Cricket: The Opium of an Oppressed Nation

Sitting in a half-filled office, with colleagues updating scores either on computer or on mobile, I wondered why people cannot handle my reply, "I don't follow cricket" to the standard question of, "What's the score?" Cricket does not amuse me any more than Tom and Jerry. Nevertheless, cricket has arguably evolved as the most popular sport in India. But popular isn't always right.

Without any knowledge of the finer aspects of a cover-drive or a square-cut, I am making an amateur attempt to dissect this national sensation from a purely socio-political angle.
To many, cricket is the medium to portray their Indian-ness. It has grown out from a sport to a national emblem. (How about changing the Asoka Chakra to a cricket ball?) What's so Indian about it, anyway? Cricket, like football (and even the language in which I write) is a colonial dump. Why did cricket evolve as a more popular sport in India than football? Probably because it was the gentleman's game. It was a Maharaja’s game. Playing cricket (as opposed to playing the common man's game) elevated you to the status of an English gentleman who by the time had been successful their white-supremacy (and aristocracy) propaganda. Even after the British left, the Brahmins continued the legacy with 4% of the country’s Brahmins getting 70% representation in the national team - always. Perhaps that could be the reason why football in more popular in states with less domination of the upper caste.

Another reason for the popularity could be because of its focus on individuality. Though it is played as a team, there is a heavy focus on individuals who bats and bowls. They decide the course of the game. It perfectly suits the lifestyle of the Brahmin leisure-class who refuses to become a part of a team chasing a ball sharing an equal opportunity with others. In a country where lead actors are referred to as 'heroes', and where adding human gods to an existing cosmic array is commonplace, acceptance of this individualism follows. The ideas of team work and community efforts still confine to the educators of the corporate world. This could be the reason why a billion people couldn't manage to produce a 'team' for the Football World Cup.

The BCCI (and the government) has been successful in marketing its one-day variant in the country. Sadly, the sport did not have one-tenth of its popularity when India won the world cup in 1983. After economic liberalisation, this task has been taken up by private sponsors trimming it from a five-day test to a 12-hour one-day then to the recent Twenty20. But what they are unaware is that among a culture that watches highlights of the highlights, they will get viewers even for a ten-day match and can still make it profitable.

Post-independence, as a nation still struggling for an international recognition, cricket became a benchmark to compare themselves with the world. Defeating Australia gave a pride of defeating a white-man's nation. It gives a pride that India is performing well in at least one 'world sport' - a world sport played hardly in ten nations, of which an overwhelming majority are South-Asians settled in South-Asia or elsewhere. Winning this world cup will be some sort of a consolation for the billion-strong nation which came back with a couple of bronze medals from Beijing Olympics.

Playing against Pakistan is like a war. It becomes more of politics than sport. I don't understand why this much fury against Pakistan? After all, in 1947, we retained the name India though it is derived from a river which flows predominantly in Pakistan. The shameful mentality is to support our oppressors for centuries, England over our neighbouring, closely-related, culturally-similar Pakistan in an England-Pakistan match. This isn't patriotism; this is sheer ethnic abhorrence - a hate-crime.

For the urban elite, who pride itself with the deserted streets on a match day, watching cricket is cool. Same as watching movies and listening to music is. It is what everyone else does. Follow the crowd or become a national joke. “I am an Indian and a patriot. I would like India to win the match. Sachin Tendulkar scored this much in that match… The percentage of Indians below poverty-line is... er... eh..." Sorry, talking of defeating other nations in Human Development Index is so uncool.

There are genuine lovers and human players of cricket. I wish them all the best amidst this divinity. I still would continue to admire cricket as a sport, not as an expression of national spirit though. For an average Indian, watching cricket has, at one and the same time, the expression of the defeats in all other sports, protests against the defeats in all other sports. It has become the sigh of an ordinary citizen, the sport of a sport-less country, the pastime of a hobby-less nation, the consolation of a defeated crowd. It has become the opium of an oppressed nation.