Dear All
Many years ago when Kautilya wrote the Arthashastram
, in one of the verse he mentions that Money is like Honey, where ever a drop falls
ants follows it and hence it is something to be handled with utmost care. It is
this verse which comes to the mind when we hear today about the cricket fiasco.
Cricket looks today a vulgarized game.
The genesis of this trend begins with the popularization
of the 60 overs one day matches against the traditional 5 day test match format.
The matches played at Sharjah way
back in the 80s, with a cocktail mix of the underworld, Bollywood and the cricketers
became the beginning point of betting and max fixing. Scandals over scandals followed
then. The 60 overs one day cricket was
then further reduced in this decade to that of a 20 overs match, which finally
has taken this form as Indian premier league matches.
The beauty of cricket is not its speed but in its
style and slow pace. Unlike football where the speed of the game matters, the
essence of cricket was in field management, intelligent batting , pitch performance,
handling different types of balling , and its interest revolved on the talent
and style of performance of players and teams, spread over 5 days mainly on winter seasons.
Increasing the speed of cricket by reducing the overs in fact killed the game
and the 20/20 cricket style was the last nail in the coffin.
I could recollect the early 80s when I played
cricket in my village, a time when neighbourhood boys beamed at us looking at
this strange game. Cricket was confined to the elite schools and middle class
office goers who, moved around with transistor radios listening to the commentary.
The frenzy of limited over matches increased since the 90s and was mainly
attributed to the popularization of cricket in the Indian subcontinent due to
the TV revolution and the proportional commercialization of its growth. Pepci
Co and CoCo Cola and other FMCG companies found cricket sponsorship the ideal
marketing tool to reach to the masses. With a liberalized economy and a
burgeoning growth rate the 21st century India was the best bet for
any company to throw money to the cricketing fraternity and increase their
market share. With cricket percolating to the rural areas, more money flowed in
to tap the vast rural market.
Cricket attained an horse trading format when
players where hired and played as stallions on race course with corporate
houses and high net worth individuals looking at it beyond brand endorsements
to that of wealth, luxury and lavishness and the whole of cricket has
become an ecstatic pleasure as epitomized by the sizzling dances of the cheer
leaders.
Where do we stand today? As long as you are ready
to pay and enjoy the orgasmic pleasure of cricket what is wrong about the whole
deal. Should the government intervene and where is the dividing line of righteousness,
ethics and civility? While we ponder for these answers what is lost is the game
called cricket.
As Kautilya said spill honey attracts ants and these cricketing ants have spoiled the
game and as our law enforcement agencies
arrest more of them be it cricketers,
film stars or executives , let us be nostalgic of those old cricket days with its traditional
commentary …Incomes Kapil dave, right arm over the wicket…..
No comments:
Post a Comment