The IPL Season 2 is just over and the T20 World cup is on its way. The cricket mania or rather, the T20 fever has broken out large. Yes, its just another game. And in comparison with football, this is too trifling a game, played by hardly a dozen countries in this world. It's chastity was hampered with events like "body line bowling" or "betting scandals." It has offered big money to already-so-rich cricketers and never invested anything substantial for the country's growth. It has been made extravagant over the decades by Cola companies which in turn has looted gullible public by selling them a mere mixture of water and carbon-di-oxide at an exorbitant rate. It has made our once-so-hallowed national game the backbencher. It has so many charges against its name.
But in India, a country with diverse diversities, it's nothing but a religion, preached by people of all other religions. Games and Sports have always urged people to get together at a single venue and share the fun, joy, and excitements. But Cricket has done something unique in this country. Football might have made Bengalis and Goans form the Mexican wave in stadia, people might have been frenzied in parts of Punjab with Hockey. But when Ganguly lofted a ball to the mid off boundary for a six, its not only the Bengalis, who have been enthralled and nor the Marathis alone, when Tendulkar's bat started roaring in high pitch. Cricket had rubbed off the provincial boundaries in India. I say that emphatically as I remember, I felt an indescribable pain when noble cricketers like Dravid or Kumble fought well but finally couldn’t clinch the prestigious IPL2 trophy, and I being a Bengali had no real reason to support a Bangalore based sports team. And I am sure all of you might have had similar instances when you rose above your provincial disharmony and supported team India just because you are Indians. I honestly confess few things here, I haven't cast my vote a single time, I don't usually attend Republic day ceremonies, I forgot when I last uttered the words of "Jana Gana Mana." But when the next time I will have India taking on some other country, Indian ness will be bubbling out from my heart for sure.
Election is just over. And we have seen vote bank politics ruling rampant. Political parties have nominated members with a target to capture votes from a special community or a specific religion. In a SECULAR sovereign democratic country, we all have done mockery of the terms that we use in our constitution to describe our motherland. But have you ever thought of the fact that we never judge their religion to cheer for Harbhajan or Zaheer. Have you ever wondered how many is the percentage of players who are SC/ST/GENERAL or OBC? We never judged, we never divided people on the basis of ancestry or skin colour when we followed this wonderful game that spelt its wand much in the way one contemporary Digital TV ad shows. In that ad, the magician magically turns two remotes to a single one. And in India, Cricket has done the same act, made people unified. And hey presto, "unity in diversity" is no more a vague phrase to use!
The booming economy of India has achieved great heights in eradicating poverty. The country has made numerous plans and programmes to uplift the people of lower strata of the society. But there have been umpteen number of news when people in India starved and died, shivered in cold and slept at footpath never to wake up again. India still, considering the majority, is a poor country. And here we have been accustomed to discrimination on the basis of wealth. The poor and the rich have made boundary walls around them. Their habits, traits and tastes have been dissimilar. And now think of the summer of 2007, India and Pakistan, the archrivals have decided to confront each other once more. Yes, it's the first T20 World Cup Final. 6 runs needed of the last 4 balls, and Yogindar Sharma pumping in with the ball in his hand, and look at that, you can see a sophisticated young lady in the VIP stands of Wanderers, Johannesburg, chanting a prayer to the God. And now look at the rickshaw puller at Burrabazar, Kolkata keeping his pocket radio tight to his ears and praying to the same God. Can you really differentiate between the two pictures? Can you even discriminate the happiness each of them got after the next delivery was bowled? I am sure, you never can. As I said it earlier, Cricket is a religion, preached by ALL. ‘Discriminations’ is a forgotten word.
Cricket has done a lot, and it will do so forever. Nothing can stop it from being the panacea of this strife torn country.
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