Well, I pick up today's TOI, the first article I see is about it. I switch on to a news channel, there are more revelations to it. It's getting bigger. So big, that it's getting rather redundant and difficult to keep a track of things. As a Cricket fan, I have always believed that Cricket is clean(99.99% of the times) and the fishy stuff that happens are downright coincidences. So, when such things surfaced, I obviously was taken aback.
But, eventually everyone moves on and so does Cricket. So, there I was, tuning into Star Cricket at 13:30 IST to watch the pre-match show of the opener of the ICC Champions Trophy between India and South Africa. I tend to do that when a particular match is broadcasted by the ESS (Obviously because they are the real pros in Cricket broadcasting). Eventually, the toss happened and then the "low-key-and-not-IPL-like" opening ceremony. And then, one of my favourite parts of ICC events, the national anthems! South Africa's happened first, I don't know why, but whatever. And, then India's. They showed the various faces, MSD's, Kohli's, the support staff's, Duncan Fletcher's(who was trying his best to respect the anthem), etc.
There I was, standing in front of the TV set in the saavdhaan position watching those faces and I could literally feel the adrenaline of the players rushing like hell. And that's when it hit me.. This true passion of the players is what actually makes me love this game so much. When I started watching Cricket, I fell in love with it because winning a particular match made a country proud. When Team India wins, the whole nation probably gets the energy of going to work on a Monday. Everyone has bad days at work, school, etc but such victories bring smiles to these faces. This is what Cricket can do(Actually, this is what any Sport does, but being amongst the majority Indians, Sport = = Indian Cricket :p).
This is when it also hit me (I am exaggerating, it'd hit me eons ago, but just for the sake of it :p) that this was why I never particularly loved the IPL. Having watched and followed Cricket pretty seriously for about 7-8 years now, I can go on record and say that I can identify passion on the Cricket field when I see it. And when I see the IPL, I don't see passion. I don't see a reason why a player would give his 100% every single time he plays for his franchise. Of course(not really, but let's consider this as a safe assumption), when a player goes on to play at the international level he is pretty much trained and mentally prepared to give his 100% every single time for whichever team he is playing for. But, so far, 99% of the matches 99% of the players have played, are for his club, his province, his state and/or his country. So, there is that emotional bonding or a feeling of patriotism for a player to the team since it represents a region where he comes from. This probably drives passion. But, I don't see such a driving force for say someone like a Luke Wright when he plays for Pune Warriors India.
Such absence of a driving force of passion(Yeah! I'm sounding too philosophical) probably turns out to be a perfect opportunity for the very very interesting people called the Bookies to come into a player's life. I can feel for the players too. It's tough to be rational, unless you have a substantial driving force of passion, when escort girls come into your life(Studying Engineering in India, I can relate to the fellow Cricketers because both of us have, literally, a very very male dominated society around ourselves :p). Once the Bookies come into your life, you're pretty much done.
I can go on and on criticizing the IPL. But, I know that it's not worth it. For all the bad things IPL stands for, there are also quite a few good things for which the world seems to enjoy it. I simply don't care. I am glad that this fixing saga happened in the IPL and not in international Cricket. Sure, I was disappointed with it at the beginning. But, now when I see stories like 'Raj Kundra confesses to betting', I sincerely don't give a shit and move on (to the sports pages of course :p).
But, eventually everyone moves on and so does Cricket. So, there I was, tuning into Star Cricket at 13:30 IST to watch the pre-match show of the opener of the ICC Champions Trophy between India and South Africa. I tend to do that when a particular match is broadcasted by the ESS (Obviously because they are the real pros in Cricket broadcasting). Eventually, the toss happened and then the "low-key-and-not-IPL-like" opening ceremony. And then, one of my favourite parts of ICC events, the national anthems! South Africa's happened first, I don't know why, but whatever. And, then India's. They showed the various faces, MSD's, Kohli's, the support staff's, Duncan Fletcher's(who was trying his best to respect the anthem), etc.
There I was, standing in front of the TV set in the saavdhaan position watching those faces and I could literally feel the adrenaline of the players rushing like hell. And that's when it hit me.. This true passion of the players is what actually makes me love this game so much. When I started watching Cricket, I fell in love with it because winning a particular match made a country proud. When Team India wins, the whole nation probably gets the energy of going to work on a Monday. Everyone has bad days at work, school, etc but such victories bring smiles to these faces. This is what Cricket can do(Actually, this is what any Sport does, but being amongst the majority Indians, Sport = = Indian Cricket :p).
This is when it also hit me (I am exaggerating, it'd hit me eons ago, but just for the sake of it :p) that this was why I never particularly loved the IPL. Having watched and followed Cricket pretty seriously for about 7-8 years now, I can go on record and say that I can identify passion on the Cricket field when I see it. And when I see the IPL, I don't see passion. I don't see a reason why a player would give his 100% every single time he plays for his franchise. Of course(not really, but let's consider this as a safe assumption), when a player goes on to play at the international level he is pretty much trained and mentally prepared to give his 100% every single time for whichever team he is playing for. But, so far, 99% of the matches 99% of the players have played, are for his club, his province, his state and/or his country. So, there is that emotional bonding or a feeling of patriotism for a player to the team since it represents a region where he comes from. This probably drives passion. But, I don't see such a driving force for say someone like a Luke Wright when he plays for Pune Warriors India.
Such absence of a driving force of passion(Yeah! I'm sounding too philosophical) probably turns out to be a perfect opportunity for the very very interesting people called the Bookies to come into a player's life. I can feel for the players too. It's tough to be rational, unless you have a substantial driving force of passion, when escort girls come into your life(Studying Engineering in India, I can relate to the fellow Cricketers because both of us have, literally, a very very male dominated society around ourselves :p). Once the Bookies come into your life, you're pretty much done.
I can go on and on criticizing the IPL. But, I know that it's not worth it. For all the bad things IPL stands for, there are also quite a few good things for which the world seems to enjoy it. I simply don't care. I am glad that this fixing saga happened in the IPL and not in international Cricket. Sure, I was disappointed with it at the beginning. But, now when I see stories like 'Raj Kundra confesses to betting', I sincerely don't give a shit and move on (to the sports pages of course :p).
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