PLEASE NOTE: This review is on Indian cricket and not on cricket as a game.
Last week I heard a very amusing episode about Yohan, the 8-year old son of a director friend of mine. This boy was asked by his teacher what he wanted to become when he grows up. Without blinking an eye, he answered- Cricketer.
Oh Ok! So you want to make India win matches?- asked a beaming teacher.
No, I want to earn lots of money and fame.- Yohan said calmly.
I laughed heartily when my friend told me about it. But then, the philosophical Maddy inside me started troubling me. Is this the message that the younger generation is getting from our national icons? At Yohan’s age, our thinking could never reach such levels. What brought about this change?
To find the answer, let us go through the twists and turns Indian cricket has travelled through over the years.....
MY FIRST INTRODUCTION
My very first introduction to this game was when I was a 5-year old. We used to stay in a chawl at Sion. I distinctly remember that my father used to gather his friends at our place whenever there was a cricket match on TV. He used to close the window(as like in majority of Indian houses, the builder of our house too had invariably ended up giving us a space for TV just opposite the window, thereby showing the windows reflection on the television screen). So, that was the scene....closed windows, considerable darkness, and our CROWN black and white TV being the central attraction of the day.
Like the typical 5-year olds of those days, I never had any interest in watching the match on TV. I enjoyed playing cricket to watching it.
In those days too, India was, as always, a cricket crazy nation! We used to conduct test matches in our gallery. Of course, some rules had to be altered. If the ball went out of the gallery and down the three floors, the batsman was out. Sometimes, it was one-tappa out. We never called the game cricket. Instead, we called it plain simple bat-ball. The fellow who owned the bat and the ball automatically got the right to be adjudged ’’not out’’ when he got out. Fielding was the most boring thing, all agreed.
Our childhood cricket heroes were Gavaskar and Kapil Dev. Their autograph on the bat was something to show off. There was only one channel- Doordarshan, and very few advertisements. The cola rivalry was an unheard thing. The cricketer’s main source of income was....guess what....cricket.
THE REVOLUTIONARY DAY
A jubilant Kapil Dev lifted the Prudential Cup 1983, and Indian cricket underwent a major change. The whole nation went berserk with cricket mania. Kapil’s Devils, as the Indian team was known in those days, made the nation proud. What made the victory more exciting was that India won the world cup in the backyard of the games’ inventors. India had tamed the mighty West Indians and brought the world cup back home.
I also remember that just when Richards was striking form, we had a power failure. Our whole chawl gathered on the terrace to listen to the match on a transistor. The vital wicket of Richards was celebrated on the terrace itself, with a bhelpuri for everyone.
THE RISE
The world cup win gave India the much needed confidence that they could do it. Soon, India confirmed their champions status by a convincing win at Sharjah and the Benson & Hedges cup in Australia. The Indian team was flowering, and so were the hopes of the nation. Better talent started evolving from the zonal level. The rising competition ensured that only the best survived.
THE FALL
It was not long before the advertisers tapped the cricket wave that ruled the Indians. The rise of multinationals and the advent of foreign products soon saw the need to employ brand promoters and started roping in celebrities. And when on celebrities, who can be better than the cricketers? The cricketers started seeing the business aspect of the game. The deals were in crores. Thus started the commercialization of cricket.
A BOON THAT BECAME A CURSE
Sachin Tendulkar! This name has become a synonym for ecstasy. What a gifted player! It was India’s good fortune that our land produced such a wonderful cricketer. But what happened? This gem of a person too could not escape the ugly times he was born in! I know many may disagree with me....but just think!
How would you feel to be in his shoes? You are earning crores. You are worshipped by the whole cricketing world. You are GOD for the cricket lovers. But you are constantly under pressure to perform well. You are accompanied by bodyguards wherever you go....always under danger from terrorist groups. Whatever you do, wherever you go, you are under the spotlight. You crave for one simple candle light dinner with your wife and children. The enormous popularity of the game subjects you to too much cricket, as they say nowadays, where you are expected to perform with an injured back.
I sometimes remember the young Sachin I had seen playing for Shardashram. Carefree, naughty and smiling! And guess what.....he performed miracles!
THE OTHER CURSES
The one thing that immediately strikes you is the betting controversy. Match fixing was the biggest stigma on Indian cricket. There can be only two reasons for such a disgrace. Either the need of money was replaced by greed of money, or a fear of the underworld governed the players. But in either of the cases, it was Indian cricket that suffered. It was the Indian cricket fan that felt cheated.
One more thing that hurts you is the attitude of the stadium crowd in some matches. Throwing bottles and stuff on the players had become a fashion a couple of years ago.
IN CONCLUSION
So, as I see back, I see Indian cricket come a long way in the past 25 years. But as we entered the last decade of the twentieth century, cricket was lost in the chaos created by the advertisers, the underworld, the bookies, the cricket boards and the fans. Cricketers became superhumans. They could do no wrong. After all, the nation depended on them.
Yohan was born in the nineties.
THE BOTTOM LINE
It is heartening to see young talent coming forward in the form of players like Sehwag, Zaheer, Kaif and Yuvraj. But if we are going to make them Gods, then we are just making a Sachin out of them! And believe me, it’s not enjoyable to be a Sachin Tendulkar.
Nowadays, my father does not watch cricket!