The woes of Cricketainment

Having grown-up in a cricket loving nation like India, in an era of Sachin Tendulkar, Muttiah Murlidharan, Shane Warne, Wasim Akram, Saurav Ganguly, watching numerous records being smashed and created, with all the hype that is generated with each game, I consider myself most fortunate to have witnessed the golden era of cricket. Over the years, there have been some memorable moments which would certainly occupy a special place in my heart for the rest of my existence. And that is why it is with great regret I say that the golden era of cricket is over.

In India, where cricketers are worshiped as Gods, the passion of the masses for the sport has bordered on the level of fanaticism. Cricketers are hailed with praises and blessings and titles on a series win, and if the team has under performed, it has borne the wrath of the public. It frustrates me greatly that some people have misused the feelings of the people for their own selfish interest, and in the process have caused irreparable damage to the sport.

There was a time when every match created an atmosphere on the streets and it provided much excitement for people like ourselves. Kids preferred to give the schools a miss, the playgrounds remained empty, people came out of their homes only in cases of an absolute emergency, and some people even took leave from their jobs to sit back and enjoy the Indian cricket team take on their opponents, whoever it might be, minnows or a giant. And an India-Pakistan match ensured that the whole country felt like a battleground, with fervent chants filling the air. Sadly, in a matter of years, the majority of cricket viewers have been reduced to people who watch it because they have nothing better to do.

According to me, the main thing responsible for such a major transformation is the overdose of cricket. People no longer have to wait for an opportune day of the calendar to witness the greats of the game clash against each other. For the past few years, the Indian team has been playing cricket every single month of the calendar. There has been non-stop cricket for quite some time, which has led to a general lack of interest for any particular match. India has played all the major cricketing nations in the past 3 or 4 years and is set to face South Africa in a short while. The result of such hectic cricket has been evident from the lack of audience in the stadiums. Large spaces of empty seats were prominent during the recent Test matches against Australia and England. But the alarming thing was empty spaces were seen ever during the shorter version of the game. All these can be safely said to be the consequence of some truly more than necessary amount of cricket. People would not watch a show which comes on television almost every day of the week. Instead, they would tune in their television sets to a channel which broadcasts something which isn’t aired everyday. International matches involving India can be safely compared to the daily soaps, with only two major differences – a daily soap is a continuation of a single story and the matches are discrete events, and the other difference is that people these days would gladly give the cricket matches a miss to watch their favourite daily soaps because there is always going to be a cricket match on the day their daily soap isn’t aired.

The IPL was started after India emerged victorious in the inaugural T20 World Cup, and I believe that is when the golden era of cricket came to an end. Initially, the craze for IPL in India was great, and I must admit even I myself enjoyed the T20 drama for a while. But all that changed when the concept of IPL changed from ‘cricket‘ to ‘cricketainment’. Season 6 of the IPL has seen a dramatic reduction in the number of audience in the stadiums. Previously, it was hard to spot even a single empty seat in the crowd, but this year has been very different. The day matches attract a very small amount of people to the grounds and even the evening matches are far from being a full house. As much as the commentators go on and on about how a large number of people have to the grounds, even a quick camera view of the grandstands show us it definitely isn’t the case. To be honest, I was rather pleased after seeing this. I felt that the people were finally rejecting the circus the BCCI is trying to make of cricket.

The most irritating thing for me about this year’s IPL, without a shadow of a doubt, has been ‘Jumping Jhampak’. I simply cannot fathom the reason that prompted the IPL authorities to appoint Farah Khan to conjure up something as extravagantly idiotic as that dance sequence. The song has made a joke out of cricket. This attempt of the BCCI to combine the entertainment industry with cricket has ruined the essence of the sport forever. Imagine the reaction of the senior citizens who are passionate cricket lovers when they see their idol, Kapil Dev dancing to the tune of something as blatantly stupid as Jumping Jhampak.

The IPL has been said to be the combination of the two most flourishing industries in the country, cricket and Bollywood. And that is where I believe the whole concept of the tournament has gone wrong. How can one hope to combine two things which are as different as day and night? The movie industry is all about the fictional heroes and the sport industry is led by the real heroes. They are best left to their own good worlds, because if you try to put them together, something terrible is bound to happen. People, in the earlier days, did not watch cricket for entertainment. They watched cricket because they needed to; they watched cricket because it occupied a very special place in their heart. When they needed entertainment, they watched serials or movies, but cricket was something that didn’t fall in that string of things. Demeaning cricket to the level of mere entertainment has been a major injustice to the people who so passionately followed the sport. Cricket now has to face major competition from movies, music and facebook, because all of them fall in the same category: Entertainment. Earlier, it wasn’t the case.

The malady that cricket now faces is evident from the apathy most people have towards the sport. Now, in spite of whatever arguments one might pit against my remarks, it has to be agreed that there is a considerably less amount of excitement regarding any bilateral or triangular series. And another pitiable thing is now we have 3 World Cups in 4 years (2 T20 World Cups, and a 50 over World Cup) which, according to me, undermines the grandeur that is associated with World Cups. But nevertheless, the 50 over World Cup will continue to be a major attraction for those of us who have worshiped the sport.

There are quite a few other reasons one might associate with this sudden lack of excitement regarding cricket. The political turmoil that is gripping the nation has played its part as well. The scams that surface in the media every few days, numerous cases of violence against women, the growing sense of unrest among the people of the country wanting an end to corruption; all of them have played their part. Even Facebook can be accused of providing the youth with an alternate source of entertainment. All in all, cricket faces a very tough challenge ahead to redeem its former glory, but T20 cricket according to me, is definitely not a solution.