LET’S GIVE OTHER SPORTS A CHANCE

Last one week saw hectic frenzy across all television studios. Former cricketers hopped from one studio to another lambasting Dhoni and his men for the abrasive performance displayed by them in the West Indies. This was the second year in a row that the team had faltered against quality pace bowling. A nation that has all along boasted to have the best batting attack in the world, capable of tearing apart any bowling unit was made to look like a club team.

This is not the first time that the nation & the media have gone out of the way to make the cricketers feel that they had committed an 'unpardonable' crime by faltering at such a big event. We witnessed similar scenes when the Indian

team exited in the first round of the '2007' world cup in West Indies, when we lost badly in our second group match against Australia in the 2003 world cup and way back in 1996 when we were stunned by Sri Lanka at Eden gardens in the world cup semi final.

We have never created such a hue and cry when our hockey or football teams fail during a big event or sometimes fail to even qualify for major international tournament. The problem with Indian psyche is that cricketers are not sportsmen but they are superstars or in a way our only hope of glory in the world of sport where we don’t hold such a great position.

Cricketers became icons way back in the 80’s when the Indian team for the first time won the cricket world cup. From there began the journey of Indian cricketers to become icons. We created icons like Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Mohd Azharuddin (who later became the villain after the match fixing scandal emanated) Kumble, Dravid, Ganguly, Sehwag,Yuvraj, Harbhajan & above all Tendulkar who by far has been the biggest of them all. These icons were created by the media on the foundation of solid fan following these cricketers or should I say super humans enjoyed.

So whenever our cricketing icons fail the fickle Indian psyche swings to the other extreme. From gods they become demons in an instant. All the past glories are forgotten and they are questioned like criminals for their failure. Yes, it is indeed sad that we tumbled in such a terrible fashion against the mighty short pitch bowling but the bigger problem is that we as a nation believe that we are a one-sport nation. So it is an unwritten law- that we have to perform every single time we step on the cricket field.

It is true that it is cricket among all the sports where we saw the maximum success in the 80s and 90s. This rise in cricket popularity also coincided with decline in our hockey performances. But in the last 2 decades we also saw other Indian sportsmen achieving huge success in different disciplines. Viswanathan Anand, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupati, Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar Vijendra Kumar, Saina Nehwal, Sania Mirza etc. We have performed exceptionally well in chess, tennis, wrestling, shooting, badminton, Kabbadi (we are the world champions in this sport) etc. All of them have done exceedingly well in premium sporting events but still we have not given them the same encouragement what we have given to our cricketers for so many decades now.

It is this trend that underlines the fact that we as a nation see ourselves doing well in only one sport. The week we got knocked out of the T20 world cup- that very week Viswanathan Anand won the world championship again and the Indian hockey team made it to the Shah Azlan cup finals. The Indian women cricket team also made it to semi finals of the T20 women world cup. The only reason it got a bit of coverage in the news was because the Indian cricket team failed so badly. Had they done a little better, these events wouldn’t have got the little coverage they did manage to get.

It’s high time that we tone down our obsession towards cricket and start appreciating our success in other sports. This change in attitude is imperative for India to prosper in other sports as well. This nation has the talent to excel in other disciplines, let’s give them a fair chance as well!!

UPA’S BIGGEST HEADACHE :COALITION DHARMA

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his first press conference after taking charge of the government for the second time, seemed a bit nervous while responding to the media queries. Probably that’s the nature of Dr Singh who believes more in action than words.

In the last one year, there have been many thorny issues that have pricked the government. To begin with the positives – the government was successful in handling the global financial crisis. The woman reservation’s bill which got passed in the Rajya Sabha, and the Right to Education Bill, were some key achievements of the UPA 2. But if we look at the negatives - clearly the price rise issue has hurt the government and the people of the country the most.

The Naxal issue has led to more chaos and destruction rather than achievements. Pakistan’s failure on the 26/11 front has also not helped the government.

To measure a performance of any government it is important to take individual performances of the cabinet ministers into consideration. After all a government is like any other team, especially when it involves coalition partners. Over all the performance of the ‘Congress’ ministers has been satisfying. Kapil Sibal, P. Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee have been the star performers for the government in their respective ministries. Shashi Tharoor , who was in the news throughout for the all the wrong reasons, was show the exit door while Jairam Ramesh has been appreciated for his work as the environment minister but has been a let down for his comments on other ministers.

