Cricket is not WWF-style wrestling

It is fashionable to be cynical, passeâ€š to be earnest. And when a man of such apparent integrity as Hansie Cronje admi...

It is fashionable to be cynical, passeâ€š to be earnest. And when a man of such apparent integrity as Hansie Cronje admits to untruth, it confirms our lack of faith in our heroes. “I knew it all along,” we nod smugly.

“All income tax officers are corrupt.” “Lawyers have no ethics.” “Journalists are easily influenced.” “All politicians are crooks.” How easily we make these generalisations. Add to that now, “Cricketers are businessmen, not sportsmen. They sell to the highest bidder.” I was shocked by the Cronje episode like everyone else. But I cannot believe that cricket is a game akin to the WWF where the victor is predetermined. Here’s why the current hysteria about cricket is, well…hysteria.

World class performers, whether in cricket or anything else, get that good because of skill, perseverance and tremendous self-pride. And representing the country is the pinnacle of achievement in any spectator sport. Besides, playing a game like cricket at this level promises untold wealth. It takes either an exceptionally greedy or an extremely foolish man to risk all that at one throw. It’s a bad gamble.

Second, in a team of 11, it is hard to imagine that if one or two were constantly trying to throw the match away, the others wouldn’t realise this.

And having discovered this terrible attempt to ruin the team’s game and image year after year, mind you and in consequence, that of each individual player, they would stay dumbly silent. Forget international cricket. Imagine a sales team of 11 just going about their jobs. You are one of them and discover that two of your team is deliberately sabotaging your sales targets, time after time. Would or would you not make an issue of it? And we are talking not of regular office goers but of some of the world’s most competitive individuals here.

I must seem foolhardy defending godknowswhat even as the Cronje story is unravelling in all its gory detail, but experience has taught us that media trials can be devastating and unfair. The police routinely whispers terrible wrongdoings to the press and, come trial, there is inadequate evidence. Politicians know the game well too. Narasimha Rao was a past master at it; in the US they still talk of Senator Joseph McCarthy. All of them take advantage of the fact that the media has the attention span of a fly.

Anyway, let me return to the original point: why do we assume the worst of everyone else except ourselves? Pick your answer: A) By agreeing that the system is collapsing, we absolve ourselves of lifting a finger to do anything about it. B) Being gloomy is fundamentally cheering. C) It appeals to the middle class moralist in us. D) If others are so terrible, that makes us angels relatively speaking.

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And, of course, we love bad news because good news is no news.

The writer runs agencyfaqs.com, an advertising, media and marketing portal