Indian Cricketers - A Kick up their rear!

The daggers are out and as expected, the witch hunt has begun. After India’s pathetic performance in the T20 World Cup, such reactions were to be expected and I would be remiss if I didn’t add my mite.

There’s nothing wrong with Indian Cricket that a big kick up the rear of all concerned with the sport cannot solve.

To start off with – BCCI, the sport administrators need a huge kick up their collective backside for the arrogance with which they run Indian Cricket, safe in the belief that come what may, Indians, the poor asses, will lap up anything that they dish out. The BCCI’s radar needs to re-focus on the development of Cricket in India. I don’t deny that monetizing certain aspects of any sport are critical to the growth of that sport. But when we start looking at IPL as the real deal and the last word in Cricketing competition – the pinnacle of a Cricketers achievement, we do the game and our country a huge disservice. With so much money in the game, is there any surprise that one does not see the same intensity from our Cricketers when they turn out to represent their country. The BCCI, given their credo of greed, wouldn’t flinch to sell even the space on each players eyelids; at a per blink rate. But jokes apart, such excesses are now expected from the BCCI.

And what about grassroots development of Cricket? What about talent spotting in the hinterlands, which is abundant with talent? What about more accountability to the paying public? How about creating a more competitive domestic competition (which is such a mass of mediocrity), and I mean, of the test Cricket variety, so that a players skills AND temperament are tested? And how about some sporting pitches at home, so that we can produce more fast bowlers and test our batsmen against the short stuff. There is so much that needs to change, one could go on ad nauseum.

A big kick up the rear of our elite Cricketers. Where’s your pride in representing India? Have you not learnt anything from spending so much time with legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble? It is not as if they never lost, but one could never question their intensity and passion and the pride that they took in playing for India. It would be easy for me to name players, Yuvraj Singh’s attitude being perfectly symptomatic of this air-headed arrogance syndrome. But more than individuals, it applies to the entire team and system. We know that you guys earn in one year what most mortals couldn’t make in a good lifetime. We also know that the meta-celebrity status and wealth, when coupled with your youth, is a combination that produces unbelievable arrogance and a disproportionate sense of one’s importance and skills. But grown up guys and learn quickly from the legends that you share your dressing-room with.

And the biggest kick up the rear is reserved for us. For deifying Cricketers to the detriment of all other sportspersons and their sport. India has an abundance of talent, and we have the potential to be a great sporting nation. None of this will ever happen if people do not actively reach out in support of other sport. And by support, I do not mean watching the English Premier League and cheering Man U, Real Madrid and the other clubs or by supporting Force India through lip-service. I mean that Corporates at the last mile grassroots level must put their time and money in sport other than Cricket. For this the government must take a stand and must professionalize sport bodies and state/national sport associations. For far too long, sport bodies have had politicians at the helm, with precious little to show for it, whether it be in improving elite level performance or in improving grassroots participation or in attracting sponsorship and monies to the sport.

And for average folks like you and me, let’s start by standing up and applauding Vishwanathan Anand for once again proving that there’s none like him. May his tribe increase.