I was reading one article a day before yesterday whose main theme was the change in CRICKET that is taking place. And indeed this is what I feel that now a days CRICKET has become more of an entertainment than a sport. With every other day cricketer’s photos being splashed on Page 3, every young cricketer being linked with some gorgeous bollywood actress etc. And this is a smart way of gaining popularity & making moneyparties are at an advantage for the reason that printing press will obviously see their sales go up, the actress will get offers for more movies & cricketer will increase his fan following thereby entering into the advertisement industry.

I suppose, we are in an era where cricketers just play for a maximum of 5-6 years, make ample amounts of money, have a nice fan following & then live a life in pleasure. We will no longer see players like Sachin & Gavaskar in the future for a simple reason – “Players playing for over 200 days a year & then remaining busy with ad shoots will have no time to stay fit & serve for their country”.

The last decade has seen so many bright stars who could have taken the Indian Flag to places if they would have stayed fit & enthusiastic to serve. Do you remember the time when Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan, Balaji used to bowl? Do you remember Ajit Agarkar who became the fastest first 50 wicket getter in the history of Cricket? Do you remember Kaif who used to pull some stunning catches? And the list is endless. They have all perished, they have all corroded. They came, they played, they made money & now they are gone - some with a broken back & several with a broken knee. How can players like Tendulkar, Ganguly, Kumble etc. give responsibility to such an un-balanced & unreliable team that can win a world cup one day & loose from Bangladesh the next day. Tendulkar has somehow managed to serve Indian Cricket despite his injuries, but how long can Sehwag, Dhoni, Yuvraj stay fit & play for India?? They have made so much money that they can easily live this life in royalty, but when it comes to getting some respect as a sports person, I think it’s a momentary fan-following that they are getting. You rupture one knee tomorrow & they’ll go out of this advertisement industry & cricket at a blink of an eye. And fans will get a new star to cheer upon & obviously advertisers will get a new face for their product.

This is one view about the financials of the cricketers. They are definitely some of the well earning people of India & will continue to be. Some wishing to ride an imported bike, while other wanting to have a house in Hawaii, these wishes will increase in the future & they will find their sponsors also. Cricket is no more a sport, it’s a new industry where lots & lots of politics is involved, huge amount of money flows in this sport, multi million bids put for telecasting rights & it’s a huge advertising market for companies. Cricket has definitely changed. And this change is here to stay. Only one good thing about this change is, I feel proud that cricketers from all over the world want to play under our roof, under INDIAN flag for Indians, ruled by Indians & their rules.

Watch out for my next post on changing patterns of Cricket – from Test cricket to One day to T20 to …