Okay, so the Indian Team won T20 World Cup. Wow…fantastic….brilliant…..super-duper cool…awesome, yup! I hope you get the drift. I too, like you and many others world over am ecstatic that our team has returned home victorious. More so over the fact that they deserved it, the last three matches had been seriously competitive but the Boys in Blue gave in their 100% to the very last minute.
Besides the grand arrival, the T20 Team has also been showered with intense “monetary” rainfall. Right after the India-Pak finals, BCCI announced a $2 million (Rs. 12 crore) reward to the team members, cash awards have also been announced for individual members for their glorious feat at the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa. Yuvraj Singh will also be getting an additional Rs 1 crore (and not to forget the promised sports car) for becoming the first batsman to hit six sixes in an over in a Twenty20 match.
All good, I say. After all the Indian Team deserves it and BBCI being the cricket board of the country can reward them as per their desires.
But what I can’t get to comprehend is the method of appreciation chosen by our (useless) State Governments. I mean seriously look at this absurdity.
- Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has announced a cash incentive of Rs 10 lakh each for Ajit Agarkar and Rohit Sharma.
- Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has announced that her Government would give cash award of Rs 5 lakh each to Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag.
- R. P. Singh will receive Rs 10 lakh in cash and a citation from the UP government as mark of recognition for his brilliant performance.
- Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy has announced an award of Rs 5 lakh each for Venkatesh Prasad, the bowling coach of the team, and Robin Uthappa.
- The President of Andhra Pradesh’s Telangana Rashtriya Samiti has announced a rewards of Rs 1,16,000 each to Dhoni, Irfan Pathan and Gautam Gambhir.
- Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has announced a cash reward of Rs 21 lakh for Joginder Sharma.
- Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh offered a week’s free stay to all the members of the team in any of the HP Tourism Development Corporation hotels in the state.
- Tamil Nadu Government announced Rs 5 lakh cash reward for Dinesh Karthik.
- Team India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will receive the first ever ‘Jharkhand Ratna’ Award which carries a cash award of Rs 5 lakh and a memento.
- Tax exemption for all players.
Why? As it is, Cricket is a popular sport in this country, plus after this triumph most of the T20 players are likely to pocket huge sums of money via brand endorsements. Then why are the State Governments allowed to fool around with our money, which only seems to be an attempt by them to match-up to their neighboring State’s generosity.
Instead this money could have been used for tons of more needful causes – like encouraging other sports at schools and colleges, funding our eternally deprived hockey teams, investing in the much needed sporting equipments, etc and etc.
It’s no wonder why the Chief Coach of the national hockey team, Joaquim Carvalho, is annoyed at being ignored by these very State Governments and their financial kindness.
“Why are our hockey players being treated like orphans and are why our politicians biased against hockey, the national game?” Carvalho asked. [Mid-Day]
It’s sickening to see how low our political leaders are ready to stoop to, just to get few mentions in the media while completely ignoring their basic duties towards the common man.
Ps…On second thoughts, Mr. King Khan, why weren’t you there to greet our Hockey champions with the same enthusiasm as you showed couple of days ago in Johannesburg? I guess practicing what one preaches, isn’t exactly your style.
Comments
16 comments | Add your comment »
Melody
Sep 27th, 2007 at 7:50 am | #
I thought SRK touting his new movie on his T-Shirt and giving out CDs of the same at the finals in Johannesburg was in very poor taste.
But in all fairness to the man, he isn’t an appointed ambassador of the game of hockey just because the movie was a hit, so I think it’s not right for any of us to judge him for not being at the hockey game.
Saakshi O. Juneja
Sep 27th, 2007 at 8:53 am | #
Melody – As you mentioned, SRK was shamelessly promoting his film at the T20 finals and I guess he used the same trick just before the release of his film, Chak De. Then, he was calling Hockey as one of his favorite sports and never failed to mention, how much he use to enjoy it during his school days.
The reason why I mentioned the SRK factor in this post is because the film Chak De itself, deals with the favoritism issue of Cricket over our national sport and the troubles many players and their supporters go thru because of it.
