Cricket: Thy Name is Corruption

It was 1984. I was only nine years old. We did not own a television set then. It was a rarity to see one possessing an idiot box. Many rich men could have owned the sets. However access to their houses had been denied as it was not a practice to allow people who were not part of their society, a high and super-rich acclimate that had peculiarities of their own. Not to digress further, i was not part of a rich family to know anyone who had televisions, had not had a rich classmate to take me to his house to see the God's wonder in visual extravaganza. Fortunately my father's friend bought a television set or rather summoned one from Sri Lanka as his relatives were well off then there. (This may probably be before the 1983 riots there).

The television spoke like an alien. It aired Hindi programmes and the only occasion in which it came out of the status of being possessed was on Sundays. On Sundays the Delhi Doordarshan preferred showing regional language feature films, probably a condescended acknowledgement of the existence of people who speak languages other than Hindi. So the occasions that attracted people who do not know Hindi to it were the times in which sports shows were telecast and for me the time in which cartoon programmes were aired too. As the friend of my father loved cricket, he was beaming with energy whenever there was a cricket telecast. What became a forcible attraction to begin with in the eventuality became a great hobby for me.

Cricket taught me many things. It taught me English, to start with. It taught me patience in life, having seen a lot of test matches featuring the great little master and probably be a matinee idol, as he spent the whole of the day on pitch; Gavaskar. Those veterans were serious cricketers who had an earnestness to play with commitment and courage. Cricket did not attract money then. Televisions were not ubiquitous and thus prevented them becoming advert Gods. Cricket taught me fighting spirit as the Indians were underdogs then and suffered a big beating from West Indians and Australians, the teams of them featured titans.

Twenty-six years later, I still watch cricket but not with the same virility as the game has succumbed to commercialisation. Pitches have been converted into the paradises of batsmen. Sinners have been chosen as bowlers as their role has been minimised to a mere thrower of ball. Bowling techniques have all been venerably sidelined for future 'how to play cricket' books. In India, cricket has been watched rather gluttoned only as a wild feast with much jingoism, acting surrogate to primordial urge to hunt and maul living creatures. A Christlike personality is expected to resurrect the game to its original shape and quality that provided much scope for individual growth (not of course materialistic), whereas the present game makes many individuals grow to become super-rich.