CRICKET : Religion for Indian public , means of earning means for cricketers

Few years back , 22 players were playing , thousands of people in the stadium watching and millions and millions of people watching on T.V or Listening commentary on Radio during 10 a.m to 5 p.m and at night same number of people discussing what has gone wrong in today’s game and what the captain or a particular cricketer or a selection committee should do. All these were going on for 5 days. You know about what game am I talking ? TEST MATCH CRICKET in India. Now a days popularity of test match cricket is going down and down because of one day and T-20 cricket .
Cricket is not a game in India but a religion . One should say , people not only enjoy but worship Cricket. Not only cricket ,people worship cricketers too. For Instance , You will find temples of cricketers in India . “Sachin Tendulkar is God In India “ said by Shain Warn. People sacrifices their time , business , sleep for cricket. Thousands and thousands Gather for hours at the hotel where the cricketers stay ,just for a glimpse of their heroes. During the match people pray and on fast for Indian team. During world cup people kept BADHAS , means they will not eat their favourite food until India wins or they Will visit some religious place which is several km. far , on foot. When ever India wins a major game or a tournament, every Indian is on the road what ever the time it is. Whether it is winter night or scorching heat or raining, everybody is on the road shouting slogans for hours and hours running around or on their vehicles.
Is this not enough for us to believe that CRICKET is a religion in India ?
Now lets talk about our cricketers . What is Cricket for them ? In the beginning cricketers also worship the game. Play the game with great enthusiasm, emotion, and for the national pride. But after becoming an established player they turn soft , modest and money oriented . They get too much media attention , heroines of Bollywood pursue them all the time , long list of big companies eager to sign contracts With them. This is fair and obvious , nobody should have an objection for this but the problem is, everything is in excess . Because of this excessive attention, popular cricketer can’t spare enough time for practice. And these days to perform consistently at the international level requires a lot of hard work , concentration , devotion , sacrifices of the cricketer and his family and a little bitof luck too. So what happens , after reaching top level , a player can’t maintainhis level and performance. Why ? Because of less practice technical problems begin to creep into his game. Less practice - less confidence , less confidence - less positive attitude and weak body language and because of all this during the match you become apprehensive and easily intimidated by aggressive and hostile opponent . At the end journey of a great player come to grief . I Know after becoming a celebrity it is very difficult to avoid all these temptationions and glamour, but one can regulate it, minimize them so they can not affect player’s game . lately cricket is a very much mental game. And not only technique but players should emphasize on physical fitness and temper and for all these u need a lot of practice , concentration , devotion etc.
Australian cricket team visiting India within a month . Their fast bowlers studding videos of our batsman , what are the loopholes, where they get caught most , How can we get rid of so cold great Indian batsman cheaply , which delivery they find difficult to deal etc. Their batsman most of the time in the net trying to over come any defect in playing spin bowling, whole team along with their coach working very hard on fielding and physical fitness. And what about us ??? Our cricketers busy in shootings of advertisements , busy with T.V. shows where they are dancing and playing with models , attending personal factions like marriages of big people , busy with opening ceremony of shops and malls , late night parties and so on . And during all these if they find little time , they give that to cricket . So Indian public rightly doing all these prayers and Badhas , because our cricketers desperately need that . May God help our team.
Not only cricket , in other game also we can observe this . For example lets
say Tennis. Sania Mirza she has a potential to concur 1 or 2 or 3 position in the
world but what happened ? After became 30 in the world she is going down and down . She has fitness problems too . what is in the root of all these ? Less exposure to the game and less devotion.
I desperately hope and pray that our Olympic medal winners stay away from all these. Because I have seen our medal winning boxer in one of the T.V. show already . Players of other countries have already started preparations for next Olympic.
Jay Hind