Rivalry or Hatred... ?

Okay. It is a well known fact that India is a cricket-crazy country. And at times the craziness bit seems to take on an unbelievable magnitude. But even this craze takes a turn towards the ultimate levels of lunacy once the Indian cricket team takes on the team from across the border.

It is always good for any sport to have a fierce but healthy rivalry between two teams. The English and Australian cricket teams have fought tooth and nail over the historic ashes. Argentina and Brazil have had a history of locking horns in Latin American football. Barcelona and Real Madrid have an equally absorbing rivalry on the football field as was the rivalry between the basketball teams of the USA and the erstwhile USSR.

A healthy rivalry is supposed to bring out the best in the participating teams. But instead, a cricket match between India and Pakistan brings out utmost levels of lunacy from within the fans of the two countries. In fact, those who do not even follow cricket turn into fanatics on the day of an India-Pakistan cricket match. An example of this was seen when some morons broke into a fight in an Australian pub right after the India-Pakistan match.

It is good to support and cheer one’s own team. But pathetically, the thing that people find more pleasure to indulge in is to ridicule the opponent. And it is not just the players from the opposite team but its followers who are targeted with all the insult and abuse. It is as if the supporters are happier for the opponent’s loss rather than their own team’s victory.

India and Pakistan have been more than just uncomfortable neighbors. They’ve been at war more than just once. But over the years, people on both sides of the border have seemed to develop a strange abhorrence towards each other. A sense of loathing that has been increasing with every generation. It is almost reaching a point of complete intolerance towards each other.

But when one tries to ascertain the reason and logic behind such hatred, one is at a loss to find specific answers. There are certain issues that seem to be valid and require serious thought from both the sides to reach a proper solution. But the truth is that the majority of population in both the countries leads a similar kind of life trying to cope with everyday problems.

There is a genuine problem of terrorism that plagues both the countries. But instead of accusing each other and going to war, people on both sides need to come together to tackle the menace. For this to happen, there needs to be a certain sense of trust to prevail between citizens from both sides to be able to come together.

But the extremely crazy reactions from fanatics from both sides to an India-Pakistan cricket match destroy all hope of trust and understanding between the citizens of both the countries. People today have actually never given a thought to the reason for their hatred towards the neighbor country. They simply follow what they see everywhere around themselves.

It is not actually cricket. It is not also the joy of the team’s victory. It is more about the loss of someone who is loathed. Bursting crackers and going absolutely berserk on social media are just the obvious symptoms of this deep seated lunacy. Because if it was the good cricket being played by one’s own team, then every victory irrespective of the opponent would be celebrated with equal joy.

An India-Pakistan match should be a source of a healthy sporting rivalry, not a source of strengthening the already prevalent hatred between the two countries.  

(Image Courtesy : Google Images)

At Any Cost...

So, MSD has finally called it quits as far as the longer version of cricket is concerned. As has happened countless times in the past, as soon as the team starts doing badly, people start discovering villains. And more often than not, it is the captain who is given all the blame.

Actually, the crux of the problem it seems is that people cannot accept a loss even if it occurs in a sport. If it wasn’t about winning some AND losing some, sport wouldn’t have been sport in the first place.

For a lot many years, it was taken for granted that if the Zimbabwe team was playing a cricket match, it was certain to lose it. Not that the Zimbabwe players didn’t give their best. It was just that the other teams were better than them. But still they kept on trying until they started winning and people started taking them seriously. The opposite was taken for granted for the once indomitable West Indies team.

In sport, people and teams face defeats. But more than the result, it is the game itself that provides all the joy and entertainment. Supremely talented sportspersons lose, but they still provide moments of bliss to those who watch them play. The final result of a game just adds to the excitement and just adds up in the record books.

But we, the people of today are obsessed with the result. And that too a positive one. People are happy as long as the team wins. Even if it wins on the basis of a stupid rule after the game being interrupted by rain.

So it’s no wonder that people want a person who provides them with wins. At any cost. And this goes not just for sport but even about political leaders of the country.

Another thing which is baffling is how we spontaneously equate talent with leadership. We take it for granted that a player who is more talented in playing skills than others will automatically be a better leader. We did this with Sachin Tendulkar. But he was intelligent and insightful enough to understand the difference between talent and leadership.

A leader in sport is not always the best player of the team. He is someone who can bind the players as a team and is able to extract the maximum out of them in terms of performance. He is one who inspires the team in times of low confidence. And above all, he should be someone who conducts himself as an ambassador of his team and country in a respectful way.

