099. TV advertisements after each run in cricket show. P S Remesh Chandran

099

TV advertisements after each run in cricket show

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 Article Title Image By JD X. Graphics: Adobe SP.

I still do not know what attraction there is in Cricket, but I do know that Cricket is fast displacing Foot Ball, the Poetry in Sports, as a national game. Examining the virtues and vices of Cricket or Foot Ball is not being attempted here or the diverse opportunities and scope opened up by Cricket in creating an atmosphere of Political Detente is not ignored either, but pushing the poor man’s game out of the arena can not be left uncommented. Poor rural village boys with enough stamina could easily have become Peles and secured a life and employment through this game of Foot Ball. But history shows that only boys from the rich and middle class families have ever become Cricket Stars and secured lives. So it was naturally expected that our political and sports authorities would promote Foot Ball in the first place and help it grow as India’s national game. But now we see that Foot Ball has been pushed back to the backyard. This was entirely due to the commercial prospects of Cricket. Where there is money involved, national heroes are shameless to go after it, kicking out good sports. In Television, advertisements can be shown after each Run in a Cricket Show and in Cricket the Runs are many But in Foot Ball advertisements have to wait at least for the finish of a game. It is the greatest national folly of India in sports- to have entrusted to advertisement makers the responsibility to decide which sports to survive and which not to survive. 

[In response to news article ‘Mohali- the new face of cricket diplomacy’ on 06 April 2011]