Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Anti-Indian-Cricket, not Anti-Indian

The word is moving around that I am an "Anti-Indian". This blog post is to clear my stance that I am an "Anti-Indian-Cricket"er, not an Anti-Indian. I would love to see a developed India which is the dream work place for people around the world. I would love to see an India which does not fund institutions just to create professionals for US, an India which does the best research in whatever field rather than simply buying stuff from outside, where you don't see cash given to vote being brought to the parliament, where the government doesn't play vote politics in the name of religion ...

Now back to the point, cricket. I have a lot of reasons why I hate cricket, particularly the way it is supported in India.
1. Prizes : Do these people really need them?
Most state governments have paid around Rs 1 crore to the players of that state. Are these government really so rich that they can afford to pay that much to these people who will already be among the richest in the state? Don't we have a long list of schemes which can't be properly implemented because of lack of funds? Many have been provided large villas around the country. Are these really the homeless people who need to be provided with a place to live?? The railway has announced free lifetime passes in the best class anywhere around the country for all the team members. I don't think any of these players are going to prefer rail over air, but can't the railway find better ways to spend their money?

OK... they became the world champions. How much support does the national game, hockey team get? How much felicitation do the Asian games/olympics medallists get? Wait, does India have a soccer team?? Aren't these sports?

2. Tax free income/tax waiver
Does the government have enough that it can say that it doesn't want more? The main idea behind taxes is to provide amenities to the general public by taking money from the rich. Looks like the Indian government doesn't know about it.

The ICC got a Rs 45 crore tax waiver to conduct the world cup. Really? Do you really think that the world cup is an event which needs a tax waiver??

3. Duration of the game
An ODI game goes on for atleast around 7 hours. A football match + a hockey match + a tennis match + a basket ball match together may not take that much!! This means that watching a cricket match will make sure that you don't do any work for almost half the day. Multiply that by the millions who watch the game!!

4. Advertisements
Suppose in a football match, Messi dribbles through 4 defenders and scores a spectacular shot. You get so excited that you want to see it again and again. If you are watching the match live, you can see it from various angles for atleast 4-5 times.

On the other hand, suppose someone takes a huge wicket in cricket with a spectacular diving catch. You see the players celebrating for a moment, the umpire lifts his hand and then ... ads! You see Shah Rukh Khan asking the match score, you see Katrina Kaif drinking some mango juice, you see Dhoni and his helicopter shot (which by the way would've looked really stupid had Dhoni not scored in the final)... hey! Wasn't there some brilliant cricket there? I want to see that again. Oh no, thanks, we have better things to show you, if you want to see that, then come back after 2 minutes!

If you watch 7 hours of cricket, I am sure you will watch more advertisements than the actual game itself, especially if you consider the idle time between balls. On the other hand, if you watch 1.5 hours of football, you actually see 1.5 hours of football completely. I think at the end of they day, whether you watch say 4-5 hours of cricket and a complete match of football, you finally end up watching the same amount of actual play.