CRICKET S’KILLS’?
By Parthasarathi Loganathan
Cricket in the country has gained immense popularity and it even is considered as a Religion with no bounds with cricketers being assigned Godly status. Cricket Madness has spread throughout the length and breadth of the country due to excessive publicity in the media for commercial gains. Although we have raised our performance levels to international standards in Olympics, young kids pay scant attention to other sports. No matter we have tasted Golden triumphs in other sports like Chess, Shooting, Billiards, Badminton, Hockey, Tennis, Kabbadi, Carrom, Athletics, etc we hardly even remember any such sportspersons who have made the country proud and honoured our citizens in the international arena.
This had led to a scenario that parents force the kids to take up the game of cricket irrespective of the fact the latter likes the game or not. Summer Cricket camps conducted by former cricketers attract huge attention to such parents. By paying hefty sum to some Academies and Clubs, these innocent kids are enrolled and are subjected to extensive harassment by such Coaches. Despite the fact that our Tamil Nadu has not produced any bowler of International status for more than two decades except Lakshimipathi.Balaji, it is a matter of shame that young kids are gruelled by the parents and coaches to slog for hours together in a match. Even L.Balaji who showed a lot of promise as a teenage prodigy but broke down miserably with grievous internal injury in the beginning of his successful international career. This is mainly attributed to the fact that this poor cricketer was subjected to grueling bowling long spells in league matches by slogging for hours together. He still could not recover from an inexplicable injury which is solely attributed to wear and tear. Rehabilitation camps conducted are just rituals.
It is matter of fact that Cricket Coaches when they spot a talented teenage cricketer at the school or college level, forces the kids to bowl for more than 20 Overs in a match under grueling heat and humid conditions at Chennai just for the sake of showing winning results for the team where he attached to. In other words, it is very pathetic that after few overs of seam / fast bowling, these spin kids are introduced by the captain at the behest of his Coach to bowl in tandem for even more that 40 Overs in a 50 Over match since there is no restricting in the number of overs bowled by the single bowler. It is pathetic that cricket coaches of some reputed schools even in intra-mural matches insist their spinners to open the bowling with the newball and bowl at a trot for even 20 overs each in a 50 over games even though the wicket is hard and seamer friendly, This not only discourages young and aspiring fast bowlers but also exposes young spinners by over bowling at the whims and fancies of cricket dictators. Tender shoulder muscles get damaged at a very young age and these young cricketers fade away from the scene even before they cross the teenage with irreparable physical damage. For name sake, they are sent to the Rehabilitation Camps and when the injury is not properly nursed or managed by professional cricket physiotherapists, it even puts a big full stop to the career of these young cricketers.
Cricket Madness in the name of Motivation and Encouragement by the parents does not take care the bright cricketing careers of such talented youngsters. On the other hand, since there is no proper legislation governing restriction in the number of overs to avoid injuries, Cricket administrators at the behest of corporate sponsors play havoc on the budding bright prospects who are fit and talented enough even to play for the country. In other words there is no system or sports legislation in the country to check such exploitation by the Cricket Coaches, who, for the sake of money and fame make these kids to toil for hours together in a cricket match. Every one in the cricket circle is aware of these facts but no body has represented this factor and raised this issue for the sake of children. Society propagates eradication of Child Labour as it is considered to be a Vile but who cares for the welfare of these innocent kids ?. Such harassments on children in the name of sports has already taken a heavy toll on the athletic career of a child marathon runner (Budda).
Though we have lot of passion to the game of cricket, which is rated to be the most popular sport in the country, at the same time we should really understand the fact that any sport, whether it is cricket or otherwise, excessive career aspirations to earn money and become popular should never be forced on young kids. Even high profile established international cricketers are not able to cope up with the heat and humidity of Chennai and are injected with fluids even during net practice sessions, then how come our kids could be exploited to bowl long spells in a real match situation ?
It is a matter of pride and encouragement to youngsters that our Great Kapil Dev is fit enough to being commissioned in our Territorial Army in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel after holding an unique injury-free record throughout his cricket playing days at the highest level. Other the other hand, we are finding enough dearth in the ranks of Kapil Devs or Rahul Dravids amongst the younger generation. This is surely attributed to the fact that our enthusiastic kids are subjected to slow poisoning due to lack of clear cut Rules governing cricket in the country when it comes to restriction in terms of number of overs to be bowled on a trot in testing batting friendly conditions. Such practices are even silent killers.
Time has come to enforce a strict governance through proper legislation to restrict the number of overs to 7 for all Junior and Sub Junior cricket competitions. Such restrictions have generated successful results even in countries like Sri Lanka having similar playing conditions like Chennai and has seen emergence of world class spinners like Ajanta Mendis. This would not only encourage budding cricketers to aspire for an injury free career but optimize emergence of genuine cricketing talents of youngsters to don the national colours in the long run.
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