The White Domed Marble named cricket....
This is a game dear to a billion hearts. For many old timers, like myself, cricket is more than just another legacy that the British left behind amidst a bloody partition and a triumphant declaration of independence. Inseparable part of my childhood was growing up playing cricket in the dusty streets, damaging many street lights, window panes.
Amidst all those brittle objects that we physically damaged while playing, a strong monument was getting built - A monument of love for the game - an unexplained attraction to its charm, spirit that would stay with us for a long time . A feeling familiar to those who have played the game with their school friends, neighbors. Many of us learnt to love the game even before we learnt to love. We learnt the game from school friends, perhaps the same time we learnt about Taj Mahal and Shah Jehan s love for Mumtaz in history lessons.
As a child going to school, the two things that fascinated me about India were its cricket team and the Taj Mahal, though I never had the privilege of watching either of them in person until long after graduation. There were many similarities between cricket and Taj. In its purest form, cricketers wear whites and it reminded me of the great white monument with its large central dome. Many skilled craftsmen brought in all their skill, sweat and refinement to make cricket look stunning, just like what it took to construct the Taj. Cricket and Taj are both the ultimate expressions of love and passion of those who built it - staying hard-nosed, but behaving like gentleman. Cricket was called a gentleman' s game, for only gentleman can love so deeply and construct marvels like the Taj.
Today, like many Indians, we all helplessly watch the Taj sink in smoke deposits from refineries, dirt and garbage. Cricket is no different. Corrupted and corroded, the game has slowly but surely decayed from a game gentlemen played in pure whites with pride for their country to a colorful commercial extravaganza in which players auctioned their skills to the highest bidding franchisee. If you watched
cricket in a black and white television, you were old enough to know that there were times in a game when the opposition bolwer applauded a great shot from the batsmen who despatched the leather to kiss the ropes. The applauses still come, though, from a bunch of semi-nude women, everytime we see a boundary hit. The bowlers now have graduated to mouthing abuses at the batsmen and engaging in fistfights with their own team members. Not a pretty sight - similar to the brown coating of stain over the marbles of Taj or perhaps even worse.
How do you feel when you stand in front of the Taj and get this though that you are not seeing the original Taj Mahal, but just its look-alike ? The one in front of you is just a pretension, not the real one. The game you are watching is not a real contest, but a fixed,staged drama !!.
Today, we cannot be even sure if the abuses coming out are real ones or just stage managed play for which the actors are paid. Take this together with a corrupt administration in which the president s son in law has perhaps funded the drama to kill the game - the rot of the Taj is complete.
And what could you say about a tourist who visits the Taj, when the authenticity of the monument is under investigation ? When millions of viewers watched the final of the IPL, whose credibility and integrity were questionable and not clearly established, I was puzzled. Why would anyone want to watch a contest that may be a fake one ? "We just love the game" they said. I do not agree, but I can empathize. The tourist is all about his heart when he says " My love for the Taj Mahal is what brought me here ". Tourists have learnt to see the Taj, without worrying about its loss of color - it is still Taj !!Matches could be fixed, administrators come and go, but the passion for the game remains.
If the game does emerge cleaner and stronger out of this credibility crisis, it owes a lot to this unexplained attraction and emotion - call it love for the game - that keeps a billion hearts and minds glued to an idiot box at eleven in the night. The game would not be what it is without this love. After all, the Taj wouldn t be what it is without Shah Jehan s love for Mumtaz.
Amidst all those brittle objects that we physically damaged while playing, a strong monument was getting built - A monument of love for the game - an unexplained attraction to its charm, spirit that would stay with us for a long time . A feeling familiar to those who have played the game with their school friends, neighbors. Many of us learnt to love the game even before we learnt to love. We learnt the game from school friends, perhaps the same time we learnt about Taj Mahal and Shah Jehan s love for Mumtaz in history lessons.
As a child going to school, the two things that fascinated me about India were its cricket team and the Taj Mahal, though I never had the privilege of watching either of them in person until long after graduation. There were many similarities between cricket and Taj. In its purest form, cricketers wear whites and it reminded me of the great white monument with its large central dome. Many skilled craftsmen brought in all their skill, sweat and refinement to make cricket look stunning, just like what it took to construct the Taj. Cricket and Taj are both the ultimate expressions of love and passion of those who built it - staying hard-nosed, but behaving like gentleman. Cricket was called a gentleman' s game, for only gentleman can love so deeply and construct marvels like the Taj.
Today, like many Indians, we all helplessly watch the Taj sink in smoke deposits from refineries, dirt and garbage. Cricket is no different. Corrupted and corroded, the game has slowly but surely decayed from a game gentlemen played in pure whites with pride for their country to a colorful commercial extravaganza in which players auctioned their skills to the highest bidding franchisee. If you watched
cricket in a black and white television, you were old enough to know that there were times in a game when the opposition bolwer applauded a great shot from the batsmen who despatched the leather to kiss the ropes. The applauses still come, though, from a bunch of semi-nude women, everytime we see a boundary hit. The bowlers now have graduated to mouthing abuses at the batsmen and engaging in fistfights with their own team members. Not a pretty sight - similar to the brown coating of stain over the marbles of Taj or perhaps even worse.
How do you feel when you stand in front of the Taj and get this though that you are not seeing the original Taj Mahal, but just its look-alike ? The one in front of you is just a pretension, not the real one. The game you are watching is not a real contest, but a fixed,staged drama !!.
Today, we cannot be even sure if the abuses coming out are real ones or just stage managed play for which the actors are paid. Take this together with a corrupt administration in which the president s son in law has perhaps funded the drama to kill the game - the rot of the Taj is complete.
And what could you say about a tourist who visits the Taj, when the authenticity of the monument is under investigation ? When millions of viewers watched the final of the IPL, whose credibility and integrity were questionable and not clearly established, I was puzzled. Why would anyone want to watch a contest that may be a fake one ? "We just love the game" they said. I do not agree, but I can empathize. The tourist is all about his heart when he says " My love for the Taj Mahal is what brought me here ". Tourists have learnt to see the Taj, without worrying about its loss of color - it is still Taj !!Matches could be fixed, administrators come and go, but the passion for the game remains.
If the game does emerge cleaner and stronger out of this credibility crisis, it owes a lot to this unexplained attraction and emotion - call it love for the game - that keeps a billion hearts and minds glued to an idiot box at eleven in the night. The game would not be what it is without this love. After all, the Taj wouldn t be what it is without Shah Jehan s love for Mumtaz.
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