Cricket is a religion in India. Wait I have heard this line so many times, I have read this line so many times, I guess you too have but then I don’t want the opening line of my blog post as the big question is what all the gentleman’s game has got to make it to the hearts of millions of people or should I say billions of Indians specifically.
It is not our national game, we inherited it from our former rulers, and we love it to the extent that we ignore our national game totally. I differ here; somebody who is a sports lover would watch hockey, tennis, football, base ball, basket ball and stuff. That somebody would not ignore a hockey season if Indian team is doing well.
I remember following (I am a sports lover by all means though I hate baseball) hockey world cup 2010, we were hosting it. Recalling that Germany was the host of World cup 2006 and became the champions too, I wished our team to win the title but unfortunately Aussies won. Huh! Though we won against Pakistan and Australia in first two matches even Spain in the third, reached for quarter finals and lost to Argentina. Bad, Bad, Bad!
As a student, when I was given an assignment on media coverage of Hockey World cup 2006 by my print media teacher. During the project work, I came across number of people were curious about the matches and were fans of our hockey players (Gagan Ajit Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Jugraj Singh to name a few). Until then I thought that people were interested only in cricket and to my pleasant surprise I was wrong.
When Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes won the Wimbledon in 1999, tennis became popular without doubt and when Sania Mirza became a star many youngsters aspired to be her or fell for her and followed all tennis tournaments and matches she played.
Doesn’t Indian cricket lose matches? Yes it does, so many times to nation’s embarrassment. But, then Indian Cricket has got so many stars unlike tennis, one time winner becomes all time winner for the media and people too. As we expected Paes and Bhupathi, Sania to win all matches they play, we expect Yuvraj to take some wickets though he is not a full time bowler, we expect Yosuf to hit big runs though he is not the opening batsman, we expect Virender to score 100 in around half the balls he plays, we expect Sachin to hit a century every time he is on ground, we expect Dhoni to hit helicopter shot on every ball he faces, we expect Harbhajan to bowl a Dursa every time he takes a run-up to bowl. We started to expect the same from Virat, Nehra, Raina…almost everyone who is in the game.
Why every mother wants her son to be like Tendulkar??? As he is the great sportsperson India has got…he is the master of the game he plays…he is the best amongst all on this planet that play the game he plays…he has the maximum in the game…he is the highest score of the game ever on this earth…
As we are about to lose the second match of Cricket World Cup 2011, though it ended in a tie…all I wished was “Kaash Sachin bowler bhi hota!” and papa smiled at me and said, “Kya Kya kare sachin…”
Instead of inspiring to be Sachin…why don’t people aspire to be like him? You may be playing football but you still can be like him by being the best in the game. HOW??? HARDWORK…playing is not that easy one needs to practice all day long…maybe night time too…getting a discipline lesson from Sachin is one thing all payers of all sports can do! Devote yourself fully to the game so as that others are forced to see you and the game you play!
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