I have grown playing cricket and always thinking it is a Gentlemen's game. The boos of the crowd when a catch goes down and the galore of claps when a sound shot is played or terrific delivery is bowled are the sights that still echo in my hears.
Along with me loosing my childhood, I strongly believe game lost its gentlemen-ship. It became an whore who sways its hips for the smell of currency and dangles the anklets for the sounds of coins. The fairness of the game has long been gone for me when Symmo became a scapegoat for the famous Monkeygate controversy.
You might think me as a fanatic of Australian cricket or an hypocrite who wants to garner people's attention by making statements against the nation where cricket is a religion and cricketers are treated as gods. I too am from the same country and have learnt my cricketing skills from the players like Azhar/Sidhu/Prabhakar/Shreekanth etc., from this country.
I was never disappointed when India lost a match. I only took pride in saying we lost to a better team. The reason being, the game was played like a game, with no overhyped players or sponsors calling cards or any cricketing nations regulation body showing its monetary prowess. It was all controlled by Umpires and in case of any off field allegations (which can be counted on fingers) were strongly handled in the way it has to be without any inclination to any player/team.
I could feel that all changed from the mid 2000's. India clashing out of 2007 WC had incurred huge losses to sponsors. The sponsors were mostly those who had a huge base in India. The money that would have come because of Indian team staying in the tournament alone would have been enough to turn the plates. But that didn't happen as atleast the tournament looked fair and righteous teams played finals.
That tournament clearly showed to entire cricketing platforms that money vests when India stays in tournament. In order to earn that, they have to be kept alive. Never was any tournament incurring losses due to early exit of a team until that time. It clearly exposed to media the monetary power of BCCI.
Coming back to monkeygate trial, the judgement was passed on by ICC ruling Indian player as culprit. The statements got changed overnight and the player was given a clear chit. It marked end of a the world's best fielding all rounder Symo. He never could come back to play as he used to. The game lost its flavor and was rotten due to BCCI inflicting its power of money and making decisions.
I might be questioned for evidences when I say I feel 2011 WC looks to be fixed event. I understand that you all would comeback strongly and oppose me. If possible you would even like to butcher me.
I only ask you to question your conscience and answer whether India was deserving team to become World Champions. The team which gave away 280 plus scores frequently to every team in group stages, didn't give any such score to top teams. Did our bowlers bowl so brilliantly by learning from their mistakes? Definitely not. The bowling was same, the only thing that changed was opponents batting. Neither Aussies played like Aussie, nor Pakistan played like Pakistan nor SL played like them after first 10 overs when they had India derailed. So my presumption is not out of blue moon.
The immediate question would be then why did India loose badly to England , SA or NZ or AUS in bilateral series. It is very simple, there is no way that India is going to be out of the tournament :P
But even that seems slowly coming into the BCCI and its sponsors money minting. They are loosing quite a share when India is loosing badly or tournament is becoming one-sided. That is when I guess, BCCI started its second step of making matches interesting by a second level of fixing. Ensure that better team (obviously the host nation) wins but make sure that India play well at least in a session or two to keep the interest of audience going in India, so that money can be minted by playing with emotions.
I would be an opposite of fanatic to Indian cricket, if I say that all matches are being fixed. The decline in the quality of players in cricketing nations like NZ/AUS/ENG/SA/PAK/SL is also evident. They are loosing the players to other games coz its no more a gentlemen's game. It has money and fame but only when played in India and for India. Hashim Amla, the silent monk of SA has been scoring piles of runs and winning matches for SA but he is never praised as our overhyped Kohli/Raina/Rohit. Kane Williamson another silent youngster who is climbing history records by scoring tons at all touring nations and that too a match saving and turning innings. He is also over shadowed. Reason he doesn't play for India. He doesn't chose IPL over his nation.
This post might seem more confusing and fanatically against BCCI. Let me conclude by saying that, I have not lost hope that the game returns to being a fair and gentlemen's game. I strongly root for a fair WC 2015 at least. If not, my glimmer of hope also will be gone.
