Stop blaming Cricket

It’s a joyous occasion this. P.V. Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and Dipa Karmakar have created epic legacies and have inspired one and all in this nation. I have been absolutely overwhelmed. I believe we all are. You got to love the beauty of sport. Divided by religious beliefs, political affinities, it’s amazing how sport unites us. The setting of a billion hearts rooting for one of ‘our own’ to bring us glory, is a real treat to watch and experience. What is also equally amazing to watch and experience is the intensity of the nasty social media blame games and criticism.

No, I am not talking about Shobha De. I believe enough has already been talked and written about that, and making sure this isn’t a clichéd blog is something I have been trying to take a little seriously. What I am talking about, is this whole, “Eh we don’t win medals in Olympics becoz all d importance is given to Cricket and other sports are not even valued.” Let me just stop you right there. Cricket has never asked for all this importance. If you really hate Cricket as much, just stop following it. It’s better off without you. Also, I’m sure Cricket didn’t knock at everyone’s doors and pleaded people to love it and give ‘all d importance’. It’s not Cricket’s fault that a majority are drawn to it. It’s not Cricket’s fault that kids on the streets are playing it instead of any other sport. It’s not going to complain. It’s not going to stop growing and it’s not going to stop becoming more glamorous. No sport should.

And when you come to think of it, no sport is born glamorous. And sadly in a way, the attainment of glamour in initialized by inspired performances at the highest level. Something like what P V Sindhu did! I’m sure a lot of young girls bought badminton racquets today and I’m sure a lot of badminton playing girls started believing in themselves a little more. Likewise, Cricket too was ‘not-so-glamorous’ at one point in this country. Even as someone who’s followed this game very closely over the last few years and have had Cricket for breakfast, lunch and dinner at times, I am not that familiar with the big moments of Indian Cricket from the pre-1983 World Cup period. In fact, before 1983, India was one of the weaker teams, winning only 35 of the first 196 Test matches it played! The point I’m trying to make is, a sport isn’t born with glamour. Glamour is earned. In more ways than one, the 1983 World Cup initialized it for Indian Cricket. And I hope what our girls achieved in this Olympics, does it for the respective sports.

However, initializing it isn’t enough, is it? Indian athletes have won Olympic medals before, the attainment of glamour has been initialized. But to keep it going it is important that they back it up with reasonable performances from time to time. I’m not saying it is the athletes’ fault entirely. There could be other factors like the inefficient IOA, injuries, etc. But such things prevailed in Indian Cricket after the 1983 World Cup as well. And I hate to break it down to you, but, Indian Cricket has followed up the 1983 World Cup win with sizeable performances at the biggest stage. Be it the 1985 World Championship, the 1986 Test series victory in England, the semi-final births in the World Cups to follow, and many more. Even at present, we’re closing in on No.1 rankings in Tests, No.3 in ODIs and No.2 in T20Is. From what Cricket was at one point in this nation, glamour-wise, to where it has come now hasn’t been an overnight achievement. You can be jealous of Cricket all you want, but the truth is India has somehow found talented Cricketers who’ve brought huge victories at the international stage more often than any other sport! I hope the people of this country can wrap their heads around this fact, and if one really hates Cricket, it’s just beautiful. Because then we have someone who will (or should) venture into some other sport and give it the glamour it deserves.