Saturday was a red letter day in sporting history for Bangladesh: The manner of their emphatic victory made if you insist ,India's Tigers (According to the atrocious Pepsi Ad) look like ordinary animals .I wont even classify them as a " Cat" because if you have been around them try looking @ them in the eye...They at least stare back without blinking even once.That I feel is unnerving.Sadly our team failed to even depict the same.
What was more ridiculous is the expected media bashing of the cricketers.Grudgingly I am forced to agree with Mr.Sharad Pawar that the media "sensationalised " & "over reported" the whole issue thereby giving clueless & mindless people to vent their frustration & disappointment on a gloomy Sunday morning.In any case the people who were on the streets am sure had nothing better to do because a real small town person who is struggling to make his ends meet wouldn't waste his /her time burning effigies over such defeats as they would be facing much more hardships. The sheer lack of any intelligent reporting also added fuel to the fire of the people who have no problem in raising slogans against a particular person on any given day.These are the same people who would probably go in front of Shahrukh Khans home & shout slogans as he made fun of Amar Singh in an awards function recently.Imagine people having no work to do than to shout for Amar Singh over such a trivial issue .
The favourite argument for everyone is that cricket is a religion in our country.The fact that it is a religion becomes apparent as that it is the only team sport where teams from the sub continent at least compete on equal footing with the rest of the world.Even in Field Hockey Pakistan is not the same force as it was post Sohail Abbas's retirement .And as for Indian Hockey , well its better if less is spoken/written as criticism for the pathetic state it is in.It is thus but natural for the fans to expect their team to do well in cricket
Cricket is a religion : This explains why news channels love to get the views of 8 year old kids who scream after the Bangladesh debacle that "Sehwag & Dhoni must be dropped" .Post the comment the anchor states emphatically as to "How The Fans are upset & have lost confidence in the players".Sehwag I can understand has been given a long rope.but come on people Dhoni ????The guy,as any cricket purist would agree, had failed only in that match or else his performances both behid the stumps as well as before it has been quite satisfactory.Agreed he fell for a blob & triggered that mini collapse which made an impact on the final score.But isn't it common sense that the fault should be born by all members as any true lover of the sport would agree.Also do those players who prefer to make hay when the sun shines( eat.sleep.drink:endorsements) be given this much importance.By ransacking their homes or shouting slogans & burning effigies one is making them more important than what they actually deserve.
The media somehow wants to portray only the voice of the cricket fan who watches it purely for the entertainment aspect.The fan who feels its a great way to unwind himself.The fan who wants India to win as it would bring a smile on his face.This fan would never stand with the team in the true sense if they are down in the dumps.He is not a person who would still support the team if the same is relegated to the second tier.He is not the person who would support the team if they lose consistently for 15 years.Cricket after all has become a religion only recently if I may add only post 1983 & the hysteria surrounding the 1987 world cup(Thank You Dhirubhai !!).The bonds are still fragile for the average person with the game. The ex-cricketers put on the panel also say things in a very lopsided way talking about team India & lack of passion etc etc.Nobody knows whether they share their views or they speak what the channel wants them to.In either cases its high time we stop taking the results of the matches too seriously & if the media just had a one off coverage of the whole match then really it wouldn't matter much trust me.Public memory is short.Why has the same media not approached people in scores after the Bermuda game.Because if they did then everyone would have spoken good ( barring a few who still would have issues with Sehwag :-)) I think the best thing to do is don't give the team importance.Let us see the players demand importance by playing brilliantly.Don't make them " gods " because they are in the team.Let them earn it.
P.S I also want to know how many people were on the streets when we lost in the world cup.I meant when our team finished among the last in the field hockey world cup.Don't those boys perform well in order to be noticed(Remember their victory over Pakistan 2 years ago,We won 5-3 if i remember correctly) .Let our cricket boys also do the same.
What was more ridiculous is the expected media bashing of the cricketers.Grudgingly I am forced to agree with Mr.Sharad Pawar that the media "sensationalised " & "over reported" the whole issue thereby giving clueless & mindless people to vent their frustration & disappointment on a gloomy Sunday morning.In any case the people who were on the streets am sure had nothing better to do because a real small town person who is struggling to make his ends meet wouldn't waste his /her time burning effigies over such defeats as they would be facing much more hardships. The sheer lack of any intelligent reporting also added fuel to the fire of the people who have no problem in raising slogans against a particular person on any given day.These are the same people who would probably go in front of Shahrukh Khans home & shout slogans as he made fun of Amar Singh in an awards function recently.Imagine people having no work to do than to shout for Amar Singh over such a trivial issue .
The favourite argument for everyone is that cricket is a religion in our country.The fact that it is a religion becomes apparent as that it is the only team sport where teams from the sub continent at least compete on equal footing with the rest of the world.Even in Field Hockey Pakistan is not the same force as it was post Sohail Abbas's retirement .And as for Indian Hockey , well its better if less is spoken/written as criticism for the pathetic state it is in.It is thus but natural for the fans to expect their team to do well in cricket
Cricket is a religion : This explains why news channels love to get the views of 8 year old kids who scream after the Bangladesh debacle that "Sehwag & Dhoni must be dropped" .Post the comment the anchor states emphatically as to "How The Fans are upset & have lost confidence in the players".Sehwag I can understand has been given a long rope.but come on people Dhoni ????The guy,as any cricket purist would agree, had failed only in that match or else his performances both behid the stumps as well as before it has been quite satisfactory.Agreed he fell for a blob & triggered that mini collapse which made an impact on the final score.But isn't it common sense that the fault should be born by all members as any true lover of the sport would agree.Also do those players who prefer to make hay when the sun shines( eat.sleep.drink:endorsements) be given this much importance.By ransacking their homes or shouting slogans & burning effigies one is making them more important than what they actually deserve.
The media somehow wants to portray only the voice of the cricket fan who watches it purely for the entertainment aspect.The fan who feels its a great way to unwind himself.The fan who wants India to win as it would bring a smile on his face.This fan would never stand with the team in the true sense if they are down in the dumps.He is not a person who would still support the team if the same is relegated to the second tier.He is not the person who would support the team if they lose consistently for 15 years.Cricket after all has become a religion only recently if I may add only post 1983 & the hysteria surrounding the 1987 world cup(Thank You Dhirubhai !!).The bonds are still fragile for the average person with the game. The ex-cricketers put on the panel also say things in a very lopsided way talking about team India & lack of passion etc etc.Nobody knows whether they share their views or they speak what the channel wants them to.In either cases its high time we stop taking the results of the matches too seriously & if the media just had a one off coverage of the whole match then really it wouldn't matter much trust me.Public memory is short.Why has the same media not approached people in scores after the Bermuda game.Because if they did then everyone would have spoken good ( barring a few who still would have issues with Sehwag :-)) I think the best thing to do is don't give the team importance.Let us see the players demand importance by playing brilliantly.Don't make them " gods " because they are in the team.Let them earn it.
P.S I also want to know how many people were on the streets when we lost in the world cup.I meant when our team finished among the last in the field hockey world cup.Don't those boys perform well in order to be noticed(Remember their victory over Pakistan 2 years ago,We won 5-3 if i remember correctly) .Let our cricket boys also do the same.
1 comment:
Hi there! It was really good to hear from you, and its even better to see your great site. You should definitely blog more, on cricket and it'd be great if you sent it across to the blogging contest. I would be thrilled to keep pace with your posts, by linking to it on my blog.
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