Krime with Karan - Fall of two talents.

"Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. If it is true, what Hardik Pandya and Lokesh Rahul learned in the last 48 hours were indeed several lessons in one go.

What the two young stars of Indian cricket forgot totally, when enamored by the constant egging of the founder of misogyny, Karan Johar – was that the common man who clings on their stardom like leeches are equally unpardoning when their idols let them down.

The average Indian, fortunately, the majority, loves and adores cricket. It is the only religion where there are no disputes and no caste divides. From gentry to laity, each cricket lover identifies himself with his cricket hero and fantasizes being him. Every time the ball lands up in the stands, it is the fan who celebrates more than the batsman. Match situations are analyzed and judgments passed from Boardrooms to Dabbas. Such is the profound influence of the game that we have sent many of our cricketers to elected assemblies in the past. Whether they can sustain or replicate their on-field success in their public life is another matter. Even if they do nothing, the adoring fan decides to pardon him. A certain Sachin Tendulkar went scot free when he was said to be one of those who spoke less in the Parliament, albeit roaring how he would utilize the opportunity to ensure that sports and sportsmen would be heard once he lands up in one of those benches.

Do we complain about no such innings played out by the God of Cricket? We don’t. Sachin Tendulkar is one of those people who while being a great gentleman on the field also led an equally or better off the field life, be it as a socialite, a family man or a man always ready to pack his weight behind several social causes. Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble or a VVS Laxman or more lately, Gautam Gambhir are also people who led admirably dignified lives separate from Cricket, while Vinod Kambli or a Sreeshanth, did not, despite being so abundantly talented.

What is so wrong in these cricketers being a bit indiscreet in their private lives? A friend told me quite bluntly this morning that the cricketers are not public property. Aren’t they? If they aren’t, then our political leaders or film stars aren’t too! They say when Kings fall, nations fall! The social conduct of these people, who are hailed as stars or leaders or celebrities, are equally important to a celeb crazy population because they know they elect or select them or pay to watch them. Therefore, they think it is their right to worship him as well as expect him to be their role model in public life too.

We are a generation who do not have a Mahatma or a war hero as a role model. Every cricket match is a war for us and precisely why we are so ashamed when we lose to Pakistan. We are okay with our soldiers being martyred in the border, but a match loss in front of a billion and a half people across the globe, we would set fire to our own homes.

Cricket, unlike other games, has been called a Gentleman’s game. It is not an aggressive pushy game like football, but a game of brains, angles, and patience and a lot of analysis. A test match is also a test of nerves, hard Labour and grit. Those who have just watched the batsmen hop skip and jump to balls that rise from the good length to hit them on their helmets, chests, and shoulders would never know that each blow on the body from a ball slung at over 140 km/hour can be really painful. The bowlers are asked or they do it on their volition, but they also either apologize or ask the batsman whether he is okay or not. That makes cricket a gentleman’s game. When a fielder tells the umpire that the ball had grazed the ground before he caught it, that is an exemplary feat.

Those who remember GR Vishwanath, the then Indian Captain recalling the English Wicket keeper Bob Taylor after he was given out by the Umpire, would know that is still recalled as perhaps the most gentleman sporting gesture in any game. Bob Taylor went onto cling on the crease and India went on to lose the match is just an antithesis of the situation. Cricketers took pride when they walked out the minute they knew they had nicked the ball, instead of waiting for the umpire to raise the finger. An English bowler refused his captain’s aggressive call to bowl a bouncer at a visiting Australian batsman who was a run away from a century. His reply was “that bloke played us so well that he deserves the century”. When you ask who Ian Botham’s best friend is, he would say its Viv Richards and we all know the warm friendship that Tendulkar shares with both Brian Lara and Shane Warne. Sachin, it is said, even offered to pay the airfare of his Yorkshire teammates to attend his wedding. Such is the mutual respect and camaraderie that cricket has developed across the divides of color, creed, and passports.

This is what makes the Game of cricket a true gentleman game; precisely why an average man cannot delink the on and off the field behavior of a cricket. Hardik Pandya and Rahul, one of India’s cricket talents are obviously products of a different brand of cricket. Brand of aggressive tit for tat cricket, where every moment of their lives, is paid by a corporate logo or is evaluated by a brand; where success shall not be an attempt but a mandatory result. These people earn big and spend big, often forgetting that it is the game that has brought them the fame and the people who helped them get the big bucks. They forget that the aura generated around them is a created one, and they owe a large part of it to the people who crouch in front of a television set and throw themselves in joy when a game is won. For them, it’s not just the team who is winning, but them. And when the same cricketers fail them in conducting themselves in an admirable manner in their social life, the same people would not hesitate to hurl their shoes.

I think that at some point in time, they feel they have outgrown the game that has made them. That seems to have reflected at Koffee with Karan show. KWK would, when it ends, would be remembered for many such misadventures and if the grapevine is to be believed, that every word uttered or action made in that studio is as lecherously dramatic and obscenely luxurious as a Karan Johar movie. An earlier act with Arjun Kapoor and his sister Jhanvi was equally repulsive and adult rated for a family audience.

For a cricketer, a gentleman one, to attend such a show and also pass some of the most meaningless comments in the form of being individualistic or laboriously independent were thoroughly a mismatch.

They seemed to have forgotten one of the cardinal rules of the game; -

General Conduct B Players and/or Team Officials shall at no time engage in conduct unbecoming to their status which could bring them or the game of cricket into disrepute (Rules 5.1-3 deal with the application of and penalties for breach of this Rule.

Sujil Chandra Bose