However, that doesn’t justify in any way our flurry of inactivity in the year gone by. A year spent mocking and being mocked. A year spent spreading caricatures on facebook, mourning the existential crisis of Sonia Gandhi, praising Tharoor on Twitter and getting re-tweeted, cursing and diagnosing India’s downfall in cricket.
The last one here is the most important as it is related to the subject about which, without wandering, I should write about.
India’s fall from the position, of which it was a mere squatter, has brought a glimmer of hope of what we have craved for in the past twelve months. The hope of bringing equilibrium in the world of cricket, healthy governance, a playful atmosphere, succinctly a ‘Democracy’.
Had India fared better abroad and had they clung for longer at the top of the ladder, it would have only spelled doom for the world of cricket. Such happening would have added more fuel to the BCCI which openly dictates terms to the International Cricket Council (ICC) and makes and breaks rules like a proud outlaw. It would have handed the likes the current Indian players with impunity and arrogance which had never been attributed to Indian cricket. And finally, would have turned cricket into a boring game.
From now where we stand the future looks rosy. Here are some positives which we may stuff our mouth with:
The game of musical chair
Australia, even if it whitewashes India in this current series, is far from the shadow of its previous self. England’s claim at the top — albeit some fine victories against South Africa, Australia and India — without any spectacular performance in sub-continental pitches, looks as vague as India’s was a few months back. So, after decades of Australian and West Indian dominance the top slot remains open and up for anyone’s grabs.
We may assume, for reveries’ sake, we are living in an idyllic world. And like it should be, at least for some years the game will not be troubled by numbers.
Players’ time to come alight
There was a time when our docility would be laughed at. When cricketers assumed the role of the last torch-bearers of Gandhiism and swapped cheeks on being slapped. Ganguly was the first maverick to break free. And his team was the first to learn the art of refusing to accept such favours.
Not only the younger players like Harbhajan and Zaheer, even senior pros like Kumble got a sudden realisation of the presence of a dormant self-esteem in them. Then we cherished, now we cringe. Those were retaliation — tolerable because we had suffered for long, acceptable because we were pushed against the wall. Now, as we see Kohli, Sreesanth and ilk constantly spitting their ego around the field, we wish that change had never come.
Australians staggered around the cricketing world. Mocked and sledged every nation alike. Yet if not justification for their misbehavior, they did earn the right to stare straight and walk with chests inflated by the chest of victories which they carried. Our only claim at arrogance was our ideated utopia where we were the winners because we were inevitable at home, but only at home.
BCCI and Autocracy
The richest body in world cricket has played with the game with a gusto that will shame the deadliest of parasites. The body which was seen by as some as heroic — as avenger of all the persistent oppression of the Asian sub-continent by the Western world — soon started eating its own nation.
After commoditising cricket with the Indian Premier League, BCCI has gone ahead with its scrupulous activities which involve money laundering and clash-of-interests in important positions of the board’s hierarchy.
As BCCI kept rising, it also freed the Indian players from fear of rules and laws which governed the game. I would not lie. The feeling of supremacy did give a sinister pleasure. But to prevent the game from decay, it is time we start walking toward democracy.
0 votes
