the exact same order as I found them
(dated: 07/05/04)
mohinder amarnath, India team, five worst indian cricketers, five best indian cricketers, ten best one day batsmen, sachin tendulkar, sachin tendulkar, ten best one day batsmen, ten best one day batsmen, saurav Ganguly, saurav Ganguly
12 out of 60 reviews, 1 out of every 5 and that too on redundant topics!
Unbelievable.
I knew instantly what to do with my night, what most superheroes like me always does at nights, patronize and save people.
Considering this is the time when in four years our bulk of a democracy goes to polls only four reviews (I counted) indirectly alluded towards political discussion. I believe the internet can be a very effective medium to bring the upper classes into the electoral process, and websites like MS can be greatly effective in more than just reviewing government bodies and policies, they can be used as discussion boards and forums to understand and engineer general public opinion.
Of what my superhero analytic skills make of it, the general public opinion is drawn into a state of deep cricket induced substance abuse.
So much that the government at the center has to make sure the election dates don?t coincide with a cricket series, and the ruling party understands it has to use India’s historic cricket victory over a third world neighbour reeling in anarchy (and who couldn?t care less about winning some sport series except for the sponsorship money) as party propaganda.
People very enthusiastically debate possible euphemisms for one Rahul Dravid, i.e whether he should be called a wall or a rock (I can swear I read one such review in MS a few weeks ago) than congratulate Narain Karthikeyan on attaining Formula One status (an honour for which he had to do much imploring to rustle up a consortium of sponsors who would have the nuts to risk investing in anything apart from cricket)
Then there are reviews about whether or not India will beat Australia in an upcoming series in September (which unfortunately it will not, but ppl will be engrossed and bring the country’s economy again to a standstill nevertheless)
No I do not overstate the fact that the economy comes to a standstill. Ask any non cricket enthusiast and he will tell you. There are morons in my college who will stop shaving their armpits each time Bangladesh takes on Kenya in a five day test match.
Please.
It is ironic perhaps that around the same time as the supposed Australian series the US presidential elections will be held. The gusto of the American electorate should be a model for us, when many months before the actual polling the scrutiny and mobilization of public opinion begins to take place.
They have Baseball and football with almost an equally obsessed fan base as ours, but when elections come the citizens of that country know where to draw the lines between priorities. So stop wondering the next time your grandchildren ask you why America is such a power bomb while India is plodding behind.
question
Can you, mr drain bamaged, go beyond your gushing, arrogant and isolated views to explain in more objective and relative terms how overrated cricket is ?
Yes I can, here’s how
A statistical and mathematical analysis
The following is a mathematical formula I have devised to compare India in cricket against Brazil in football in purely statistical terms. The solution will be a grayscale number that will explain how overrated cricket in India is against Brazilian soccer e.g. if the solution number comes out to be 1.5 that would mean Indian cricket is 1.5 times more overrated than Brazilian soccer is.
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Overrating ratio©
= ( Talent pool factor + Competition factor ) / ( Talent Pool Availability + Competition Quality Ratio )
Where,
Talent Pool Factor = Talent Pool Availability X Talent Pool Enthusiasm Number
Competition Factor = Competition Number Ratio X Competition Quality Ratio X
Ratio of world cups played to world cups won
Talent Pool Factor
Population of Brazil is approx 160 million; Population of India is 960 million
Therefore, the Talent Pool Availability of India is 6 times that of Brazil T.P.A = 6 (credit against cricket)
The enthusiasm number is relative, and since both countries are struggling 3rd world economies with almost equally unnecessary enthusiasm and support for their favorite sports ( Rivaldo hailed from a slum, Sehwag hailed from..)
Therefore the ratio of enthusiasm is almost 1:1
The Talent Pool Enthusiasm number = 1
Competition Factor
Competition Number Ratio =
Since 1930 to 2oo2 in all the Football world cups played a cumulative average of 24 teams have participated.
Since 1975 to 2oo3 in all the cricket world cups played an average of 10 teams have participated in each.
Therefore, C.N.R = 24/10 = 2.4 (against cricket)
Competition Quality Ratio =
150 soccer playing countries battled it out for 32 places in world cup 2002
ICC battled it out to fill 14 spaces in cricket world cup 2003
C.Q.R = 150/14 = 10.7 (against cricket)
Ratio of world cups played to world cups won =
total soccer cups played 18, won 5
total cricket cups played 9, won 1
1/9 divided by 5/18 = 4
Now substituting the values into the formula we have
cricket overrating ratio© = 6 X 1 + 2.4 X 10.7 X 4 / 6 + 10.7
= 6. 51,
Inferences
- Cricket is 6.51 times overrated
or
the indian team should have won the cricket world cup 6.51 times more than brazil won the soccer cup
My formula kicks as s
Cricket is overrated and my formula is an unhumble attempt at taking into account every factor that goes into gauging the success of a sports team.
Cricket is symbolic with the infamous Hindu rate of growth, and watching it progressing from moment to moment just isn’t what’s intended, unless you happen to be particularly finicky or slow of mind. It’d be like in the greek epic of Illiad watching Odysseus spending days becalmed, or Achilles getting his pedicure, in hope for a confounding finale, which, there is a very good chance in this particular game, might never even come.
Infact my initial reaction (and final) to the match fixing allegations was of glee and wonder.
Glee at the fact tht attempts were finally being made to make this lousy game more palatable for this attention deficit syndrome generation, like a wrestling match.
I would prefer wrestling and football to cricket anyday, so would my maths teacher, and millions of others around the world who spend ninety minutes totally engrossed in a game so that they can make effective use of the rest of their life.
Mathematicians and loyal cricketers your accusations in comment section please!