Cricket has become entertainment; other professions to follow the route

Last weekend, I went to Chennai to watch the World Cup cricket match between Indian and Australia. There were six of us, friends from senior secondary school, when we used to watch cricket full time and study part time. We were proud of our ability to watch sports over five days without losing our bearings. I met a German one day who said why can’t you and your friends indulge in ‘active sports’, as he called it. Sure, anyone can engage in active sports; it’s the art of watching a sport for several hours while staying immobile that’s more difficult.

My friends and I decided to take the train from Bangalore to Chennai. People were amused to see a bunch of middle-aged men in India jerseys at the train station. One young man approached us to find out the platform number of the Chennai train. He said he was going to the game as well except that he was going to support Australia. We wished him the best and sent him to the wrong platform.

We reached Chennai and went to the Chidambaram stadium where we discovered that things were better organised than Bangalore. We were inside the stadium in no time at all. It appeared to us that we had left the chaos of Bangalore behind. We felt that the sauna like effect of Chennai weather puts people in a stupor where any unnecessary activity is restricted naturally. The only exception was the DJ at the stadium, who acted like he was in a universe of his own.

The DJ’s favourite activity was to egg the crowd on in the middle of every over. Waiting until the end of the over interfered with his world view. If a fielder dived and saved a run or the bowler got a wicket, the DJ had to intervene and bellow that the fielder was brilliant and the bowler was awesome. For the few people who didn’t get it, the DJ gave some pointers and lines for the crowd to chant. I thought I will get some respite between the overs. But the period between play was taken over by music that was so loud I thought it was coming from somewhere inside me. After some time, I was habituated to the drill. I got up and cheered when the DJ told us to and sat down when he took a break.

My dear students, I realised that in the post IPL world, almost everything can be converted into entertainment. I thought I had gone to see a cricket game, but I found myself in the middle of a carnival. Entertainment is not a bad thing. Cricketers claim, certainly with more frequency recently, that they are basically entertainers. But here’s the thing. They are not basically entertainers. They are basically sportsmen. But this idea appears to be lost in contemporary times and not just among sportsmen. Newscasters have also become entertainers. I suppose professors might be next in line. A few years ago I was asked by one of my students to present some videos on Aristotle. I refused. But I have loaded up on some Aristotle videos, just in case the demand for entertainment hots up.

Before you accuse me of being a killjoy, let me hasten to add that I thoroughly enjoyed the game. For someone nearing fifty, just being with friends from over thirty years ago was a joy in itself and the Chennai crowd was fantastic. The best part of the experience was that the toilets were relatively clean and were being cleaned by the stadium staff while the game was going on. This might not come as a surprise to you but it’s a big step up for someone like me who has had to tolerate terrible conditions at stadiums in the past. The whole cricket experience might have been more Woodstock than willow, but the organisation and hygiene were far better than in the past. You lose some and you get some. All in all, I would encourage you to attend some of the World Cup games if you can. It comes around once every four years and will leave you with memories that you can carry with you for ever.