It started all the way in 1992, when India defeated Pakistan in the first one on one encounter in a cricket world cup. Since then, every time India and Pakistan faced each other in a cricket world cup, India was victorious. The result stayed the same whether it was a fifty over game or a 20-20. This Indian streak against Pakistan, became a monkey on the back of Pakistani crickets existence and was often used by Indians to mock their lesser neighbours, until 24th October 2021.
This is the day when Pakistan or Pakistan cricket, to be more specific, finally got that monkey off their back and they did it in a dominating and exhilarating fashion by handing Indian cricket team, a 10-wicket defeat. It was a dominant display of both bowling and batting and the Indians were caught napping or to be more specific kneeling on one knee.
While majority of Indians are grossly upset by the turn of events and a minuscule of them have even gone to the extent of abusing Mohammed Shami (which in itself is problematic but not so problematic as some pockets of Indian cities seeing Diwaliesque celebrations in the wake of Pakistan winning), I believe in the greater scheme of things this defeat is actually a blessing for India as a country.
Let me explain why I think so but before I begin, I want to state this unequivocally that this is merely my opinion. You can agree with it, can question it, can outrightly reject it because I do not believe in forcing my opinion on my readers like the 99% bloggers, article writers, journalists and other influential people do (Read communist to be more specific).
1. The shadow fades
For a very long-time, cricket has been the unofficial national sport of India. Such has been its influence that even the actual national sport of India, Hockey, has been relegated to an afterthought.
With ever rising popularity of cricket, it has become the sport of choice for parents to enrol their children into. Everyone wants their child to become the next Sachin Tendulkar or MS Dhoni. Unfortunately, this love for cricket has not manifested into equally voracious appetite for women cricket. In short, the men's cricket highlights yet another aspect of our patriarchal society.
This looming shadow of crickets popularity has prevented various sports from blossoming into a good career prospect. This can be successfully explained by our single digit tally of medals in Olympic games year after year (Yes, it has increased but it is still not enough to proclaim ourselves as a sports superpower).
Although there was a brief period when the fixing scandal broke its popularity and weaned away a lot of cricket enthusiast and fans away from the sport, the rise of of IPL has stemmed any chance of growth that the other sports had. With India's crushing defeat at the hands of its arch-rival this one match will, hopefully serve as a heartbreaker for many fans, and they will probably look to other sports to heal their broken hearts.
2. Professionalism kills Passion
Many of those who have had the pleasure of watching the golden era of Indian cricket in form of the quartet of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, can easily tell the difference between Indian cricket players of that era and the players of this era. Those were the days of passion. Passion which can be summed up through some of the iconic images and moments of Indian cricket. Whether it was an inconsolable Vinod Kambli at the end of world cup semi-finals in 1996 or a bare chested, t shirt swinging Sourav Ganguly after the finals of NatWest trophy, those moments defined passion for the game. These players did not have the best of facilities if you compared to what the cricketers of today's era have, but those players had passion. They took every game with equal drive to succeed and when it came to facing Pakistan, that fire was unputdownable.
Compared to that, this team is a product of professionalism. These players deal in stats and not hearts. For them, a win or a defeat is just another day in the office. International cricket is not their bread and butter either as they are earning handsomely in IPL.
Professionalism is a good thing, but when it comes to sports professionalism sans passion is a spoilsport.
Compare this scenario with Apple under Steve Jobs and Apple inc. today. The former was driven by a passionate man, who was always trying to better himself while latter is a production line churning out phones every year with little new to offer. Professionalism kills creativity and when it comes to sports, it douses the fires of aggression.
With this defeat, I hope to see a decreased interest in IPL. Eventually, failure of club premiere leagues is must for rejuvenation of international cricket.
3. IPL - the modern-day Coliseum.
Which brings me to the devil itself, IPL.
Now do not get me wrong. I too have been a fan of IPL, but it was in the third year of IPL that I realised that the long-term effects of this club cricket are going to be severely damaging. In ancient Rome, the emperors used to hold Gladiator fights in huge arenas known as Coliseum. These fights were not meant to entertain and any entertainment for just a by-product. The prime purpose was to distract the citizens from the day-to-day problems and prevent any kind of unrest against the rulers. IPL works in a kind of equivalent way. The teams are owned by the rich and mighty, the players are nothing but a commodity available for purchase, and the game is nothing but a pastime for the influential. The common citizen is nothing but a spectator. The IPL is not a celebration of sports, but it is a celebration of the rich, for the rich, and by the rich. We, the common Indians are the ones paying for all of it. Club sports, be it club cricket, club football or any other sport that has been converted into club format, has only turned sports into profession. The laypeople fall for this trap. This celebrate it, they enjoy it and that is exactly what the rich want.
IPL has made our cricketers rich, which is not a bad thing to be honest, but when something turns into a job, the passion is the first thing to go out of the window.
This defeat should serve as reminder to every true cricket fan what IPL has done to our cricketers. Gone are the days when an Anil Kumble would walk down to the field, to play with a broken jaw. IPL induced professionalism has killed the passion and this defeat would serve well to reduce public interest in IPL.
4. Play, do not preach
Indian habit of putting everyone with any accomplishment on a pedestal has given the confidence to these cricketers to start preaching. When the Indian cricket team was supposed to be preparing for the match against Pakistan, our captain Virat Kohli was busy running a paid campaign to preach us about firecrackers in Diwali. It is a good thing for influential people to pitch in and promote a worthy cause but there is a fine line between spreading message and preaching your own biases. Virat Kohli, in spite of his gritty half century, should take the blame for turning cricket into something more than a sport. All the woke drama of taking a knee, promoting anti firecracker agenda on Twitter, insta and other social media etc is exactly what is destroying cricket.
Afterall, isn’t it hypocritical, that Indian cricketers are showcasing their support for BLM movement while staying mum on incidents like Palghar and what has recently happened in Bangladesh?
This wokism has already pushed away a lot of supporters of Indian cricket, and it would be great if this defeat adds to that number.
I must also add that this display was nothing but another in the line of Indian display of colonial hangover. We are always seeking validation for the purpose of our existence, by trying to ape the west.
It is about time the Indians stop praying to politicians, cricketers, movie stars and television celebrities as gods. It is about time, that we put an end to this habit of allowing these people to form our opinions. I have maintained this for long that cricket and Bollywood are the two most potent and most lethal narcotics that have constantly ruined the social and cultural ethos of our country. We, through our habit of hero worshipping, have given these people enough confidence to treat us as inferiors and it is time, we realise that just like everyone, they too are just experts of one field and one field alone. The fall of cricket and Bollywood is essential to save our future generations from these lethal toxins or we will have to keep watching third grade cringe on social media in terms of creativity. Cricket and movies should be treated as merely sources of entertainment. Those who take part in them should work with passion and that passion should be acknowledged, but that passion gives them no right to teach us and preach us. The more we allow this to happen, the faster we will walk towards getting obliviated. I know that what I write is a truth many will find uncomfortable because this truth tries to bring them out of this comfort zone. As someone once said , ‘truth is never easy to digest, truth is never easy to accept but this is the truth and truth always hurts.’
