" Cricket has been part of Indian sports and culture ever since the World cup victory of 1983.
Cricket became the breath of each Indian when Sachin Tendulkar entered International arena.
Indian Cricket grew under the effective leadership of Sourav Ganguly.
Kolkata,Laxman,Dravid,Harbhajan- took India to higher standards of cricket" and finally
Dhoni and Co took us to the greatest heights of cricket"
These are certain views or opinions which can be heard all over India. One aspect which relates all these views together is cricket. One difference is that, it is hard to find a large group of people who will agree with all of these as the combined reason for popularity in India. One fact is that these views change according the generations who were able to taste the reap of Indian cricket in respective periods. You can strongly say that there are few more lines to be added before the beginning to make it complete. Accept my sincere apologies if i miss any, i know it will be "many".
Cricket has been living its life through different generations with different resources postured as legends in history. In India cricket is like a television, a luxury once, became a want, and a necessity now, in terms of its popularity. One can point out a lot of factors which made it so, but no complaints except that, no other sports or game in Indian enjoy such a high fan base. Statistics would represent a shrub near rosewood. All the above quotes mentioned made it better and better.
One may easily state that the golden period of Indian cricket will be over once the "Cricket God" hangs his boots for ever. But stop for a minute, there is one missing point. What about the fan following- not towards players but towards the different formats of game.One who have witnessed the epics of test cricket of Indian team can easily say that test cricket is on verge of extinction in India. The culprit is none other than IPL and T20. India's international T20 assignments are not the crime factors but the domestic and collaborated T20 festivals are the ones in the script.
Globalization- what has it to do with domestic cricket in India?. At first it was heard that foreign players would be part of Indian Ranji Trophy tournament. But later on IPL was born. It began at the right time when team India lifted the not so followed format in 2007. Rest is history. Standing in the sixth edition of the league, people are enjoying their holiday season by making their attendance in arena and before televisions. The attendance of 45,000 people for the irrelevant match between Delhi and Pune- where were they when Indian played against Australia and England at home? OK with working days, but what about the weekends?
Time is running short. Who would like to spend 8 hours on a hot day watching players in white colors all around? So they made their choices. Go for the entertainers and watch quick scoring, lot of boundaries, and lot of sixes. So here comes our revolutionary character- Christopher Henry Gayle. How he is here, What he was before is nothing for an Indian cricket fan these days, sorry- IPL fans. People love him, hate him, stop. It is not for his contribution to the legacy of cricket which would be written in history for people to be born, but for the so called "massive" items from his bat in IPL.
A number of 175 is something- which will earn a great ovation from crowd in Tests, a symbol of greatness within a player in ODIs. But what if, it is within a period of 20 overs. "Massive entertainment" more likely a "highlights" of a game showing boundaries and sixes.. So how is it going to affect the game of cricket in India. I would like to bring an incident which happened to none other than Rahul Dravid.-a person known for his impeccable contribution to test cricket in India. "My sons want me to play like Gayle"- this is what he said recently after retirement. This is a warning from an innocent mind that easily falls in love with the colorful toy.
One can't simply complain the approach of people towards a specific format which literally contributes nothing except in terms of money. No one can simply point out a game as the first match of his life. Only if, he starts following the game in the late periods of his childhood. So what is going to happen when a kid see Gayle hammering bowlers to bring down a bunch of records. The kid gets attracted to the person and the format at the instant. He/she (He in most cases in India) expects the same sort of entertainment from all the games he watch and all the players, in the sense of scoring. Bowlers may not get respect in his view. It may take some time for him to learn what the real competition between ball and bat is. Test will make him feel as a boring 5-day event. Second session will be the time for him to take a snap after lunch. He would expect more than one Gayle in tests. Free hits and power-play will become unavoidable.What else.
This innings from Gayle may have laid a strong foundation in many of the young minds in India. They can't be neglected. "As a 10 year old I grew up watching Kapil Dev lifting the World Cup for India and it inspired me a lot in my life"- these words from Dravid reminds us the fact that a whole lot of ten year old-s will have watched Gayle storm and naturally they may have laid a memory or inspiration for the future. They may not necessarily understand what real cricket is and how a player is being evaluated in terms of greatness in the game. But many of them may aspire to become the future gayle-s without a second thought.
"Many people may say test cricket is the ultimate challenge. But I prefer T20". These words from Gayle are already in effect. He did no harm to other formats in any manner, but he did in the way he approaches T20 format. He can't be made a villain to other formats. But a savior in some sense if he continues to approach other formats in the same way and reap the same amount of results. May cricket Gods bless him for that to happen.....
