Those who live in Glasshouses should not throw stones

The current tour of South Africa by the Indian Cricket Team has brought to fore the abilities (some people would like to say disabilities) of our team. But whats new ? It has always been the case. We have never been able to boast of doing good on tours. (As always there are a few exceptions to every rule.) Its a well known fact that all Indian cricket teams irrespective of whether its the current one led by Dravid or the ones before, are all poor travelers. It does not matter whether its Greg Chappell or John Wright or Kapil Dev or Angshuman Gaekwad, we have never done well abroad. So, why the furore ?

The Indian media which is always short of good news and delves more on sensationalism makes mountains of our mole-hills (read as cricketers). And our fickle public which remembers just these sensations begin to expect more than we can deliver (even at home). Thanks to this approach "one match wonders" are enough to carry our cricketers for long distances in the Indian cricket team.

Lets accept the truth, thats the case in everything that we do. We are never the best. Whether its cricket or any other field. We are far from the best. A small rise in the sensex and there are thousands of people drooling in Dalal Street. We make them much more real than they are. Yes, we may have the ability or the potential to be the best. But we have not been. And I am not talking about potential here, so lets leave that aside. I am talking about what we have achieved. We climb small mountains and rest hoping that the tide of sensationalism will carry us across.

We ourselves live modest lives. Many of us content with small things. But then when it comes to cricket, we definitely expect our cricket team to play better than mediocre. And why ??? Because we pay them so much. And also we see them on so many advertisements. (which our ex-cricketers from the licence raj regime constantly remind us of). Hence we expect them to play and be much more consistent. We want them to be accountable. We demand that their pays should be based on their performance.

Well, there is a particular lot in our country, whose salary has been revised more 30 times in the last 50 years. (Well, thats at least thrice more than any other lot have got.) They are provided the best facilities that our poor country can afford - cars, bungalows in the cities, phone bills that nobody questions, free air and rail travel, a barrage of educated officers (IAS officers) for their beck and call. Yes, no prizes for guessing... its our politicians. They rule our country. How well have they performed ? But who is asking ? We really don't care ... now do we ? Its after all just a small country of billions that they are dealing with. But then we of course should demand that Greg Chapell and Dravid and his men should be accountable. After all they are the only ones who have to take our country forward. We really don't care about where we stand on the International corruption index but we must care about where we stand in the ICC cricket ratings. Or is it that we decided that to make a start we'll start from the ICC cricket ratings.

Here we are after 50 years of independence, paying Rupees Seven Lakh each for almost 5000 victims of a communal riot as compensation, a communal riot that could very well have saved thousands of lives and property worth crores of rupees. But then who cares ? Do we really need to know all this ? All we really need to ask our politicians is what they make of the Indian team's performance in South Africa.

Cricket is a game. Its a game to entertain people. Our poor countrymen have a dearth of good entertainment. Lets just allow cricket to be a game meant for entertainment rather than making it our national anthem.