Cricket

Sports is a medium of entertainment. It is a mode of recreation for the masses. Talking about India, a sports enthusiast never really had much options for sports viewing. Due to India’s dismal performance in other sports at major sporting events (like CWG, Asia, Olympics, World Championships, etc.) people never focused on them or the singular glory which a player or two may bring to the country (eg. Prakash Padukone in Badminton). The only sports which offered them to a chance to turn patriotic, along with hope for victory, were cricket and hockey. While hockey took a downturn in the 2nd half of the last century, cricket gained momentum.

One of the main reasons why cricket is a deemed national sport in India is the simultaneous penetration of cricket and television in India. From the 70s to 90s, when India started establishing itself as a formidable team in the cricketing world, people in India were introduced to the new invention of television. The TV industry being at its infancy, options for TV entertainment were only a handful (weekend movies, news hour, etc.). Sports events were not that frequent either, especially the ones which were telecast on TV. However, cricket was an exception. Frequent bilateral and triangular tournaments in cricket quickly rallied the Indians to not only watch but cheer their team, which even used to perform well. It offered them a chance to align their patriotism with sports. Gradually we saw the cricket fever grip most if not all of India. And then we had the WC’83 in England. Just the 3rd global event in cricket and India was crowned champion. This was the nudge India needed to turn to cricket to quench its sports related hunger.

 Date 26/07/2019