F - CRICKET: THE GAME OR SHOW BIZ

CRICKET: THE GAME OR SHOW BIZ

N.D. 15 August 2002

The most popular game in India is Cricket, which has a large of fans.
Whenever an international cricket is telecast live, a large number of
Indians can be found glued to their television screens. What to speak,
this game has viewers among all sections of the people ______ men and
women, girls and boys, young and old and even the rich and the poor.
Even those who do not follow the game rules with accuracy or proper
understanding are also interested in it. What can you call it ______
love for the game or craze or madness?

Hockey is the national game of India yet there are very few hockey
lovers. So also is with the game of football. Very few football fans
are there; the maximum can be found in the state of West Bengal.
Cricket is known to be a gentle man's game. The dress code, the field
and the setting of the game itself may have been the cause for so many
lovers for it. Only after the popularisation of the television in India
and an opportunity to watch the matches 'live' has popularised this
game to such an extend.

To speak, now-a-days cricket players in India have become a show
biz.

Recently the International Cricket Council (ICC) has made it compulsory
that the cricket players of any cricketing country, taking part in the
ICC tournaments, cannot display the logos of the companies for which
the individual players have signed in an agreement for their
advertisements. A specified time limit is given to the players to keep
away from their personal advertisements. This is ICC's attempt to
protect its official sponsors and stop the players from advertising
rival products during the event.

With the recent ICC tournament coming up, all cricketing nations
excepting a couple of countries among them have not signed up with the
ICC to abide by its rules. India is one of them. The Board of Cricket
Control of India (BCCI) is not as yet able to motivate its national
players to agree with these rules. Thus the Indian team has not been
announced for the coming ICC tournament.

Those Indian players playing for the national side are seen to be more
concerned in minting money out of contracts from advertisements. No
doubt when opportunities have come their way, they can take it. But
frankly speaking, the performance of the Indian side is not so good and
up to the standard as can be seen by their performance in the on going
test match series played in England.

So what an ordinary citizen of this country can conclude?

It is that these players are more concerned in their advertising
programmes, which fetch them a fortune. Knowing that they have a
secured place in the team, they give a second thought to the game
itself. It is high time that the BCCI should take the matter seriously
and make the players feel that playing and winning for their country is
more important, whilst other engagements of theirs can be given 'the
next preference'.

So ultimately it can be concluded that, if a player is given a place in
the national team then only his importance is at its height. Only then
others take advantage of their importance to use them to sell out their
products through advertisements. So what? Perform well, give your best
to the game, or go out of the arena and no one will even recognise your
face which might once have been very valuable and earned you a lot of
money apart from your earnings from this game of 'CRICKET'.