Showing Disrespect

By Gulu Ezekiel

Famed filmmaker Muzaffar Ali was right on the button when he attacked cricketers for their lack of loyalty in the wake of the controversy over MS Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh skipping the Padma awards ceremony in the Capital on Tuesday.
“Money is now greater than the country’s honour. That notion is getting diluted because cricketers can now play for anybody who gives them money,” according to Ali.
That has not been the case in the past. One recalls Sachin Tendulkar rushing back from Australia to receive the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1998 barely 24 hours after meeting Sir Don Bradman in Adelaide on the occasion of his 90th birthday.
But then the IPL has changed the face of cricket in so many ways. One of its less savoury aspects has been the open auction where cricketers are bought, sold and traded like cattle.
It is farcical when a player who was born and brought up and played all his cricket in one particular city is bought by the franchise from another simply because of money power.
Players being traded from one franchise to another after just one year completely dilutes any loyalty he may feel for his club side since he knows he may not be part of that outfit the very next year.
It becomes even more complicated when the club v country equation comes into play, something that has plagued world football for decades but which was unheard of till the IPL’s advent last year.
The IPL has led to a spate of premature retirements as cricketers would anytime prefer playing a short game of cricket over a period of six weeks in one country—that too for fabulous sums of money--rather than touring the world the year round with their national sides for considerably less pay.
The endorsement potential for Indian cricketers has also gone through the roof thanks to the IPL and Dhoni and Harbhajan have shown now where their priorities lie.
In light of Harbhajan’s sarcastic comment about Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Sports Ministry should seriously think about placing a moratorium on national honours to our cricketers. It obviously means nothing to them in any case.

www.sportshero.com (17/4/09)