Oops! The slip is showing

"Cricket is not a game ,it is a religion" says a frantic placard outside the Jail where 3 IPL players are being held.To those who have followed the game through the days when human ears used to be glued on to radios and evolution from white uniforms to coloured outfits it is indeed a religion.Where God is Sachin for most Indians(Most mind you :))the passion for the game has dwindled like the water bodies of Maharashtra,(even peeing doesnt help at times sadly)considering it started going downhill moment one Sharad Pawar forced his hand on it. Lots of stories have surfaced,newspapers have dug up past fixing scandals,one paper has done an analysis of "how""when"and "why" match fixing was done..All have lamented about the death of a "gentleman's game" or "cricket as a sport"! We must revisit the english dictionary for meaning of "sports" or specifically "sport"(Noun);The English dictionary #Encarta lists over a dozen definitions. Obvious one being a :complete physical activity" or "somebody who plays fairly"; But SURPRISE!! Tucked away are definitions such as "Gambler" , "Somebody or something manipulated by others" and most appropriate one in light of the spot fixing reference being "object of ridicule" .Fortunately or unfortunately all three latter definitions seem bang on .So technically Sreesanth & co were indeed playing "sport" whether it was "cricket" is debatable. Cricket has deteriorated slowly to an object of ridicule through its snazzy downfall to something called T20 or IPL.What began as a overt attempt to identify "budding" cricketeers in a nation of billion plus people has become a "whore" in the hands of politicians,industrialists,wannabe starlets and more alarmingly the D underworld. Not that it shocks us because the Azhar/Jadeja episode showed cricketing sleaze in the open a decade ago.Sreesanth is all but an infant taking baby steps..(Baby in this case is not a Mallu nickname).Hawala continues unfetterd and N Srinivasan stutters to cover the second major F up in four years.Shilpa and Raj Kundra do bhangra, SRK cant watch the game,Mallya sunk it with excessive liquor,Saharashri has to pay ill upsurped money ,Nita Ambani has to yet win.... This is not cricket definitely ,sport maybe going by the earlier definition. All the owners of IPL teams are gamblers of sorts, manipulative of their players and definitely ridicule the game by not having an iota of the actual game of "cricket". I have often desired to ask some deep googly questions to Ms. Ambani or Ms. Shilpa Kundra or Ms.Zinta such as whether they know of one Sir Don Bradman or probably of a Dennis Lille or even more banal ones like where did the game of cricket originate? Also since they're women and pretend to identify with women's rights if they know the name of the Women's cricket captain of India? Its no surprise that a mere player called Sreesanth decided to make a quick buck by bowling (not bowling actually)in a orgy of sorts . But what actually was funny was the signal he chose."Towels" normally do the function of covering up or cleaning us and "metaphorically speaking in this case it did just the opposite.It smeared dirt and grime over the cricket world.But before we again lament and go off the tangent all predictable three things have happened a)Family and friends have denied /refused to accept guilt of players saying they are framed(coached by Shri sharad Pawar & co no doubt ) b)Delhi Police after getting beaten so often on their riduculous handling of cases where they slap women,offer money to parents of 5 yr old rape victim to not register FIR have "boldly" gone ahead and arrested three so called cricketeers. c) Nation is crying hoarse about a "sport" forgetting rapes,robbery,terrorism,inflation,LBT,Dutt,Modi,Rahul Gandhi etc. One must however comment that Rahul Gandhi was shown today in faithful NDTV trying to (trying is the operative word) to speak about food security bill. Whether this is a part of large political controversy or whether is a hawala racket where many politicians are involved or whether it is just the degardation of sports in India one can safely say "Crickets' slip is showing" (pun intended)