I, the cricket fan is the solemn loser

With history repeating itself and a series of riveting revelations, Indian cricket has tripped and fallen into a pit, a pit of gloom, disbelief and chagrin. The darkest chapter of Indian cricket, the vicious dreams of 2000 revisits to torment the entire cricketing fraternity, this time bigger and nastier. Indian cricket, construed to be a religion that unites the otherwise contentious crowd has been imparted a vitriolic blow, a blow of treason and a blow betrayal and today, as I write this, the religion is in tatters.

There are a few shackles that should seldom be broken, however obsolete it might get. Termed myths, they are fence that keep at bay intruders, venomous intruders. Glitz, glamour and sports are immiscible and the mixing causes the sport to settle at the bottom with the bitter and opaque layers of the glamour and glitz on top of it. When sagacious business minds take over cricket, such fallacies are bound to occur. The glossiness of the sport shall be tinkered with and a surface of lure shall be introduced, and the term sport no longer stands. This lure, an essential component of marketing is what a business strives for and interestingly, what a sport repels. The lure should come from the field and not from glitz and glamour at the boundary ropes. Again, with business men at the helm, this isn’t surprising. The glamour, glitz and bounty introduced by these intruders proved to be irresistible for the younger cricketers and they succumb. The reason for such misdeeds by youngsters is the lure and the weak heart that falls prey to such lure. The non-interweaving of money and cricket was construed to be a myth and breaking it was at our own peril.

Tendulkar or Dravid refrain from post-match parties. The youngsters should have definitely taken a cue and followed suit. This party, often hosted by bookies and awash with glamour, is where the lure begins. With bookies going to the extent of pimping women to allure the cricketers, these parties were far from healthy. Tendulkar, Dravid and others often gave it a miss. They would have never missed a net session throughout their career, but they missed these parties. Hence they stood tall, along with them stood Indian cricket, the glorious years of Indian cricket in my generation, the 2000 to 2005. Hence it was the ‘myth’ or the old school of thought that kept these men from falling prey to such temptations. The Indian culture begs to preserve it, only at the behest of the people. Such taut values and morals is what ushers you to the pinnacle of life. The pinnacle of cricket was never the achievements or the numbers, it was something else, men like Tendulkar could only achieve.

There is little to bicker over the scale of talent the younger generation of cricketers possess today. Yet, the apprehensions are rooted elsewhere. Do they possess the rigidity and discipline their former stalwarts did? It was the conduct and the strong mind that ushered them to glory and the grand Indian ship was maneuvered to safe waters. The storms were aplenty, yet the maneuvers seldom budged and the ship was steered clear of all the dangers that was dangling right above its head. The need of the hour today is such hard shelled and resolute cricketers. Given the blandishments the younger lot is exposed to, the scout for such attributes could get arduous.

To resurrect Indian cricket from tatters in 2000, all it took was five imperturbable men in Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman and Anilbhai. For the muddle Indian cricket was in, detractors had fixed a date for its funeral. One leader, one genius, one hard worker, an unsung hero, and a workhorse bailed out Indian cricket. They reposed a million faiths, this time harder. The leader conquered adversity, busted the myths, raised against all odds and Indian cricket was there again, flying high, this time in foreign lands, in England, Australia, West Indies, South Africa and Pakistan. A champion’s trophy victory and a World cup finals. All these within four years, now the detractors invited for champagne for marking the glory of Indian cricket, its conquests and more importantly the redemption. By far, best era of Indian cricket.

To answer the question posed above, does the current lot possess the rigidity and discipline those five men plied on? I am afraid I got to answer on a negative note. Today we have a leader employed by the BCCI, who shies away from putting to rest a billion apprehensions. He fails to understand the trauma of a billion followers. He is obligated to answer them. That makes him the Indian captain, never an easy job. Juxtapose him with the leader we had in 2000, who battled with the media and averred to the world, he would carry on his shoulders Indian cricket. That reassurance is what the public seeks today, but the BCCI is too heavy or rather the captain is too timid to make a statement of assurance, that would go a long way in reigniting the flames of passion in a billion followers. The billion followers had laid their hopes in his team for years now. They got up at 4 AM in the morning to watch the drudgery down under, they stayed awake late in the night, they took to roads setting up crackers to celebrate victory, they endure a tiring six hour queue, under the scorching Sun to buy a ticket to watch the action on field, they cut on their food expenses to pay their cable bills, perform yagnas for the team to win, and last but not least, constitute the grand Indian religion of cricket. They deserve an explanation, an explanation from their leader. To them, BCCI isn’t the leader, it is Mahendra Singh Dhoni, their unanimous leader and he ought to have come out and reassured the crowd and kept the loyalty intact.

In the back office either, things aren’t any better. The egregious situation the team is, the board is doing nothing but rub salt to the wound. The onus should be on the loyal fan and the measures should be at the behest of him. What’s cooking in the BCCI is a bitter pill that would disgust him further. A precarious collaboration between the news hungry and power hungry people have stomped the cricketing viewing public. In the week that just ended, every news channel was afloat with the billion dollar question- Would Mr.Srinivasan quit? It was weaved into a movie of sorts, with surprise elements tumbling from the BCCI every hour. It is quite evident that the anti Srinivasan camp in the BCCI were sharpening their knives for some time now and given the ripe moment now, they’ve gone for the kill. Amid the turmoil, what fascinated was the defiant nature of Mr.Srinivasan. He stood there battling the media, rattling answers left right centre and was totally unnerved by the growing animosity against him. Yet, the power hungry and news hungry wrote him off and he was usurped. The most baffling aspect of this entire drama is- If Srinivasan quits, would the entire system be purged off the slush? This entire drama just drove off the slush from public gaze, accumulated it under the carpet, only for it to explode and putrefy the entire nation after some years. The media could have chosen to aid in cleaning up the entire system, rather it took to upping its TRP, as always.

The entire team is in a spot now, and the fact that only three cricketers were involved is too much a rubbish to buy. Rahul Dravid was startled and totally disgruntled at the turn of events. So are the other gentlemen in the game. More so is the loyal public. He was first betrayed in 2000, but the resurrection caused him to repose more faith in cricket. Now, the second round of such a scam has left him totally distressed and has destroyed his dreams, his faith, his emotions and what now. Now, every time a batsman gets out cheaply he would raise his eyebrows. Every time a bowler bowls a good over and follows it up with an expensive over, he would feel sceptical. When a fielder drops, when the captain errs, when a no ball is bowled, in a low scoring game, everything would ring the bells of suspicion in him. The inexplicable elements of surprises that the game offers would be viewed cynically. Cricket would no longer be the sport it was. With doubts and questions lingering in his mind, he would never enjoy cricket like he did. The ebullient supporter would now be a police. His trust is something that shouldn’t have been tinkered and it takes another generation of the Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman and Kumble to rebuild his trust.

Cricket isn’t the loser, he, the supporter, the fan, the fanatic are all losers.