Skip to main content

RIP Cricket - it is Tricket now!


Six international umpires are allegedly willing to fix matches for money. (Reuters)
Cricket sting shocker: Pakistan, Sri Lanka umpires ready to fix matches at T20 World Cup
THE INDIAN EXPRESS, New Delhi, Mon Oct 08 2012, 22:24 hrs

TNN | Oct 9, 2012, 05.03AM IST



Question: Do we really need sting operations, blaring over TV channels and the screaming headlines flashed over front pages next morning, to prove the obvious?

What once was a fine game called Cricket has since degenerated into what I call as “Tricket” - A reality show, a Tamasha – sheer waste of precious time. Since last few years, probably after the first season of IPL, I have stopped watching this show, just like every other reality show.

But there are millions of innocent cricket-loving-fans across India, who follow the game with their heart and soul. Pouring out their deepest emotions, they discuss and debate the fine details and nuances of every single game; whichever the format, doesn't really matter - Test, 1-Day, T-20. These discussions extend over long hours, before and after every match, at dinner-table, coffee-breaks, bars and restaurants and more lately, over social networking sites. Blissfully unaware and ignorant of the politics and commerce that would have already decided the course of the match, the series and the awards – until such sting operations are flashed out.

With due respect to millions of cricket-fans, we are all being taken for a jolly good ride in this make-believe age of reality show called Tricket. Everything that revolves around the core (The Match) - the controversies, the gossips, the parties, the cheerleaders, the press-meets, including the sting and expose; are all clearly manufactured and choreographed by professional event managers; to make a grand spectacle out of the fine game that once was Cricket, into a Reality Show that I now call Tricket. 

But looking back last 2 years or so, there have been very serious corruption and match-fixing charges involving international players and now with this latest one, even the elite panel umpires - I wonder what else is left of Cricket. During this rather quick transition from Cricket to Tricket, one thing that has suffered the most is the spirit and the purity of game. Hence, I replaced the C of Cricket by T, for Tamasha.

Sad that Cricket is long gone. And Tricket is left with one fan less, for sure.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nero’s Guests, the age of inequality: A Review

The reason why I have taken up to write a review of Nero’s Guests is because it needs to be widely circulated, written and talked about, as much as possible; so that everyone gets to see it, those who still do not get the time to watch it, may further need to be motivated to do so, and only then it will reach out to the wider audience and be able to make a real impact. The mainstream media today is totally degenerated and corrupted as it does not cover anything that is not “breaking news” or that is not considered “glamorous” enough to catch eye balls. For this obvious reason, Nero’s Guests has been completely ignored by the mainstream media (both print & electronic) and is not given its due space & visibility. The subject itself is not new to any of us and it has become a part of our daily lives - mere statistics. It is about the severe agrarian crisis that the country is faced with, as a result of which farmers are still committing suicide and as many as 200,000 farmers h
2 comments
Read more

Down Memory Lane: Satpura National Park

Memory … is the diary that we all carry about with us ~ Oscar Wilde This one is a sequel to the earlier post: Story of Satpura , where we introduced and talked about the person, Shri K. S. Saxena (Retd IFS), who was at the centre of creation of what we know today as Satpura Biosphere Reserve.  We pick up where we had left with the concluding remark: “And he looks forward to visiting Satpura National Park sometime …” Satpura National Park After three successive COVID-19 lockdowns and all the trauma, it was only in October’21 that we could conclude the most awaited trip down memory lane to Satpura National Park, exactly forty years after it was inaugurated. Calling it mere ‘nostalgic trip’ for Shri. K.S. Saxena (ex-IFS) on his 86th Birthday would be nothing short of an insult to his passion and love for the jungles of Satpura.  Sharing here few pictures of the trip from our personal archives, please feel free to ‘click to enlarge’ pictures for better views.  The planning for the trip was
1 comment
Read more

Ideological Subversion

And then, there are the communists, Blacker hearts still. They feed on the pus of all this corruption, Like maggots in a corpse! And like maggots have left a swell, They will eventually swarm like flies, And spread their rotten philosophy, Across the country and across the world, Those then, Are our enemies! ~ Inspector Chester Campbell / The Peaky Blinders Post independence, India had the option to chose & follow a particular path to build its own destiny as a Sovereign Nation State in the new world order, after almost 1000 years of foreign rule. This opportunity was actually the result of those Freedom Fighters who laid their precious lives to liberate India from foreign rule. Unfortunately, they did not live to witness the national tricolour being hoisted on 15th August 1947. The real heroes of our freedom struggle are the ones who contributed immensely during the 90 years, starting with 1857 through 1947. They were the real sons of the soil, most of whom martyred as nameless &
1 comment
Read more