But the biggest negative for team UPA has been the performance of the coalition partners and their ministers.

Sharad Pawar has made more news in cricket rather than agriculture and agri-products which directly impacts the price of essential food items. He has been a total failure on that front.

Mamata Banerjee has been a visiting minister for the government. She is mostly in Kolkata and her priority is the West Bengal elections next year. She has been soft on the Naxal issue and has openly criticized the government for its policy towards Naxals. Mamata is clearly turning out to be the biggest irritant for the current UPA government much like the ‘Left’ parties who stalled various reform decisions taken by the UPA during its first tenure..

The DMK is the biggest liability for the government in terms of performance. M.K Alagiri and A Raja have been an embarrassment for the government. A Raja’s alleged involvement in the 2G scam, which if proved by the investigating agencies, would be the biggest scam in the history of India. Though the PM has defended Raja, but with a rider that if anyone is found guilty, he will take action. On the other hand, Karunanidhi’s elder son Alagiri has been a complete misfit in the capital so far. He has not been attending the Parliament, even after been reprimanded by the speaker. He has shown no interest in his portfolio so far.

But Manmohan Singh’s biggest problem is that he can’t take ministers from coalition partners to task. He can’t pressurize them as he has to keep this coalition intact for the UPA to last a full 5-year term. The first year is a very short duration for any government to be judged as all the major reforms are initiated only from the third-year onwards. If the first tenure saw the rise of Manmohan Singh as an effective political leader; this tenure would be a test of Singh’s ability to extract good performances from his team. No one doubts Singh’s potential as an individual performer but if his other ministers do not perform in this tenure, it would dent Singh’s legacy.

KASAB & SHAHZAD: THE COMMON LINK

Last week Ajmal Amir Kasab was finally handed over the capital punishment as expected. In the same week Faisal Shahzad, who attempted to detonate a bomb in Times Square was arrested from JFK airport in New York. US officials’ claim that Shahzad has confessed that he indeed did try to blow up a bomb kept inside a car at Time Square to kill and terrorize people.

On the face of it Kasab & Shahzad have nothing in common except the fact that they both hail from Pakistan and both were trained by the same terror establishment which is based in Pakistan. Otherwise both of them have pretty distinct backgrounds. Kasab was born in a poor

family from a remote village in Punjab, largely illiterate and unemployed, who briefly worked as a labourer in Lahore before he joined the training camp of LeT. While on the other hand Shahzad had a privileged upbringing in a decent family. His father was in the armed forces and he mainly stayed in the big cities of Pakistan and received good education. He moved to the US in 1999 where he got his degree in computer engineering and also worked in various companies.

For many it has come as a shock that given Shahzad’s background and education he still chose the fundamentalist approach. But there is one ‘root’ cause that actually underlines a similarity between Kasab & Shahzad. Both the men were going through financial problems at different levels. Kasab in his confession stated on camera that his trainers had promised 1, 50,000 rupees for his family if he did his job well. Incidentally, according to the initial reports that are emerging with regards to Shahzad suggest that even he was a victim of the financial crisis that had engulfed United States last year.

The Islamic fundamentalist groups have exploited this situation faced by young Muslims across income levels to the fullest. Though, this is not the only factor that must have influenced the minds of these two individuals but was definitely a vital factor. These examples clearly demonstrate that the Islamic fundamentalist groups have a streamlined propaganda and indoctrination process in place. The pattern and the approach vary depending on the background of the individual. For example Kasab in his confession stated that he first got introduced to LeT through a pamphlet which was been distributed in his village by LeT members. The pamphlet asked young village boys to join their training camps. The case of Shahzad is not an isolated one involving a young, educated Muslim been swayed by an Islamic terror group. The involvement of Ahmad brothers in the failed terrorist attack that was attempted at the Glasgow airport & London in 2007 also illustrates the sophisticated approach that has been adopted by these groups to indoctrinate these educated men.

Till now poverty has been considered the root cause for violence-whether its naxal based terrorism or even religious based terrorism to an extent, but now this new form of ‘urban financial crisis’ that has emerged in the recent years is another dangerous phenomenon. Hopefully this won’t become another catalyst that would give birth to urban based right wing terrorism.