Raves, rants and a bit of gyan!

I watched with a lot amusement the announcements made by the BCCI. Correct me, if I am wrong. The idea was to meet up and come up with solutions that were supposed to encourage and inculcate cricket and winning habits amongst players.

But what do we have now. A nicely worked out compromise, that just pulls wool over the people’s eyes. The board has clearly sent out signals, that as a player you can get away with absolute mediocrity and if you are a cricket enthusiast, you will have live with this mediocrity.

What I fail to understand is; what have endorsements got to do with performance? If I am a professional, I know my “good times” will not last forever. So if I don’t give it my 110%, I stand to loose everything, because, I no longer will have people’s respect, which in turn means they will not standby my endorsements. I have to be a ‘full time’ idiot not to understand these dynamics and devote all my time to endorsements or not perform on the field.

The measures suggested by the BCCI smacks of ignorance. 3 brands per player, no more than certain number of days for shoots, no shooting or events to be attended 15 days prior to a tournament etc., etc. It shows how people who have not played the game are now killing it in the name of revival. But hey, with the BCCI, you never know. There is always light at the end of the tunnel. The next win, could throw all this out of the window, and our players will be restored to their rightful place – next to our Gods. All this will be end up being notes for a sequel of the comedy of errors.

India exits world cup.

Players feel hurt and hapless.

Chappell resigns.

Zee launches ICL.

No wonder a billion people are feeling so blue.

So what’s all the fuss about? I think primarily, it has everything to do with people’s mental makeup. We are no longer a contended society. We want more and we want it now. Look at the violence that’s perpetuated through our movies. The hero is no longer satisfied with a small bashing of the baddies. He needs to pull out his big gun, his big sword and beat ‘em up big time to pulp. The hero no longer rides around on his bike. He’s gotto have a big car. His stunts are big.

This catastrophic change has come about, I think due to the change in psychic of the Indian public. We live our dreams through our heroes and heroines. So everything needs to be ostentatious. In fact, I distinctively remember, a die hard John Abraham fan told me that she didn’t ‘like’ Kabul Express. I was quite amazed. On probing further, she told me that the movie was too simple. It made her feel ‘light’. There was nothing in it for her to take home. No glam, no aspiration, no expensive cars, no swanky locales, nothing to dream off, no flights of fantasy. Phew! Most directors would give an arm to do a movie like that. But we are like this only!

Similarly, when it comes to cricket too we are ostentatious. One billion people live their dreams through our cricketers. It is another matter, that we don’t dominate any other sport at the world level. (Perhaps, the one exception being Chess, where Vishwanathan Anand is No.1. But then with 42 people following it at any given point of time, we can safely ignore it.) Coming back to cricket, yes, one look at the record books will tell how seriously we take the sport. Every conceivable record will feature the name of an Indian player. (Actually, read as – Sachin) Are our players so talented or do we drive them to such frenzy.

We are no longer happy with a 250 –280 score. It needs to be 350 – 400. Our margins of victory need to be a world records. Every time Sachin goes out, it needs to be a big hundred. Every time Irfan, Sreesanth, Munaf bowls, it needs to break the 96 MPH barrier, the stumps needs to break in half, or the batsmen need to break a bone or two. The catching has to be spectacular. The throws from the boundary need to find the stumps. The impression we would give anybody is that we have 11 supermen in our team. Every win raises the players closer to the status of GOD. And every failure reduces them to a bunch of incompetent nincompoops who are better of selling nariyal paani.

Such is the Indian public. And when you shoulders carry the burden of a billion such fans, I think you are better off selling nariyal paani.

Hey in passing shot;

After a lot of research, we zeroed in on two powerful personalities who were responsible for India’s debacle at the World Cup;
Indira Gandhi for creating Bangladesh and Hanuman for not destroying Lanka completely… hehehe

Which is the greatest virtue, to give or to conquer? To conquer the steel empire or to conquer millions of hearts? I suppose only time will tell. But the 3^rd week of June 2006, will definitely go down in history as the week that saw two men from the business world conquer different summits. One claimed the prized possession of Arcelor, the 2^nd largest producer of steel for a whooping $ 33.6 billion and the other donates a mind boggling $ 37 billion to charity!

So what is it that drives men? Actually, what is it that drives all of us? We seem to be caught in this end less rat race always wanting more. Bigger salaries, bigger cars, bigger hotels, bigger houses, heck even bigger burgers and milkshakes. What about bigger hearts, folks?

No. Not for a moment am I suggesting that what Mr. Mittal has achieved is insignificant or even inconsequential. In fact, his achievement has heralded to the world the arrival of the Indian flavor. The last five odd months, I ‘m sure must have been very anxious times for the Mittals. Everything from racial bias, to bringing in a different work culture has been hurled at them. Yet they have come out strong to climb the summit.

What is also impressive about Mr. Mittal is his vision. His group today has diversified from its core business into shipping, coal, power and oil enterprises. It also said that Mr. Mittal has an uncanny knack of identifying sick steel companies and turning them into gold! His zeal to conquer the steel empire is so intense that he now owns 12 giant-sized steel plants stretching from Canada to Trinidad & Tobago to Kazakhstan and Indonesia.

On the other hand, there is Mr. Buffett who made his billions from investments. He too shared this uncanny ability to spot investment opportunities. He picked up major stake in undervalued companies such as American Express, Coca-Cola, The Washington Post and Gillette. This Omaha born wizard is believed to have made his first investment at the age of 11. Phew! Most people at that age wouldn’t even know the difference between stock and stock.

In spite, of his acumen, this “Oracle of Omaha” is better known for this philanthropy. He has dished out millions, sorry now, billions towards charity. For many this could be perplexing. During the day, he makes billions and then in the evening dishes them out to the needy. It takes a man with big heart to be so magnanimous.

A big heart or nerves of steel, we all have our drives, to achieve our ever elusive goals. And then eventually, when we realize the true value of what are or what we have, I suppose that’s when we take the call. This cycle will continue as long as man exists.