Cricket Ka Bukhar

Three reasons why I celebrate the defeat of Indian Cricket Team in big matches.Firstly, after the defeat, the coverage of Cricket news in electronic and print media is reduced considerably thereby giving space for other news to appear. Secondly, the popularity of highly overrated cricket players is waned. Thirdly, the craze of cricket in India gets diminished with each defeat. The so called Cricket ka Bukhar has reached a dangerous level. Only successive defeats can diminish the craze from the minds of Indian public. Other sports in India are suffering on account of this madness. Even Gold medalists of the like of Abhinav Bindra are not facilitated as much as our so called cricket Gods and demi Gods. Perhaps there is no other country in the world which is as much Cricket crazy as India is. Even in the popularity chart, the most popular sport in the world is football and not cricket. India’s own hockey which was ruling the world in the past several years, and which is considered it’s national sport has been relegated to the background thanks to Cricket. Hockey is slowing dying here and so are other sports. Sports ministry is doing nothing to promote other sports including gymnastics. India’s dismal record in Olympics is the proof of sheer madness towards one single sport. Forget other sports. Even in Cricket, Indian team’s record is not good considering number of wins and losses against each country. You can check back the statistics. Players like Tendulkar and Gavaskar have scored maximum number of centuries in ODI and Test Cricket. Yet, when it comes to winning the match, their records are not very impressive. What ultimately counts is whether the team wins or loses the match not how many centuries X,Y or Z in the team has scored. Another point to be noted is whenever there is a defeat, it is always the bowlers who are the prime targets. It looks like as if cricket is all about batting only. All our cricket icons are batsmen. Pakistan wins the match on the strength of bowling. New Zealand wins the match on the strength of fielding. Fielding and Bowling are the other departments which also contribute a lot in winning a match. Cricket matches are not won by analyzing treadbare in which position Gautam Gambhir or Sahwag should come to bat but by rigorous match practice and hard work by the players on the ground backed by sound strategy. Our batsmen are more interested in learning Bollywood dances, participating in reality shows rather than sweating on the field.