Indian Sports: Cricket and the rest

When I opened this blog with an article on Sachin Tendulkar, who indisputably is India's biggest sports icon, I had thought that my next article would be about Virat Kohli or about the forthcoming season of IPL5 or may be about Rahul Dravid's retirement(which had not occurred till then but was coming anytime). But, easily influenced as I am like a kid, my yesterday's visit to the evening show of the Bollywood movie Paan Singh Tomar has brought this article up before I could go to anything else in Indian Sports.

The big question is- Do we really treat all sports equally? Don't other sports take a backseat against cricket in India? Can any other sport take the position that cricket has now held for decades? More importantly, is this cricket mania harming other sports and the brand "Indian Sport"? Let's face it- India breathes cricket, cricket brings the largest media and advertising revenues and our biggest national heroes are cricketers- neither Hockey players nor Basketball players. Whether this cricket mania is harming other sports is a matter of deep scrutiny.

Consider this. Indian cricket team is touring Australia the next month. In the very same month Indian Men's Basketball Team tours Japan for a challenger series. ESPN-STAR has to apply for telecast rights. It would get no other advertisers than ONGC, NTPC and the odd Aditya Birla or Reliance groups (less for their business and more for the priestly image they would make out of supporting a non-cricket sport) if it goes for telecasting the Basketball series. At the same time, if it goes for the cricket series, there would be a tussle between Mahindra and Hero for that 30 second advertisement slot during day 2's lunch. Which telecast right would you go for had you been the VP of media rights at ESPN-STAR? Point in context, the problem doesn't lie in the media houses, business houses or the advertisers. If 600 million people opt to watch the Basketball series and not the cricket tour, then the same ESPN-STAR would love to telecast the former in place of the later. Is cricket to be blamed then?

Since the times of our independence, we have lived with cricket. There were the times of CK Naidu & Lala Amarnath. Then came the times of Vijay Merchant, Vijay Hazare, Vinoo Mankad. They were followed by MAK Pataudi, the mighty Sunil Gavaskar & Gundappa Vishwanath. Then came the 1983 Kapil Dev moment which was quickly followed by the modern times of Sachin and the ultra-modern ones of Kohli and brigade.Whichever be the period, India kept breathing cricket. Blessed are the icons who kept pumping new energy into the game's following whenever it seemed to reach its dusk. We cannot take their bit off or blame them for choosing the most popular sport in the country. Andre Agassi grows up watching John McEnroe and aspires to win a Grand Slam. Maradona's fine artistry on the soccer field inspires Lionel Messi and he becomes world's best striker. We can't blame Virat Kohli for choosing cricket as his battlefield when he has grown up seeing Sachin play for India and hammering world's best bowlers.

In the very same line, if we look at Hockey, which after many apprehensions qualifies as our 2nd most popular sport, we find that icons who dominated the world of hockey have been by-and-large meagre in number. Beautiful were the times of Dhyan Chand and his jewels when we ruled the world. Our force deteriorated but we held our ground with the likes of V. Bhaskaran and Mohd. Shahid around. 80s became blank after their departure and if we take the odd Pargat Singh and Dhanraj Pillai out of the last two decades, the hockey icon arena still gives us a deserted look. Rise of the European style of fast paced hockey and our inability to produce artistic gems like the legendary Dhyan Chand to counter that have furthered the misery. All in one, Hockey was in our blood but it could not keep its place in the middle-class Indian household because kids(myself included) preferred watching a Sachin 100 followed by an Indian victory instead of a desperate Dhanraj Pillai trying to net that single goal in the final minutes so that the final scoreline improves to 1-4 from 0-4 (we are human beings after all and love it when our people win).

Therefore, lack of infrastructure, Governmental non-co-operation, nepotism in other games or whatever it is- Cricket kept delivering while others didn't. In a way, it has been like choosing a road to the Republic Day parade at India Gate. You are clueless like a 10-yr old would be when he wants to undertake a career in sports but after much thought, you decide that the one with the highest traffic rush should take you there since- First, some may have reached through that road and hence others are also following and second, since so many have taken it up there must be less pits and hiccups along that road. Why take a chance? I don't term this as "herd-mentality". This, infact, is sound judgement. If I can work hard enough to be Sachin, why should I be the Sachin of Volleyball? Why not the next Sachin of cricket itself? Safe, the country knows about the game, and sure-shot rewarding. Who won't select cricket as a career in place of volleyball where you may have to struggle even if you become volleyball's Sachin? So, its just the way things turned up (and kept turning) for cricket and the game itself is not to be blamed.

The business and media-houses are not to be blamed. We cannot blame the Indian household either where people watched wherever India was winning. Nor can cricket be blamed because it all just happened for cricket. Who then should we blame? We do have our apprehensions about Governmental lack of support for anything other than cricket, lack of quality sports bodies (SAI included), infrastructural problems, corruption etc. but will this blame game serve any purpose? It definitely will if we are looking at India 2050 or for that matter at India 2100. Infrastructure can be developed, sports universities can be established and institutional changes can be made if we are looking at the action plan for the next 50 to 100 years. But, if we wish to see the Indian Men's Basketball Team competing in Olympics 2028 or 2032, I doubt if setting up of new institutions is the immediate answer(it would be great if it so happens). Instead, we should look at taking the current Sandeep Singhs and Tushar Khandekars to the common Indian households so that today's 10-yr old is fascinated by their drag-flicks and becomes next generation's Dhyan Chand. Yes, the "other-sport" heroes are there. All they are waiting for is an introduction to the single TV Indian home. We should look at introducing our Vishesh Bhriguvanshis and Trideep Rais (google them out) to the current 6th standard student so that he comes to know that our Indian versions of Kobe Bryant and Lebron James are also available. The 12 yr-old "shoe-polish waala" in urban Mumbai should hear corporates talking about Sunil Chhetri's hat-trick in the match against Uzbekistan; Baichung Bhutia's upcoming last career match and the kind of phenomenon he has been in Indian football. Again, its not that our Basketball and Soccer heroes do not exist, we are just not willing to let them enter our houses and lives. Yes, Cricket's stars are International but shouldn't we give our National "other sport" stars a chance to inspire the next generation to become truly International in games other than cricket.

