DON’T TALK, JUST BURN OUT

Who, in India, is not a fan of cricket? You? Me? Let’s be serious. Most of us watch cricket and the proportion of people who do not, is countable.

Cricket, without a shade of doubt provides unimaginable excitement and joy. It makes a spectator grow nuts and leaves him in an island of extreme ‘insanity’. I dream of watching Sachin on the field. Has he burnt out as a consequence of 17 years of cricket toil or is he so weak to burn out easily? 17 years is indeed a lot of cricket. Agreed. Flip the coin, What about India’s relatively new finds- Pathan, Sehwag, Dhoni and Yuvraj? Add a few more greats to this list – Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting and Inzamam. All these cricketers feel they are being burnt out. CRICKETERS’ BURN OUT, the issue I am desperate to write about.

Cricket Legend Sunil Gavaskar once said, ‘the player’s should not complain about excessive cricket. Cricket is their profession and they need to play for their country. If you ask me to play for India, I will without any doubt.’ A valid viewpoint I’d like to put forward following gavaskar’s quote, Should the players be allowed to play that amount of cricket that eventually results in their easy wear and tear? A haunting consequence of this would be a short cricketing career. (Though that would be enough to spend a life of luxury after the amount a player makes.)

Commentators, cricket critics, column writers and we cricket lovers do our work off the field. We watch cricket for entertainment, analyze the game for records, and work off-field to make money, in many ways. Does anyone have the faintest idea how it actually feels playing cricket in piercing 40degrees or chilling 15degrees or 80percent humidity, not for an hour but for an effective 6 hours, not ‘once in a while’ but a ‘million times in a while’? I guess ‘No’. No wonder the issue features great captains.

A sad scenario prevails in world cricket today. Players are made to dance on the field to ICC’s tunes and in India it is to the money making body. ICC has recently devised a seven year plan for all countries and without any surprise India plays the most number of matches. It appears BCCI has a defective thirst quenching mechanism. The more money it drinks, the thirstier it becomes. The member-heads are death-eaters. They command and if the player doesn’t listen comes the patronus charm. Sehwag has become India’s first victim. A player’s freedom of speech is stolen and warned not to talk something that does not interest the board. The ganguly issue is slowly and steadily fading. India’s greatest captain is abruptly forgotten and is sadly, no more a hero. The player who took India to the peak of international cricket in terms of performance and fame is the most disliked person now, to such an extent where his ex-teammates are ordered to forget him. What a fitting end! The board wants the talker not to produce any stalker, an example of a rich kingdom reigning.

It is a clear case of realism. The board runs through one policy – ‘Don’t Talk, Just burn out.’ In fact, the board is very clever, they pay the cricketers handsomely but a multiple goes into the members’ pockets.

It is a call for Cricketers like Dinesh Mongia, Hemang Badani, Zaheer Khan and many others. Is it better for them to live a peaceful life playing for a county side outside the country rather than playing the role of a rich slave in India? They have been exceptional in their cricket and I’ll be the first one to vote for them. I have tracked their performance in the counties -160s, 6 wickets, and mere consistency. Yet they find no place in the national squad.

So, Don’t Talk…Let the bodies tear…

-Rajeev Turlapati

May 11, 2006

©rajturl works®

-all rights reserved

Mail all your enquiries to rajturl@gmail.com

Ref: The Hindu, cricinfo.com, rediff.com, ndtv24x7