“Korbo lorbo jeeto re… korbo lorbo re.. jeeto re…. jeeto re…”
This is probably the most popular anthem of an IPL team. When this song made its first public appearance during IPL – 1, it created a frenzy among the cricketing public accentuated more so because it belonged to the team owned by the Baadshah of Bollywood. Kolkata Knightriders had the best of people with it as far as publicity is concerned. It was probably the most popular team before IPL – 1 started.. But alas, the honeymoon ended as soon as the tournament entered its business end….!!!!
Bollywood or rather the Hindi film industry has always been a part and parcel of every Indian’s life… I won’t be surprised that some people might not know the name of the President of India but would surely know Amitabh Bachchan’s birthday. We, Indians or should I say the average Indians are obsessed by Bollywood and Cricket… There is no denying this fact…. Indian Premier League is one such medium which cashed in on the popularity of these two modes of entertainment with the stated intention of developing cricket in India. So far, so good.
India as a nation has always been docile particularly in the field of sport. Except for hockey in the pre-independence era and to some extent upto 1960, India has never dominated any sport, not even cricket. But thanks to the hard work of great entrepreneurs of India, who created wealth for themselves as well as for the country despite the system, India now stands as a vending machine of moolah for cricket. This has emboldened the mandarins of BCCI to have their say in the International Cricket Council… Although not dominating the sport with their performance, India managed to get a firm grip over the administration of cricket through sheer power of money.
Then came the big daddy of the entire cricket extravaganza…. Indian Premier League… a concept said to be the brainchild of a businessman named Lalit Modi who took the milking of this cash-cow to unbelievable heights…. IPL compelled all the international players to make a bee-line to be picked up and given lucrative contracts and yes, most of them got quite a big chunk of it as well…. No problem with it till now….. The biggest problem is with the young cricketers of the country…. IPL which started with the stated intention of developing cricket in India has somehow lost the plot…. We have young players like Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan and many more who got lucrative contracts worth thousands of dollars which most other Indians could just dream of… They have such big money so early in their career that it doesn’t bother them if they don’t play well for India… It is the performance in IPL that matters to them…. I don’t say that they shouldn’t be given money… They should be but there must be a cap on it… You just can’t let it reach the roof top…. Well, even Prof. Ratnakar Shetty, a BCCI office-bearer seems to be of the same viewpoint…. There is absolutely no commitment from these youngsters when they play for India…. India crashed out of two big tournaments in a span of two months without giving a semblance of a fight…. !!!!! If reports are to be believed, one of the senior players of Indian team too has expressed his anguish at the lack of commitment level from this new crop of players…!!!
I can’t avoid citing the example of the legend Sachin Tendulkar…. He had the world at his feet at the age of 20… He had all the money in the world at that age but still he didn’t let that money get to his head…. He has always avoided controversies whereas these youngsters seem to be basking in controversies… And then we have the bowling coach of India, Mr. Venkatesh Prasad… If I remember correctly, Sanath Jayasuriya, Saeed Anwar, Ijaz Ahmed and co. used to WALK down the pitch and hit his balls out of the ground and this fellow is preaching that India expects too much from Ishant Sharma….What a pity !!! Before Mr. Prasad took over as the bowling coach all these young fast bowlers were bowling at good pace but ever since Mr. Prasad took over their pace seems to have dropped like the SENSEX did after the Lehmann fiasco… !!! As rightly pointed out by ex-cricketer Manoj Prabhakar, Prasad looks more like a baggage handler of the team rather than the bowling coach…. !!!!!!!!
Coming to the other point of giving youngsters chance in the IPL teams, well, lesser said about it the better because I don’t see many youngsters playing in the IPL teams…. Almost all the teams have only one or two youngsters.. Rest all are either foreign players or Indians who have played international cricket…. Now what about the local talent… no one cares about them…. All that these franchisees care is to make profit…. But the ultimate loser in all this is the Indian Cricket team…. Everyone is prospering but not the team as a whole…. Same is the case with the England team…. The county system there has had a similar tale as IPL which has made the English team weaker over the years… It is high time that we don’t allow our Indian team to fall to the same depths….
Finally, it should not be about the number of hugs one gets from SRK, Preity Zinta or Shilpa Shetty…But it should be about how many matches one wins for INDIA…. !!!!!
