Day 16 of my miseducation in Cricket: for a hot minute, I do not love my India, not after our Red Snapper reports that crap like this was stated with a straight face:
Just heard a reporter on NDTV interviewing disappointed fans in Bombay say to the camera — ‘It’s been a World Cup of tragedies, none bigger than India crashing out of the tournament’[Link]
Yes, that’s totally worse than someone’s neck getting snapped under the shadiest of circumstances. An anonymous tipster left a link to a BBC article by Mukul Kesavan–who has a book about cricket coming out in India later this year– on our news tab. I found it illuminating; I know next to nothing about this sport which Evil Abhi loathes so. 😉 Here’s a random assortment of what your favorite bimbette Bedi-impersonator learned and/or found fascinating at the Beeb:
For the television channels that bought rights to beam the tournament to these fans, Friday’s defeat was a financial disaster.
Since the Reliance World Cup hosted by India in 1987, South Asia’s cricketing nations have become more and more influential in the conduct and administration of the one-day game.
…India won the Cup in 1983, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have won it in 1992 and 1996 respectively.
Mainly, though, the balance of power in world cricket has shifted from England and Australia towards the sub-continent for commercial reasons: the dawning realisation that India owns the only mass audience there is for the game.
India and Pakistan had resumed cricket relations after a long chill in 1978, just as limited-overs cricket was starting to take off.
The compulsive need to confront the old enemy led to the creation of a cricket circus in the Gulf sheikhdom, Sharjah, where, on neutral ground, the sub-continent’s blood feuds were re-played as one-day tournaments for the benefit of increasingly feverish and volatile audiences.
The fusion of chauvinism and television had two bad consequences: an obsessive fan base that tended to become deranged by defeat and the rise of contemporary cricket’s stock villain, the corrupting bookie.
Yeesh, no wonder insanity like vandalism (Dhoni’s house?!), effigy-burning (UberMetroMallu…profiting from tragedy is a sin!) and murder are all part of this disturbing picture. I knew that India and Pakistan were fierce rivals (fiercer than UC Davis and Sac State, even! j/k) but I was too preoccupied with shiny objects to take that fact one step further, to see one-day cricket matches as proxy for…partition? Since I am very much from here, I didn’t connect passionate national loyalties with the sort of enmity which leads to war.
When I rabidly root against the Dallas Cowboys, it’s not because I hate the city they represent. Perhaps that’s a flawed analogy, since Dallas is part of the country I’m a citizen of, but even when I’m cheering an American team on as they face another nation, I have no latent hatred for whomever we are playing. It all leaves my eyes wide while reminding me of how insulated I am.
Cricket will buckle under the weight of the sullen, thin-skinned nationalism that Indian and Pakistani fans bring to the game and it can certainly do without the bookie-driven corruption that feeds off this perverse enthusiasm.
The elimination of India and Pakistan leaves the World Cup in the West Indies a happier, less toxic tournament; it might even give the fans of these countries the time to actually play some cricket.
Or they could use the break to switch their loyalties to a sport that doesn’t bring out the worst in them. Test cricket, anyone?
Test cricket it is, I guess?
Right on
I actually agree with this. I think if Indians actually started paying even a fraction of attention to a few other sports, we might even make a few Olympic medals. It would be good if some of the money started pouring out of this overhyped game and into some other more deserving ones.
And no, by ‘other sports’ I do not mean Test Cricket! Futbol, anyone?
While the article is not without a semblence of reality, I think it goes way over the top in its characterizations. As if all people who like cricket are exemplified by the mostly mythical “cricket effigy burning mob of South Asia.” The article is a comment piece, conversation-starter, but I think it tells fewer “hard truths” than half truths
This is how crazy our fans are…
My brother: It’s a shame that India lost, they did not even make 200 runs. Me: Yeah, but a coach died. Him: I know, but still, I thought India would have done better. Me: Never has this happened in any other sport. And you are not bothered by it. India losing is more important than cricket being tarnished? Him: I understand that this is bad, but still India…
For the outside world who were learning about cricket, this is bad. For fans, it’s just another chapter. For the ICC and BCCI this just means lesser revenue.
Someone needs to fix the system.
Test cricket is a good option, but without the support of the ICC and BCCI, it will never take off. Unchanged opinion from the part of the fans does not help.
