What makes cricket great?

Neither the boy from Bowral, nor any of his mates sipping beer down under,
neither the little master nor the master blaster, neither the queens jokers
nor mandelas chokers, neither the Lawries nor the Benauds, neither Kery
Packer nor the new boss-o-cricket his Modiness. Not even the who's who of cricket boards across the globe who have a general misconception that, 'Political leaders make great cricket administrators!'

Then who makes the game great?

Administrators? No. Sponsors? No. Curators? No. Coaches? No. Support staff?
No. Security personnel? A big NO. You must be wondering, then what the hell am I referring to? Some may even get frustrated and say, "Does soccer makes cricket great?"
Hey, hey don't be impatient. I am about to tell you the answer so don't put
this aside, read further.

"We make the game great!" Yes. Every single one of us who lives for the game
makes the game great. It's because of us that the game has reached never
before seen heights. It's because of every person who wakes up at wee hours
to watch the sizzling summer action down under. Who spends sleepless nights
to watch cricket in the Caribbean. Who have travelled miles, bunked classes,
skipped lectures, used sick leaves just to watch cricket. Who has heard
boss', parents scolding, fought with wife, fought with girl friend, broken
relationships just to save his relationship with cricket.

Who watches India play Bangladesh with the same interest with which he
watches the Ashes. Who also watches dead rubbers, who hates to miss even the
pre-match and the post-match show. Who loves watching redbacks, sabers, dolphins, wayambas, blues, titans,warriors, royals, chargers and every other domestic champs I missed here,
play.Who loves the KFC T20 BIG BASH as much as the IPL. Who finds it difficult to
choose between the Sheffield shield and the Ranji trophy.

Who packs the stadium seats be it the 40 degrees oven hot Chennai or 5
degrees freezing cold Wellington! Who goes to the ground even on rest day
just to watch his favorite players practice. And who still can't sleep the
night before the game just thinking what the next day has in store for him
and his team...

So after giving mind, body, heart and soul and even spending a lot of
Gandhiji on it what do we get in return?
I know we get fun, joy, excitement, happiness, and a hell a lot of
adrenaline rush. But put all this aside for a few moments and think.

We get lathi charge on stadium gate, games in our city gets transferred to
another because of some political turmoil, we get seats besides the sight
screen giving us only half a stadium view. To add insult to injury some
leggie comes around the wicket and the great batsman, oops night watchman
wants the sight screen to move and our half a stadium view turns into full a
sight screen view. Can anybody tell that nightie (this is what I call a
night watchman) Bradman played without a sight screen!

Whenever we go to check, whether our favorite cricketer can sign or not,
i.e. to take his autograph, all that we get is a permanent autograph most
probably on the face by his body guard.

The sacrifices of an Indian cricket fan never seem to end. Even after going
through all this his love for the game never seems to fade.

Sometimes I feel the love an Indian cricket fan has for the game is just
like the love hero has for heroine in typical bollywood love flicks. In
those films no matter what the heroine does, whether she insults him in
public, breaks his heart, get married to someone else but our poor hero,
thanks to his endless love for her is even ready to become her best man for
the wedding!


So I feel it's about time the cricket administrators make watching cricket a
pleasure in India and not just an adventure for the fans. Because though we
might look similar to the hero but we are not totally like him. After all
there are other heroines too in the market!

Worlds most popular game isn't a bad replacement!