“If you don’t play for pride every single time you wear the country’s cap, then you really shouldn’t be out there in the middle.
Make way for somebody else who will”.
Were words echoed by former India great Sunil Gavaskar at the start of the 3rd ODI between India-Pakistan.
On one hand, the cynics declared this game as the Final nail in team India’s coffin.
While, on the other, news discussions revolved around ways and means to repair Indian cricket.
After all,
When India lost to England in England, It was one bad tour.
When India lost to Australia in Australia, It was a worrying sign for Cricket.
When England came to India and beat India at home, Indian Cricket hit a new low.
Now that India lost to arch rivals Pakistan, one could safely say that Indian Cricket is in crises.
At the end, the dead rubber turned out to provide enough entertainment worthy of a grand finale.
The winning lot celebrated like a bunch of school kids, while the losing team was left dumbfounded having crumbled up for a meager 157.
In all this hoopla, the biggest loser turned out to be the Angry Indian Troll (AIT).
Had India lost this 3rd ODI against Pakistan ?
Trolls would have gone on a gory rampage.
Be it
Duncan Fletcher & his support staff – Which anyway seems to have their heads on the chopping block (See my last post).
Senior players – Some already facing the heat, while others sweating it out in net sessions for their respective State teams.
BCCI officials –Known to have their own autocratic ways of governance and man-management.
In short, the social media channels would have been set ablaze.
Now that
India has won its match in such dramatic fashion, puts the trolling community in a bigger predicament.
On one hand, it is happy to have a go at the team in the coming series against England.
On the other, its missing out on getting its 5 seconds of fame taking potshots, just like a bystander who is waiting for his opportunity for giving birthday bumps to a person he does not know, hiding behind an alias camouflage.
All for what?
Want of more Followers? Or more Re tweets.
Even the so-called cricketing journalists don’t refrain from dishing out venom against individuals and team like any other impulsive and emotional fan.
I am no supporter of the Men in Blue myself. But what triggers such strong emotions amongst this group that instigates them to target individuals and their families, is something I fail to understand.
The end result being, the trolls getting their 30 seconds of fame and the cricketer having to delete his account.
Recently, in his HBR article ‘Embrace Change, But Still Stand for Something “, Harvard Professor Robert C. Pozen‘drove a critical point of being able to embrace change without losing one’s personal integrity.
If we call Cricket as the only uniting force that brings the entire nation together, then atleast lets show some amount of integrity to the sport that has given us so much to cheer.
I completely agree with the concluding point that you make. The love for this game in the country is such that no matter how many defeats India faces, everyone swears off it in the beginning, but that doesn’t prevent them from watching ‘just one more match’, when India plays next.
Cricketing fans are in dire need of integrity, and some tolerance ! 🙂
Couldn’t have said it better Iravati. Call spade a spade, but don’t bitch about why you called it a spade in the first place afterwards. Stick to your conscience.
I agree about our passionate audience. Cricket can stir the Indian audience like no other. I think one of the reasons for such a passionate response is that for many years, there has been no other sport where India have consistently performed well. When a the common man sees India do well, that moment of on TV can be inspiring. But when India does badly, the audience is frustrated and all the pitch forks come out……there is no other sport to watch.
Its funny you say the following for the sport in India. Coz there was a survey done for the top 10 sports in the country and the first 9 spots went to cricket, for the 10th sport, people did not even care.
Its a sad state, but that’s the truth.
Such is the state of the Indian game, that me who used to be a passionate cricket fan hasn’t watched a full game of cricket with India playing for the past 10 months. The english tour and then the australian tour just did it for me.
To be honest, I’ve been more interested in watching what happens in the Ranji trophy than the ODIs. What we need is a complete shakedown.
HI how r u? i am back on blog but not frequent user i raelly appreciate ur blogging style & specially spiral dairy style of template.if convienient help me to learn & upgrade my blog upto gud standards.www.bhartidestinydream.blogspot.com& e-mail id bhartikhanna14@gmail.com
Thanks for the kind words Bharati. You’ve got a decent blog, in fact I like your template. Its quirky. But what I would suggest is you remove the unnecessary stuff from the sidebar, additionally you could add social plugins which would help you get to more people.Lastly, I would suggest setting up a blog on wordpress and not blogger as It has got far too many options. I think you could very well switch your blog to the other. My 2 cents