THE UPA government is trying to use cricket mania as opium on the masses, attempting to obscure its utter failure in governance and the resultant despair in the society. In gestures that would put the olden day’s maharajas to shame, the present day politicians are giving away cash and other generous gifts-from public money, taxes paid by the hard working and rule abiding Indians, without any accountability whatsoever-to cricketers, who are anyway paid for what they are doing.
The Centre announced tax exemptions to the cash rich International Cricket Council and the Indian Premier league, an arm of the Board of Cricket Control in India. Both these bodies are commercial ventures. They market and sell their product and earn crores of rupees from their activities. The general Indian public pays for all the entertainment provided by these so-called sports bodies. It has not been explained under what ground these exemptions have been given. This move would benefit the owners of the IPL teams, the ICC and the BCCI by several hundred millions.
The Indian cricket team has done a great job and all Indians take pride in their achievements. But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi unabashedly tried to make India’s win in the World Cup final as some victory for the government. The various state governments announced awards and the Delhi government exempted the players from housing tax. It is showering cash and housing doles for the players now.
The point is, cricket is just a sport and it so happens that a vast majority of Indians enjoy it. Call it the colonial hangover if one must. But it stepped out of the sports category when politicians entered in hordes the various controlling institutions of the game. And they invaded these bodies because there is money in it. Lots and lots of it. It may be interesting to note that BCCI is the richest cricketing association in the world. While the Sports Ministry itself receives paltry allocation in the budget, what trickles down to the lowest level where talent has to be identified and promoted in a myriad of sports are a few rupees, cricket gets a royal treatment only because of the commercial interest in it. It is a murky world of sponsorship, advertisements, illegal betting, match fixing, politicians and black money.
The members of the Maharashtra Assembly crossed all levels of sense and logic in demanding that Sachin Tendulkar, one of the top players, be given Bharat Ratna. While he is one of the finest players, it should be remembered that he is doing a paid job and earns in millions from his ad. assignments and other commercial interests he has invested in. Marathi pride should also have some tinge of respect for the highest civil award of the land. It has been bestowed on such eminences as M S Subbalakshmi, Ustad Bismillah Khan and Bhimsen Joshi. (We will not discuss political names because several of them got it only for that reason – politics). These awardees lived lives of tapasya and not convert their talent into venture capital. Subbalakshmi gave to charity all that she earned. Bismillah Khan in his last days had to wait for government aid to get medical facilities and Bhimsen Joshi never did more than a couple of concerts a year and had no hefty bank balance.
In a nation parched for clean politicians and decent governance, sport victories act as balm, a relief point to rejoice in our Republic. Corruption has reached such unfathomable levels under the leadership of Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi. The census has not brought great cheer to the social profile of the nation. Indian sportspersons have been performing increasingly better. In cricket their victories and defeats have always been national emotional issues.
Let cricket be only a game. Neither the government nor the politician has any contribution in it. Nowhere else in the world sports bodies are packed with politicians as in India. From archery to hockey to cricket, the politicians control the game. This politicisation of sports must stop and the government should refrain from giving lavish gifts, tax exemptions selectively to associations because of the sectoral interests of individuals. Let there be fair play.
