Don't Blame Me: My Name is Cricket

For a very long time, the Indian cricket fan has endured, often grudgingly, the acerbic remark that cricket does not deserve the attention it gets. There are millions who swear that it is all due to the hype created by media - as if media could just draw a lottery for a sport or an event, and then make it the most popular thing!

People, even those who have lived in the pre-1983 era, often conveniently forget that cricket in India was not what it is today. Hockey used to be a very popular sport. India was not a sporting nation by any decent standards in that era and hockey alone brought moments of pride and joy in that glory-famished landscape of Indian sport. We did have Vijay Amritraj, Ramesh Krishnan, Prakash Padukone, Milkha Singh, P.T. Usha, Geet Sethi, et al bringing glory and raising hopes over a long period of time, but, just another addition to this list might well have been the name of Sunil Gavaskar, had he not been followed by a series of geniuses and world-beaters: Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, Mohd. Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh.

The reader may note that each of these sportsmen or sportswomen created a big bang and survived a long period - long enough for the world to take notice; and for the media to remember them even after they were long gone (barring the ones that are still active). This ability to produce legends, and then, to breed the next generation of legends, is the essential lifeblood for any sport to remain popular over a long period of time. The list of these cricketers spans a vast time-horizon of over four decades. They have consistently brought glory to India - more than any other sport has done on a consistent basis, in last 4 decades. So, it is obvious that there has been a sustained baton-passing in Indian cricket. This is something that has made cricket the media darling that it is today.

Sports fans, no doubt, rejoice in the news of V. Anand, Abhinav Bindra, Vijender Singh, Saina Nehwal, Sania Mirza, and not to forget, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, scaling peaks and putting India's name up there with the best. The same was true with hockey till the late-1980s. Remember, India won the Olympic gold in Moscow (though the western bloc teams did not participate in the cold war era), which was truly a celebrated event. Then, when India came back from behind to level a match against West Germany at Azlan Shah - by striking four times in the last eight minutes - everyone was over the moon with anticipation of return to the glorious days. But sadly, most of these moments remained islands of hope; and the hopes kept rising and falling like ocean waves. The emotional roller coaster has continued with most sports.

Unless a sport provides an emotional high for a long, sustained period, that is, to at least one or two successive generations of people, it will not be as popular. There is little use blaming another sport for loss of popularity.

And lastly, some people also feel that it is shameful that we rejoice in being a cricketing nation. Reason: It is supposedly a relic of the imperial past. But the same people (or sometimes, not the same, but a large section of people) believe that playing football is much more 'glorious'. Because, it is a sport that is liked by the whole planet! This line of argument is even more naive.

The fact is that football, today, is more European a sport than other popular sports in India. Even the 2010 World Cup finals figured European teams in the last phase, with a sprinkling of Latin American and a few dots from Africa. Cricket, in that sense, is very much Indian, or rather Asian. Most current records in batting and bowling belong to Asians. No doubt, football is a beautiful sport, but not the one that Asians are very good at.

It is time we looked beyond blaming cricket for the miserable condition of other Indian sports, and started building these sports. Who does not like to see an Anand being a World Champion or wish that Saina Nehwal becomes World No. 1? As much as they like to know that their cricket team is a top ranked one.