Indian Cricket has suffered for long. My frustrations reached the peak when I called for boycotting Indian cricket in a recent piece.

Things have been surprisingly moving forward in the recent past. The Hindu reports:

The Board of Control for Cricket in India, determined to encourage multi-sports disciplines in India, has given a Rs. 50 crore boost to budding sportspersons in the under-15 age group with ambitions to compete and excel in international meets. The `foster a child’ initiative of the BCCI president, Sharad Pawar, was approved at the Working Committee meeting at the C.K. Nayudu Hall, Cricket Club of India (CCI), here on Sunday.

Now a lot of people do support the idea of providing financial help for other sports. Amit Varma notably pointed out that it is not suitable even to support women’s cricket financially, let alone other sports. My stand is:

Money is just an aid for sport and not the end goal. So if a larger sporting body (financially) gives a small part of their income to a smaler sport to kick start it’s growth, it is very much they way to go forward to boost sport in a country specifically and sport at large.

Coming back to the initiatives the BCCI is taking. The former players are being heard. From The Indian Express:

And showing that the support to Indian cricket’s senior citizens wasn’t just confined to providing them financial security, BCCI president Sharad Pawar acted swiftly upon former skipper Sunil Gavaskar’s complaint about the national team’s support staff sporting the India caps. So, as Ian Frazer’s days of wearing the India cap seem to be over, the committee also decided to extend the existing pension scheme, which covered those who played before 1975, to include those who represented India in Tests till December 31, 1993. Pawar informed that those ‘‘those who have played in 25 Tests or more would be eligible for Rs. 35,000 per month each while those who played in less than 25 Tests would be eligible for Rs. 25,000.’’

The former players missed out on the financial boom cricket is experiencing in the country. Many suffer financially. It is commendable that the BCCI is looking at these aspects. Also, the Indian Cap issue - Sunil Gavaskar has been critical of any one except players wearing the Indian colour. In a test match in the West Indies where Gavaskar was commentating years back, he saw a a spectator wearing a sweater which had the blue identical to one in the official Indian cricket sweater. Gavaskar wondered at the regretfull possibility that a player had given the sweater to the fan. Gavaskar is of the school which says that the Indian colours should be earned and not given away. That increases respect. Finally Gavaskar has been heard to some degree on this minor yet signficant aspect. I do not mind people wearing the team jerseys. But the Indian test cap at least should not be worn by all and sundry.

The spectators at Guwahati were given back their money when the match was not held. The spectators injured from the earlier match in the series were invited to watch a game from special seats. The obvious question would be - why play matches in stadiums which do not have proper facilities. The BCCI says that it is planning to improve stadiums into state of art facilities. There are rumours that BCCI is looking at improving domstic cricket as well. I am more positive this will happen because of 1 simple reason. The people heading the BCCI currently are willing to forward brand BCCI. They seem intellegent enough to possibly realise that India can have a strong domestic inter-city kind of league bringing in foreign players which can be a cash cow in the future
Michael Atherton writes on Modi and the BCCI:

The traditionalists in India, not used to such brash commercialism and naked exploitation, are suspicious of Modi. They see a difference between sport and business: they know that one has a soul, the other does not; that one produces an emotional attachment, the other does not, and that cricket cannot survive without money, yet it shouldn’t exist merely to make money.

Pawar is an sharp politician. He realises the importance of image. So he will do all the image boosting wherever he can. Money will remain the main goal of the powers that be in the BCCI and not cricket. This should not be confused. But if cricket can benefit in the process, I will not complain.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 10th, 2006 at 12:21 pm and is filed under Cricket, Indian Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.