This is my question to those who follow cricket regularly and is a fan of this great sport. Have you ever thought why Sachin Tendulkar is called God of cricket? Yes, he is a great player but there had been many before him who was the icons of the game but nobody was called by this name. Why only him? Legends like Sir Don Bradman, Gary Sobers, Zaheer Abbas, Barry Richards and the present breed players boast of Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Mohd. Yousouf, Sanath Jayasuriya who has many awards to their name but never called GOD. I ask, WHY?
The reason is we Indians consider cricket as our religion. Every child in India dreams to play for national team (of course, exceptions are always there). But the way India follows cricket, no other country do. You go anywhere in India, from metros to villages, from highways to lanes, you will find a high voltage match going on with many other sitting and cheering the players. You can see small children in shorts running and diving for their team on mud covered ground in a match which has no relevance for others apart from those who are a part of it. For players, umpires and spectators, that match is their food, water, air, EVERYTHING.
The huge success of IPL has already proved how much Indians love cricket. We cheered not only for Indian players but foreign players too. Whenever India is in a match, you can see markets and roads deserted. Shopkeepers are glued to their television sets and instead of bargaining with the customers, they share joy and sadness as India’s balance tilts in the match. Student often bunk their tuitions to watch the match. A very common sight in India-children in their school uniforms playing cricket. We bunk our school to play cricket fully aware of the fact that we will be playing in the evening.
Whenever India wins, whether against Australia or Kenya, we cheer with the same enthusiasm. Pundits perform religious ceremonies to pray for India’s win. We follow various superstitions so that India wins. This does not mean we doubt our team’s capabilities. Indian team is hugely talented. No other team in world cricket has three players in the playing eleven with 10,000 ODI runs to their name. India loves cricket and every child wants to wear India colours one day.
It’s high time Indian government should start thinking about giving cricket the status of the national game. Indian team has been performing to their best and is consistently beating the top teams of the world. And no other game in India has such a huge fan following as cricket.
Indian team will be very busy this year and are very close to being numero uno in the world rankings. I wish them good luck.
