IT’S all about money in sports, as in other walks of life. Money can help make friends and it has the power to break even the strongest of bonds. Indian sports fans just found that out in the case of alleged comments of former India Test player Vinod Kambli on his long-time friend Sachin Tendulkar and what former Test fast bowler Yograj Singh, also father of Yuvraj Singh, said regarding his ‘friendship’ with Kapil Dev, on another channel of the same company. What a coincidence!
What is common in the two cases that surfaced this week? Money. Actors acting for money is fine; that is their livelihood. But sportspersons? It is just not appropriate. But when old grouses are aired on prime time television, they hurt millions of sentimental sports fans who had always held their heroes in high esteem.
It is a well known and well recognised fact that television has big money, compared to other media. And it is also a fact that no one appears on television for free. When a Salman Khan or a Shah Rukh Khan, or now Rajeev Khandelwal, the host of ‘Sach Ka Samna’ that started on Wednesday (15 July) and will feature Kambli soon, get celebrities on their shows, they pay them handsomely, commensurate to their ‘status’. By the same token, they even pay sportspersons (read most cricketers) when they show up in the reality or musical programmes that are a dime a dozen.
Now, ‘Sach Ka Samna’ sadly threatens to open a new avenue for sportspersons to divulge/confess/reveal/disclose secrets/stories that we have never heard. I am only talking about sports because I am a sports journalist and it pains me to see heroes being turned into villains. But money could – and will — make them speak what people want to hear. What I fear most is that these disclosures could displace sports heroes from the high pedestal on which their fans have placed them, once their teammates or sports administrators ‘reveal’ some nasty truths about them – and that will be a sad day. And once this rat race starts, I fear, there would be no end to it.
We saw a glimpse of the real face of some of our esteemed cricketers when Manoj Prabhakar secretly recorded his conversations with his former India teammates a few years ago to prove that what he wrote for a magazine – on match-fixing – was correct. That video, containing some frank admissions and confessions of players, hurt many a genuine cricket fan like me. Some of the players who were featured on that sting operation presented a poor picture. They assumed that they were talking only with Prabhakar, but a few days later when the former Test all-rounder launched the video at a press conference the whole world came to see the ‘real’ faces of these players who were worshipped by millions.
As a child, I had fallen in love with the legendary boxer Muhammad Ali for his exploits. And when, again as a child, I first read that he was jailed my respect for him was lost immediately. At the time I did not know that he was jailed for refusing to join the compulsory stint with the US Army; I thought that it was some bad deed that he had done. Later, when I grew up and came to know the real reason for his jail term the respect was back. This is how quickly a child’s thinking changes.
I also always admired Mohinder Amarnath, the gutsy batsman who once called the Indian selection committee a “bunch of jokers” when they did not pick him in the Indian team. I had always admired his grace, his gait and his infectious and innocent smile. Like many of his fans, peers and journalists, I also respectfully and lovingly address him as “Jimmy paaji”. But when I watched him belly dancing on a musical show, I felt bad and did not like the sight of it. Unlike in the case of Muhammad Ali, I saw him dancing as an adult and don’t need to know that the real reason must have been money. The reasons are blatantly obvious in this age and times of advanced communication.
Like most children, I also admired Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev besides Muhammad Ali without any prejudice. And if I can get hurt by a jail term for Muhammad Ali, I can safely assume that every child who adores Tendulkar and Kapil would feel the same following the alleged ‘disclosure’ of Kambli or what Yograj said. These children will obviously not have the means to investigate to check the facts and at their impressionable age they will believe whatever they will watch on television.
Not just children, but millions of adults also get carried away by these programmes/shows that are most often dramatised and get celebrities to disclose things in exchange for money. These children and adults may start hating people who they considered their heroes till the other day. But who cares about the genuine sports fan. It is more important to get Television Rating Points (TRPs) – a dubious indication of the popularity of a programme — which will help channels earn more and more money. After all, it’s all about money.
