I guess Indian cricket gives a new connotation to Lords. The so-called senior players are more like rent seeking feudal lords than professional cricketers. I am amazed at several comments about how Tendulkar should decide when he should quit, till then he should be kept in the team! If this is not feudal, hierarchical mind-set what else do you call it? I guess in a country where hierarchy has religio-social sanction through its caste system and enforced by the system of marriage, you can’t expect anything better. Under the guise of ‘respect’ for seniors we are just continuing to sing paeans to hierarchy. Current performance does not count. The results are obvious. The Australian team has shown what professionalism and performance is all about. For all our flirtations with modernity we remain fundamentally a feudal nation.
It was most satisfying to see India kicked out of the tournament in the first stage. With 16 teams playing we could not figure in the top 8. It is not cricket anymore; it is a huge joint venture between BCCI-Product Advertisers-Players. The game is secondary. Otherwise how can we justify the ‘blue billion’ hype of winning world cup for a team which was ranked 6th! The posters and banners popping in Bangalore wishing the team good luck along with the photo of the local politician (goonda) were intolerable. The same organizations, which have spent money on this, would balk if they had to do some awareness campaigns on issues that really matter like sanitation and health (polio campaigns or bird-flu). Hype took precedence to actual performance.
With the trash out we can now watch some real cricket and we got it in that beautiful innings of Jayasurya against West Indies. He started watchfully after two quick wickets. Got a good look at the pitch and bowlers and then in his inimitable style just took the bowlers to the cleaners. Now, this is performance.
Well, there is another hype that will bust soon. A year or two back I was in IIT-Powai interviewing computer science students. One said his favorite subject was Algorithms, I asked what work he has done on that and he answered that he wrote a library information system. Get it?
5 comments:
Did you read P Sainath's article on endorsements?
Greg C is coming back soon after the unwanted (whoever they are) disappear.
The other matches- today's also latest when Eng was frightened to the core by Bang- in general are quite ok.
New developments like keeper standing up are amazing.
Have you stopped watching ?
Your comment about the IIT hype is very true. There are some exceptionally good IIT grads but a large number of them are pretty average. The reasons for them are:
A. Coaching classes that turn
cracking the IIT JEE into a
pattern identification exercise.
As a result, the kids don't
develop a critical understanding
of the concepts, but learn to
solve problems by repetitive
practice.
B. Lack of motivation once they
join IIT. Since the Indian
society considers them as
elites, it gets to their head
and they no longer work hard.
They sort of think they know
everything already or they can
pick up any skill without
putting in much effort.
I am telling you this from personal experience, being an IIT grad myself.
Bye,
Venkat
[shyam]
No! Of course not, I have not stopped watching. Today's match between SL and Aus would be interesting, hopefully. The Aussies are ruthless and I want someone or something to stop the juggernaut
[venkat]
I think the malaise starts much earlier. Sure the "coaching classes" do a lot of damage, but now our school are not any better. On a positive note, I heard that things are changing in private schools in Bangalore. Most of them seem to adopt very modern and appropriate teaching techniques.
Check this out, an interesting coincidence:
http://outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070430&fname=IIT+%28F%29&sid=1
[venkat]
Thanks for the link. I hope there is more noise about this..
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