Cricket! Cricket Cricket! Switch on the television and you will find majority of advertisements with cricketers on most of the TV channels.
Listen to young India talking and you will find the conversation centered only on cricket specially when India is playing a cricket match.
With attendance in the faces hardly 50% the streets look deserted and they become a driver’s paradise. You can see groups collected in front of the television screen, tuning to a running commentary, in front of pan shops and dhobis.
You see cricket fans animatedly discussing players and the score betting is its all time high with the Dons controlling the matches. Families sit together, lied to the television, watching their favorite super stars playing. The ‘Ahs’ and ‘Oohs’ which rent the air, with each stroke played by our cricketers, enlivens the environment and makes the game even more fun.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that life in India comes to a stand still, when India is playing a cricket match, especially with Pakistan, which is like fighting a real battle at the front.
We are so passionate about this game that at times it is difficult to control fans. On a few occasions, when India had lost, the crowd went crazy and the game had to be literally stopped. It was the height of craziness when a cricket fan broke his television set when the Indians lost to the Pakistanis.
Cricket has in fact completely, replaced our National game Hockey. It is a game which is pursued as a profession which can make a cricketer a multimillionaire. Maximum sponsorship from big industries/houses is for this game.
Because of this extreme craze for this game all other games in India have taken a back seat. India can think of no other game but cricket. You can see cricket being played every where in lanes, in villages, in towns etc.
This game is popular because it has been glamorized by the