SPORTS vs CRICKET

 By Himanshu Mangla

Passing by a street, whenever you hear “Indiaaa…indiiaaa”, the question arises “was it today? Was India’s ‘cricket match’ against a xyz country today? How did I forget! How did I miss it?”

Yes, that’s what happens with all of us! (Or most of us) We are Indians, after all! The very basic characteristic that you can associate with being an Indian is love for cricket.

 When the world is so much into exploring different kinds of sports to literally nurture their athletic talents, India seems to be stuck within the boundaries of cricket only. It’s a very common factor that the Indian crowds are drastically mad about cricket matches. We all love our game, watching it, playing it and talking about it. Right from a chai-wala’s stall to school-colleges, to the big office halls, what is a commonality is discussion about cricket. What’s in a family discussion, if cricket doesn’t feature in it? But, mind you, we do not have time for other major sports like football or hockey.

Chose randomly, any ten people from different spheres of life, and ask them to strike a conversation with each other, and there’s nothing except cricket which they could all talk about. Pick up a random guy from the street, ask him about the current cricket team, what could have been a better team selection, who should have been dropped from the squad or who should have been given the captaincy? And every such person will have quite a lot to say!

After all, “cricket is our religion and Sachin is our GOD”, this is one line that goes from generations to generations, crossing boundaries of gender, caste, color, money, and power. This is something which unites us all, binds us all.

Having said that, one would say “what’s wrong in this, this implies cricket is indeed a great sport.” Now, what’s wrong is, that cricket is getting all of this love, all of this attention, at the expense of other sports. The very idea, that “indiaa…indiiaa” means a “cricket match” and not any other sport is an example of our bias, of our complete negligence of other sports. Why should the cheering of our national team be limited to cricket only? There are so many sports in this world, and our country has representation in a whole bunch of them.

If one were to say, it’s because India is most successful in cricket, The Indian Men’s hockey team has 8 Olympic gold medals to its name. If one is to say, cricket has been the most successful sport in the past two decades, then consider the Indian cricket team’s performance against Indian Men’s Kabaddi team, which has won the Gold at all of the last 7 Asian games(1990-2014) and is a five time world champion(2010-2014). In fact, cricket is not even a global (or completely even Asian) sport. It is not an Olympic sport and it was only in the Asian games in Guangzhou, 2011, where cricket was introduced as a medal sport (India did not even have any representation there).

The real reason behind all this bias is the whole system that is prevalent in our society. With the investment of huge amount of money on cricket, it has become an international business for the country where the players are even brought and sold in the IPL scenario. On the other hand, darkness hovers on the other major sports like hockey, swimming, archery, running, badminton and tennis.  

A World Kabaddi champion has to take an auto to go home and nobody even cares about him, while cricketers are paid crores of rupees as prize money, just for hitting six sixes in an over. Whilst these cricketers enjoy lavish facilities in 5 star hotels, players from other sports don’t even get quality coaches and modern training facilities. Hence there exists a huge gap in the Indian standards of practice and those worldwide.

In the countries where the sportspersons keep on excelling, they have an opportunity to select any sport as a choice of career and even discontinue education. The welfare policies of those governments towards its people allow them to make such choices. No parents in India would like to encourage their children to take up any sport except cricket (it being cash rich) and discontinue their studies as there is no guarantee of earning a livelihood in such sports that are not patronized by all of its citizens.

Many people possessing natural abilities have had to cut short their sport careers due to the inability to hire a quality coach and no sources to fund the same.

In our country, there is a lack of intent in the policy makers to promote all the sports. Most of the big policy makers, the politicians, are themselves presiding over the cricket association of their states. Hence, those at the helm of affairs have vested interests resulting in favoritism in promoting cricket only and the other sports are lacking way too much in terms of investment.

Lots of sportspersons do not even get a chance to travel to big sporting events held outside the country and the reason always is the lack of funds. As an example, consider, the Indian contingent of 679 members (comprising of 516 athletes and 163 coaches and support staff) against the original list of 942 participants (including 662 athletes and 280 officials), sent by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to the 2011 Asian Games wherein The Sports Authority of India (SAI) said that it was in favor of strict application of the criteria that in individual events an athlete should be ranked in the top six, while it should be a top eight position in team sports. Why does such contraction of squad not apply to cricket teams as well? Why is there no such restriction on the tours the Indian cricket team makes?

What is needed to correct the situation is equal branding of sports, equal funding, equal opportunities and equal publicity, so that every sport can make a place for itself. There is no harm in cricket spreading its wings, but it shouldn’t mean cutting short the flight of other sports.

