A Necessary Debacle

For most of us who watched the death throes of India’s 2007 World Cup campaign, the end came almost as a relief. An act of mercy to put a struggling team out of its misery. One would assume that after that performance even the most optimistic fan would have the grace and common sense to admit that mediocrity cannot and should not be rewarded.

But no. Behold the new Indian cricket fan. The fanatic who demands victory at any cost.
If he is not pleased, he will not hesitate to resort to violence, burn a few effigies, pelt a few stones, or even vandalize property.

Which begs the question, just who are these guys? I mean, are they regular joes like you and me, working in 9 to 5 jobs? Do their bosses sympathize with their emotions and let them take the day off to go burn effigies? Does burning of effigies require organizational skills? Y’know, getting a crowd together, thinking up slogans to shout, making effigies that are combustible enough, not forgetting the box of matches, and so on…? Is there a good time of day for burning effigies?
It’s a whole science, it is.

This rant isn’t about cricket, the game. It’s about cricket, the unhealthy obsession. 

There was nothing shocking about India’s ’shocking’ exit from the World Cup. It was a long overdue and much needed reality check for an over-hyped team and their legions of overheated fans. India could not progress beyond this stage simply because they lacked the ability to do so, and if there is any justice in this world, they didn’t deserve to. This debacle, if it can be called that, will be the proverbial bucket of cold water and put a lot of things into perspective for everybody concerned.
The players will no doubt take this opportunity to introspect on their approach to the game, realize where they stand and how talent and enthusiasm, and the modern game itself, seems to have passed them by. The effigy burners will realize the futility of it all, and hopefully, get a life, and some psychiatric help.

That said, a central villain in this sordid saga of the creation of unrealistic expectations and its commerical milking, is not too hard to find. It is a tabloid-ised, opportunistic and increasingly dishonest Indian media, whose priorities over the last decade have drastically changed…from staying true to time-honoured journalistic standards to staying true to the only thing that matters to them now, their bottom line. Scandal-sheet journalism is the norm, not the exception, especially on Indian television today.

The taunting, sing-song mockery and shameful personal attacks that were on display on what passes for News on Zee Tv International after India’s loss to Sri Lanka underscored this fact. For, just a week ago, the same ’sports correspondents’, with dubious credentials no doubt, were waxing eloquent about ‘a billion hopes’, ‘Dhoni ka dhamaal’, ‘Tendulkar ke antim yudh’ and , of course, incessant and ad nausem, ‘Team India’. And the ads, the unending cricket ads. It’s easy to understand blanket publicity for an event as big as the World Cup, but this was bordering on the vulgar. This was hype with a capital ‘H’. Everybody worth his salt was a cricket expert. From Mandira ‘noodle-strap’ Bedi to Aftab Shivdasani. ’Match Ka Mujrim’ culture had pervaded network television.

Nobody stopped to think, in the middle of all this hoopla, whether the object of all this brouhaha, the Indian eleven, was even  up to the task. Did they actually deserve to be played up as potential winners of the World Cup? Were they good enough? The public were completely swept away by the thinly veiled campaign run by the media houses, coated with copious amounts of jingoism, taking the focus away as far as possible from the actual game of cricket.

One always hears of the immense following that cricket has in India. ‘A religion, not a game’ goes the cliche. But just how true is that? Sure, you’re likely to find millions with enough understanding of the game to debate Dravid’s decision to bat after winning the toss for the most part of a day. But what about the masses who will brave a thousand-strong crowd to get a glimpse of Tendulkar inaugurating a jewellery store, or the screaming, swooning teenage girls at the sight of a Dravid or a Dhoni? What about the effigy burners? What about the people who actually take the effort to write eloquent comments on internet forums, such as ‘f**k off m****ch*d Paki’ in response to a discussion on a match? Are these people representative of the ‘religion-not-a-game’ following that subcontinental cricket is supposed to have? The sad truth is that people stopped loving the game long ago, and are now more in love with celebrities. Cricketers are no longer sportsmen, in the minds of these people. They are their bollywood’ised alter egos, larger than life superheroes. They can do no wrong. And will not be allowed to do any wrong. 

That’s when it starts getting scary. When a loss in a sporting event is taken as personal insult and national humilation. When it becomes a manifestation of your helplessness to influence global opinion in any way. A large chunk of cricket fans in India today see the team as a projection of nationalistic power. Which is by no means a phenomenon unique to India, or to cricket. But eternal optimism aside, ‘fans’ are also rational human beings, and should be realistic.

When hopes crumble, after being built up to a frenzy by an unprincipled media, and an atmosphere of national shame and doom descends on these easily influenced people, anger and frustration spills onto the streets and results in violence and vandalism. It is time now to take a step back and take a hard look, first at ourselves and then at our media. However cliched those five words may sound, it is never to late to realize that IT IS JUST A GAME! Jubiliation and disappointments are part and parcel of every sport. But there is more to life. There is more to being a cricket fan! It’s a glorious game. We must not allow a manipulative media to reduce it to the level of an idle pastime of the cocktail crowd.

~ by Shubho on March 25, 2007.