Cricketomania and Swades

Hoo Haa India....Waapas aa gayaa India!

After yet another abysmal performance, the Men in blue (or the Men who were beaten black and blue) return back to India. Their demigod status is snatched, yet again, and parallels are being sought between them and the local nariyal paani wallahs! Rahul Dravid said, its time for introspection! Its something he says nowadays after every loss. I wonder, what’s this introspection our team is doing after every loss. I was reading some reports of players saying it’s just a game, it’s not just about winning, it’s not this and it’s not that. Well, I say you all are wrong! For starters, answer my following questions.

If it’s just a game, then why do the cricketer’s demand high pay’s? With more than Rs 1Lacs / match + match and daily allowances + advertisements, it’s more than what most of the high ranking executives make today and more than what most of the Indians make in a year. When a near perfect performance is being expected from these executives on a day to day basis, despite being paid less, why shouldn’t it be expected of the cricketers? If it’s not a profession but only a hobby why should they be paid these exorbitant remunerations?

If it’s not about winning, then let’s not spend millions of rupees on sending a team to these tournaments. We can play friendly matches against the Kenya’s and Ireland’s of this game. If it’s not about winning let’s not raise hopes of a billion supporters for the World Cup 2011. Then, we can at least divert these funds to the much starved ‘ugly duckling’ sports of weight lifting, wrestling, etc where at least the participants are not hypocrites proclaiming it’s not about winning.

A lot of things were being said about this team and the batting line-up being the best and all that. Well, just to quote Shah Rukh Khan from the film ‘Swades’, ‘We are not great, we have the capability of being great, whenever we lose we fall back to the same old retreat tune of it being just a game, it being not only about winning (sanskriti and parampara, anyone).'

And finally, let’s not trick ourselves into all this bublaboo. It’s plain and simple, it is not just a game, and it’s a full time profession for the team members. It’s not just about winning, it’s only about winning. If our team changes their attitude and understand these couple, and few other things, then it can become one of the best teams in the world.