A FANS' CRY

It is that time of the year,when even the country's politics in mass media itself has taken a back seat.It is the time when the country's production is down by as much as one-fifth, by the reduction in manhours spent @ work by its citizens.It is time when movies wait for a better day to be released.It is a time when students give a damn for even the board exams.It is the time when a billion people pray for 11 blue dressed men.

Yes!!! It is the time of the CRICKET WORLD CUP in INDIA.

At this time,one can witness brick walls collapsing in a stampede for tickets,intense betting,TV channels giving cricketers microphones more often than they wud have a bat in hand,advertisement companies finding the acting skills in cricketers better than in bollywood jargons,Corporates running shot of money to compete with each other to sign brand contracts with players having star value.

Cricket can never be called a game atleast when India is in the picture.Which once was "eleven thousand fools following 11 men"  has now become "eleven crore 'not so fools' dying for 11 men" .Cricket they say is a RELIGION in itself.Atleast in this religion,there is no need to fight on who the GOD is.When they discuss cricket on business conferences,placement interviews,parties and even classrooms can it still be called a 'GAME'.If there is an unarguable reply to any question as 'NO',it is for this one.

Cricket not being a game,arguably a religion,what exactly is it? For me,cricket is nothing more than a BUSINESS.There comes the sad part for cricket and its FANS.

Cricket is the trade commodity,cricketers are the barter form of it.BCCI more than the ICC the business owners.ICC the watchman of the business office.People-The so called FANS, the customers.

A tournament hosting as many as 6 minnows with hardly any competitve cricket behind them is hard to sustain interest with its fans.How in world reality can you expect a canada to win over a 3 time defending champion australia.Leave alone the result, would that game drive any interest amongst the fans.Would the stadium have audience but the 2 umpires? Yet they telecast the same match in two channels with 2 different language commentry reaping advertisement revenues for the tournament package.The inner cricket fan voice in me says unless the organisers build the quality of the GAME and widen the number of international participants, their BUSINESS out of the game is going to be confined to the 9 to 10 countries which are @ it now,or may be in the long run even die, with the reason being the sameness of the product.

Organisers would never mind this.I wonder if the very thought to promote the game further would ever cross their minds, when they are generating more revenues than the fiscal targets, from the game easily.All the want from the tournament is India to go all the way for them to have the TV TRPs high to keep the marketing investors happy.India matches would have a full capacity of mad audience.Schedule that on a weekend,expect black money from the ticket sales to fund the board in the host nation.Do they need anything more? Why would they bother if fans dont show up for a match btw ireland and holland on a neutral venue?

The television company telecasting the event would have the same match in 3 of its channels, earn 24 lakh of rupees for each of  the 10 secs in an advertisement.The maths that I know tells me they earn 144 crores from ads in one channel for one match.They arent bothered about the intensity of the match, as it is only the package of a tournament for which they price the ads.One or two interesting games does it for them to bid for telecast rights spending millions and earn them back creating an eyewash among the die-hards of the game.

The brands never have a problem either,if their products sell.They know a Pepsi is sold not for its quality but for Sachin endorsing it. 

Neither does the cricketers need to worry,rather they get the best bargain out of the tournament.They would sign up contracts of 200 cr with a particular consortium as its brand ambassador.The duration of the contract would not be more than the time frame of the tournament.The former players are not to be left out in this.They would charge a few thousands for interviews and columns in mass media which are quite in number nowadays.Does money comes more easy to anybody else.I am made to think if only I had played the same game for my country, rather than at the flat opposite my house, I would almost have had money on trees to pluck from.Not to mention the girl fan following these cricketers get,for that atleast, may be if not for the money, I regret .

WE are the 'Poor Fans',not the FOOLS as the above proverb once said.We follow the game for the quality in it.We like it when the game gets to a nail-bitter.We pray,We cry,We celebrate as if we were a part of it.We buy a BOOST bottle cos Sachin says it is his secret of energy.

We swap our concentration in studies with that on cricket for the Love for witnessing the way the greats play the game.We know seeing a SACHIN's cover drive would make our day.We know they may get crores and crores of money,but we get the pleasure of viewing it,which equals.

ALL THAT WE SAY TO the game's administrators is 'WE LOVE THE GAME, DON'T LOSE US FOR MONEY'.We give you the money.Take care of us properly.Make CRICKET even more competitive and exciting.Have atleast 25 odd countries with different cricketing cultures battle with the same intensity and expertness on the game.It is boring to just see 9 odd countries competing on a genuine basis repeatedly.

(May be that is why we feel club games {ipl teams}are more exciting.)

This is a GAME too INCREDIBLE to be confined within 10 countries who actively participate.The generated huge ransom must be spent on countries coming up on their game.'Create new markets', in business terms. 

To all those FANS who feel LIFE is CRICKET,I delicate this blog to, representing them.