Cricket became the breath of each Indian when Sachin Tendulkar entered International arena.
Indian Cricket grew under the effective leadership of Sourav Ganguly.
Kolkata,Laxman,Dravid,Harbhajan- took India to higher standards of cricket" and finally
Dhoni and Co took us to the greatest heights of cricket"
These are certain views or opinions which can be heard all over India. One aspect which relates all these views together is cricket. One difference is that, it is hard to find a large group of people who will agree with all of these as the combined reason for popularity in India. One fact is that these views change according the generations who were able to taste the reap of Indian cricket in respective periods. You can strongly say that there are few more lines to be added before the beginning to make it complete. Accept my sincere apologies if i miss any, i know it will be "many".
Cricket has been living its life through different generations with different resources postured as legends in history. In India cricket is like a television, a luxury once, became a want, and a necessity now, in terms of its popularity. One can point out a lot of factors which made it so, but no complaints except that, no other sports or game in Indian enjoy such a high fan base. Statistics would represent a shrub near rosewood. All the above quotes mentioned made it better and better.
One may easily state that the golden period of Indian cricket will be over once the "Cricket God" hangs his boots for ever. But stop for a minute, there is one missing point. What about the fan following- not towards players but towards the different formats of game.One who have witnessed the epics of test cricket of Indian team can easily say that test cricket is on verge of extinction in India. The culprit is none other than IPL and T20. India's international T20 assignments are not the crime factors but the domestic and collaborated T20 festivals are the ones in the script.
Globalization- what has it to do with domestic cricket in India?. At first it was heard that foreign players would be part of Indian Ranji Trophy tournament. But later on IPL was born. It began at the right time when team India lifted the not so followed format in 2007. Rest is history. Standing in the sixth edition of the league, people are enjoying their holiday season by making their attendance in arena and before televisions. The attendance of 45,000 people for the irrelevant match between Delhi and Pune- where were they when Indian played against Australia and England at home? OK with working days, but what about the weekends?
Time is running short. Who would like to spend 8 hours on a hot day watching players in white colors all around? So they made their choices. Go for the entertainers and watch quick scoring, lot of boundaries, and lot of sixes. So here comes our revolutionary character- Christopher Henry Gayle. How he is here, What he was before is nothing for an Indian cricket fan these days, sorry- IPL fans. People love him, hate him, stop. It is not for his contribution to the legacy of cricket which would be written in history for people to be born, but for the so called "massive" items from his bat in IPL.
A number of 175 is something- which will earn a great ovation from crowd in Tests, a symbol of greatness within a player in ODIs. But what if, it is within a period of 20 overs. "Massive entertainment" more likely a "highlights" of a game showing boundaries and sixes.. So how is it going to affect the game of cricket in India. I would like to bring an incident which happened to none other than Rahul Dravid.-a person known for his impeccable contribution to test cricket in India. "My sons want me to play like Gayle"- this is what he said recently after retirement. This is a warning from an innocent mind that easily falls in love with the colorful toy.
One can't simply complain the approach of people towards a specific format which literally contributes nothing except in terms of money. No one can simply point out a game as the first match of his life. Only if, he starts following the game in the late periods of his childhood. So what is going to happen when a kid see Gayle hammering bowlers to bring down a bunch of records. The kid gets attracted to the person and the format at the instant. He/she (He in most cases in India) expects the same sort of entertainment from all the games he watch and all the players, in the sense of scoring. Bowlers may not get respect in his view. It may take some time for him to learn what the real competition between ball and bat is. Test will make him feel as a boring 5-day event. Second session will be the time for him to take a snap after lunch. He would expect more than one Gayle in tests. Free hits and power-play will become unavoidable.What else.
This innings from Gayle may have laid a strong foundation in many of the young minds in India. They can't be neglected. "As a 10 year old I grew up watching Kapil Dev lifting the World Cup for India and it inspired me a lot in my life"- these words from Dravid reminds us the fact that a whole lot of ten year old-s will have watched Gayle storm and naturally they may have laid a memory or inspiration for the future. They may not necessarily understand what real cricket is and how a player is being evaluated in terms of greatness in the game. But many of them may aspire to become the future gayle-s without a second thought.
"Many people may say test cricket is the ultimate challenge. But I prefer T20". These words from Gayle are already in effect. He did no harm to other formats in any manner, but he did in the way he approaches T20 format. He can't be made a villain to other formats. But a savior in some sense if he continues to approach other formats in the same way and reap the same amount of results. May cricket Gods bless him for that to happen.....
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