| So cricket lovers in this country have been | | | | couple of hearts failed even during this |
| put to an 'insurmountable' agony after the | | | | World Cup defeats, say reports. |
| men in blue wilted once again under a higher | | | | |
| amount of 'insurmountable' pressures powered | | | | There can be other tragedies if the love for |
| by a billion hopes and an equal amount of | | | | the game stretches a bit too long. A few days |
| money thrown in the market. While media is | | | | ago, there was a news item on a Kannada TV |
| busy dissecting the players and the couch, | | | | channel: A young man from Davangere had |
| the common men and women are out on the | | | | developed thought cricket was his life. His |
| streets burning and shoeing the cricket | | | | buddies say he was very good in batting and |
| heroes' posters. And no body seems to | | | | bowling as well. But the tragedy was his |
| remember it was just a game and there is a | | | | cricket skills and love for the game |
| cheese called 'gracefully accepting the | | | | apparently did not translate into a |
| defeat'. After all, the team and the coach | | | | profession and he could not earn money from |
| were not the only people to blame for the | | | | it. Worse, his preoccupation with the game |
| disaster. | | | | did not allow him earn from something else |
| | | | either. The result was disastrous. He became |
| We know the love for cricket in this country | | | | a burden for his poor aging parents who were |
| is not just an innocuous passion. Our intense | | | | growing increasingly intolerant toward his |
| madness toward the game created 'beyond the | | | | addiction. When the World Cup mania started |
| field' players who hijack the game and usurp | | | | gripping the mass across the country last |
| it for money spinning activities. They pick | | | | week, the boy's parent got just too annoyed. |
| players and put them on pedestal. They create | | | | They eliminated their 'useless' son. |
| larger than life images of the game as well | | | | |
| as players. Human aspects of the game get | | | | The malady, the addiction to the game, begins |
| robbed off and the so called icons are | | | | early in life and the remedial process should |
| brought under tremendous pressure to perform. | | | | start there itself. Cricket has become the |
| | | | first and the last game for many kids. Some |
| It is a simple knowledge of psychology that | | | | people may take console in that at least |
| we cannot perform to our full potential under | | | | there is one game which can divert their |
| pressure. But the media and business houses | | | | kids' attention from TV screen engage them in |
| try to whip up a maximum hype and expectation | | | | physical activity. But the parents and |
| in the run up to the crucial matches so that | | | | schools need to make kids involved in other |
| they can 'rake in' the results (read moolah). | | | | games as well. This may go a long way into |
| But all these only add to the pressure on the | | | | making people less cricket-mad. |
| players who are only humans. And they fail. | | | | |
| | | | My request to ardent cricket lovers is please |
| It seems there is a need to reverse the | | | | don't feel ashamed because Team India lost a |
| trend. The common men and women, the couch | | | | couple games in the World Cup. The win would |
| potatoes, and the student community need to | | | | not have made us big in the eyes of other |
| emotionally disassociate from the game. They | | | | nations as we wanted to believe. In fact, we |
| need to look at it as a game and not their | | | | are 'big' in other aspects which is reflected |
| individual or national pride. They need to | | | | in the fact that celebrities and |
| unburden the players off the weight of | | | | philanthropists from developed parts of the |
| iconising and let them play their natural | | | | globe make a bee line to help out people |
| cricket. | | | | here-we are number one in AIDS/HIV cases and |
| | | | we have the maximum number of hungry |
| Many of us are so addicted to cricket and | | | | children. Isn't this some thing we need to |
| need to have regular doses of some winning | | | | feel ashamed of? |
| (by Team India) stories to feel good. But | | | | |
| occasionally it becomes a tad too much like | | | | Craig Willis is an associate staff writer. |
| any other addiction. Some people start | | | | Upon graduation, he started a career in |
| breathing the ebb and the flow of the play | | | | research paper writing and has been providing |
| and there are occasions some of them cannot | | | | quality custom term papers and custom |
| cope with the vicissitude of the play. A | | | | research papers. |