A fond goodbye to Cricket - Part I

Like a fine wine whose delectable taste lingers on much after it has been imbibed, India's World cup victory earlier this year still has its rabid fans basking in its afterglow. Indeed the memories of that March night when the winning runs were scored by the Indian captain MS Dhoni still warms the cockles of many Indian cricket followers. That marked a culmination of a long journey that was peppered with many gut wrenching lows & a the occasional flirtations with greatness.

Now that the promised land has been reached , ominous dark clouds are appearing on the horizon. Indian cricket much like India is a jumble of contradictions in the best of times. It is therefore a miracle that cricket in this country manages to rise above the petty & produce astounding results from time to time. However there is a feeling that the good times will soon come to an end as a few disturbing trends have come into view.

There are issues ranging from the ability of the new players on the block to the administrative acumen of the "wise men" who manage the game in India. Questions on how cricket will appeal to the future generations used to living in a fast paced world .

For many Indian cricket was synonymous with one player Sachin Tendulkar, his munificent influence on the game not enabled Indian cricket to find its full expression but also helped India redefine itself in the new age. For 21 long years one constant in a turbulent era for this vibrant democracy was Tendulkar striding out to play a match saving innings & thrill his multitude of fans. He is to cricket what Babe Ruth was to Baseball, Vince Lombardi to Football & Michael Jordan to basketball , his true value can never be ascertained by the weight of runs scored ( in which he leads in all categories) or any other statistic.

21 years is a long time in anybody's life and Tendulkar himself knows he will not last much longer in the the game . He and his accomplices in success Dravid, Laxman etc (giants in their own right) soon will have to ride into the sunset . It is this perpetual "what next?" question that many fans find disturbing . None of the new emerging talent Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina or Rohit Sharma have shown themselves as worthy successors inspite of being very talented. They have glaring deficiencies especially when fronting up to the short ball or playing in alien conditions. They simply don't have the technique or the nous that a young Dravid or Tendulkar displayed.


If the problems on the field are glaring , the issues off the field are much more serious & their deleterious effects much more cringe worthy. India's coming of age in the field coincided with Indian Cricket board waking to the lucrativeness of the game . The Indian board(BCCI) used it's growing clout ( back no less than a billion consumers of its product) to subjugate the ICC which is the organization that is supposed to run the game worldwide. With its coffers overflowing , the BCCI has become a target for failed Indian politicians to usurp important positions which helps them to stay in position of prominence while implicitly partaking in a vulgar party where money is showered upon them like confetti . It is not surprising that these new "guardians" of the game don't worry much about why Indian pace bowlers are losing their sting or why new bowlers are not upto international standards or why Indian batsmen cannot ply their trade in foreign conditions. Like termites out of woodwork , these new office holders have come out to get their piece of the pie supplanting genuine administrators with cricketing acumen. It is not difficult to guess what this ultimately will lead to. Cricketers with overblown sense of abilities without results to match, a board disconnected with reality & a nation waking out of its stupor and moving onto other avenues of sporting entertainment .


<<<<< Part -II will follow>>>>