Cricket Fever

The English gentlemen’s sober game of cricket has metamorphosed, as we saw in the recent world cup, into one of high excitement and intense passion. In its new avatar it has proved more effective than any other movement in uniting a billion people in as diverse a country as India, since the freedom struggle. We saw Indians unite together and pray to different gods in diverse ways for the common cause of our national achievement and pride and Sachin and Dhoni emerge the strongest role models for our kids.

Cricket’s impact on our society and health has indeed been huge. Although it is not our official national game, it is more popular in every nook and corner of the country than any other. Being a team game, it generates camarederie, shared goals and sportsmanship. It is useful in team building exrcises as was demonstrated in Aamir Khan’s movie “Lagaan” a few years ago.

History tells us that the game was devised during Saxon or Norman times by children living in south-east England in 16^th century. Adults started playing itmuch later. Possibly cricket was derived from bowls by the intervention of a batsman trying to stop the ball from reaching its target by hitting it away. The original implements may have been a matted lump of sheep’s wool (or even a stone or a small lump of wood) as the ball; a stick or a crook or another farm tool as the bat; and a stool or a tree stump or a gate (e.g., a wicket gate) as the wicket.

The game’s impact on physiacal health is clearly divided on age lines as the game is still played largely by children. It enhances physical activity, emotional well being and social interactions. It wards of obesity, reduces the risk of diabetes and heart disease, improves cognitive skills, and is a great stress buster.

 Its effect on adults, who merely watch it, is worrisome. Lazy as we Indians are, it provides many the moral justification, especially when cheering team India, to sit idle in front of TV screens for as long as 8 -10 hours and munch on salted chips or nuts, that are high on calories and sodium (bad for our weight, blood pressure and blood sugar levels). Worse is the habit of long drinking binges while watching the game with friends. Liquor sales had spurted to new heights during the last 2 matches of the world cup. Many partied with friends over pizzas while watching the matches. Several adults find entertainment in Navjyot Sidhu’s neologisms and histrionics or Boria Mazumdar’s brand of ‘who-scratched- his-nose-while-taking a run-at-Lords’ type of GK questions. Entertainment and excitement, no doubt, but how are we translating this national obsession into what cricket is meant to be: a physical sport that helps keep our bodies healthy?

 I think adults and girls need to think beyond the current form of cricket and excite themselves with a form that they can play as well. If cricket it must be, the game needs to undergo another metamorphosis to a all-can-play avatar.

As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 3 March, 2011.