Cristiano is dead, don146;t kill Paul

In a lawless society, even the honest man is tempted to go astray. So it seems in our football which attracts money and a downward slide in rankings simultaneously. In any organised sport, there is a system of justice, of appeals and redressals; people view evidence and take action. Indian football seems immune to that reality.

I read a great line from the Bible John, I: 1-14 that seems especially appropriate, not just for football but for all Indian sport: And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

A lot of Indian sport is stuck in darkness and 8212; either through intent or ignorance, I suspect intent 8212; cannot recognise the light around them. It is there but they choose to live without it for the light might illuminate their negligence. Now I fear a mob mentality might take over. Junior is sadly dead but we must not kill Paul.

There is much darkness in our hockey as well, in spite of patches of good performance. I wish our hockey more light so we can look at ourselves in the mirror for what we are. Since I can remember, Indian hockey has always lost to the umpires, rarely to the opposition. We lose but we seek to place the blame elsewhere and it is always the umpire.

Some day we will stumble on to a top secret document that mandates every umpire in the world to conspire against India. And many centuries later future earthlings will find that enshrined in stone in the ruins they excavate. India were a fine team, they will say, but the umpires conspired against them.

Proud teams don8217;t give excuses, they look themselves in the eye and see reality. To push the blame elsewhere is to retard progress for, unless we accept that we have problems, we will not start the process of eradicating them. Someday an Indian coach will say 8216;8216;We tried our best but it wasn8217;t good enough; we8217;ll work harder and we will come back stronger8217;8217;.

It is a pity we insist on excuses because there are some lovely players there, the Tirkeys, the Rasquinhas, the Pillays, the Hallappas, but we need to do more, point a finger at ourselves rather than at the world.

A cricket Test begins today and India play a team for whom the word 8216;8216;win8217;8217; isn8217;t in the possibility spectrum. Bangladesh need to win somewhere for they need to feel the exhilaration that goes with it. Currently they take the field aware that they will lose, aware that they know no other sentiment on a cricket ground.

That is why it is essential that they win somewhere, against any opposition. They need to pump their fists, they need to jump with joy, they need to know what it is to walk with the swagger of success, not the usual resignation of defeat.

That is why they must play Kenya and Scotland and Canada from time to time. They need to feed their pride. They need a reason to compete, indeed they need to compete. And we can all compete if we find the right level. If they cannot find a high to look at they will start believing they are incapable of achieving one. I hope we see some good cricket.

At least it will allow us to leave Subroto Paul alone for he must be a monster if he is not grieving himself.