Is cricket good for our country?

Time to ban cricket


When the Pakistani cricket team arrived in India earlier this year, there was an air of palpable excitement throughout the country. Expectations soared after India dominated the proceedings during the Mohali test match and went on to win the next match at Eden Gardens, Calcutta. Convinced that here at last was an Indian team about to thrash its arch rival convincingly, millions of people watched the third test match played at Bangalore and the subsequent one dayers on television. Sadly these expectations were belied.

As is typical of our country, after the series, an intense debate started on what should be done, what was wrong with the team selection, who should be the next captain, who should be the next coach (how many crores of rupees he must be paid) and so on.

In Economics, we learn about negative externalities and market failures. The market economy sometimes tends to overproduce goods and services that have external costs. Cricket falls in this category. Work suffers in many offices while matches are being played and comes to a standstill in cities like Calcutta. And far too much time is wasted on doing post mortem after matches especially when the Indian team loses.

There are other fundamental drawbacks with cricket. To start with, cricket is not a global game. It is played mostly by developing countries where the game is some form of diversion from the more pressing problems of daily life. In the few developed countries which play the game like Australia, New Zealand and England, cricket is certainly not the most important game. So terms, like “world champions” are a total misnomer. Olympic medal winners are true world champions. They compete against the best athletes from virtually all around the world. At least, if our cricket team keeps winning consistently like the way Australia has done in the past five years, we would have something to talk about. We remain usually third or fourth or at best a distant second in the pecking order. In the history of cricket, we have never come close to being considered the best team in the world.

In general, sports must be encouraged as it promotes physical fitness. But cricket does not meet this criterion. The average fitness of youngsters who jog for about an hour in a day would be better than that of our test cricketers, many of whom just cannot run fast. They also do not have the strength to throw the ball from the boundary line to the wicket keeper.

Cricket is also an elitist game. The very fact that most of our test cricketers speak excellent English is a clear indication that having the right background is more important than having cricketing abilities. In this club atmosphere there is little chance for a cricketer from a rural area, without education in an English Medium school to make it to the top. Players like Kapil Dev will remain rare exceptions.

Our cricketers can hardly be considered the role model for the common man. They are a thoroughly spoilt lot. When the public cried after the recent defeat against Pakistan, our cricketers were laughing all the way to the bank.

Our cricketers know nothing much will change and they will come back to play in the next season and collect more money. Some of them are going on vacation claiming they need a break when the fact is they do not move around physically for more than 5% of the duration of a test match. Only the wicket keeper’s job is physically demanding. A wicket keeper has to be a true athlete. And it is not a coincidence that we have failed to produce a good wicket keeper in the last 15 years. Strangely enough, people responsible for cricket in India have decided that a specialist wicket keeper is not necessary!

If cricketers are enjoying themselves and making a pot of money, why grudge them? Unfortunately, when looked at from the larger societal point of view, there is a problem. Cricket is diverting scarce resources away from games which are more appropriate for our country. Hockey is a good example. Many developed countries play this game. Winning the world cup or the Olympic hockey tournament is a true achievement. Hockey is played for about one and a half hours in the evenings. So it does not disrupt office work. Hockey also demands tremendous physical fitness. And it would be a fair comment to make that hockey is a more exciting game than cricket. If marketed properly, hockey can generate much bigger revenues than cricket.

Till the mid-1970s, we were really good in this game. Since then our performance has shown a secular decline. A major reason is the lack of incentives. While our cricketers fly around the world with their wives and drive in imported sports cars (on which customs duty is waived off), our hockey players travel by rail in second class compartments. Recently, I saw a former Olympics hockey player who had come to inaugurate a sports function in my son’s school. I was pained to see the kind of respect given to him. If he had been a test cricketer, he would have been pampered beyond imagination.

When people do not know what is good for them, the government must intervene. We Indians have still not realized that cricket is bad for us. It is time the government stepped in and banned this game in the interest of society.