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Cricket: from sport to religion- Maha-kirkit-ayana!

by Bored Guest

Bread and Circus. That's what the junta needs.Animal rights have put the Circus to seed and hence the reinvented adage is Bread and TV!

In India it would be roti/chawal aur TV ( depending on your palate type!).For many of us educated types it has changed to beer and internet!

And in India where there is TV, electricity or not (Tractor batteries can be used to run TV), there is Bollywood (or Bhoj-jywood,or Ahomiya-wood etc. etc.) and there is Cricket ( many activists may oppose this monopolising statement against the "Unity in Diversity" politically correct definition of India, but really which company is paying big money to kabaddi,football,hockey or chuppan-chupai!).

Who would have thought that Cricket , a five day game for supremely bored British gentlemen, who became Cricket Crazy would inject Desis with this virus without some "tyohar"(festival) affecting it in the middle of its long duration. In rural India there is a saying "Saat vaar,nau tyohar" which means seven days,nine festivals!

So we went out and made Cricket into a "tyohar", five days of chutti, GDP loss go to hell! We just added the cricketing calendar to the Hindu calendar (which hindu one,you ask,among the hundreds,from Saka to the Bengali one, you go figure!) .

Along with Ganesh,Shiva,Jesus,Buddha,Guru Nanak,Sai Baba (of Shirdi), we can add photos of Sunny or Tendulkar,Dhoni or Viv to our little space on the wall, or to our mandirs!

I always think that if minor starlets in South India can have fan associations make temples to their names, how come the Cricket greats are left out.How come no one has exploited the market opportunity to sell marble or reconstituted granite dust idols of these cricket stars.Agarbattis to go with their favourite perfumes, laddoos which look like cricket balls as prasadam. We could make garlands with 4's and 6's figures made of wood or acrylic (imported from China!).

Bhagvad Gita talks of various pathways we can attain God/spiritual liberation/Moksha , the four main ones being Bhakti,Gyan,Yog,and Karm.

The Karma Cricket ones are those who actually blood and sweat on the game, play to win and can go into depression if they are not in the team.The Gyan Criket ones are the bloggers,twitterers,writers,facebookers and PhD researchers. The Yog Cricket ones could be the ones who play it for exercise, its surprising how no one has come out with books like "The one season Cricket Diet", "How to bat,not run between wickets and still win the weight game" and the most popular one ever "Bat for size zero"- young women would make Cricket the hottest game on the planet. The Cricket Bhakts are those who would sing Cricket-bhajanams and wear the locket,bracelet or earings of their favouritist player.There is a huge merchandising operation waiting to happen.

India has always been known to innovate with faith.Mahavir,Buddha,Aurobindo, then Osho. This is the time to say that Cricket-Leela is the deepest metaphor of life.Just imagine we could go a step further than Kabir and Nanak who wanted to bridge the Hindu-Muslim divide, we could bridge the Christian-Hindu-Muslim-Atheist Existentialist divide ( just need to get Jews into it, and the Palestine problem is solved!). If we just created mixed teams (women and men), and had solar-powered night Cricket, we would be gender fair and ecologically sustainable.

On this beginning of second season of Bored Cricket Crazy Indians, I say "Om Tendulkar Namah ! "


Sunny Narang also writes at www.anandolan.net

4 comments:

Bhaskar Khaund said...

Good one - and a small "Om BCC! Namah" too ! :-)

sudhir said...

good one sunny ! but there's one more point one has to perhaps consider...my feeling is that the popularity of cricket not because of any appreciation for the game rather because people are placing bets all the time. A trip to one our markets during a match will show you how all the shopkeepers and their assistants have placed bets and are counting their losses/gains as they follow the action. In fact I suspect the romans were also doing this with their gladiators. Even in tribal areas people are betting on rooster fights. All around me in Berlin sport betting shops are mushrooming at the moment. Well but then paisa and organised religion have also gone hand in hand.

Gaurav Sethi said...

Sunny! You gave a strong opening to the day's innings. Tum toh Sunny Gavaskar ke baap nikle boss.

Btw there was talk of a temple for MSD, to confirm that, I did a search for MSD temple, on top - bored member SP's

Here's the link, look out for Som's comment on top

Sunny Naradmuni said...

Right Bhaskar,there is also a slogan which is used by many politico supporters " Jab tak sooraj chand rahega , BCC! ka naam rahega" ! Maybe one can think next of a political party based on Cricket, People's Cricket Party, Jan Kirkit Andolan!
Of course Sudhir,the purists are always few and far between, but thats hype and popularity- Q called you guys the Mafia , I would say the Politburo,the marxists always knew you need to have a body to impose Q(uality).
Thanks Naked, for your madness and love for BCC! this is an offering.