Will cricket go the hockey way?

In the same week that hockey got downgraded from the priority to the general category in the government’s scheme of things, India’s cricketers were singing the redemption song — to borrow the title of a Bob Marley hit — in Bangladesh. On the face of it there may be no connection between these two events, but dig a little deeper and there might be.

The irony of the current cricket series is not that it is being played when the summer sun is at its highest and hottest, but that overcoming Bangladesh has become one of India’s biggest challenges. Three months ago, this suggestion would have been scoffed at; three months later — when the tour of England is completed — we will know if Indian cricket has turned the corner or, like Indian hockey, demands a lower classification.

But enough has been said and written about cricket in recent months. During the World Cup debacle, the loyalty of Indians to the sport — unquestioned over a century — was put to test, and struggled to pass it. It might not in the future.

My assessment is that even hard-core cricket supporters are getting fed up. Much as happened with Indian hockey some years ago. In this globalised world, not only is mediocrity unacceptable, it is immediately replaceable. This explains why European soccer and Formula One have become major sports already in urban India.

In that sense, though it hurts, I am not aghast that hockey has been downgraded. The performances of the past decade made this inevitable. But I wish the government had gone about it a little differently. Before the downgrading, the Indian Hockey Federation should have been dismantled, the fuddy-duddies in the organisation thrown out. The administration should have been handed over to a clutch of former players with the express objective of making Indian hockey alive again within a limited time frame. If they didn’t succeed, so be it. Now, the danger is that hockey in India may lose out on political and corporate patronage, perhaps lose itself completely.

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In the 60-year history of independent India, such spectacular electoral victories as Mayawati’s in UP have been few — and perhaps none as significant. Even if the BSP’s ideology is contentious (which isn’t?), her indomitable spirit is worthy of admiration and her astute understanding of grass-root politics could be the subject of a thesis.

In one sense, the UP results tell us how the diabolical strategy of the BSP in marginalising the BJP and winning over the Muslim votes from the Samajwadi Party worked. (The campaign of Rahul Gandhi was really a non-issue, except for those besotted by surname and celebrity). In another, there is the warning that the majority population of the country, despite the sunshine slogans, still feels alienated. In both senses, Mayawati shows herself as a politician to watch out for.

The UP results could have serious ramifications for the future politics and history of India. The BJP’s attempt to revitalise the Ram Janmabhoomi issue came a cropper, the upper castes seeing through the game. Mulayam Singh’s Lohiaite socialism was exposed for its shallowness, his proximity to film stars, industrialists and oily hangers-on being punished.

Muslims, who have apparently decided to vote en masse since the Babri Masjid demolition, were not to be taken in by the CM’s maulanagiri; they switched sides to somebody who would do something for them. The Congress, despite the road show, was reduced to embarrassment.

There should be a queue in Lucknow to get Mayawati’s autograph, but after the euphoria of triumph comes the hard work. She obviously has a road map in place, to which I add two contingencies. She must promise never to support Narendra Modi again, and she must quickly rid her party of crooks.

Email: ayaz@dnaindia.net