CRICKET in India: A Game or Religion - ब्रह्मज्ञान

It will not be wrong to say that craziness about Cricket has made it a religion in India. British brought Cricket to India; they have gone but left cricket here. In England Cricket was a royal game in those days. Cricket-mania spread in Indian mind after national team won Cricket World cup in 1984 in the leadership of Kapil Dev. Television and communication revolution made this game more popular among Indians. After watching it on television children started playing it in streets and villages. As Cricket became famous, people started recognizing cricketers. They started judging their batting, bowling and fielding. They started discussing on them. In this way people became crazy and mad about Cricket. Every village made its team which used to play with another team of other village. Tournament started being held on local city level. In this way many youths copied national Cricket and choose their ideals.

Cricket became religion of Cricket-lovers.

Cricketers became as famous as any hero. Today cricket has become an addiction and sign of status. As Cricket became addiction, it also became a big business for richest people of India like Ambani and Shahrukh Khan. In this way the formation of Indian Premium League took place in India. Over the night of formation of IPL cricketers became the most expensive products of the world market. Businessmen bought them for their team in crores. In this way cricket became the most profitable business. Many bollywood figures like Shahrukh Khan and Pretty Zinta also invested in this business. Before this craze of Cricket children used to dream to become civil servants and after it they started dreaming to become cricketers. It was just natural as cricketers are very famous and are earning good money by just hitting the ball by bat.

It was really a miracle that Cricket which begun like a British game soon became religion. This religion was without God until Sachin Tendulker made hundred centuries, then media projected him as the God of Cricket. Cricket has many demerits also. People are wasting money and time on it. They are becoming blind for it. It has also given birth to international monitory fraud and gambling. Recent gambling has exploited this game and its values. Mayappan the son-in-law of BCCI president was caught in match fixing and gambling. Match fixing destroys the value of this game and makes it totally a black business. In match fixing the gamblers sitting in stadium rules the hands of players which exploits the game and also hurts the emotion of people. Our government should make some laws to make Cricket a true game and totally remove the gambling on it.

Cricket affected the mind of human very much. It has become the most popular game of human civilization. The recent death of an Australian cricketer by bouncer still shows that this game does not agree with the safety norms. Bouncers must be banned in Cricket. It does not agree with the norms and rules of true game. Bouncers may be a drug for excitement for the people those are watching it but it is a case of life and death for cricketers. Bowlers up to now can throw two bouncers per over. They are allowed to hit the ball on the batsman’s body to decoupage him but it can lead to harmful injuries. So bouncers must be banned in Cricket and if someone still throws bouncers he must be punished for it.

Cricket has traveled a long distance from long boring test matches to one day and now twenty-twenty Model. Twenty –Twenty model of Cricket is very famous among people as it gives more entertainment and excitement to watchers. Dancing girls in Cricket matches is also a bad tradition for cultural Indian audience. In fact it is way to collect more crowds. This tradition materializes female body and exposes it for money which is against the norms of a real game. Cricket should remain a game so that we can gain a true profit from it. It should not become a business or a way of our mental slavery. Over craze of cricket is also harmful for us so Cricket should remain a game and not a religion. Then only we can do justice with this game.

Who is responsible for Match fixing?

• Our Media which highlights cricket and cricketers
• The Audience which is crazy for cricket
• The match-fixer, who is just utilizing a good business opportunity

All of them are responsible including the audience, which provides opportunity to match-fixers to utilize a good business opportunity and earn profit. Our craziness for cricket made it an addiction for our mind and a good businessman utilized that opportunity. There is a good example to make you understand this thing. All modern kids are crazy for cartoon characters like Doreamon and Chota-Bheem. Businessmen utilize this opportunity and made toys of these cartoon characters. Businessman knows it that when kids will see these toys, then they will ask for these toys and their parents will have to buy them. Same thing is with cricket. We are crazy for it and a good businessman can easily find ocean of opportunities in this game. Match-fixing is just an illegal type of business with a lot of profit.

What happens when we lose a game / series ?

When our team loses a match or series we become frustrated and start abusing cricketers. Public screams slogans in front of their home and sometimes throws eggs and tomatoes on them. Media or TV channel also behave in same manner. They discuss much on such matters and search the reasons in scientific way. They call experts to give their statements. Audiences feel that they wasted their time if the team loses match or the series. Both the public and media criticize players very much on such occasions. This is our wrong attitude towards. Games are either won or lost. It’s a 50-50 chance. If this time they are losing, then next time they may win. We should not consider a game as a war between two nations.

How cricket has degraded value of other games like hockey and kabbadi?

Fame and publicity of cricket has proved to be harmful to other games. The existence of other games is at danger today. Even our national game Hockey has lost its place and respect. Indian local game Kabbadi is just near disappearance from the earth. Our medal records in Olympics and commonwealth games show how serious we are about other games. Money is the factor which kept the cricket on the peak. Cricket is the royal game and cricketers the royals. Cricket also earned much fame and money through Indian Premium League. If same experiment can be conducted with other games we can evolve our other games also as high as cricket. Pro Kabbadi is such a experiment being conducted with Kabbadi. This will certainly increase our awareness about other games.

Sports are meant to be played, not just to be seen. They are to increase your health, not to keep you sitting on a sofa for hours. Cricket and cricketers should not be considered as a religion and god. If we will not change now then there will be no other game in India.