REMEMBER THE FANFARE with which the domestic media received the announcement by the BCCI that it had officially given sanction for the formation of the Indian Cricketers’ Association (ICA), made up of retired cricketers?
How useless the ICA is (except in the matter of petitioning for some perks for said retired cricketers) can be gauged from the fact that it has zero contact / connection with the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA), the organisation that co-ordinates the activities of all the national players’ associations which are actually RELEVANT for active players.
IF India had a REAL representative association, at least we wouldn’t have had to listen to inane comments from stand-in India captain Rohit Sharma to freshly minted BCCI president Sourav Ganguly (both of who should have had at least shown SOME level of concern for players’ welfare) in the lead-up to the first T20 International that was held in pollution-enveloped New Delhi.
With the Environmental Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) on Friday declaring a public health emergency in Delhi-NCR due to severe air pollution, IANS reported that Ganguly checked with Sharma if the team was comfortable with the conditions and the stand-in captain gave the BCCI chief the “thumbs up”.
In fact, even on Thursday Sharma made it clear that the air was no issue. “I have just landed and haven’t had time to assess. As far as I know the game is to be played on 3rd and will be played. We didn’t have any problem when we played the Test match here (against Sri Lanka). We are not aware of the exact discussion and I haven’t had any problem,” Sharma said.
The EPCA on Friday asked the governments of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan to issue advisories asking the public to minimise exposure to the surroundings and take other measures to try to curb the challenging levels of pollution.
Sharma went even further on Saturday, a day ahead of Sunday’s T20I, in what can only be termed as irresponsible behaviour. While Bangladesh cricketers were seen practicing for the 1st T20I against India in the capital wearing masks, Sharma offered no comment on the severe quality of air in the capital, dismissing the topic by saying he won’t “give gossip”.
“Masala chahiye, lekin dunga nahi (you want gossip but I won’t give),” was his supposedly witty response to a question from the media.
The stark reality on the the ground however, was that Delhi and its surrounding areas were enveloped in heavy, toxic smog on Sunday as pollution levels peaked to a three-year high, prompting hundreds of distraught people to say they wanted to leave the city due to poor air quality.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the national capital’s 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) stood at 494 at 4pm on Sunday, the highest since November 6, 2016 when it was 497.
All this is just “masala” for the “witty” Sharma of course. The only active cricketer who made any mention of the situation was Indian Test cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin. The cynics will of course claim that he “put his hand up” as he isn’t a part of the squad for the series.
Still, considering the fact that Indian cricketers are known for their abject timidity when it comes confronting authority (read BCCI), the fact that Ashwin at least “spoke truth to power” is praiseworthy. Ashwin on Saturday tweeted: “The quality of air in Delhi is really scary, the oxygen we breathe is the basic requisite for mankind on this planet. This indeed is emergency. #AirQualityIndex #pollution.”
BCCI president Ganguly had the last word on the matter after India’s sorry performance on the field against heavy underdogs Bangladesh, who pulled off their first ever T20I victory over the Indian superstar team. He tweeted: “Thank u to both the teams to play this game @ImRo45 @BCBtigers under tuff conditions .. well done bangladesh…”
Ironic indeed that the Indian team has a captain in Virat Kohli who is the poster boy for healthy living, but there was not a peep from him. The Union government’s “Clean India; Green India should be our dream India” slogan is clearly of no consequence when it really matters to Team India. As long as they are “shown the money” of course.
POSTSCRIPT: Even as the the so-called die-hard fans braved the pollution in the hopes of getting their 15 seconds of “television camera time”, not so surprisingly, there were no takers for the expensive Corporate Boxes in the West Wing of the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
The tickets for these boxes are expensive, but come with many facilities and offerings, and usually big business houses patronise these boxes.
Not so this time round. In the face of the severe pollution that has engulfed the capital, their collective interest appears to have been severely dampened.
