SOS: Save Our Sports!

Remember 'Eat Cricket, Sleep Cricket, Drink only Coca-Cola'? Well, it’s time the drink took a sabbatical for good, because the day has come when people would soon actually be eating, sleeping and even ‘drinking’ cricket. The inclination of corporates to invest in anything that spells money has not left the game untouched. The biggest example is the Indian Cricket League started by the Essel group, which has directly posed a strong threat to the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI).

After enjoying years of monopoly over the most popular game in the country, the BCCI was obviously not expected to react very sportingly to its so called competition. How could another body take away a share of the market they had captured…something that helped them mint money and made them the richest board over the years? In a counter attack move, the BCCI imposed many restrictions on the players and the state bodies that are governed by it. It also finally hiked the pay packets of the domestic players, something which should have been done much earlier. Anyway, better late than never.

Moreover, in the biggest setback to the rebel ICL, it launched its own league called the Indian Premier league with a very interesting format, ripped off directly from European football. Now, with players already complaining of burnouts with a jam packed international schedule, fitting in the IPL will surely be no small task. For the record, more than 40 international players have already signed up, and according to the latest scoop, the Australian players who have given their nod will not be featuring in the first edition due to some international commitment.

As the IPL will work like European football, corporates will exercise control over the ‘buying’ and ‘selling’ of the clubs and the players participating in the league. Amongst others, liquor baron Vijay Mallya and superstar Shah Rukh Khan are rumored to be interested in bidding for a club each. Obvious suspects, ofcourse!

While there is no doubt that all these events, starting from the launch of the ICL, are only benefiting the game of cricket (ICL provided many an unknown player the platform to perform and get popular, apart from a chance to earn big bucks), there is also no doubt that it is also taking away that little hope of sponsorships and investments that other sports deserve and had also begun to get, to a small extent.

Whether it was Viswanathan Anand winning the World Chess Championship, Manavjit Singh Sandhu clinching the gold medal in the Shooting World Cup, Indian football team winning the Nehru Cup, or the Indian hockey team emerging from one of its darkest periods to triumph in the Asia Cup, things have certainly started looking bright for India in other sports as well.

But with stadiums and television filled with cricket, no one needs to guess where the sponsors and media will flock. So where do these equally and some even more deserving sportsmen go?

It’s time self-realization dawned and we gave as much or at least enough importance to other sports, or one of the finest periods of sports in India may just not last long enough to even be called a period.