MSD was is the example of a leader in the true sense. Not losing his cool and maintaining a level head even in tough situations were the qualities exemplified by him.

But I would personally never like to have the leader of a group of players who represent my country as a person who doesn’t even know the basic levels of decency while on the playing field. Ricky Ponting was a very talented cricketer. And a highly successful captain too. But was he a good ambassador for cricket or his country ? NO !

It is extremely sad to see how people prefer a misbehaving (though highly talented) captain to lead and represent the country. Maybe because they expect him to produce victories for the team which eventually add up in the record books. For people today, a victorious result brings a strange sense of satisfaction irrespective of how the game was played. After all, people are obsessed with victories. At any cost.

 

(Image Courtesy : Google Images)

It's a Boy Girl Thing...

Recently, while visiting my relatives in another town, I came across a rather strange situation. My sister-in-law (my younger cousin’s wife) suggested a visit to a nearby Mughal monument. But since my brother had taken the car to work, we had to manage on my sister-in-law’s two-wheeler for our ride. Having not ridden a two-wheeler in about ten years, and being an alien to the roads and traffic of another city, I preferred to ride pillion with my sister-in-law who is used to riding to work on her two-wheeler everyday.

Before, during and after our small journey, I came across many reactions from people who saw me riding pillion behind a girl. Right from the neighbors, the traffic policemen to the guy at the parking, people reacted as if they were highly amused at the scene.

Which makes me wonder, why is it considered so unusual for a female driving a male on a vehicle. Why is it so ingrained in our psyches (specially males) that it should always be the male to drive a vehicle while traveling with a female ? Is it just an ego issue ? If so, then why ?

Even during college days, it was a common sight to see dating couples zoom around on motorbikes. But I don’t recall seeing a guy riding pillion behind a girl, even though many of those girls were used to riding their own vehicles when alone. I guess they were too scared of being the laughing stock if they tried going against the ‘norm’.

Why are people stuck with stereotyping absolutely normal everyday tasks with gender ? I realized that we have been unconsciously promoting such stereotypes into people’s minds right from childhood.

For example, during our school days, both girls and boys were encouraged to participate in sports. While girls were quite active in sports like badminton, table-tennis, basketball and athletics, but when it came to sports like football and cricket, it was absolutely out of bounds for girls. And no one ever even dreamt of girls participating in boxing. But haven’t we heard of a certain multi-world-champion called Mary Kom ? Why shouldn’t schoolgirls be allowed to play football or cricket ?

And also, we never used to have any mixed doubles matches for badminton, tennis or table-tennis at school. Boys and girls were never allowed to consider that they can actually compete together against one another. Though one thing which I still remember about our school’s annual athletic meet was the absolutely exciting relay race in which each team used to comprise of four girls and four boys in alternate succession.

Why can’t girls compete in the same game against boys ? Agreed sports like football are high contact sports, but why not cricket ? Or for that matter, basketball, handball, volleyball or water-polo ? And I don’t mean a team of girls competing against a team of guys. But we can have teams comprising of both the genders competing against each other.

As the student in-charge and treasurer of our college sports society, I proposed such an idea during our annual sports fest. I suggested for a “Six-a-side” cricket competition in which each team would comprise of three girls and three boys. Amazingly, this idea was taken up like hot pancakes as participation poured in and we had an amazing and fun-filled day of cricket. I did tweak the rules of the game to make it a level playing field for girls. But it was pleasantly strange to see so many girls wanting to play cricket, something which they are usually denied right from childhood.

Strangely, most of my team-mates from the college cricket team gave it a miss. I came to know that they were very uneasy sharing a cricket field with girls. In other words, they felt too manly to compete with girls in something that is considered exclusively a men’s game. Maybe they were shy to hit a ball from a girl bowler or just too ashamed by the thought of being hit by a girl batswoman. But to their own surprise, most of the matches were closely contested with girls proving a handful for the boys.

Me, (in the blue pullover) clarifying the rules before our team's match

I feel that such a concept of mixed gender sports would actually help in discarding at least a few of the male-female stereotypes and would perhaps help in neutralizing the sense of ego that many males grow up with. If not those, at least such a concept would help curb the practice of sledging and misbehavior on the field.

Sports can be an effective tool to promote mutual respect between the two genders. Specially since stereotyping is probably the biggest hurdle in the path of achieving gender equality.

