Monday, June 12, 2000
We are what we are (of cricketers and us)
Man From Matunga"Man from Matunga" lives in Mumbai, India and expresses his angst and pleasures through words |
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Yesterday, Anita at SAWF asked me to write something about the Kapil Dev cricket scam for the new issue of SAWF, due this weekend. I didn’t really want to comment on this subject, considering that every Haresh, Naresh and Paresh has written something or the other about the subject you name it and the gory detail has been chopped, grated and dissected as fine as possible.
Frankly, the whole mess has reached a stage where I couldn’t care anymore.
There are times when I am the eternal cynic and I believe that this world is beyond repair. Then there are times when something nice happens and I feel that this world is the best thing to be in. Most of the times though, I am somewhere in between, when most things just swing by, leaving little impact. As I have said before, just managing on a daily basis is a big enough task to have to bother about the rest of the world.
And yet with all the dark clouds of greed and corruption around us, somewhere deep down, naively, I have always believed till now, that our cricketers were nice guys. Not necessarily idols, but people who through their hard work and a little luck have managed to bag a career that brings them both fame and fortune. People lucky enough to be doing what they like and actually earning from this. What more could one ask for!
Apparently a lot more!
Forty-five cars, multiple houses, land, and God knows what else!
It’s nice to know now that they are all just like us. It does not matter whether Prabhakar is called a hero or a villain or whether Kapil has been framed or whether Tendulkar is clean; the pedestal is gone. They take bribes, give bribes and if they don’t do either, they knowingly keep quiet; and yes that goes for Tendulkar and Saurav, too. So everyone is involved, one way or another.
Thank God, I am not a cricket fanatic. My father-in-law, who is one, is in denial. He is a man who does not go to work on match days and sits glued to the set with lunch, dinner and conversations all revolving around the television and commercial and match breaks. He refuses to talk about Cronjiegate and Kapil and if we jokingly bring up the topic, he dismisses it all off as rubbish.
The cricketing world should be taught a lesson.
Here’s an idea. The next time there is a match in Mumbai, no one and I mean, no one, should go to see the match. The stadium should be empty. No one should watch it on television or listen to the commentary on the radio. Just for one match. Just to tell all those idiots who administer the game and the jerks who play it, that they are accountable.
Not just to the law, but even to the people who have made them what they are. Us!
Not that we are any different, most of us!
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