When India won the T-20 world championship, everybody, including the state Government, PSUs, BCCI, media and private companies showered the winning team with praises, money and endorsements. This was widely publicized in the media and the Governments which did not reward crickets from their state (TN, Gujarat) were hounded and criticized until they too succumbed and announced cash awards. This resulted in other sports persons raising serious objection about the step-motherly treatment they are dished out. Hockey players had recently won the Asia cup, others had won world championships in snooker and billiards. The media and eminent persons of the society joined the uproar. Hockey players wondered why Sahara group, which sponsors the cricket team as well as the hockey team, treats these two differently when it comes to shelling out money. Quickly, the state Governments were in defense mode. Some of them hurriedly announced cash awards to these sports persons too. The controversy is not dying down fully yet. Vishwanathan Anand, after winning the world chess championship, has wondered what kind of reception he is going to get from the people back home, considering that they showered their love on the winning Indian cricket team.
As I think about this episode, some things are clear in my mind. First of all, it was wrong on the part of the Governments to go over the top in honoring the cricketers while neglecting other sports persons. In fact, the Governments could have done away with giving any cash to the cricketers, because they are getting a good amount of money from Sahara, BCCI and endorsement deals. They could have instead spent the money on other sports and that would have been a genuine encouragement to these sports. Finally, rewarding sports persons does not make our politicians any great. After all, it is the public money they are spending, not money from their own pockets.
Secondly, corporate sponsors like Sahara. They are a company engaged in making profits. They should and do think of their profits all the time, hence they are going to spend money only in places where they believe they have a good return on investment. It is not that they have a special interest in cricket. If hockey (or, say, Kabaddi) was the most popular game in India, they would have spent the money on hockey, not cricket. Hence, why blame them? We don't care to even watch a hockey game on TV, so how can we expect corporates to shower money on the game? There is no use forcing anyone - Governments, corporates, media to give more importance to other games. If we watch these games, these things will happen automatically.
Third, some games are inherently not as enjoyable for the general public as others. For example, there is no way whole India is going to sit at the edge of their chair and watch Vishwanathan battle it out for the chess world championship. So Vishy, please don't expect a massive gathering of people along your victory parade from Chennai airport to the city in an open bus.