Image courtesy : Google Images

The Ungrateful Indian Cricket Fan...

So, it has finally happened ! We, the great Indians have managed to do it yet again. Only this time, it seems so many fold more preposterous.

Sachin R. Tendulkar has finally called it quits as far as one-day international cricket is concerned. Something which would comfort and console a lot of ‘well-wishers’ of Indian cricket. It has been for a long time now that people who consider themselves cricket intellectuals have been demanding for Sachin to retire. And the reasons for this demand have ranged from age-issues to dip in form and about making way for youngsters.

Age ? I didn’t know there was a certain age of retirement for cricketers. Even if a cricketer is absolutely fit and motivated, how does his age matter ? If anyone in the world, it is a cricketer himself who knows the best about his own body. And no other cricketer could analyze the state of his own fitness better than Sachin Tendulkar.

We Indian cricket enthusiasts have forced so many fit and in form cricketers into retirement. A certain Robin Singh, who is more than double the age of many current Indian cricketers is still fitter and more agile than them in the field. Yet we forced him to retire because of his age long ago.

People seemed to have got bored with Sachin. I wonder why we never get bored of the non-performing over-aged politicians of the country as well.

It is us Indians who made the man a ‘God’. And then we expected him to work wonders every time he walked out to bat. And just when we saw signs of him being human, we wanted him out. Talking of form, Sachin (being out of form for months) still has better statistics during these last months than many ‘young’ batsmen in the Indian team.

But we are so obsessed about our country. We want victories. We want to be proud. I wonder how many of such proud Indian cricket fans can remember the date when India was ranked the No. 1 team in ‘Test cricket’. Or how many people remember the number of days ‘Team India’ remained at rank No. 1 ?

But still we want victories. We want to be No. 1. Even if after a victory we forget about it in a couple of days. But how many of us can forget what Sachin did on that stormy night in Sharjah ? Or that six he hit off Shoaib Akhtar at Centurion in the 2003 World Cup ? Or the first double-century in one-day cricket ? Or the amazing set of innings in the 1996 World Cup ? The list is endless. And also unforgettable. The records which he set will stand at the top of the world for generations with (IND) written along his name. Something which would be permanent. Wouldn’t that be what would make any Indian proud whenever and wherever ?

There were talks of Sachin being selfish. The popular concept going around was - ‘one should retire when one is at the peak of form rather than at a time when out of form’. Now, aren’t these two contrasting logics ? I always thought, if one retires at the peak of his form, isn’t one being selfish to put himself first by going away with everything good around him for the sake of his image ? Shouldn’t he be rather serving the country when he is at his best ? And Sachin endorsed exactly this logic sometime back when asked about his retirement.

People have become completely materialistic. I think us Indian don’t even know what happiness is. Consider the following two scenarios.

[Scenarion A]

The Indian Team scores 300 singles batting first in a one-day match. And then restricts the opposition at 180 for 2 in their 50 overs and wins the match.

[Scenario B]

The Indian Team scores 220 runs being all-out in 40 overs where a Sehwag hits 80 off 35 balls. But loses the match as the other team scores 221 for 9 wickets on the last ball of the match.

Now which of the above scenario would one prefer. I’m sure the average ‘well-wisher’ of Indian cricket looking for pride and victory would happily opt for Scenario A.

It is evident that people have forgotten the essence of sport. While a victory is certainly to be rejoiced, a loss is an experience to learn from and improve oneself to be better prepared the next time. But people today are simply intolerant to loss. The are happy to have hollow victories. Even if they come in the form of a ‘Duckworth-Lewis’ rule.

And for the want of such hollow pride, we don’t even think before dismissing those who gave us moments to cherish for a lifetime.

People say that the veterans have to make way for the youngsters. But where are the youngsters ? There is still not a single replacement of a Dravid/Laxman/Ganguly/Kumble in sight. If there is, he’ll not need to have a way made for him. Sachin didn’t require a veteran to make way for him. Neither did the other greats. Their merit got them through.

People talk of Virat Kohli. Ok. He may have loads and loads and loads of talent. He may help India win many matches. He may even surpass all of Sachin’s records (which I think he never will). But he will never have the same class. And so he will never motivate me.

