Cricket

One thing that gets me is the attention that the Indian press pay to cricket. The Times of India always dedicates at least one full page in the sports section to cricket-related stories. When I arrived in June, it was all about the hiring of Greg Chappell, a foreigner, as the new coach of the Indian national team. Just recently, Mr. Chappell got himself into trouble by sending emails to reporter friends about certain aspects of the team. He also got into a spat with the captain, Sourav Ganguly, after saying that Sourav was faking injuries and didn't want to attend training.

So yesterday, BCCI (the Indian cricket association) was going to announce whether Ganguly or Chappell would take the fall for the recent events. Turned out that nobody did and the two were meant to "work it out."

I think the word on the street is that Indian cricket isn't doing to well. The team hasn't been able to consistently beat anyone and it seems like there are endless contraversies. In the end, so much pressure is put on the team that it is scrutinized to the hilt.

In the editorial section of the paper this morning, someone wrote a good article about sports in India. In short, the aritcle argued that sports in India needs to be de-centralized. In other words, not so much of a focus on national teams and more of a focus on regional/city teams. The author used the US as an example. People there cheer for their local city or college team...it's rare that national teams get any attention, save for the Olympics.

Let's look at Canada and hockey. Our national team is picked a few months before a big event. Usually, the selections are scrutinized, but we know that no matter what team we put out there, it's likely to be successful. If the team does poorly, it's ridiculed for a time and then we forget because a new NHL season starts, so we go back to focusing on our favourite teams. Sure each local team get scrutinized, but only in the respective city's media.

It's not like that in India. Since there is only a national team, every paper in the land gets after the team for poor performance...and it's relentless. Maybe a national cricket league is the answer to India's woes. That way, more players get an opportunity to play world-class cricket. When the time comes for an One Day International (ODI) or International Test Match, a team is selected and that is that. Such league would also be of great benefit to local fans.