Agreed, by simply acting in a sporty film doesn’t make one its brand ambassador but there is something like “ethics” and “basic decency” which also cannot be ignored.
Anshul
Sep 27th, 2007 at 10:36 am | #
Sakshi, I don’t agree with you over the question that “Why you (King Khan) weren’t there to greet our Hockey champions with the same enthusiasm?” Since watching a cricket match or a hockey match is a matter of one’s personal choice while choosing the sports to be shown in the movie is not in the hands of any actor…
Personally SRK may like cricket more than hockey or he may not have had time to go and watch the Nehru Cup Finals… There could be any reasons behind it but we shouldn’t crib on this small issue, of SRK not going for hockey match…
I do agree with you that while promoting Chak De, SRK had said that Hockey was his favorite game and he likes it very much; but madam we’re not living in an utopian world where no one lies, if he said so then what’s the harm in it… he was just promoting his movie… And if we people believe in everything, what these superstars say then this is our fault not theirs…
Rezwan
Sep 27th, 2007 at 11:25 am | #
It remains to be seen whether all these wealth bestowed on the emerging stars of Indian cricket influence their performance positively/negatively in near future. The outcome will also answer the validity of earlier complains against commercial successes like Tendulkar or Ganguly that they are not concentrating on cricket.
Seriously, I am wondering what other profession makes you this much rich in Indian context (except from SRK likes in Bollywood)?
Ashutosh
Sep 28th, 2007 at 3:03 am | #
Tax exemption for the players is ridiculous. One cannot remotely imagine something like this happening in the US for example, where players are lionised as much or more than in our country. Pathetic.
Saakshi O. Juneja
Sep 28th, 2007 at 6:09 am | #
Anshul – Many months ago, a good friend of mine who also happens to know SRK pretty well, said to me “Shah Rukh is a shrewd business man, who will go to any lengths for profits on his investments”.
Agreed we aren’t living in the Utopian world and words of celebrities especially Bollywood stars shouldn’t be taken seriously but then again looking at the fact that there are millions who look up to such people, who do take their word-for-word….I feel people like SRK should be accountable for that.
Toying around with human emotions just for self publicity is simply disgusting, don’t you think? If don’t point out such commercialization of sentiments, then others like SRK will continue going about their un-ethical ways without giving a crap.
Ps…what I meant in the post was SRK didn’t necessarily have to watch the Asian Hockey Tournament, just few words of encouragement, appreciation could have meant so much to our Hockey players. But as they say…“raat gayi baat gayi”…..
Bikram
Sep 28th, 2007 at 2:53 pm | #
If you ask me, I’m not really interested in hockey or most of the other sports either. Spare the big talks. but honestly – most of us are not. Still we make such a huge cry. That’s what we do. Begani Shaadi mei abdulla deewana. or – Behti ganga mei haath dhona. If everybody is talking about something and we don’t, we feel like left out and idiot. Even if we don’t know what’s all the fuss is about, we just love to raise our voices and make a ‘contribution’ to the cause. And that’s the end of what we do; make noise and disperse. We don’t see to it that the cause is met. “At least I did what I could. Rest is upto the leaders/politicians”. Wow. We just look upto the sufferer with eyes of pity and wish that they get a better deal. Same here regarding the Indian hockey team.
Wrote a post on it couple of days before. Check it when u have time.
Supremus
Sep 28th, 2007 at 3:56 pm | #
Ben Kingsley also loves Gandhi. Just because he played Gandhi, we cannot say that he should not play a serial killer in his movies do we? Should we question his ethics and decency because he said he loved Gandhi and his principles at some point and decided to play an evil rapist in a movie? I wonder why such expectation out of SRK then?
I agree though, state governments have no business feeding the cricketers, if anything they should be paying the same for all the other unnoticed sports heroes.
Saakshi O. Juneja
Sep 28th, 2007 at 6:45 pm | #
Supremus – Ah! Yet another disagreement with you. Must be my (un) lucky day. ?
Anyways, I really don’t think the Ben Kinsley example works in this context. It’s not I am saying that SRK cannot promote or root for other sports, as a matter of fact I think now is the right time for him to move on to “wrestling”, looking at his all new pumped up body-shody.