Class and character don’t come with success. They are inherent to a person. Unlike a Virat Kohli, Sachin never needed to jump in the air, jab a punch and shout abuses when he completed the run for his first century. And neither did he need to after any of his 100 centuries. Humility and discipline are the hallmark of greats such as Sachin, Dravid, Laxman, Kumble, etc. But the Indian cricket fan gives a boot to such virtues.

Dear Indian cricket fan(atic), God gave you a ‘God’, but you couldn’t even respect him. So rejoice, you ungrateful lot, in your delusion of cricket-fanaticism. I’m done with it. What you really deserve is nothing more than ‘IPL’.

(Image courtesy : Google Images)

Autumn Equinox...

It’s not often that at the stroke of midnight, I find myself relishing a full serving of hot biryani for dinner…


And being treated with with Forlan at his very best for Inter Milan in an action-packed game live on tv…


And with my phone to my ear, hearing two girls sing “Happy Birthday to you…” simultaneously over a conference call…

I couldn’t have asked for a much better start to the Autumn Equinox, could I ??? :D :D :D

Hope to finish it off with a grand dinner by the time the day ends ! (That’s the most I look forward to every day in life. :P :D Why worry about the future ? :-) )

P.S. : Equinoxes are the two days of the year when the day and night are closest to being equal. In more technical terms, the day when the sunrise and the sunset are closest to being exactly twelve hours apart.

(Image courtesy : Google Images)

Glorious India at CWG 2010...

The nineteenth edition of the “Common Wealth Games” has concluded successfully at Delhi. Contrary to some impulsive negative publicity amongst the so-called educated Indians all around the globe, the ‘Games’ were hosted superbly.

Personally, I couldn’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance to witness a sporting event of such magnitude. And hence, I booked my tickets for the games well in advance so that I could be a part of the extravaganza.

Though I missed the grand ‘Opening Ceremony’ (as I couldn’t get past the ‘sold-out’ status on the tickets website) there was still lots to experience and enjoy during the events. And Delhi was wonderfully decorated, ready to play host to 70 countries from around the world.

As expected, the ‘Games-venues’ & stadiums were simply magnificent leading to a more than pleasant viewing experience. I had no problem in traveling between different venues, thanks to the efficient ‘Delhi Metro’ which had provided free conveyance to ticket holders during the games.

The many layered security was right on the mark but posed no problems to the viewers. The security personnel all around were vigilant, quick and polite which was sort of a pleasant surprise as compared to that at any cricket ground around India. The young and enthusiastic ‘CWG-volunteers’ were more than helpful and made sure that the spectators faced no problems during the games.

The combination of all these things made for an unforgettable sporting experience where people could admire the talent and hard work of the sportspersons. That was and should have been the centre of attraction of ‘Delhi 2010’.

Before the games had even begun, some people had started a sort of campaign to boycott the games. Just because some corrupt officials of the CWG Organizing Committee had bungled up crores of Government money, people were ready to punish the athletes who had worked hard for years to perform at such an event. The same people would be more than delirious in support when India hosts the Cricket World Cup in early 2011. And then they cry out that sports other than cricket are not supported in India. Simply ridiculous !

But the games went on and were a resounding success which is aptly exemplified by the performance of the Indian athletes who returned with more than hundred medals. And there were even more of them who missed a medal by a whisker. And also those who participated and performed their best. Wouldn’t it have been a great dis-service to all those players and athletes by crying for a boycott of the games itself ?

People shout if some corrupt government officials run away with the tax-payers money. But they are happy to go crazy after an IPL where a certain Lalit Modi scams into thousands of crores just by himself.

It is time people shunned these double standards and catch hold of the corrupt officials instead of trying to demoralize the athletes for no fault of theirs. People find it very comfortable to voice their opinion from the comforts of their homes or offices. But never do they consider the amount of hard work the players put in their training.

Just for an example, Ashwini Akkunji (one of the winners of the women’s 4 X 400m relay gold) hadn’t been to her home for the past one year just in order to train for the games.

It was a moving experience to be in the various stadiums watching the players perform their best to bring glory to their respective countries. It is a heavenly experience when thousands of people stand in respect to one’s national anthem as a result of one’s excellence in his or her sport. And every winner in the CWG 2010 has been lucky to experience just that.

The games were not about money or economy or officials or politicians or anything of the sort. They were about sports and the sportspersons. The sportspersons were and are the real heroes of the games and we should acknowledge their efforts and the glory they have brought to their nation.

The following is a small clip I have created which I dedicate to all Indian sportspersons who have brought glory to India and will continue to do so for times to come.