Cricket and its downfall: Are we Indians responsible?

Cricket was once considered a gentleman's game but not any longer. A game that was played by English men in the country side to relax and have fun has today changed to a game where there is no sportive spirit and all that's openly displayed today by cricketers on field are hatred, enmity, players yelling at each other, showing indecent gestures and in short no gentleness in behaviour at all. And so it is just the contra effect to what existed earlier in cricket that we see now.

It has today also become a game played legalising gambling in a different way, where all sorts for untoward elements play host and control things. We Indians have definitely played politics, power, money, and everything unacceptable into cricket.


No longer gentle and no gentlemen there

There is no gentleness in the game now more so with the arrival of T20 and therefore cannot expect gentlemen to be playing this game any more, at least at the professional level. If at all there are still a few gentlemen there, they are there because they think that they have no other way to thrive on, having got used to all nonsense around.

In India, where there are now people calling themselves saviours of the game by organising IPL kind of tournaments, there are also corporates who are willing to sponsor for such tournaments, even in times of recession across the globe and when signs of recession already making its impact felt locally too. Strangely there is unprecedented support and even local government heads openly extend their wholehearted support. A national level leader going to South Africa to watch IPL live, leaving election campaigning half way through, also using it as his protest against his alliance party definitely conveyed the amount of support cricket has in this part of the world. Remember, IPL's change in venue to South Africa was announced openly, by challenging the government move due to general election schedule around the same time, making the world watch the silly manner in which the IPL organizers behaved.

Author Jeffrey Archer had commented during the last IPL season in South Africa that T20 is silly. There are similar comments about T20 from former players like Javed Miandad who had said that T20 will kill Test matches. It's quite surprising that there is no serious comment from any former cricketer or a celebrity from India. Today cricket is used as a gambling tool, more than anything else and the filthy rich use the game as a past time that also gives them lot of money and media exposure.



Cheer leaders / glamour dolls, & Indian cinema

In the name of cheer leaders, what is practised in Indian cinema has strayed into what is called as only sport in India today, cricket. All sorts of disgraceful dance moves that have to be condemned for public display and that which are practised in the tinsel world and watched & glorified by only people with primitive mindset are given open approval, as the source for it happens to be the so called entertainment media which is in the forefront now, owning the playing teams. Films stars are seen as demi gods here in this part of the world and whatever they do is okay and acceptable to all here(!).

In the name of art, Indian cinema has corrupted the minds of youngsters and people across all age groups by showing & promoting vulgar things. Now they have a new area for promoting themselves and make money too. IPL inaugural & closing ceremonies in India & South Africa during the 1st & 2nd IPL world cup were dominated by film actresses who danced to Hindi film songs & perhaps to even what they call as items numbers, showcasing as India's heritage, and shown live through sports channels. What an absurd thing it was telling the entire world that we Indians are still socially underdeveloped!!

As though these film people are not contented with the money and fame (!) they get through cinema, they are all out now to explore all possibilities using cricket. What a bad state of affairs for the game which was once considered a gentleman's game!.



Other sports killed by cricket in India

There are already no sufficient places for children and youngsters for physical activity through sports & games due to non-availability of play grounds matching the increase in population. City planners do not provide for play grounds and new areas developed in the fringes of cities are without any play grounds. Schools are run in small ill-ventilated buildings without play grounds giving no scope for children to play and improve their talent in sports & games. Even the older institutions that have play grounds are booked for a year in advance by corporates during weekends and holidays for playing cricket.

No doubt cricket has killed other games & sports in India. Cricket may be promoted as a game to relax the mind for the elderly people. Youngsters have to be trained in other games like football, hockey, basket ball, etc., where people will develop team building skills. Cricket, though a team game, it does not require any team spirit like it is required in other team games, which is why there are certain players in the team for whom scoring a century is more important than the team winning the game, in India.

Now there are also companies that thrive using cricket by tracking games on different counts, giving up to the minute details, which drive players to get their positions better only statistically. It does not really do anything good beyond a point, when advancements are made in such unwanted areas.

But why there is so much of importance to only one particular game in India? Why cricket should be given so much of importance at the cost of other sports/games? Are there bigger conspiracies to it or simply everybody is doing something without thinking? Whatever be the reason behind it, whether there is any such thing as a bigger conspiracy in it or not, it's important to do something about it.



Matches fixed at local trophy level

There is information from reliable sources that matches are fixed at local Ranji trophies itself and players are forced to play as directed by the state level selectors. So, if a player has to continue playing for the state, he has to be listening to and obeying the selectors and team managers. So it is not his game that will decide his place in the side, but his adaptability to existing politics and match fixing scandals.

Cricket therefore has seen all ugly things in India and the entire sports/ games arena is in a very pitiable state here. It is very difficult to pull it out of the current worse situation. Some change can be seen though, if people sit up and think seriously. Let at least the children who are still in schools be given a chance to play other sports and benefited out of it. Leaving the matter unattended will worsen the situation further and we'll be responsible for developing generation after generation, of people who cannot play any useful team game. What is India going to be after 10 or 20 years, without playing any other sport or game and spending everything on cricket?



Develop and encourage children in other sports & games to compete internationally

We project ourselves big and call ourselves whatever we wish & like, but what are we at the international level? We are so excited seeing just a single gold medal in Olympics, which again came quite unexpectedly. The reason is not because we lack talent. It was only because we did not promote other sports & games. We cannot expect our sportsmen/ sportswomen to perform at the international level without giving them the necessary infrastructure to train & equip themselves.



Cricket to be discouraged & other sports/games encouraged

Let there be sharing of thought among people who can think and let it be shared with the public through media. Let this also become a topic for public debate taking representatives from other sports/games, so that everybody comes to know of the damage cricket has done to many many able sportsmen/sportswomen. Let's give the opportunity that was denied for a long time to people from other sports/ games at least now, thereby doing it as a first step towards bringing back hope in the minds of people from other sports fields.