And might I add, news about Bob will be slow to come and the case will be concluded only after the world cup. Again, thanks to the ICC.
sahej is spot on in my opinion. mr. kesavan is going a bit over the top here, although there is truth to what he says as well. yes there are fans who burn effigies and attack houses, but they hardly represent the majority, they just get all the attention. the people who attacked dhoni’s house were part of some youth wing of a political party. what’s interesting about this article is that it first appeared on cricinfo and is now on bbc (i’ve never seen that before). it plays right into the hands of those who are upset by and jealous of the shifting of cricket’s power to the subcontinent – a move which comes with associated goods and evils. they use articles like this to hark back to some mythical golden age of cricket free of any corruption, bad behavior etc. (of course at a time when cricket was ruled by London). there are comments by some, subtle and not so subtle, saying india and pakistan should be demoted and banned from cricket for 6 months to a year, that these problems only appeared when “certain” countries were “admitted” to cricket’s inner holy sanctum sanctorium. should england be banned because it’s football fans create havoc – not even in their own country like indian fans but in other people’s countries? cricket in india and pakistan has problems for sure, but it’s sad that people are using the events of this world cup as a guise for some deeper, more virulent generalizations and characterizations and mr. kesavan, good intentioned though he may be, is giving them ammunition by being a bit shrill and hysterical himself.
Even with that subtext, which has been a subtext for years, I don’t fault the writer. It’s not his fault other people may use the article for different purposes. This subtext about the rabble tarnishing the game has been going on for years, and its fed by those of us who get our jollies just being mentioned by the BBC. If it takes pretending like we really are crazy lunatics, some people actually will, in the words of MLK, scratch where we don’t itch and smile when there’s nothing funny being said
And here is some proof that most of these protests are coached.
And I should thank aNTi from Superstarksa.com for sending me that link.
Of all people, Bal Thackeray is urging the fans to be calm. I’m actually shocked he didnt join in on the protests and blame Pakistan for the defeat. Also there is a growing sentiment that these protests are “staged” by the numerous news channels searching for news material and local goons just for getting on camera.
“And might I add, news about Bob will be slow to come and the case will be concluded only after the world cup. Again, thanks to the ICC.”
the jamaican police are investigating this case, not the icc, although they will help with any information.
on a different note, those who are calling for the cancellation of the world cup due to this tragedy forget that the biggest losers will not be indian advertising etc., it will be the west indies. they have poured millions which they can probably ill afford into this tournament and it is a great matter of pride for them. things have not always gone smoothly in terms of organization, facilities etc, but they are still staging a complex tournament that a lot of west indian businesses are depending upon and doing it mostly successfully. i wonder if the indian (meaning ethnically indian) or pakistani coach had been murdered during a world cup held in england or australia if there would be this overwhelming call for the cup to be cancelled? would english or australian businesses/fans be willing to lose out and see their teams not play after buying expensive tickets? england wouldn’t tour zimbabwe for “moral” reasons, but had no problem inviting the same zimbabwe team to england to play so that the ecb wouldn’t lose out on its own financial commitments.
this is not to sound callous. bob woolmer’s death is deeply disturbing and needs to be addressed, but it has to be put into context of the current needs – this wasn’t a huge terrorist event or natural tragedy that would make the cup seem impossible to go on with at this point. even the munich olympics went on despite several athletes being murdered.
Good one Karthik. I was searching for aNTI’s link. The bottom line is you cannot blame the large majority of the fans for the actions of a few and also what is essentially a staged protest for the news channels, by the news channels.
no, i don’t fault mr. kesavan for writing what he did, although i do think he is being a tad over-the-top. but we cannot hide our heads in the sand, i agree. i fault those who use it as a cover for their own agendas. i still maintain that the influence of india/pakistan on the game of cricket has been more positve and good for the game than bad.
Its a sordid business, that what to South Asians may have seemed like good-natured fascination with our supposed “love of cricket” was really a way for those who used to find South Asians inferior beings to prove their point. There’s always a little too much glee with which the reports of yet another “wild and crazy” episode from South Asia come in. Its like there is still nostalgia for when we could be dismissed as either primitive children or primitive savages
This is apart from the trult tragic events that have happened, and all reasonable people have felt badly on a human level for the death of Bob Woolmer
Speaking of sport as a proxy for war, there’s always England v. Argentina in soccer:
Argentina won the match, 2-1, in controversial circumstances, including a famous handball goal. Diego Armando Maradona, hero and villain of the match, would later write: “it was as if we had beaten a country, not just a football team… Although we had said before the game that football had nothing to do with the Malvinas war, we knew they had killed a lot of Argentine boys there, killed them like little birds. And this was revenge.”
