Cynicism grips the Indian cricket scene

The disinterest in cricket was getting obvious and now it has taken opinion polls to confirm this. According to a poll published in the Times of India a few days ago, fewer Indian viewers are turning their TV sets on to watch the game since the days the match fixing scandal broke in April.

The findings of the ORG Marg opinion poll, which was conducted in seven leading cities, show that TV ratings which had peaked at 10.05 when India played Pakistan at Sharjah in March, shortly before the lid blew the scandal open, fell to as low as 0.54 during the India-Sri Lanka match at Dhaka.

Even the India-Pakistan match at Dhaka, which normally evokes fierce passions, did not interest many. The TV ratings for the match was only 2.94. The poll conducted in the four metros - New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta - besides Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad found that, in general, the viewership during the Asia Cup was poor. And for good measure, in a poll in this morning's edition of the Times of India, 86 percent say yes to the question ``Has the match fixing controversy reduced cricket's popularity'' and only eight percent say it hasn't.

Before `Hansiegate', the TV ratings used to be higher even for matches that did not involve India. Cricket experts are not surprised.

"The game is going through a crisis. It used to be a religion for the spectators. But perhaps now they no longer feel they are watching a clean game. So they may continue to reject it till the mess is cleaned and the guilty are brought to book," former India pace bowler Salil Ankola, told the Times of India.

The diehard fans of the game may dismiss such pessimistic trends as a passing phase. They are of the view that such grim developments may last only for some time and soon the craze for the game will return. There are those however who fear the disinterest may be permanent. It must not be forgotten that cricket in India is like a disease for which there is no cure. Poor performances, repeated reverses and unsavoury controversies have over the years never affected the game in the country one bit. Crowds have always flocked to the stadium to watch the big games, there has been continued unbridled enthusiasm when a one day international is shown on television, cricket fans have devoured anything that appears in magazines or newspapers about their favourite stars and in the last couple of years, supporters of the game have found a new way to keep in touch with the game worldwide - the growing number of cricket websites.

To be candid, one is not sure whether cricket in India will be the same again. Perhaps if the match fixing scandal had hit other countries but not India, there might have been some semblance of continuity in the enthusiasm for the game. Unfortunately, India is very much at the centre of the scam in more ways than one. According to evidence available so far, most of the bookies involved may be in India, some of the prominent players being named are Indian and it was the Indian police which first uncovered the racket. There has already been an inquiry constituted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India and now the government has ordered a CBI inquiry.

The image of the game has certainly taken a beating and there are tell tale signs. Roadside television viewers are much fewer in number, people don't ask for the scores with the same fervour and the discussions are not so passionate as before. In fact, mention cricket and cricketers and this is immediately met almost contemptously by the phrase `match fixing'. It certainly is unfair but then that is the way it is. The opinion polls have only confirmed these signs of disinterest and cynicism.

No one likes being taken for a ride. A cricket fan would like to think that he is watching a keen contest between bat and ball complete with all the intracacies and the game's aesthetic qualities. The moment he comes to know that what he has seen is a mockery of the game - which indeed the developments of the last couple of months have proved beyond doubt - a feeling of revulsion has emerged among those who saw the matches or followed the live telecast.

As if the confessions of some of the players are not bad enough, the conduct of some cricketers and officials, particularly in India, has done much to damage the image of the game. The unsubstantiated charges, the clash of egos, the fact that they have used the match fixing scandal to settle personal scores have all combined to make the genuine lover of the game shake his head in disgust. The repercussions were bound to be felt.

The first salvo, as I pointed out in an earlier article, was fired on the marketing front. Disturbed by the developments in the controversy, a leading pen manufacturer in India decided to remove cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli and Ajit Agarkar from their advertisements and bring in Bollywood heart throb Hrithik Roshan. The chairman and managing director of the company, a Mumbai based Rs 62 crore group, was quoted to have said that ``the ongoing controversy over match fixing has badly affected public sentiments all over the country and it will affect our sales volume if we continue to advertise cricketers on our various brands in future.'' And it has been alleged that soft drink ads featuring Tendulkar and other Indian players have also been withdrawn.

The cricketers have certainly started feeling the pinch. And now the game itself has been hit hard. It has been badly wounded and even if things improve on the match fixing front - though one is not sure how it possibly could - cricket at best can just about limp back to near normalcy. But the deep scars will remain. And though some kind of interest is still there in the game in this country, the situation could get worse if the King Commission hearings or the CBI inquiry come out with some seamy stories involving Indian cricketers. That would really deal Indian cricket the proverbial death blow.