Cricket and Economics do not appear to have much in common. Cricket is an exciting game that can wake you up in the early hours of morning or keep you up through the night. Economics is a dull subject that talks of stagflation and recession. But, if you stop and think, you will realise that there are a lot of similarities between the subjects as well as the protagonists, which go beyond the fact that both World Cup and the Budget will feature on the front pages of the press in February. We can think of five startling similarities here. To begin with, both the performance of the Indian cricket team as well as of the Indian economy is unpredictable. We sometimes have a 7 per cent growth rate while we struggle to reach a 5 per cent rate on other occasions. There is a lack of consistency. So, when Sehwag does well, Dravid fails, and when the bowlers do well the batsmen goof up. While forex reserves boom and interest rates fall, the drought leaves many without food. The second similarity is in governance. The BCCI is run by non-cricketers, and hence while members may not know the length of the cricket pitch, they could counter this by saying that the same holds for the economy. The third commonality is to be found in the critics. Ex-cricketers like Shastri and Gavaskar, who showed how one-day cricket should not be played, sit on judgment on the current one-day players. As do others like Sidhu who was one of the great swishers outside the off stump in his time. He now conducts his poetic tirades against those who replicate such practices. But, economists are not far behind and those in power in the MoF and RBI who espoused policies when in power now view the same from the other end. Fourthly, players in both fields have mastered the art of bureaucracy. Ganguly says the wicket was bad, or the umpiring unsatisfactory or the winds too ferocious. But we never play badly. His counterpart in the economy is always ready to justify policy actions and point fingers at the weather, global recession, people not spending etc. for our travails. There is never anything wrong with the way in which we bat or bowl or frame policies. Lastly, both are victims of globalisation. Despite the many runs that we score and wickets that we take, global recognition never comes our way as hard as we may strive for headlines in the foreign press. The same holds for our economy too. Our economy is growing at a higher rate than any other country in the world barring China. But still Moodys and S&P’s have the temerity to rate our country as being of speculative quality! But, alas, the comparison ends here. When you compare the incomes of cricketers and economists, the chasm appears distinct. You also do not see economists modeling for a soft drink or even health drinks. You have heard of the men in blue, but the men with ‘jholas’ are still to register their debut on screen.
