Patriotism in Indian Cricket

This is cricket season.Of-course in India it will be always cricket season only.With India knocking out the defending champions,the mighty Australian team, and with India to take on Pakistan in Semi finals,cricket fans in India are just going too crazy.Let me put on my views on cricket,well I just want to discuss something more than cricket here,but still its all related to cricket.Don't just get confused on reading the above line,go through the entire post,you can understand what I meant.

It was on 24th March,2011,India-Australia quarter finals was going on.It was an interesting match,with Ricky Ponting playing a captain knock.Full credits to Yuvaraj,Raina and of-course the little master Sachin,for their valuable contributions,which saw India through to semi-finals.Minutes after India won the match,I got a bunch of SMSes mocking Ricky Ponting and the Australian team.I wonder how people are so quick in this aspect alone.The media is just going crazy(as usual).But my question is why are we hyping cricket to this extent?

One of the recent development related to cricket is that our honorable PM has courageously invited the Pakistan PM and President to watch the India-Pakistan semi-finals at Mohali.Is this so important?I couldn't understand what exactly the PM is trying to do here.Diplomats say not to expect too much from PM's invite to his Pakistani counterpart.As per the schedule,the match is being conducted in India and I believe the law permits people from any country to enter India through legal means.If Zardari or Gilani are that much interested in watching the match,let them come,India is not going to stop them or send them back.Poor PM what will he do,if a controversy arises in this regard,he will say that an 'X' asked him to invite and so he did it,he don't know anything else.

The worst part is the way people gets excited and emotional on seeing cricket matches. Whenever I say something against the Indian cricket,a group of people gets ready to fight with me.They even go to the extent of questioning my integrity as an Indian.Also they give advices like "be patriotic,being an Indian you should not speak against Indian team"- what crap is this?Where does the question of patriotism arises in cricket?Of-course everyone(including me) will be happy to see India winning matches.But that doesn't mean that we should not criticize them.Its really simple.If India and West Indies are playing and if West Indies are playing really well,we should learn to appreciate them.In Chennai,when Pakistan team won the test match against India,in which Sachin's stupendous century went invain,the crowd,though disappointed,gave a standing ovation and they didn't throw bottles or stones.This is the real spirit which we should learn.

Never forget this people,the 11 players playing for Indian team are servants of BCCI(Board of Control for Cricket in India).They are not our representatives.I read an article long back in a daily,which said that BCCI gets a lot of tax exemption because it is shown as a charity trust.Why should the BCCI get tax exemption?Till today I have never heard of BCCI helping orphanages or old age homes etc.In that case why should they get tax exemption?The most arrogant cricket board in the world is the BCCI.

The ICC is another useless organization which calls itself International Cricket Council,but has done little for the development of cricket.In all these years only some 7 to 8 recognizable teams have excelled in cricket.Teams like Kenya,Ireland has shown lot of promise before this world cup itself and Kenya even entered the semi finals in the 2003 world cup.If developing cricket and building goodwill among the nations is the real intention of ICC,they should have taken steps to give more matches to Kenya, Ireland, Netherland etc.Without any matches Kenya remains a minnow in international cricket.ICC is just another money minded organization.

Onions in general itself has the tendency to make us weep,if its cut.But nowadays on hearing the onion price itself people start weeping.Whats the connection between onion and cricket?Not only onions,the prices of all other food items are at an all-time high.Mr.Sharad Pawar,Union minister of Agriculture and Consumer affairs has no time to think about all these stuff, because,now he is also the president of ICC.He is more concerned about the international business than the national grievances.Nothing wrong,he can continue as ICC president,but he should have quit his minister post.

Now comes the important part of this world cup.India meets Pakistan on March30th in the semi finals.Every govt is taking measures to provide high security to all the stadiums and the cricketers.Irrespective of the outcome of the game,we may expect some clashes in some parts of India(not everywhere)For this no govt can do anything,people should have some sense.Well educated people itself behave like idiots at times,when it comes for cricket,then need not say much about people living in underdeveloped states.

Fine,on April 2nd,the world cup ends.Will the so called 'cricket fever' end with the WC final?It will not end.Because within a week,another big budget gamble called IPL starts.By this time bookies and the franchises might have fixed the winner of IPL,but still will do all sorts of non-sense to gain public attention like what Sharukh Khan did during IPL-2,by appointing someone to leak out the info about KKR,in the name of a blog fakeiplplayer(its not proven that SRK appointed a person to write that blog,but its just my opinion).Too much of cricket will definitely take away the charm and beauty of the game.

Now you people need not think that I am a cricket hater.Am not one.I too like cricket and I had lot of interest in watching cricket matches some years back,but after the match fixing saga and also due to too much of politics in cricket,I really lost my interest for the game.If there is something good which I have observed in cricket means its the following fact.In India we can find unity only at 2 instances.People will forget themselves,their caste, religion, sorrows etc and etc.The 2 instances are when people drink together in a wine shop and when people watch Sachin's batting.No doubt,Sachin is a pride of this nation.One can, not only learn batting techniques,short selection,foot work etc from him,but also decency,dignity and sportsmanship.

My point is,we should be sportive and we should not get emotional,watching cricket.Building a temple to Dhoni,when India wins a world cup or breaking Dhoni's house whenever India suffers a humiliating defeat is an act of madness.Abusing Ashish Nehra's mother and sister(got it as a fwd SMS) for his poor last over is absolute foolishness and it is highly uncalled for.

Let us enjoy cricket and hope that India plays good cricket and wins the World Cup.