A Post-Cricket India?

Gadfly

Why does Australia win so many cricket tournaments? Their home Test record is a little dented in the last 15 years with three consecutive home series defeats to South Africa, twice to India, and once to England. Even after their dream team of the 1990s and 2000s retired, they’ve won two ODI men’s World Cups, in 2015 and 2023. Overall, their men and women’s teams have won nearly 20 world titles combined. Winning ICC tournaments in India, South Africa, New Zealand, England, and at home, they’ve triumphed in tournaments and bilateral series almost everywhere in the last 40 years. How does such prowess happen?

Certainly not overnight, and not if your country’s major sport is just one. Even the South African cricket team, though it’s got a woeful record in ICC tourneys and especially knockout games, has an enviable home-and-away record in bilateral series. Like the Aussies, the Proteas excel at a number of sports. If Jonty Rhodes weren’t a cricketer, he most likely would have been a hockey star. The Aussie Waugh twins shone in a few sports till they finalised on cricket. England played poor cricket in the 1990s and early 2000s, but since have impressed at home and abroad, despite their recent failure. Smaller New Zealand beats many with its redoubtable record of consistent semi-final appearances.

Australia, South Africa, England, New Zealand nurture a sporting ethos. In these countries, as in Western Europe and North America, commoners play sport often throughout their lives, and turn out to support local teams in league games. College-level sport, be it American football, baseball, ice hockey or basketball, is the rage in North America. So too football in Europe and South America. Or rugby in the teams from the southern hemisphere and Europe. They back their teams, yes, but they back a good game even more. They respect a fighting opponent. Many African nations may not have ‘first world’ means, but inarguably, display an athletics temperament. The sport is greater than the sports star.

And what did we see collectively from Indian spectators over the World Cup? Almost exactly the opposite of sporting spirit. Why? Consider our avuncular Indian commentators first, some of them former greats. India played wonderful cricket, yes, but most Indian TV commentary and discourse hyped up the team. Their exaggerations reached stratospheric levels as the tournament progressed as India dominated throughout but lost in the final. Both these commentators and the general Indian cricket fan seem to be two sides of the same coin: they are partisans for the Indian team winning and not the sport of cricket. We all know that cricket is the most popular sport in India by far, although India is advancing in some Olympic sports. But the behaviour of the fans as a group betrayed a loser mentality.

In Australia, their arguably finest win created little stir. It doesn’t mean the Aussies don’t admire their cricketers. A champion nation considers such things as usual. ‘What a wow!’ This is incredible self-assurance. Australia dominates cricket, due to overall excellence in many sports. It’s a sportsperson’s haven.

In the years to come, one hopes India emulates and adapts the Australian way. Become a powerhouse in many sports so that we may witness a ‘post-cricket India’. Over the years, Australia, America, China created infrastructure (educational institutions, even universities) that shepherded college-level basketball, American football, rugby, athletics. The heartbeat of US sport is the university town. India must model them. Not rely on cricket alone. Not produce followers and commentators so desperate to only see their team win and not appreciate the boundary-shattering greatness of all sport.