What I meant was….that at least you should try to be true to what you claim to say you are. No one asked him to go out of his way while giving big talks on sad state of Hockey in this country and how much it means to him, just helping in improving the sport’s perception. As mentioned in my earlier comment, agreed one should not take what other’s say so seriously, especially when it comes to Bollywood Stars and Politicians but since I belong to neither of the two categories, it does bother me to a certain extent.
ashish
Oct 2nd, 2007 at 2:19 pm | #
SRK was there hoping for Pakis to win.
Bikram
Oct 3rd, 2007 at 8:37 am | #
@ Ashish – Your comment is totally uncalled-for and has a hue of racial slurs. This again raises the misconception that all Muslims in India support Pakistan, which is not true. U r endorsing Shoaib, the Paki skipper’s comment then.
asuph
Oct 11th, 2007 at 12:38 pm | #
errr. to each his own is being judgmental of other people’s choices now, is it?
> SRK was shamelessly promoting his film
what is shameless about promoting a film? what is a shameful (or shame aware) promotion of a film?
how does saying “hokey is/was one of my favorite sport” morally oblige anyone to actually go and watch a hockey match.
i agree that state must not pamper cricket, but expecting an actor to go around being charitable to some game because he acted in a movie on that theme is really really irrational. he has a right to watch or not watch, promote or not promote, any game, any movies, that he chooses to.
for all the pretenses at liberalism, what you’re doing is deciding what other people should do. this is not a question of honesty. it’s a question of priorities. hockey may or may not be his favorite game (only he knows — what happened to taking things at face value?). but even if it is, he still has a right to set his priorities. business first, social service (including that to a sport) later, if at all, or whatever. who are we to set them for him, or anyone?
regards,
asuph.
Raj
Oct 20th, 2007 at 5:18 am | #
I completely agree with What Ms. Sakhsi has said. SRK is a business-man he dont want to give right message to those fools who love him those fools who thinks that he is a king (lol) he is just another Joker of this circus……..and that to not as big as Amitabh Bachchan but ppl named him King of bollywood ha ha ha. well when you are having such an image and there millions fools following you, one need to think and act as a real star.
by the way in Om Shanti Om he has stripped off his shirt and without shirt he really looks like a Begger of Mumbai.
Raj
Oct 20th, 2007 at 5:24 am | #
@asuph
again i heard this dont be jugde others ha ha ha ha it really sounds so ******* when some uses that lame phrase.
dont be judgemental well my dear SRK has all the rights ok but then what we are talking here was whether he was wrong or right…………and as per you WE HAVE ALL THE RIGHT TO DO SO. so now i guess you got my point? and not writing again here? Good boy.
asuph
Oct 22nd, 2007 at 4:35 am | #
raj,
next time, maybe if you manage to use a bit of logic, and actually make a coherent point, i might attempt to get your point. this time, i’ll just let it go. one point less in my life won’t make that much of a difference, really.
sleep well, logic comes knocking in the morning.
asuph
bailey
Nov 30th, 2007 at 4:54 pm | #
Winning the 20/20 world cup is not a big game, but the big game is the world cup which they haven’t won and thy playd so poorly in the finals of the previous w.c tht i knew whn australia put up tht big score, india will hve a tough time and i wsn’t sure 100% tht india will win.Evn though, i hd a little bit of faith in my team but the doubt overcame tht faith. Being consistant and winning big games matter most, whn india arrives in the first day of world cup match, the rest of the tournaments b/f the w.c does not matter, whn india steps on the field on the finals of the w.c the rest of the games in the w.c does not matter.Tendulkar is the grtst cricketeer in the world, but tht does not make him a winner b/c he hasn’t guided his team&fans who had faith in him as the main instigator to help india win the world cup. Now the main instigators are dhoni and yuvraj singh, they did not win against england, but a good job well done by winning 20/20 but why so inconsistent in not winning against australia aftr this tournament. Again they won against pakistan, now we ar going to see india play against australia aftr this. The fewer the mistakes a team makes, the more consistent a team is in winning, and the more hungry they get for winning the big games and not falling underpressure. Tht team will always be the apple of the eye of all the championship trophies.