Committing Sacrilege

I know what I am going to say is tantamount to sacrilege among the Indian community and it might even strain the marital chords of harmony a little bit :) but I can’t contain it any longer! I just can’t stand cricket these days and especially the IPL.  There, I’ve said it now and I already feel better.

Growing up I know I was one of the crazy eyed millions who has done everything that any self-respecting cricket fan would do – gazing at giant posters of cricketers (and yes Aussie ones – now that is another story) in my room, shedding tears of joy at the Aussie win of '87 world cup, having the courage to face being called unpatriotic by close friends for that reaction, reading every word of Sportstar, owning a cricket dictionary and knowing all the relevant terms  and field positions enough to take on any cricket trivia and gaining extra brownie points for knowing all of the above despite being a girl!

Now that part of my life seems so long ago and I have moved from there to  where I am now in a decade. Maybe it is just the lifestage that I am in or I am simply a sport luddite longing for the good old days. But whatever the reason, the cricket of today in my eyes is in the doldrums. Played purely for providing mind-numbing entertainment, it has a Bollywood quality to it that I can’t stand.

Cricket especially the IPL version is a simple equation Corporate sponsors + Big Money + Bollywood = big payback for the relative few who make it and movie like entertainment for the masses! And here I was naive to think that after all the scandals that plague huge spectator sports, there will be a mass rebellion by the public against these. Boy, I have never been so off! The Indian cricket-hysteric public seems to have completely forgiven the match fixing scandals that plagued the scene a few years back, and welcomed the IPL with open arms - despite the fact that with a 4B turnover the chances of scandals are much higher!

I wonder what is the contribution of cricket to the Indian economy. How many jobs has cricket and its associated industries created? I compare this to Bollywood/ Kollywood or whichever one you choose. Here is another industry which is plagued by "black money", tax evasion, inflated salaries and very low success ratio - but at least on the face of it, the industry directly employs countless people and some of them in decent-paying unionized jobs I think. Am I correct in assuming the Movie industry in India does more collective good than the "Cricket industry"? I don't know but this seems a good sociology/economic research area.

The more i think of spectator sports in general the more i've come to believe that it must've been a great invention of the powers that be to channel the energy of the masses, keep civil unrest at bay, and divert attention from the really big issues at stake. No wonder there is a strong nexus between politics and big sport! When sports and entertainment dominate the news and media who has time for anything else!

After all cricket is a religion in India, and just as countless number of religious scandals does not hinder the growth of more Babas and Gurus offering sure-fire salvation, why should any number of scandals hamper this religion's progress!