The rival, one of the most bitter and intense in world sport, continues till this day. Fans in the stands make explicit reference to the war, and ultras from both sides fight in the streets.
Have any of you ever read the book A Corner of a Foreign Field by Ramachandra Guha? It’s an excellent book on the history of cricket.
Cricket helped cross caste boundaries with the famous Palwankar brothers.
A really good read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palwankar_Baloo
And this is exactly why occasionally, there is fierce debate within the bunker about the utility or implications of blogging certain stories…“Woman Breastfeeds Tiger Cubs” comes to mind, even though it went down in Burma. Sensational, exotic, weird…gag.
The most important thing that Mukul Kesavan touches on is notthat of the effigy burning hot heads — the most serious point he makes is about how the demands of commercialism have begun to warp the game — this allied to the constant level of mafia involvement in betting and matchfixing (all centred on Bombay – Karachi – Dubai — hey, why was Sharjah picked for all those India-Pakistan one days?), the toxic levels of jingoism that accompanies the India-Pakistan series / matches….
Now more than ever this has to be looked at. If something is not done cricket will be strangled to death. Bob Woolmer’s death should be the wake up call for everyone. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. It is an important article.
I agree with Whose God — the ending of the tournament would be a disaster for the West Indies and it would come close to bankrupting the ICC with cancelled contracts. It should go on and whoever wins commemorate and dedicate their victory to Bob Woolmer and it should all be played in a good sporting manner…..if you do love the game, think on this, that there are syndicates and mafiosi who want to turn the game into a personal gambling den for them to make money through matchfixing, betting, corruption and cheating. Cricket shouldnt belong to a bunch of underworld thugs — it should belong to the players and the fans.
The betting aspects, sure look at that with an appropriate vigilence. The jingoism, I think, this is part drama and part real. For every over-blown cricket as proxy for war enthusiast, there is an over-blown cricket as proxy for peace enthusiast. A well-recieved cricket match between Ind-Pak can get everyone dreaming of the next confidence-building measure as much as anything else.
I think the crisis-building tone of the article is wrong. There are problems with South Asia as a home of world cricket, just as there were when the UK was the home of world cricket. I think there is a serious distortion here, because, for one thing, two teams that were supposed to bring a high level of quality to the tournement have been terrible. That in itself in an ordinary tournement would leave a sour taste.
In short though, I don’t think there is any need for a “special circumstances” allowance to be given here by which South Asian influence in cricket has distorted the generally applicable rules of human nature to the extent the article seems to imply
Sahej, you think the crisis-building tone of the article is wrong? Do you really think there isnt a crisis in cricket? You really think Kesavan is artificially creating an image of crisis? You get it all the wrong way. Cricket is in crisis. These things need to be discussed. Discussing the effect that Indian TV money and other factors have had on the game in the light of everything should be commended, and shouldnt lead to defensiveness.
No I don’t think there is a crisis to the extent you seem to and I don’t think I have it all wrong, or I wouldn’t have said it. For one thing, no one has proven that either India or Pak lost because of match-fixing, and until that happens, I’m not sure on what grounds one can say what the “crisis” is about. Or what to do with it. I’m not sure what you think is the crisis here. Should all national team coaches be given 24 hour security? Is there a “crisis” by which cricket players and staff are not physically secure? Is there a crisis because players houses are actually being destroyed? Not sure if thats the case? Is there a crisis because the burning of posters and effigies is causing a fire hazard?
Is there a crisis because India has not selected a good team, and the actually number of cricket playing-nations are very small. And truth be told, only Australia is ever reliably any good? Sure, that one I agree with.
I am sure the betting problem is a huge problem, but the betting problem has been going on for a number of years, and its hardly a wake-up and smell the burning fire kind of thing
OK Sahej — all is good in the garden of cricket! Nothing to worry about. Kesavan is slandering India and pandering to ‘the West’ etc etc
Peace to you if you think that.
Hmm, no I’m not saying that at all, and I specifically said I don’t think the article is pandering to the West. That’s a gross over-simplification of what I wrote or what I think
The death of Bob Woolmer is a horrible thing and once its known why it happened, more can be said.
On the merits of this article, its just not simply a path-breaking analysis we’re being given here. Its actually quite simplified and caractured, and has almost no nuance
Its interesting to note that if Pakistan and India decided at this point to play a bilateral series at some offshore venue, the World Cup would be a financial flop for the ICC (International Cricket Council)
I think the article has nuance, insight, complexity, and asks the right questions at the right time. Respect to Mukul for writing it. Makes me keen to read his book on cricket when it comes out on Penguin India later this year.
