Cricket and Glamour
Glamorization of Cricket
Cricket has been way too glamorized in India since the time it started. Cricketers are almost omnipresent. On TV – either playing or in the news for their controversies with the coach. Or in the papers for their new hairstyle. Or in the posters for being brand ambassadors. Or on the radio for their marriage band or banquet. Cricket covers more than half of the national news.
If you ask a kid today the national game of our country, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if he replies cricket. People know that a game with eleven players on each side and played with a ball and a wooden stick is our national game. But not many are aware of the fact that, that wooden thing is a hockey stick and not a bat. Jokes apart, am I not justified in saying that cricket has been too closely linked with the national spirit? Quite often we see angry protesters publicly burning posters and effigies of players who lose a match and their wide coverage is shown on TV. The frenzy associated with an event of winning a match is much more than is needed. The Board announcing a prize of Rs. 1 crore for a cricketer for hitting six sixes in a match. This act of hyperactivity and unnecessary benevolence could have been fruitful if the money was spent in improving the facilities for other sports that are rather neglected in our country. On top of it, there is our Indian media, which goes nearly crazy covering our cricketers. I am not kidding when I say that I have seen a correspondent running around like a lunatic with a cameraman, just to find out what Harbhajan Singh going to have today, skimmed milk or full cream? I wonder if they can even hire a helicopter to hover around the restrooms to track down each and every move made by the cricketers. Is it not over glamorizing, with Mandira Bedi sitting in flashy saris and running a cricket commentary show named ‘Silly Point’? Or some former cricketers and commentators discussing one particular ball or leg action fanatically,
Cricket has been way too glamorized in India since the time it started. Cricketers are almost omnipresent. On TV – either playing or in the news for their controversies with the coach. Or in the papers for their new hairstyle. Or in the posters for being brand ambassadors. Or on the radio for their marriage band or banquet. Cricket covers more than half of the national news.
If you ask a kid today the national game of our country, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if he replies cricket. People know that a game with eleven players on each side and played with a ball and a wooden stick is our national game. But not many are aware of the fact that, that wooden thing is a hockey stick and not a bat. Jokes apart, am I not justified in saying that cricket has been too closely linked with the national spirit? Quite often we see angry protesters publicly burning posters and effigies of players who lose a match and their wide coverage is shown on TV. The frenzy associated with an event of winning a match is much more than is needed. The Board announcing a prize of Rs. 1 crore for a cricketer for hitting six sixes in a match. This act of hyperactivity and unnecessary benevolence could have been fruitful if the money was spent in improving the facilities for other sports that are rather neglected in our country. On top of it, there is our Indian media, which goes nearly crazy covering our cricketers. I am not kidding when I say that I have seen a correspondent running around like a lunatic with a cameraman, just to find out what Harbhajan Singh going to have today, skimmed milk or full cream? I wonder if they can even hire a helicopter to hover around the restrooms to track down each and every move made by the cricketers. Is it not over glamorizing, with Mandira Bedi sitting in flashy saris and running a cricket commentary show named ‘Silly Point’? Or some former cricketers and commentators discussing one particular ball or leg action fanatically,