As of 11:29, i have decided to liquidate my interests in cricket and move away (Thatz how a stock-broker would have said it!). As a life-long Indian cricket fan, walking away is the only option out for me. Following various sporting traditions like Thorpe (Aussie Swimming) and Tres (English Cricket), i have decided not to invest any more passion, effort, faith in the game of cricket.
Nope, i am not giving up on Indian Cricketers or my passion for the test match cricket. I am just walking (sulking!) away from the repeated negative coverage from the Indian media. The overbearing media has just gone two steps too many in trying to beat the cricketers and with the politicians joining the band wagon, i guess it was too cramped in there and i have respectfully given way, so that one more overbearing i-know-more-than-everyone-else guy can get on board to trash everyone linked to Indian Cricket.
Just a few examples, we have had the media critics having a field day against Greg Chappell and the humble parliamentarians have joined in critizing Greg. If they had so much pride in India, maybe they will pass the Women's reservation bill and the Whistleblower's protection bill in the winter Session. This is the same Greg who not too long ago was admired for pushing India's most succesful captian - Sourav Ganguly out of the side.
And now, the posterboy for media in the GC-SG spat, Rahul Dravid is coming under fire as well. Various critics are having a field day indirectly questioning Rahul dravid on his captaincy and there is another whole set of people, who have said that Ganguly had the desire to win and Rahul Dravid lacks the same.
Poor Md. Kaif - his home was vandalized during India's poor show in initial part of WC 2003 and the same repeats now.
And the least i say about the so-called fans, the better. I think there needs to be a display of Class - something the fans have missed when the team falls short. As from a quotation, the right to support a winner rests with only those who can accept defeat, most of India's fans only want to utilize Cricket as a distraction from real life & with the economy doing great, there is nothing much worse than that.
And with all this, i have come to a conclusion: The media always likes the Vice-Captain and have decided to always smack the captain for all india's mistakes. I am in no-way happy with the team's performance, but it is not the end of the world to me. (Remember Lance Klusener who is quoted after the nail-biting elimination from WC 1999: Nobody died today & hence why all this fuss).
I am no arm-chair captain/coach or a monday morning quarterback.
MY team will recover from their shortcomings and will do well in the future and while i don't know when and where, that is the least of my worries. They have entertained in the past and they will entertain in the future and i am happy knowing & accepting them as what they are.
2 comments:
Kalyan,
I endorse (most of!) what you have written in this posting.
As the famous saying goes, "We are like that only", Indian emotional attachment to the game / cricketers has been there for a long time. You see, one spectacular WIN will change all that is happening right now :)))
I have written 2 postings in my thamiz blog (planning to translate and put them in my English blog), one blasting the spineless display of our cricketers and the other blasting the critics baying for blood.
http://balaji_ammu.blogspot.com
I feel that it is ok to feel bad with the way the cricketers play ... i am hurting like hell with the way the team is playing...
however i do feel that the indian critics and the public need to differentiate the performance acceptance to emotional attribues., else we will always be struck in this endless rut!
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