Published: Apr 09, 2011, 10:34 AM (IST)
Edited: Apr 17, 2014, 02:11 PM (IST)
By Jigna Khajuria
The 2011 cricket World Cup is ours. We prayed, fasted, cancelled all our prior engagements, did puja for our team, crossed our fingers and waited with bated breath. And then the cricketing gods fulfilled our dream of being the world champions – yet again!
India celebrated the victory with unprecedented euphoria – unseen for any sporting event in India. Seeing the exuberant energy, joy and madness that spilled out on the streets soon after the victory, my mother rightly remarked, “Even Diwali is not celebrated in this manner!” But that’s how we Indians are when it comes to cricket!
With the festivities and adulations came a spate of awards, cash prizes, flat/land allotments from various state governments for our Richie Rich cricketers. Does a Yuvraj Singh or a Sachin Tendulkar or a Gautam Gambhir really need cash or a piece of land? That thought struck me amid the avalanche of awards and felicitations.
Wouldn’t that money/ land be better served by giving it to the Indian army or CRPF jawans? There they are leading a life of hardships and uncertainty, risking their very lives to serve the country. Yet, it’s no secret that these jawans and their families have to struggle to make ends meet most of the times.
One also knows what kind of budget the central and state governments allot for their weapons, ammunition, bullet-proof jackets, food and general well being, let alone looking after their families. One really wonders who needs the monetary awards more: the cricketing heroes or those unsung heroes whom we don’t even remember, except during wars and militancy.
I may sound like a spoilsport in the wave of joy that is gripping all of India. Shouldn’t I be happy for the cricketers? After all, they made us proud and brought the entire nation together on a common ground. Of course, I am happy and proud of them. Didn’t they deserve all the prizes? Maybe, they did. But it’s a question of equality.
By all means shower our cricket stars with all the awards. By all means, respect them and love them. But please, do also realize that they don’t put their lives in danger or fight enemies to protect us the way our soldiers do. So, who deserves more respect and monetary compensation from us? Ponder over the question unemotionally.
Ok, maybe these two are totally different fields and we shouldn’t compare them. What about the condition of other sports and sportspersons in our country? It has been observed time and again how other sports lack basic facilities, funds and motivation from the government. Thanks to our reverence and obsession for cricket, the overwhelming chunk of sponsors’ budget goes to the cricketers, at the cost of other sports and sportspersons. The least the government can do is to set its agenda right and give a comfortable monetary backing to our soldiers and other sports.
And what’s with various state governments giving cash prizes to players who hail from their state? Wasn’t this World Cup a team effort and didn’t “India” win? So why award only your local players and not the entire team? I guess the politicians missed the point once again. Perhaps our politicians will take ages to rise above regionalism and get their priorities right.
(When not working towards her dream of documenting life as a writer and a photojournalist, Jigna is usually found at places where either nature or art, or both, hold centerstage)
