Why Cricket is not just a sport in India??
I was six years old when the first time I learnt how to see the scoreboard of a cricket match on TV. It was a very thrilling experience as it gave me sense of learning as well as an edge over my friends. Since then cricket remained an integral part of my life till recently. I grew up calculating centuries and man of the matches of Sachin and Saurav. I grew up watching cricket matches on TV on roadside shops once electricity had gone in my house. I grew up connecting to neighbor’s cable network to watch India and Pakistan match when there was no cable connection in my house.
Like millions of my countrymen, I don’t know when and how I learnt to play cricket. Playing cricket is as natural to any Indian kid as learning his mother tongue. When I say kids, he might be from hill or plain, from Kashmir or Kerala or from Gandhinagar or Guwahati. Indians don’t discriminate when it comes to cricket. India played its first international cricket match in 1932 but the fever of cricket gripped India completely in 1983. The year India won the world cup of cricket for the first time and when it was least expected from them. It was one of the rarest of rare incident in India’s post-independent history. It was a sudden transformation of Indian Cricket Team from minnows to mighty. India was never the same after 1983. Parents started putting their kids name as Kapil, Sunny in north and Srikant, Prasanna in south. From a little known sport in the country, it became a magnet for youth and old alike. Commercialization of cricket helped it grow stronger, more powerful and more attractive. Four years after winning the world cup, India hosted world cup tournament along with its arch rival, Pakistan. It further pushed the charm of cricket in India. It made cricket more glamourous, more appealing and finally irresistible. It was a nightmare for other traditional sports where India was once a stalwart. Hockey, kabaddi, wrestling and badminton were few of the casualties of upsurge of cricket during that time. Very few among current generation know that Cricket is not our national game but Hockey.
Cricket has got unique charm that appeal to India and Bharat equally. The easily available bricks as wicket, any shaven wooden log as bat, any kind of ball and moreover the laziness involved in the game truly captured the psyche of India. Fields, gully, roof top, road all turned out as cricket field. The involvement of 22 plus people in a match also fitted India’s large and dense population. The growing interest of people in cricket hiked interest of our ‘sportive’ politicians in cricket. As the sweet attracts flies, money and popularity attracted our politicians. Governing bodies at state level as well as central level became money spinning machines and these machines needed crafty hands for operations. Who else in India are craftier than our seasoned politicians? All the state cricket association as well as BCCI is today controlled by politicians from almost all the parties. Is there any other reason for large scale involvement of politicians in cricket other than money and popularity?? It is very hard to imagine. In spite of handling an important ministry like agriculture, Sharad Pawar could not relinquish his duty towards cricket. Farmer’s suicide and increasing inflation did bother him at times but IPL was the most endearing issue for him. Same was the case with evergreen charming ex parliamentary minister Rajeev Shukla Ji. In spite of shuffling between law and amendments, he never forgot to spin his time for BCCI and IPL. I guess cricket is the real secret behind his ‘lethal’ smile. Arun Jaitley is known for his eloquent speeches and
