The Indian cricket team has been reduced to a bunch of floundering amateurs against an inexorable English side in the current Test series. Victory has come so ridiculously easy for the Englishmen that the Indian team seems to be trying to improvise on the worst margin to lose in each following match.
The hottest topic of discussion on prime time on our television news channel after the defeat in the third test was the reasons of such alarming margins of defeat. Cricket experts and everybody’s uncle fell over each other trying to jostle for space in television court rooms, and each had a opinion to shout.
That was until 15th August came and Anna Hazare took over. And suddenly the national game of India has been sidelined into a byline at the bottom of the television screen to be shown intermittently during advertisement breaks.
Yet sports has featured in the national shame list, the latest being the doping scandal in athletics; who can forget Kalmadi and his hall of shame in the Common Wealth Games. Till now, nobody has associated the present set of our cricketers to the corruption scene; I am sure, if the discussion interrupted by Anna Hazare had continued, this could have been attributed as one of the reasons.
For a world number one team to fall from glory without even a whimper or a fight, with the inclusion of a batsman who is considered God in cricket, if it doesn’t raise eyebrows, what else will?
After the Azharuddin match fixing scandal, the Indian cricket team has not been accused of any match fixing charges. They may have been accused of being more devoted to their commercial schedules, but other wise no serious charge has been made. Occasionally they have been shown interested in social causes, but they have used black ribbons to signify their protest for causes in the past.
Surprising that when Indians the world over are reacting to Anna’s anti-corruption drive, when Indians of every walk of life expressing some opinion on corruption, not a single sportsperson has anything to say.
No sportsperson wants to join Anna in his crusade against corruption; no tennis player, no athlete, no cricketer, nobody. We even have lawyers striking work in support of Anna, even children of policemen working in Tihar jail passing out free food and water to protestors, but not even a peep from our sportspersons.
That shouldn’t raise eyebrows, that should raise your whole forehead!
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