I SHED MY TEARS

As an Indian I am really sick and tired of all this quite introspective talk of cricket. When the poor have been starving to death in India and prices of all commodities shooting up so high out of control, the nation and state are busy in sweeping, swabbing and drying the stadium at Kochi.
India is cricket, is a misconception held by many in the country itself. Commercialization of cricket has undoubtedly made this misconception. Has cricket the potential to entertain the average and the poor lot of India. Cricket got transformed in to mere gambling. The only acceptable moral response is to put a ban to cricket till it furnishes proof of redeeming itself. Many may think that a ban would be too harsh akin like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Sure it could be like. If a lot is saved by such an action, it must be made a rule. India has become both home to the cricket world’s greatest ill gained riches and its largest illegal betting syndicate. The parasitic relationship between players and sports agents has reached alarming proportions. It’s a seething mass of greed and official complicity, of agents trying to fully monetize the skill in the race to sign young talents. All possible should be done to keep filth out of the system. Punishment meted to the spotted guilty (players and agents) should be severe enough to act as a deterrent. A law specifically against wrongdoing in sport will help well. There’s no harm in having such a law, because match-fixing is happening far too often.
Cricket in India has earned a lot of money for people who made cricket their business. The popularity of cricket in India has made Indian cricketers extremely popular and rich. However, we can see a negative of this over-importance and over-glorifying of cricket in India that is the negligence of other sports in India. India is actually a hockey-playing nation where Indians used to emerge as champions in hockey. Hockey is the national game of India and not cricket.(A non gambling game also)
India winning the finals in international hockey tournament is a proud moment for our country. But the ignorant, stupid and insensitive public whose love is only for cricket did not cheer, nor did they care about the achievement. Even the media refused to give the deserving note for the achievement because it wasn’t as money-pulling as cricket. Cricket has made our nation a sport weakling. Present day cricket is very bad for the nation and it will turn our country into a sports failed nation. If we need to show ourselves as a strong, powerful nation, we need to change this attitude. The government should spend more on new football fields, swimming pools, tennis courts, badminton courts and other facilities, instead of spending so much money on new cricket stadiums. Or else the coming generations will not forgive us for believing that our glorious nation has nothing but crummy corporate cricket to offer.