NOTE: This is just a personal opinion and based on what I have read and seen in the media . So, just don't take it t00 seriously
28-Mar-07
It has been a long time since I had disturbed by blog space, but I couldn't resist writing this time even if it meant I hadto spend an hour. I had already wasted quite a few sleeping hours watching all the 3 Indian matches all through the night intoearly morning!
A billion hearts were pounding hard as the 'men in blue' were givingtheir final touches against the match with sri lanka. Probably it was too much of an injustice to have put india in a group with Bangladesh and Srilanka.Netherlands and Canada would have been a fairer justice. Well ICC can't really do everything what the 'men in blue' want. By the way whats this 'men in blue'.Probably its right not to call the Indian cricket team with their country's name, or may be the 'men in blue' have long forgotten that when they take thefield they not only take their so called skills, they are taking the nations 'soul and pride' and they can't give it up without a honest fight in the middle.May be their super celebrity status weighs on them more than their cricket gears when they walk to the pitch.
Now, that the hope of a billion people has been crushed, the post mortems have been going on fast and thick. who else to lead it from the front exceptthe modern age news channels we have. Every channel have their own expert panels made up of Imran Khan, Sunny,Arun lal,sir hadlee,Sidhu,Jadeja and many more. To the extent that, It was horrendous to see that Akshay Kumar and Katrina kaif were discusssing cricket with sir Richard hadlee. While Katina wasgiggling all the way not sure what to say, I felt so sorry for Sir Richard that he had to continue his show on cricket somehow with the discussions of shooting efforts of namaste londonalso pitching in. Not sure what on earth sir Richard must have been feeling.
While the news channels were making a mince meat out of Woolmers murder and India's debacle, it was much more horrendous to see the news channelssqueeze the nations passion for the game, by making a big deal out of banglaesh vs bermuda match and giving the viewers hopes of some miraculous chancefor India to get it. Come on how on earth can we even expect such a disgraceful entry to the super 8's at the mercy of Bermuda.And the coverage on Sony Max, there were ads even after the 5th ball. Even if a player bends down to tie his shoes, a commerical break was aired.Is so surprising, how the new channels can just take turns and try to create sensational news just at the spin of a coin.Channels were literally preying on the viewers passion by airing all sorts of contest, in all forms of colour- blue billion, green billion or whatever.Anybody who can speak on Indian debacle or Woolmers murder got air time on these channels!!!, literally.A sample of the hypocrisy that can be seen. Just before the world cup one of the magazines wrote that Vengserkar has revolutionised the selection process.Now at the time of writing this, one of the news channels is broadcasting that reliable quote from BCCI puts the blame on vengsarkar too for the failure.Another sample of what politics can do. While Sharad Pawar was quick to point out that the BCCI will take a hard look into the players and coach's performanceand strict actions will be taken on the day India lost to Srilanka, but yesterday he was squarely blaming the media pressue for the team's failure and players shooting for ads has no bearning!, as ifthe players commitment and skills are of secondary importance. He absolved the players of their deeds.
Why did we fail to make an impressive show at the world cup, even though a billion souls (except one and thats me) were praying for our team to do welland win the world cup. I thought I can save my prayers for a much better cause rather than waste it. As the saying goes 'God helps those who help themselves'.our prayers would have been answered had the men in blue had helped themselves with some dignified effort. Least to say that the team lacked application, some of themen in blue were giggling in the dressing room even after losing to Bangladesh. Lets save our prayers for the ones who need them the most, our soldierswho have sacrificed so much for us for a fraction of what our players get paid, who eventually let us down anyway.
As one would expect, the heads have started rolling, starting from Greg and Dravid being replaced, to forming multiple teams.BCCI has got whatit wanted though, huge sums for telecast rights. Now, its the headache of the Indian business houses to figure out how to make ends meet and recovertheir costs. All of a sudden the sunfeast featuring sachin is now featuring the king Khan. World cup laao ad has gone underground. Indian tourism is makinga loss of 30 crores, event organizers are said to lose lot of money. Broadcasters are being pepped to lose 150 crores and so on and so forth.
It was rather apalling when Greg Chappell said that he is answerable only to his employer BCCI. By the way what does BCCI do? Its only asset is the passionof the nation for the game. Ultimately all the cost of broadcasting fee (apparently BCCI was paid 612million dollars) are borne by sponsors, who pay huge sums for ads on televsions and for the players who are their brand ambassadors. And its no rocket science to tell that the companies are not shelling out such huge sums out of their pocket as a charity. Ultimately, the cost in pocketed by the customers and thats us. The price we pay for a product ultimatley is inclusive of not only taxes, but also the price for ads being produced and aired, and the huge sums being paid to the players. Its all because of the passion of the nation for the game. If BCCI's riches (and Greg Chappell's salary)were not dependent on the paying public, then our own national game hockey which is in doldrums would not be governed by an improverished Indian Hockey Federation.
On the positive side, as some of the mail forwards which most of us would have seen, the early exit has helped save valuable electricity and productive man hours ;).May be this debacle would have instilled some sense of common sense into the minds of the sponsors who pay ridiculous prices to rope in the models in blue for their ads,which might even backfire as it has done now!
-Madan