Seems more petulant that interesting. Nice image though — India and Pakistan playing cricket endlessly on an atoll in the Pacific Ocean whilst the rest of the world carries on.
Relax, Red Snapper. No one is suggesting they actually do that.
And give Indian and Pakistani fans some credit. Remember when India clobbered Pakistan 4-1 on their 2005-2006 one day tour, and the team and the Indians that went to see the matches were still treated in the best way possible everywhere, with no law-and-order problems. Even when the Indians celebrated their wins on Pakistani soil, right in their faces.
Sport rivalries get fierce, but trust me, the Third World War won’t be the result of a cricket match.
thats all I’m saying, just relax a little bit. The article asks some good questions. Not sure why the conversation has degenerated to the extent of basically name-calling
You didnt get the joke I was making? Next time I’ll put in a smiley and emoticons 😉 LoL!!
Typical self-hating racism. If not for subcontinental money, cricket would be fast fading into irrelevance in a modern era.
India played two bad games and lost. It has happened to every major country in the course of world cup history. Indian fans will get over it, and the game will go on. And for this Indian fan, I think its fabulous for the game that Ireland and Bangladesh, who both played great cricket, get to do it on the big stage.
Its good in a way that India is out of the tournament. All the folks who would have kept watching TV will now actually do some work. Have a feeling it might even increase India’s GDP by 1 % 😉 Not bad for my investments!!
Also in the vain of #33, what might be the loss caused by SM to American GDP :D.
By extension does Mukul Kesavan argue that football (i.e. soccer) would be better off without the participation of European teams whose supporters bring with them ultranationalist/racist violence ? He is writing about cricket but this is a question that comes to mind. Many Brit “Asians” are not comfortable attending games because of the ugly mood that often permeates these events
Without athletic proxy wars, we may never have won the Cold War, 4-3.
It would be hard to take a look at the scandals in Italian football (soccer) and not do a double-take
Not at the top Premier league teams they don’t.
Juve got relegated to the second division as punishment. The point is, something got done.
And something should be done about the betting in cricket as well
aside: Erick and Parrish hate all of you. 😉
As you were, gentlemen, as you were. 😀
Once more cricket shoots itself in the foot
I’m not going to wait for India’s athletic boards to get their act together. It’s not guns or butter, you can have both. Nor am I going to wait for the diaspora to finally unleash a sporting legend upon us. No sir. I am going to do my part and father a superstar. Hand-eye coordination drills begin in the crib. The feet will be nimble like hands. Tactics will be learned early. Castling in four moves, suicide sprints, backhand slice winners, birdies from the bunker, dropshots, freethrows, drifting, all will be mastered. My child will not be one of the swarming bee’s in youth football.
I will not fail you, my people. I will even tattoo ‘South Asian’ on his or her backside as a pre-emptive strike against claiming wars.
Now all I need is a
wifegirlfriendspingtime flinga date.Betting mafia, useless pretty boys, boorish fans, bum games — most sports have them. But sometimes gods of sports (and Hollywood cliché) hit back. NBA stars getting schooled at Olympics. India and Pakistan getting knocked out in prelims. That’s what makes it interesting. That .01% chance when the little guy wins. Children need stories.
Man, this is a good idea. I’m going to father a team of sporting legends too. A footballer, cricketer, tennis player, and just for the hell of it, an ice skater, in case one of my sons turns out to be gay.
If he doesnt, that’s fine, I’ll have two footballers instead.
What about the daughter you might say. Well she’ll be the Wimbledon champion one. I’ve had enough of this lack of brown at the football World Cup. And if any of them wants to be a doctor or lawyer or something like that, I’ll disown the ungrateful, reckless bastards. No son or daughter of mine shall have a secure career.
I love how you think. Red Snapper, will you breed with me? 😉
E-mail me your records for the following:
++++
100 metre sprint
Keepy Uppy
Tennis serve speed
How long can hold breath underwater
How fast can you do 30 squat thrusts followed by 20 sit ups
If you can rub tummy and pat head at same time
Youtube video of you bowling googlies
How many hot dogs can you eat in 10 minutes
++++
I have a team of sporting geniuses to breed.
Ha!
Amateurs.
(linky link)
You obviously have no idea of ancient Indian training and nutrition techniques. ANNA is just lucky that I havent asked her to send me a video showing her Kabaddi skills yet.