Cricket and India

Why do we Indians love Cricket so much that we never bother to talk about anything else, even though our national sport is hockey, even though other than hockey kabaddi is the only sport that brought us a gold medal in summer Olympic. It was just two decades back when hockey was as famous as cricket and even soccer in India was very famous. You remember how Amol Palekar in ‘Golmaal’ fakes his mother’s health to watch a hockey game and not cricket between India and Pakistan. These days the Indian hockey team is doing great – they just secured a berth in Olympics again but how many Indian would be able to tell me even five names from our national team, while even a 6 year old would be able to identify more than 5 cricket players.

I always wonder when this transition happened. Probably during the late seventies when Kapil’s Devils were on a winning streak thanks to his leadership. During this time, the Indian hockey team was not as impressive. The final blow was given by the ’83 world Cup victory. I believe people in India never stopped loving cricket ever since, even though we had periods of pathetic performances and defeats by minnows like Kenya and Zimbabwe. Then came the big ‘match fixing’ scandal that shook the entire cricketing world, and more importantly, our faith in Indian cricketers. Shrouded by our admiration for our cricketers, we could never imagine or accept that they would sell our passions away. Even such a major scandal has quickly slipped into the past, because today, three years later, a very small number of Indians doubt the current teams integrity let alone talent.

It’s said that cricket is a second religion to Indians, irrespective of what their first religion is. Movies in India have a great influence on our society. There are many celebrities who we love and admire, but then they are so many while there are only 11 cricket players. More than only our success in cricket or our failure in other sports, there are other factors that have a lot to do with our love for the game. One of the very influencing factors is media. Media play a great role in making cricket the undisputed king of Indian sports.

We will talk about the success factor first. It is said that the Indian team is the most unpredictable team (some would argue that it is Pakistan) and we are famous for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and vice versa. Perhaps we have won more matches in recent years that we could have lost easily just three years back. Today’s young guns have ignited this never say die attitude even among the senior players. They are full of enthusiasm and are loaded with positive attitude and a strong desire to win. I have never seen such levels of energy in any past Indian team. Our success in the 2003 World Cup further strengthened our bond with cricket.

A very key feature of this world cup is the India—Pakistan game which we won handsomely. It is always special to us when we play Pakistan but it is extra special when we play Pakistan in the World Cup and what more could you ask for if we beat Pakistan every time we play them in the World Cup. When playing against them, cricket brings us together like little else. Our recent tour to Pakistan was mired with controversies. There are millions in Pakistan who think that the entire series has been fixed by the two governments but nothing can de-motivate Indians from watching this series. We are winning fair and square and they could just not comprehend that they were beaten badly at home by India. Also, we put up a fight against every cricket playing country and beaten most of them. The only team superior to India, the Aussie team, was beaten both home and away. I don’t see long it will be before we will beat them comprehensively. We just need to be more disciplined and positive when we play them. The individual charisma of each player, Dravid’s concentration, Tendulkar’s talent, Sehwag’s ferocity, Yuvraj’s aggressiveness, Ganguly’s elegance and Pathan’s boyish charm glue us to the television. I am not competent enough to say the same for every other sport, but I should assume that they lack such qualities.

Then there is the failure of all the other sports that we play including hockey and soccer. Our hockey team has not done badly but has been neglected by the media. They are as capricious as our cricketers but lack support from the government and the sport-viewing audience. We have a long way to go in soccer where our best player, Baichung Bhutia, still plays for the third division in the English Premier League. Even though we are world champions in kabaddi, it is mainly played in Indian subcontinent. It lacks universal appeal. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati make headlines once in a while, but they do not have the same natural talent that our cricketers do.

I’d like to repeat that the media plays a key role. Cricket is glamorized in both the print and the broadcast media. The players get obscene endorsement deals. They make appearances at privileged functions and even outcast cricketers like Ajay Jadeja are invited to act in movies. Popstars sing song about cricket and so on and so forth. In short, the whole system of cricket and popularity has grown into a cycle where cricket is treated as a commodity. The huge amount of advertising and media presence received by cricket increases its popularity and popularity causes more money to be pumped into it. Unless the other sports come up with something extraordinary, it is difficult to break the shackles and beat cricket.

I will conclude by saying that cricket has secured a place in our lives that no other thing could take up or else we need a miracle.