Cricket losing popularity in India

Renewed efforts are being made to give a much-needed boost to cricket in India after a study commissioned by the ICC recently found the sport was suffering from a lack of exposure, and was, in fact, showing unmistakable signs of marginalisation in the country.

The controversial report threw up many uncomfortable truths for cricket administrators trying their best to raise the profile of the game in countries where cricket continues to struggle to gain a foothold. For example, it was found that in spite of their best efforts, there were still as many as 11 days last year that failed to offer a telecast of some form of live cricket in India. Just as confounding was the discovery that during the 354 days in which live matches were shown, ratings plummeted steadily, in some cases even lagging behind reruns of Masterchef Afghanistan.

The report also highlighted other problem areas. While it would appear that the basic infrastructure for the game in India has, after decades of struggle, just about been put into place, and a national team finally been scratched together from far-flung regions across this vast land, these are but surface details that flatter to deceive.

There are still serious problems with the stadiums (one of them, in the exotic north-eastern city of Kolkata, would enjoy being one of the largest sports stadiums in the world if only it were ever completed and given games to host), with a lack of basic facilities often posing problems to spectators and players alike. And while there does officially exist a national team (notional at best, and branded, in a desperate bid by sponsors and the media to provide something catchy to remember it by, as "Team India" or, when the imagination fails completely, "Men in Blue"), the harsh reality is that these athletes remain only part-time players, unable to devote the requisite time and commitment to the team because they are forced to hold onto - out of nothing more than the immediate and completely understandable necessity of feeding their families - their primary jobs: that of endorsing products on TV.

India is clearly a country undergoing tremendous changes, both socially and economically, and against such a background, where does the cursory distraction of a cricket match fit in? Certainly, if the ICC report is anything to go by, the future does not look too bright. Particularly rankling is the aforementioned discovery that so many days without live cricket were allowed to pass unchecked last year.

"That was a small glitch that shall be overcome in due time," promised a spokesman for the BCCI, one of the nation's foremost and largest multinational corporations, which, aside from advising the government on certain foreign policy issues pertaining to the neighbouring state of Pakistan and sending out subliminal messages of vested interests via commentators embedded in the theatre of PR war, also occasionally deigns to take on the responsibility of protecting the interest of Indian cricket fans.

"Eleven days may not seem like much, but these unused days add up collectively to amount to a massive waste of time that could have been better spent watching advertisements, with short interruptions for exciting live cricket," intoned Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar in unison while commentating during the last ODI between England and India.

In a recent attempt to address this issue and fill in some of the empty, dreary days when the national team was not playing, cricket fans in India were treated to a live telecast of three teams made up of reserve players playing each other in a round-robin tournament. The matches were slotted conveniently between the England-India series just played and the India-England series about to kick off. Played by teams cleverly named after primary colours popular with children, the games were held in stadiums filled to the capacity with empty seats. The cricket fan was afforded the opportunity to stare at these games on television in the comfort of his living room. Confusingly however, ratings continue to remain poor.

Yet perhaps the biggest threat to cricket in India, as well as in other countries, is the recent emergence of a new sport altogether. Imaginatively given the working title of "20-20" or "T20", this revolutionary new game involves smashing repeatedly into the crowd a ball lobbed gently - and preferably on the full - at a "batsman". The batsman then waits for another such ball lobbed at him, and the process repeats ad nauseam.

Savvy thinking-ahead type marketers and the media are already tossing around a potential name for this new game, which, it is hoped, might just kick on: "baseball".

The game of cricket meanwhile continues to lead as tenuous an existence as ever in India.