My 2 bits of firewood into the fire !

Being an ardent cricket fan, I must say the last few weeks have been deeply disappointing. First India's exit from the world cup , then the shocking murder of Bob Woolmer and then the reactions at home to India's loss , BCCIs supposed "sweeping changes" to indian cricket and Greg Chappel's exit from the coache's position.

Things seem hopeless frankly. It seems almost like what happened to india in hockey is happening to cricket. We dont seem to be producing prodiguosly talented cricketers any more , even in the domestic scene, there are not many great cricketers who can push out the existing 11 (which exited the world cup) on merit. After doing some Root cause analysis here and i could come up with several reasons as to why we might not see any drastic improvements for long.

The biggest problem is kids today do not take to cricket or any other sport seriously. there are very few parents who will encourage their children to take up a career in sport. it probably makes more sense to spend the time in IIT coaching or some such usual activity then participate in sport. and truth be told that for a nation as hugely populated as ours , the chance of making it to the national cricket team is 1 in a million.

Let me digress a little ... :-) When i was a kid, I used to live in some suburbs near hyderabad. there were vast tracts of unutilised land. the main road which connected our suburb to the city was about a couple of furlongs away and you could see the road from my house, as most of it was empty. my school used to end about 3:30 pm by the time i was home it used to be 4 pm or so. there was a scramble to change clothes munch something quickly and head into the huge field was our cricket play area , and on a summer day it was almost 3 hours of cricket , till you get bored and the clothes became all dusty. we had the place enough to imitate Waqar Younis's run up to the wicket :-). These days in urban areas, space is a premium in most of the big cities the most you can do is play cricket in your back alley and run the danger always of breaking a few window panes .

Community play grounds are far and few in india in both urban and rural areas; and there are fewer professional coaching places for kids which teach the sport. Cricket unlike a lot of other sports like athletics , needs lot of space and resources to be taught professionally. most of the schools infact do not have proper cricket grounds.

I do not know firsthand about the rural areas, but I think the main issue there is lack of visibility and lack of access to resources such as good coaching schools. Also talented cricketers in the rural areas may find it really dificult to struggle and make a mark to finally make it to the state team. As i dont think there is an efficient system in place to notice and nurture talent. Another thing that i never understand is how the cricketers who play at the club and league level get selected to the state level.

lack of athleticism is one more big reason where we have a huge handicap. Our batsmen seem to be slower between the wickets, our fielders are never too agile, and worst of all we dont have genuine fast bowlers. even the faster bowlers we produce seem to lose their pace and also their way very quickly. its may be our genes, our food habits, but look at srilanka and pakistan ( may be not such a great example at this point ! but atleast they produce good bowlers.) too they are not all that different from us.

Ever gave a thought to how much money ranji cricketers make ? I think its not too great. and may be the club and league cricketers , district cricketers make little or none at all. the point is if the money is not too great at the initial levels, not many would make it their full time activity.

I could go on and on, but its an exercise in futility, after all we are a nation of cricket crazy people how will we ever learn to pour life into cricket again ?!

On second thoughts , may be the time is ripe for Arjun Singh's quota and reservation system to make a grand entry into BCCI .... well that is the wickedest thing that i have ever wished for >:-).