If cricket was a religion, India will be called a “Cricket Nation”
in place of Hindu nation. Right from our childhood, cricket becomes an indispensable
part of life. Some of us might avoid the trap by opting for other sports but in
real sense, we can’t just avoid cricket because our friends, family member,
fellow bus passengers, chai walas or our boss; atleast few of them will turn
out to be the followers of this undeclared religion. And as in the case of
Hinduism, here too we have multiple Gods. And co-incidently, like Brahmha ,
Vishnu and Mahesh- the three pillars of Hinduism, Indian cricket too has
Sachin, Saurav and Rahul as the trinity , the one considered to be the base of
this foundation. And I dare not say it but the truth is we will find more
fundamentalist and extremist cricket fans then we will find such intensity
towards the religion. And commercialization, as in the case of religion, has
taken a hit on cricket too. Sadly, the joy derived from worshipping this game
has decremented immensely. I will like to recall my childhood. Being a native
of small village in Agra, I did not have the luxury of watching live telecast
of cricket matches unless telecasted on Doordarshan. Everytime Indian will tour
overseas; there will be no medium to check the scores as matches were aired on
ESPN-Star mostly. Mobile phones were meant to be for richer section of the
society. So I will stand by road side at 5.30 in the morning and wait for the
newspaper vendor and turn through the pages quickly and find the sports page.
What followed was 1 hour’s bus journey to school with constant chatter. Match
analysis, expert opinions and predictions for the next day will be the flavor
of the day. And if match was being played in Australia or New Zealand, half of
our predictions would have been proved wrong already as match will be underway
(it begins in the early morning hours as per IST). But we will get to know this
next day at 5.30 only. Everytime school bus will pass by a tv shop , all the
necks will come out of window , some getting a glimpse of runs scored, some
getting a count of wickets fallen. And then there will be a discussion, all
detectives presenting their findings and thus, we will get an update on the
score card. Those days cricket matches were not so frequent. Everytime a tour
was over, we will wait desperately for the next season to begin. And I must
say, this wait was no lesser exciting than the one for Diwali, Holi or our
birthdays. Life was fun during those days, cricket was cherished much more than
it is today. Today in the age of Twitter, cricinfo and Akshay Bhai, one does
not have to put in so much effort to get these updates or wait for next match
does not last for that long, but somewhere the fun is missing. I don’t know
whether it’s our daily routine that has made it this way or something else,
but like rupee, value of joy derived from cricket is all time low. Something
that’s a matter of concern. And unfortunately, BCCI, unlike RBI, seems less
potent at handling this fall. If time travel ever becomes a reality, I will
like to go back in time and witness the same era of desperation and excitement
about cricket. Time has proved time and again that nothing lasts forever. But
we can certainly prolong the life span. But when it comes to cricket, I can see
soul and the body are at the verge of parting ways… Someone there to take a
note?
