The Story of a Nation, a Billion People, and One Sport

“Oh these players, they play for money!!”

“Sachin is beyond his best, he should retire before he is kicked out”

“Lo Dravid a gaya, ab to bhaiya bhool jao, yeh to test match hi khelta hain!!” ( Dravid is here, he will put us to sleep as always he only plays in test match mode.)

The streets, the barber shops, the road side tea stalls and the Pan shops are full of cricket expert with similar opinion here in India. For those of you, who don’t make much sense of it, let me then at the onset tell you that here in India every body is a doctor and a cricket expert.

I am not being sarcastic, it is quite true this analogy, almost always we get “Vishesh Tipanni” (important advice) on how to treat ourselves when a viral comes visiting and as much expert opinion is thrown on the manner in which the Indian cricket team goes about it’s business.

Here in India, the place where people hang out to discuss and gossip is the TEA STALL. Almost every nook and corner of our country is full of widely and eloquently named tea stalls.

The love for tea in India is bigger than the love for cricket. If you really wish to know what the Indian people feel about their cricket you should visit the most crowed one in the city.

Ever since the cricket became the lifeline of this nation the people have spoke openly and in numbers about the players and the team. The times when the team has done poorly comments like, “SACHIN, DRAVID, LAXMAN should retire” and “these players are too busy making money” become common.

But what is surprising is that in times like these when Indian Cricket is at heights of achievements, the opinion of the common man is highly pessimistic.

The credit that the player deserves is always presented wrapped in the “LUCK FACTOR”. Only last week did a new magazine in the market run a cover story “DHONI: Best Captain or the luckiest man alive?”

For a nation obsessed with its cricket it is ironic, this sate of affairs. What is amazing is the magnitude with which this opinion is shared, if you leave out the elite of the country in terms of cricket viewership, which in my opinion is less than 2p.c of the “billion”, the masses in general shares a much distorted image of the game.

The contribution of the third parent (read "The Media") cannot be ignored in this context. Be it Dhoni’s hair cut, Yuvraj’s party quarrel or be it Sachin’s vacation the media in India strives on the lives of the cricketers.

The 24x7 news channels often, then not end up fabricating news to keep their TRPs high. If Dravid has a bad series “WALL COLAPSES” becomes the headlines and in the next match if he hits a century, “THE GREATEST SON OF INDIAN CRICKET SHOWS HIS CLASS” is what the trumpets blow.

On the issue of Media, if one man more than agrees with me, it has to be Saurav Ganguly. His (un) famous spat with Greg Chapple and his antics in NatWest Finals still remain issues of discussion in many homes.

At the time of the NatWest, the real side of media came in view, on one side there were some stories reporting blasphemy on part of Ganguly to do such an act at the Mecca of Cricket and on the other was the “coming of age of Indian cricket” being sold to the masses.

The passive supporters (which are more in number) took more easily to the first image and still question Ganguly.

After that day in the summer of 83, cricket became a passion in India, and in Bauria Mujumdar’s (an eminent cricket historian) words, “25 June 1983, cricket had changed in India, every kid in middle class India wanted to become a cricketer."

The names likes of Dravid Laxman Sachin are direct results of that explosion, of cricket on the national stage. But it would be wrong, to attribute the love of the game to the 1983 world cup, nevertheless it had a significant contribution.

The time might have changed and the ranking too, but the way the people of India look at their game is something that has remained same. The fans here idolize the cricketer as much as they love the Gods.

The thing that makes the situation of cricket in India dramatic is the manner in which it is worshipped. The fan following is right form the toddlers to the octogenarians, from the soap watching house wives to the politically (un) correct media experts.

I in my authority only wish and hope that the people around me frame an opinion more on the basis of their heads rather than what they hear and see on TVs.

But if that were to be, then the beauty of discussion, DEBATE, will become extinct. So I should rather say, Keep up the Good work!

Vive Le Cricket!