The game of cricket is a preserve of the upper class. It is mainly patronised in public schools such as Eton and Harrow and of course Oxford and Cambridge cannot do without Cricket and boat race. The ordinary people of Britain are more fond of Football, a truly working class game. Even today in England or Australia the game of cricket does not attract huge crowds. The British rulers took the game of cricket to the colonies. In India, it was initially played by the Maharaja's and the University undergraduates. Even in early 70's a cricket test match attracted modest crowds. A little later one-day cricket game was invented by the Australian business baron Kerry Packer. He also introduced Day & Night cricket with a white ball much to the horror of cricket conservatives. The one-day game of cricket gave an opportunity to the office goers to see the interesting concluding part of the game at night.
In India the rich business class, which rarely plays any game began to patronise Cricket. The Immediate effect was a escalation of ticket price and the obvious black market trade. The Television channels and the huge advertisement revenues converted the game of cricket into a mega-buck event. In the 70's the Indian cricketers were a poorly paid lot. Many of them could not even afford a good dinner at times in England or Australia. They could not buy expensive gifts for their family members. One Indian cricketeer was caught by the Harrods detective stealing a pair of socks.
The Television enslaved the Indian audience from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and live telecast of cricket matches fuelled a fanatical passion in the minds of ordinary Indians. The off shoot of all this was clandestine betting, fixing of matches by bribing the players and the larger-than-life role of the underworld mafia. The cricket stars became overnight as popular as Bollywood actors and actresses. They also accumulated a lot of unaccounted wealth. The Indian team consisting of veteran players like Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid visited South Africa in a very shabby manner. For the first time the Indian cricket team walked into the Airport lounge without wearing the national colours and blazers. They were wearing informal clothes. The explanation given by the captain was that the blazers with national logo had not been available from the tailors in time. It is my guess that 80% of the players must be owning at least half a dozen national blazers and still chose not to wear the old ones. It shows the poverty of the mind.
These rich cricketers very rarely get involved in charitable acts. The lone exception is former cricketer Kapil Dev. The absolute commercialisation of Indian cricket and the lure of the lucre has attracted sports persons from all over the world. Of course, the game of cricket is played by not so developed countries like Indian, Pakistan, Srilanka, Bangladesh and West Indies. The remaining three countries England, South Africa and Australia cannot be compared with industrially and technologically advanced countries like U.S.A, Japan, Germany, Russia and China. The people in these countries cannot spare either 5 days for the test match or 12 hours for a one-day match. Hence the game of cricket is not very popular in these countries, where time is a treasured commodity.
The Indian cricket board elections are fought on a national scale comparable in magnitude to a parliamentary election. The contenders stake a lot of money and prestige to become its president. So many people are interested in these offices of profit only because BCCI is a gold mine. Often, people wonder whether cricket players play for the country or for personal profit. There are some cricketers, who only play to improve their personal records. They are least interested in the ultimate outcome of the game. The 98% of the spectators both men and women would not have touched either a cricket bat or a cricket ball in all their life time. Such people with very little knowledge of the game patronise it. The subtle nuances of the game escapes them. Perhaps that is why a fast-paced intelligent game Hockey, which was once described as a national game has been relegated to the oblivion. Most of the Indians don't take notice of sports persons achieving international eminence in such games as snooker, shooting, chess and athletics. To appreciate these games, one needs a higher level of I. Q. In this context the National obsession of cricket game borders on absurdity. The whole nation wastes millions of hours of useful work time and also millions of rupees. Our performance in the recent Asian Games has been the worst in the last 50 years. In this sports event hundreds of different sports events were staged. Such countries as China, Japan and South Korea dominated in all these games. Our obsession with cricket automatically excludes any interest or involvement in other games. We are not even pained by the declining standards in sports and lack of interest among youngsters in such games as basketball, hockey or Gymnastics. We have become a nation of blind people though sighted. Who can bring about a psychological paradigm shift to the psyche of Indian people?
