Dear Sir,
Our youth went online to vent their anger after the national team showed dismal performance in the ICC World Cup. One was least surprised at the erratic behavior of the cricket lovers in the aftermath of the debacle, because they did what they normally do in such a situation. It?s worth recalling that our cricketers are given a hero welcome when they bring home a trophy; and invite the nasty ire of the nation when they fail to do so.? This time around their anger turned into fully loaded invectives directed against the national players after they lost a crucial match to our arch rival India.
Our obsession with cricket is assuming alarming proportions. Our youth have developed a craze for cricket to the extent that they consume their precious times in front of the screen and on the playground idolizing the cricket players. This trend is hindering their academic progress adversely. Majority of the youth in our educational institutions are captivated by the charm and glamour of Cricket and see in themselves a future Wasim Akram or Javed Miandad. Out of the whole lot only eleven make it to the national team either by a sheer stroke of luck or hectic struggle, but the career of the rest ends up in fiasco.
It must be borne in mind that our future lies in quality education not in cricket. Though sports develop our mental and physical health, when it becomes an obsession it distracts our youth?s attention from the pursuit of education. The irony is that today we have forgotten the legacy of our ancestors who excelled in science and technology and laid the foundation of scientific inventions and discoveries upon which the West has built its edifice of the modern scientific technology. It?s high time that we emulate our true heroes if we want to make progress in the comity of nations.? .. Khalid Pervaiz, Booni Chitral 17 Jun 2019
2 thoughts on “‘Overdoing’ Cricket”
Agree with the writer. If one seriously thinks about it, cricket is a very stupid pursuit and hardly can be called a sport. There is no consistency or logic about it. A player who scores a hundred runs in one inning is out for a duck in the other. How can this be called a game. Chance plays more role than ability of the player. In no other sport this happens so much.
Even for the spectators there is action to be seen only for a few seconds i.e from the time a baller initiates his run to ball and till the batsman hits the ball and makes a run or gets out. This is not even five percent of the total time. The rest of the time it is only waiting and listening to rubbish commentaries signifying nothing.
Cricket is not a real sport in the true sense of the word- just a past time at best.
No super power country plays this sport. Only countries which were ruled by British are sticking to it, Siri Lanka, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, South Africa, West Indies to name few.
Just as parliamentary system of government is a stupid legacy of the British empire, so is cricket. If the media does not sponsor cricket, it will not survive even for a year while other sports like football, athletics etc are real sports and are universal. We must promote them instead of making a ‘hawa’ of cricket.
It reflects our slavish mentality that we are in no mood to part ways with remnants of our colonial masters. Protocol consciousness, arrogance and racism are still deeply ingrained in our psyche let alone our intense passion for a stupid game of cricket. We need to revisit our priorities and break away from obsolete customs and nasty outlook of life inherited from our colonial masters. I do second the views expressed by Fardad Ali Shah in his comment.