Monday, April 09, 2007

Jerry McGuire......?

"Show me the money" was maybe the most memorable line for everyone from Jerry McGuire. One of my most favourite movies of all time and not for this line. But off late everybody has been feeling the lasting impact of this line and not the real spirit of this movie.

Show me the money is offcourse true, who wouldnt want money? But how much money is enough? That reminds me of another line from Wall Street, "Greed is good" but is it really?

These are a few questions that players need to answer for themselves. In most cases unfortunately the sequence of events have been such that people have been forced to make this connection between slide in performance and increase in endorsements. Though it is paradoxical somewhat but i guess poor players cant do much about it. Just see the cycle :

Player does well-> gets selected into the team -> if he does well in the team -> starts getting endorsements -> by the time endoresements come into effect law of averages catch up with him -> lo and behold!! public thinks money has made him lose his head.

The last part is partly true as most of these people tend to think of themselves as infallible and forget basics of the game, a momentary lapse of reasoning and then comes the dark side of the moon as they hit dead end of the wall. A regular sportsman somehow cant juggle these many things at the same time and specially when he is faced with situation of losing his bread and butter both, compounded by the fact that he somehow cant figure as to why his bat stopped talking or his balls seem to turn into lollies for even number 11s.

I think indian sportsmen would do a great service to themsleves and nation by devoting their time to play and let money be a by-product. Board should be served by people who believe in nurturing the game and players. It is board's duty to keep the game attractive for players and spectators. Board should make a transparent system where players playing at the highest level would earn highest rewards during their playing days, relating them to performace and wins for nation.

In a democracy board cant afford to put a cap on earning potential for players what they can do is ensure to put a system in place that would extract performance for anyone who wants to see the money.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Just not cricket

Who owns indian cricket? is it the BCCI the so called the body running indian cricket? Is it the so called super stars of indian cricket who tend to falter at the alter so often? Or is it the vociferous ex cricketers who voice more opinions than runs they had scored all their lives? Or is it millions ( sorry the billion as somes blues pushers would love to say) of indian cricket fans who are win hungry, who have forgotten to admire a good cricketing spectacle, who tend to see every cricket match like movie lagaan?
Or media which tends to use issues which are meaty and juicy?

Alas today there are only questions and this is the only sentence without a question mark :).

But is it just about overhauling the so called rotting system of BCCI only? or is it about indian psyche? We are a country where every leader was allowed to lead ( or rule) almost till his last breath. We are a country where guests are supposed to be gods and thus tend to overstay their welcome by default. Is this the reason why leadership qualities of Ganguly once included giving security to the failing players, as it was said he had faith in their abilitie. so certain amount of chances finally led to some successes in the end and thereby the both the leader and followers survived. Is that almost akin to law of averages or is it the good old argument of some of our esteemed commentators " class always shines in the end"?

We are a country where i think one Advani will forever be PM in waiting and his party would never be able to shake off the charm of good old Vajpayee the PM till his last breath.

It is not for the first time we are getting glimpse of the perform or perish psyche from west. look at british where even charisma of Thatcher couldnt guarantee her job security and you have laour demanding a walk into the sunset from Blair( much of his own doing..though in india that wouldnt happen even after cumulative of all the doings of these politicians). Chappel wasnt giving us any revolutinary lesson here, he was just trying to put in to practice his natural instincts of survival of the fittest( not only darvinian variety though) but i guess he didnt realize that he was fighting 5000 year old indian culture of Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam. It was natural insticts of us indians which may have forced insecure players to look for godfathers. Chappel won the battle once though by getting the message across to the untouchable Dada of all but finally lost the war.



(its a work in progress just as things around us...)