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World Cup ’83 still cashing in…

BCCI recently felicitated all members of the ’83 Prudential World Cup winning squad in a colorful function. Along with that all players of that squad was given a cheque of Rs. 25 Lakhs each!

While Kapil’s devils really did a good job in fetching the World Cup to India, I thought, probably it’s time Indian fans and BCCI put that story behind and started thinking of something else. Also, as we all see, most of the members of that squad are well settled (financially) in life after taking up lucrative careers as coaches, commentators and administrators and making good enough money! They don’t have to earn so much of retirement bonus right now for something that was done 25 years back.

Forget about the history! It’s high time the pay packages of our current cricketers are brought down big time as this ‘one sport country’ is not getting anywhere with respect to other sports. We are in a pathetic shape when it comes to international events…in fact, so pathetic that even a silver medalist in an Olympic event is treated like a national hero (or even at par with the father of the nation) and became a display piece all around India – thanks to the sponsors, may be. If BCCI is cash rich and made a few millions out of the IPL event and sponsorship, let them not forget the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) part of life. Instead of making our rich cricketers even richer, they should concentrate on such social aspects too.

In a country where inflation is touching 13 year high and the industrial/agricultural growth is tipped to be slowing down, let us not waste our human resources and valuable time over too many Twenty 20 tournaments and then sharing this huge income (generated out of common man) with cricketers and their team owners alone.

With all this money coming in I think even the cricketers are putting their financial needs ahead of national interests. Soon, the cricket will become only an entertainment factor rather than a national pride. Let our cricketers fight hard for every thousand rupee they are making and let other games be treated at par with cricket! Will that ever happen in India?

Non-cricket story: Recently, I was chatting with a friend about the Software professionals’ salaries. They (includes yours truly) are a pampered lot like our cricketers as well. Engineers in other industries do a lot of hardwork and get paid probably one fifth of what a Software Engineer gets…

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Colourless Cricket Worldcup in the offing…

Several sub-standard teams, too many injured players, underprepared stadia and pitches, lengthy schedule – Almost every aspect of the game seem to be taking the reputation away from the forthcoming ICC Cricket Worldcup 2007.

The problem started couple of years back when ICC declared that World cup 2007 will have participation from 16 cricket playing countries. Their argument is that unless they do so, the game will not grow. Well, I doubt if that helps the seven or 8 minnows, anyhow. Ideally they should have followed the Soccer World Cup kind of a setup whereby the qualification rounds pick up the best world-cup-west-indies-logo performers from each continent. This means that the top eight test playing nations plus a maximum of two countries should have been given a chance. Instead of proliferating the game the right way, they are reverting to moneymaking and marketing resorts – Well, they wouldn’t mind if the so called prestigious event runs into two months, do they? They need money!!!

The combined problems of injury worries, dope and match-fixing scandals seem to be on their way to diminish the image of the high profile event this time. Almost every good team has couple of their match-winners sitting out. If it is Brett Lee and Andrew Symonds – along with couple of other uncertainties – for Australia, it is Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammed Asif and Abdul Razzaq for Pakistan – I discount Afridi, well he has been a hype anyhow. New Zealand might miss their inform all rounder Jacob Oram where as England is trying to figure out who will be their captain for the Worldcup after a half-fit Kevin Pieterson somehow figured in the scheme of things. Sri Lanka has got their share of problems with their old warhorses. Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Attapatu are not in their best physical fitness, nor are they getting any younger. West Indies has got a different issue altogether as their star allrounder Marlon Samuels is under ICC scrutiny on match-fixing allegations. Among the front-line teams India seems to have the least of injury problems but their natural strength – of being the best batting line-up in the world today on paper and books – is marred on ground fielding. We have one of the most immobile fielding side of all times for this Worldcup. It is unfortunate that Mohammed Kaif and Suresh Raina did not live up to expectations after playing a good number of matches for India in the past.

When countries like West Indies host the mega event, there are a few issues that comes along with it. The infrastructure to accommodate and transport the players and officials of ’16 countries’ and their crazy fans will be a bit of a problem for them. Even the capacity of stadia are not along the expectations of typical cricket crazy nations. That is the advantage that the sub-continent nations have. We at least have big stadiums and a good rail network here. The accommodation availabilities as well as air schedules are the other set of problems in the Caribbeans. The Worldcup officials in WI are working really hard but there is every chance that things may not be fully in their control.

The long schedule of the event is mainly contributing to the number of teams appearing. Hope ICC will learn from their mistake and try to organize qualification rounds in the future before electing 10 teams or so for the final event. This would make things shorter, sweeter and more exciting. They indeed need to learn a lesson or two from professional sports bodies like FIFA.