Along with me loosing my childhood, I strongly believe game lost its gentlemen-ship. It became an whore who sways its hips for the smell of currency and dangles the anklets for the sounds of coins. The fairness of the game has long been gone for me when Symmo became a scapegoat for the famous Monkeygate controversy.
You might think me as a fanatic of Australian cricket or an hypocrite who wants to garner people's attention by making statements against the nation where cricket is a religion and cricketers are treated as gods. I too am from the same country and have learnt my cricketing skills from the players like Azhar/Sidhu/Prabhakar/Shreekanth etc., from this country.
I was never disappointed when India lost a match. I only took pride in saying we lost to a better team. The reason being, the game was played like a game, with no overhyped players or sponsors calling cards or any cricketing nations regulation body showing its monetary prowess. It was all controlled by Umpires and in case of any off field allegations (which can be counted on fingers) were strongly handled in the way it has to be without any inclination to any player/team.
I could feel that all changed from the mid 2000's. India clashing out of 2007 WC had incurred huge losses to sponsors. The sponsors were mostly those who had a huge base in India. The money that would have come because of Indian team staying in the tournament alone would have been enough to turn the plates. But that didn't happen as atleast the tournament looked fair and righteous teams played finals.
That tournament clearly showed to entire cricketing platforms that money vests when India stays in tournament. In order to earn that, they have to be kept alive. Never was any tournament incurring losses due to early exit of a team until that time. It clearly exposed to media the monetary power of BCCI.
Coming back to monkeygate trial, the judgement was passed on by ICC ruling Indian player as culprit. The statements got changed overnight and the player was given a clear chit. It marked end of a the world's best fielding all rounder Symo. He never could come back to play as he used to. The game lost its flavor and was rotten due to BCCI inflicting its power of money and making decisions.
I might be questioned for evidences when I say I feel 2011 WC looks to be fixed event. I understand that you all would comeback strongly and oppose me. If possible you would even like to butcher me.
I only ask you to question your conscience and answer whether India was deserving team to become World Champions. The team which gave away 280 plus scores frequently to every team in group stages, didn't give any such score to top teams. Did our bowlers bowl so brilliantly by learning from their mistakes? Definitely not. The bowling was same, the only thing that changed was opponents batting. Neither Aussies played like Aussie, nor Pakistan played like Pakistan nor SL played like them after first 10 overs when they had India derailed. So my presumption is not out of blue moon.
The immediate question would be then why did India loose badly to England , SA or NZ or AUS in bilateral series. It is very simple, there is no way that India is going to be out of the tournament :P
But even that seems slowly coming into the BCCI and its sponsors money minting. They are loosing quite a share when India is loosing badly or tournament is becoming one-sided. That is when I guess, BCCI started its second step of making matches interesting by a second level of fixing. Ensure that better team (obviously the host nation) wins but make sure that India play well at least in a session or two to keep the interest of audience going in India, so that money can be minted by playing with emotions.
I would be an opposite of fanatic to Indian cricket, if I say that all matches are being fixed. The decline in the quality of players in cricketing nations like NZ/AUS/ENG/SA/PAK/SL is also evident. They are loosing the players to other games coz its no more a gentlemen's game. It has money and fame but only when played in India and for India. Hashim Amla, the silent monk of SA has been scoring piles of runs and winning matches for SA but he is never praised as our overhyped Kohli/Raina/Rohit. Kane Williamson another silent youngster who is climbing history records by scoring tons at all touring nations and that too a match saving and turning innings. He is also over shadowed. Reason he doesn't play for India. He doesn't chose IPL over his nation.
This post might seem more confusing and fanatically against BCCI. Let me conclude by saying that, I have not lost hope that the game returns to being a fair and gentlemen's game. I strongly root for a fair WC 2015 at least. If not, my glimmer of hope also will be gone.
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