Our Paan Singh Tomars are running some 3000m steeplechase in their Military Sports Meets. Lets find them and bring them to our houses. Our kids may become Michael Johnsons and Usain Bolts.

Sachin Tendulkar: Unexplored Angles

In the past few days, a lot of opinions have been floating around on whether Sachin Tendulkar’s 100^th ton is harming Team India? Whether he has become more of a personal milestone man? And on top of all, whether the time has come for him to hang his boots? Let’s try & analyse the phenomenon that Sachin Tendulkar has been in cricket before making an attempt at answering the above questions.

1989, India’s tour of Pakistan, Sialkot Test, a Waqar Younis bouncer hits a 16 yr old kid in the face & the kid starts bleeding profusely. Stretchers arrive but the kid says, “Main khelega” and Waqar is hit for four consecutive fours in the very next over. 1990, India tours England, Old Trafford Test, a clear loss is looming as India loose six wickets with almost nothing on the board by tea. Post tea, the same boy, now 17, hits 119 n.o. & saves the match for India. 1994, ODI vs Australia, Singer Cup, India are about to be knocked out if they don’t win with a good margin. Sachin hits 110, his first century in ODIs & India enter finals eventually beating Sri Lanka there to lift the Singer Cup. 1996, Wills World Cup, the 23 yr old hits 523 in the tournament & sees India till the Semis. In the Semis, he fails. Indian Team fails. 2003, ICC World Cup, Pak post a mammoth 273 on a fast track. Sachn hits 98 in 75 balls and the match becomes a mismatch. And more recently, 2011 World Cup Semis, again Pakistan, Sehwag explodes initially but the little master keeps his cool and sees India till the 37^th over with an 85, playing a support role with all the young dashers. India collapse once he falls but still wins.

Now that we have talked history, let’s also look at some areas of the Saccha-Sachin phenomenon, because that’s what I call him, that have surprisingly remained unexplored till date.

One, the man made his debut in 1989- an era with batting greats like Sunny Gavaskar (recently retired), Javed Miandad, Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge and Salim Malik- when an ODI strike rate in the early 60s was the norm. He maintained a strike rate in the high 80s without the fierce aggression and giant build of somebody like Vivian Richards. As the cricketing world transformed and came to T20s, Sachin remained one of the most dominating run-machines. No one else has matched his ability to adapt with the changes in cricket. Ponting came late, Lara went before the T20 era. In a way, he has been the only link between two vastly different cricketing generations of the classy late 80s- early 90s and the fiercely competitive 2010s-11s.

Two, many say he failed as a Captain. Accepted if you go by the record-book only. But, has there been anyone who has seen more phases of India’s “debacle & rebuilding” than Sachin? 1994, Kapil paaji retired, we started loosing, Azhar-Sachin-Sidhu built up a team and we started winning again. 2000, Match fixing scandal broke loose, Azhar-Jadeja-Mongia went out, Saurav-Sachin built up a team and we started beating the mighty Aussies in their land. 2005, Saurav was dropped & Chappel quit abruptly, Mahi-Sachin built up a team and we became World Champions. And for that matter, isn’t the same debacle happening again with Team India? Do we still have to look for reasons as to why he isn’t quitting?

Three, people are turning to be of the opinion that Sachin is more of a record-man. Consider this, Ind-Pak World Cup 2003 match, Sehwag & Sachin both blasted violently in the beginning. Sehwag threw off his wicket in that rage but Sachin calmed down and took India to complete safety. Isn’t the liberty of being “Sehwag” different from the billion headcount responsibility of being “Sachin”? Or from the fearless aggression of being “Viv Richards”? The 1983 World Cup Final was about to be sealed for West Indies when the immensely gifted Viv Richards played that skier & West Indies lost. How many times have we seen Sachin giving in to such temptations at critical junctures? Point in context, greatness lies not only in the beauty of the shots you play but also in the discipline with which you hold yourself back in the larger interest of the team.

And last but definitely not the least, if we analyse the pattern with which the Mumbaikar has carved his game over the last two decades, we’ll see that these changes have only been driven by team requirements. In the early 90s when India was a 2 runs-per-over test team, he became the aggressive Indian face & India became a 3.5 runs-per-over team. In 2000s, when we started having natural strokemakers like Sehwag & Yuvraj, he became the steady run maker and India became a “320 in 50 overs” ODI team from a “250 in 50 overs” version of it. If you want a “Sehwag” to play a “Dravid”, he can’t. If you want a “Laxman” to play a “Yusuf Pathan”, he too can’t. It is Sachin who can play a “Sehwag” as well as a “Dravid” and still remain “The” Sachin.

As they say, greatness exists all the time but is on display only on a few chosen occasions. Sachin has displayed that greatness on many occasions. Let’s not rush with the recommendation for him to retire; less because he still wants to make India the Windies of the 1980s or the Australia of early 2000s, but more because he knows better than us if he still will be able to do that or not.