To uplift these sports, the change needs to be brought in a) the policy makers, b) the administrators and most importantly, c) the common people. The policy makers and administrators need to stop looking to gain profits from sports and look at them with non-money minded approach. The administrators need to maintain harmony with the government. Just like the SAI and the BCCI (which governs cricket in India) operate together, the other sports organizations must also work in tandem with the SAI, avoiding conflicts in the organization of domestic events like the Hockey India League and ISL, which are aimed at the upliftment of the sports lagging behind at the grass root level.

Sports which lack basic infrastructure need to be developed by the government or the private investors, so that the athletes can practice the games in a better environment. There has to be infrastructure for organizing the tournaments of these different sports activities. Once there is infrastructural growth, promotional activities can take place for the tournaments.

As the Indian nations sings along the tunes of media, so media has a very significant role in the development of the Indian sports sector. Every Indian has an attraction for the Television shows and the news channels. Therefore if media plays a planned role in uplifting the other sports except cricket, things can really change. Highlighting on the successful athletes like Baichung Bhutia in football, Narain Karthikeyan in motor sports and Leander Paes in tennis, there can be a considerable shift of concentration towards other sports from cricket by the Indian masses.  Eventually, if this plan follows and there are repeated promotional activities, then definitely, the sports sector can see a new sunshine in the coming years.

Ultimately it’s on us, the common folk. We should all broaden our horizons, try different sports, and find where our talent lies in. 

For there is so much more to sports than just “HOWZATT”

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1kg of Cotton is not equal to 1kg of iron (GENDER INEQUALITY)

                         -Himanshu Mangla

The amount of physical work a blacksmith does in making a work piece is much greater than what a gold smith does. So quite obviously, the black smith is much harder working than the gold smith is! But then, if we are to compare the precision, intricacy, and value (monetary) of the work done, the gold smith’s work is much valuable.

So the question arises, what should be right parameter to judge which of the two is better or more hardworking?

The answer to this question is, the very idea of comparing two things which are so different altogether is completely wrong. How can we compare a cricketer and an actor on the number of runs scored, or the number of movies made! Wouldn’t the comparison be utter non-sense!

Now similarly, we all talk about how women are compared to men all the time and thought of as lesser mortals and are discriminated against. This is what “Gender Inequality” is.

A simple google search explains “Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender. It arises from differences in socially constructed gender roles as well as biologically through chromosomes, brain structure and hormonal differences.”

Gender inequality is quite prevalent in our society and it dates back to ancient times. In India, women were always thought of as housewives and housekeepers, and were confined to the four walls of the home. They weren’t allowed to study, learn, explore or take up professional careers. Not only this, they were also not allowed to take part in any family discussions and were never a part in decision making.

Consider as an example, women’s voting rights. It was only in the 19^th century, that Women Suffrage Movements started, that too in a very few countries. In India, it was only in 1947, that universal adult suffrage (including women), was introduced.

Even in the modern world, even if women are given some opportunities and are allowed to work, or to take up sporting careers, they are not treated as equals. The fact that equal work to men doesn’t earn equal pay to women is inexplicable.

The difference in the prize money for a men’s event and a women’s event of the same competition shows the narrow mindedness of the society. It is these very factors, which cause for a need to compare them.

Now, just like in the movie, “Chak De India”, do the women, in every field, need to fight out the men of their profession to prove their worth? Is there a need for this comparison at all!

The answer is NO! Just like it is unfair to compare an actor and a cricketer, an engineer and a doctor, a black-smith and a gold-smith, it is equally unfair to compare man and woman.

If some chauvinist is to say man has more physical strength and power, then at the same time, a woman has much more of patience, love and compassion. God made his creations different. Each one of us has a different role to play. So, if a man was meant for muscle and power, there’s a woman meant for the heart. They complement each other, they complete each other. They are both perfect for the roles they are assigned to play!

So, if in an office, a work is assigned, it should be assigned irrespective of the sex of the person, and the pay should be for the “work assigned”, and not for the gender accomplishing it. Similarly, if the competition is a world championship, the prize money should be decided for the “World Champions” and not for the Men’s world champions or women’s world champions.

So yes, man and woman are different. But it is this difference which defines them and makes them perfect for the work they do. It gives them their own identity. They are here to do different things, so we need to stop comparing them, and discriminating among them on the basis of any parameters at all!

After all, ONE KG OF COTTON IS NOT EQUAL TO ONE KG OF IRON!!