A dangerous signal to Indian Cricket future

I was watching Border-Gavaskar Trophy’s first day of the first match between INDIA and AUSTRALIA at my home. Aussies lost a few wickets and their batsmen were struggling to stay in crease. Suddenly, i heard loud cheers from crowd in the stands and I thought there might be another wicket gone. To my surprise, there was nothing happened; moreover Australian batsmen were on the way to a second run. Then why the cheers did come out!!!!? Soon I got the answer: “Sachin Tendulkar stopped the ball at boundary”. He stopped it as simple as any cricketer would do. A friend beside me said, “that’s the greatness of Sachin”. But, I went into a serious disappointment that no one could understand without me expressing what I felt.

Take an example of a kid, who wants to become a cricketer, watching the same match. When he hears the cheers, he would definitely look for the reason. At that moment, what would that attract the kid is the way fans responded to the presence of Sachin but not the way he stopped the ball because there isn’t much skill Sachin showed at that moment. If the same Sachin Tendulkar played a great delivery and the crowd clapped for that, the kid would surely watch the way Sachin played the ball, as it is a skill not many have.

The fan-ism has been turning into a serious wrong turn. Fans are looking at their respective favorite players as STARS. And the players (not everyone) are shaping their mind towards entertaining the audience. The true essence of cricket and love towards the game is MISSING.

Sachin never thought to be a star. It is his love towards the game that made him the god of cricket for many. There is a small correction I would like to make-” Sachin Tendulkar is god of batting. Not cricket (sorry, in advance, if my opinion hurts anyone)”. He is neither great fielder nor great bowler. If Scoring runs is the only main criterion regarding greatness of a cricketer, why would we need a cricketer to throw a ball? Simply arrange a machine at bowling point and watch the batsman.

Such an approach by fans in India (not just in India, but especially) is not a new one. It has been happening from many years. LACK OF ENOUGH BOWLING ATTACK IN INDIAN CRICKET TEAM IS ONE OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF SUCH AN APPROACH. It is neither BCCI nor LOCAL cricket authorities responsible for lack of good bowlers in India, but we, the Indian fans, who feels happier for a batsman scoring 50 runs than a bowler taking a wicket, are responsible.

We love to watch the ball beaten by Indian batsmen but never want to see an Indian bowler get beaten. We seriously oppose DRS saying that it has less accuracy, may cause the batsmen more trouble but never look at the effort the bowlers need to put to get a wicket. Why would any rising cricketer choose bowling, if there is more encouragement towards hitting the ball???

My opinion may seem idiotic and ignore-able to many just like my friend beside me now, but please, at least don’t send wrong signals to rising cricketers. Let them love cricket, not the appreciation of audience watching it. Let them know that there are more elements in cricket than batting. Else, we are going to face an era of importing bowlers and exporting batsmen from INDIA.