The fickle side of Indian cricket

It is not easy to decide which is more fickle – 'Team India' (read the Indian cricket team) or its millions of 'patriotic' fans. The fans were, predictably, at it again after India’s upset loss to Bangladesh in their World Cup opener. Dhoni’s house under construction was vandalized, effigies of the superstars were burnt left, right and centre. Then, after ‘Team India’ thrashed lowly Bermuda, the delighted fans at Port of Spain were reported to have mobbed the team bus and strained to get a glimpse of their heroes!

Rahul Dravid, at a press conference prior to the Bermuda match, regretted the threats to the players’families after such defeats. The burnt effigies didn’t worry him-and he was right too,for isn’t effigy burning a national pastime in democratic India? George Bush must be the guy burned in effigy the most times in India, in even the remotest corners, yet somehow manages to take it all in his stride! The difference in the case of the men in blue, of course, is that they are more accessible for these fans, and Dravid was understandably worried about the safety of the players’ families.


If Dravid really thought about the whole thing, he would realize that it was really Corporate India, in close complicity with the visual media, which is responsible for this situation. The sponsors have become very adept at exploiting the passionate – and sometimes mindless - cricket following in the country to their advantage, using the larger than life images of the star players to promote whatever product they want to – biscuits to insurance to posh cars. The players too, they must admit, are willing tools in this game. And the channels, of course, follow the team relentlessly and conduct previews and post mortems with their 'expert panels’ and generally leave the fans in no doubt as to what is happening with their heroes. Expectations are thus raised to a fever pitch, only to be shattered when these stars reveal that they are quite ordinary mortals on the stage which matters –the cricket ground.

The problem thus arises when the quality of performance does not match the quantity of promotion. When a batsman has just got out playing a reckless shot in a tight situation, who wants to see him grinning from ear to ear and sipping a soft drink in the ads five minutes later? What the players can do, to try and alter the situation, is to generally keep a lower profile - even when the team is on top. The catch is, this would mean declining lucrative endorsement offers from the sponsors. Are they prepared to do this? After all the BCCI is not exactly paying them chicken feed for their Tests and ODI appearances and contracts. Until then, one is afraid things will go on like this, with the fans riding the waves of euphoria and hero worship one day and the troughs of despair and destruction the next, in tune with the results the men in blue throw up. One other obvious solution is there- start playing like the Australians and keep winning everything in sight!

The hype generated in association with the Indian Team going into the 2003 World Cup was incredible, but somewhat understandable. After all, India had supposedly the most dashing batting line up in the world and the bowling to support it. And they did carry the team to the finals after an indifferent start. But, after the Aussies put matters in perspective by thrashing India in the final, one assumed the hype would be toned down this time around- especially since the build up of the Indian team to the World Cup had been nothing to write home about. But no, it started ridiculously well in advance, and would have the gullible fan believe that ‘Team India’ were once again favourites for the title -this, when they had lost 4-1 in the Carribean and 4-0 in South Africa very recently.

Perhaps Rahul Dravid, or at least Greg Chappel, should have stood up and admitted frankly that India, far from being favourites, were actually rank outsiders for the Cup – a fact quite evident to the discerning follower of cricket. Such an admission would, in fact, have taken a lot of pressure off the team going into the tournament. Instead, the men in blue chose to go along with all the hype and pretensions, obviously with other considerations in mind. And now, they are paying the price, and unless they manage to progress further in the World Cup, they have to expect more attacks on their palatial properties.

The real issue for the common man/fan is the almost obscene amount of money these cricketers earn, making even our IT professionals appear paupers in comparison. John Wright, in ‘Indian Summers’ describes a meeting with a taxi driver toiling on the roads of Bangalore from 6 am till midnight every day. On learning that he was earning at the most, Rs. 4000 a month, the then Indian coach couldn’t help reflecting that the amount almost represented each Indian cricketer’s daily food allowance! So that’s the issue, but it’s fine with the fans as long as the team is keeping on winning and doing the country proud. To be fair to the admirers, they don’t usually mind even if the team goes down fighting. But once Team India starts playing rubbish -as sometimes only they can- and losing tamely to even lowly ranked teams, they can hardly be faulted for wondering what these blokes were being pampered for.

It is interesting to note that these hysterical reactions from the fans follow mostly India’s performances in the One Day format. I suppose this indicates that these are mostly the new generation cricket fans, brought up on a diet of One Day thrills and who couldn’t care less about Test cricket ( the sponsors and the media are aware of this as well, hence the noticeably milder build up to the longer version games). For me,Test performances have always been more important; I confess I felt like pelting a few stones myself after watching the Indians gift wrap the recent 3-Test series (one which, with some application, they should have easily won 2-nil) 2-1 to the Proteans, having won the First Test comfortably. The only problem was that Sreesanth was the only member residing anywhere near my geographical area, and he was, after all one of India’s few success stories on the tour!


Sreesanth - Kerala cricket's great hope