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| Australian bowler Mitchell Johnson exults after takeing Kohli's wicket |
Anushka Sharma, the producer and female lead of the film "NH 10", is more
in the news these days for her presence in the stands of the Sydney Cricket
Ground on the day India lost to Australia in the Semi Final of the ICC Cricket
World Cup 2015 than for her film that was generally very well received by film
critics. She has been held responsible for the very dismal performance of the
key Indian batsman Virat Kohli. The twitterati have been very active about it
and some of the tweets went beyond the limits of decency. Even the members of a
state legislative assembly blamed her for Kohli’s poor performance which,
according to them, led to India’s defeat in the semi final depriving India of
the World Cup. Thankfully, the team members have stood by Virat, as also his
skipper and the Director of the Indian team Ravi Shastri. The latter, in a column,
backed Virat and asserted that Anushka had nothing to do with his dismissal
and, therefore, could not be held responsible for it in any way.
In India cricket is considered a kind of a religion. Vast numbers of
Indians have two major obsessions – Bollywood and cricket and they pursue both
of them avidly. That is, of course, something great for the team. The players
are idolized and millions of words are written on them in the newspapers of
every Indian language and feature programmes and talk shows are held in English
and Hindi TV channels. Enthusiasts crowd into the stands for every
international match, regardless of its importance and quality of the opposition
and millions of others watch the matches on TV. Cricket lovers of India, by
their keen interest in the game, have made India a very powerful country in the
cricketing world. Actually, because of this massive support for the game the
centre of gravity of Cricket administration shifted eastwards from its original
base in London.
The support from home crowd is fine but the kind of fanatic support that
we see is not desirable; it leads to utter disappointment leading to curses for
the team, abusive conduct against players if the contest does not go according
to the supporters’ expectations. A hunt then goes on for a peg from which to
hang the person whom the unthinking spectators or TV viewing audience consider
responsible for the adverse result. In this case they found two individuals:
Virat Kohli and, more importantly, his girl friend Anushka Sharma.
Most of the supporters are laymen as far as cricket is concerned,
unaware of its technicalities. They only feel happy when the home team scores
runs, preferably in sixes or in fours. They roar in support when the opposition
bowlers come in for a bit of hiding or when it loses wickets. With the belief
that the home team should always win, they go wild when it actually does so. And
yet, most of them are ignorant of the game’s niceties and finer points.
Many of them would not have ever held a bat in hand, leave alone
standing at the crease facing a pace bowler. And yet, there has been a spate of
criticism, sometimes very abusive and filthy with expletives, in Twitter
against Virat Kohli who, batting at No.3, scored four centuries facing all the world-renowned
speedsters in the recent 5-Test series against Australia on their fast-paced
wickets. The crowd does not know that when a hard and solid cricket ball made
of cork and leather weighing almost one-fifth of a kilo is hurled at the
batsman over the 22 yards of the pitch at a speed of 140 to 150 kilometres an
hour he hardly gets a fraction of a second to judge its speed, the place it
would pitch in front or on either side of him and the kind of manipulations the
bowler subjected the ball to and then to select a shot. What is more, the pace
at which the ball is delivered, its direction and the manipulations to make it
swing either way are all varied with every ball to induce the batsman to make
mistakes. Hence mis-judgments and mis-timings are seen often enough, sometimes
these are harmless and at times they are fatal for the batsman.
It is certainly
hazardous to face the speedsters in cricket. Their deliveries zip across those 22 yards and
before one count two the ball, if not connected with the bat, would be in the hands of the
wicket-keeper
standing far behind the stumps. Not many months ago a young up-and-coming
Australian cricketer, Phil Hughes, lost his life after being struck on his helmeted head by a fast rising delivery. That Kohli faced them or even faster deliveries with aplomb all
through the test series against the Australians speaks much about his skills,
technical acumen and quality of his batsmanship. This wouldn’t have been
possible without years of hard work on the nets and gyms with dedication, grit
and determination to do well for India.
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| Anushka and Virat |
What happened at the semi final in Sydney was a matter of mis-judgment.
The ball seemingly rose more than what Kohli expected and having committed to a
stroke he couldn’t leave the ball alone and it took the upper edge of his bat
only to balloon up to be held by the wicket keeper. Kohli cannot be blamed for
it one bit as that happens in the game, and much less Anushka, who herself must have been appalled at the
turn of events. The spectators and TV audiences should not get carried away and
blame everyone in what, after all, is only a game. They must take losses in
their stride instead of causing hurt to numerous people, especially those who
have distinguished themselves in their respective fields.
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