- Rahul Dravid, the former captain of the Indian cricket team also represents Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I am not drawn to cricket and my association with the game has been at inter-class matches at school or later an odd game with colleagues. In 1977 I was one of the prize winners of the LS Mathur Memorial Essay Competition that the Regiment of Artillery holds every year, wherein I denounced cricket being the game that brought down our national character and the reason we don’t win any gold medals in the Olympics. My interest in cricket is minimal and enough to meet the social need to ‘love’ cricket being an Indian. This however has changed since the last World Cup and my interest has grown with the latest Border Gavaskar Cup Australian tour that finished in March this year. More than the game, the personalities and politics in the game have caught my curiosity and interest.
I feel the game is more political than ever and there seems compromised matches. I make these observations after seeing some games. In the World Cup finals played in Mumbai, could Sri Lanka have won? It was a nail-biting finish and perhaps the choice of bowler especially towards the end may have had different results. Likewise in the Border Gavaskar series the performance of both the teams was predictable except in a couple of unusual cases.
The state of the game goes beyond the pitch and two orations indicate something about the influence of the game on society and vice versa. I allude to Kumar Sangakkara’s MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture at Lords and Rahul Dravid’s Bradman Oration.
Sangakkara’s speech reflected the state of cricket ‘politics’in Sri Lanka, perhaps true in all South Asian countries. Dravid’s was on a positive note reflecting the rising popularity of the game especially in small towns of India. Both were excellent pieces of oration and I somehow couldn’t take my thoughts away from them every time I saw these great players on the TV screen.
Dravid was the only player who got consistently clean bowled. I cannot believe that he couldn’t have played his normal game even if he was just entering the 40s. Clearly he lacked concentration and focus to meet the onslaught of the Australian bowling line up. The Indian team was rarely seen practicing when their opponents were up early and at it. The media interviews of Dhoni, Sachin and Dravid appeared very guarded as if big brother was watching. Naturally no one wants to offend the paymasters, but all these clearly are symptoms of a greater malady.
Sangakkara has faced enquiry over his remarks and may have cost him his career if skill is sacrificed for politics. In the case of Dravid, it is definitely not age; perhaps something more than what meets the eye. Practice?
The game, alas isn’t played on the pitches and one has to read between the lines of these excellent orations to understand the game.
There is a positive trend in rugby and the encouragement of its growing popularity in non rugby nations. Unlike rugby, cricket grows because of some mass appeal in the Asian context. China (PRC) has joined the bandwagon and aims at getting test cricket status by 2020 and will surely expand the world of cricket in the North Asian region.
Thus there is a need to keep the spirit of the game beyond the appeal and this can be done by keeping it clean. Such orations help in keeping a watch on the health of the game. The encouragement of having more countries to play may have commercial underpinnings, but can also develop cultural ties with advantages.
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- We hold the advantage against India: Sangakkara (thehindu.com)
