When you look at the Indian Cricket Team's sky blue (or is it marine blue?) jersey, towards the top right corner, just above the BCCI's much famous emblem, you'd see a new addition post the 2011 World Cup win - three golden stars - standing for the three greatest (arguably) achievements in Indian sport - World Cups 1983, 2007, 2011.
Indian cricket, through its extraordinary fan base at home, has been able to raise a simple game into a huge commercial market - one of the biggest corporate industries in Indian history. As a result, the BCCI has been able to make its name, breaking records, becoming the world's largest and richest sport governing body yet. Players here, are not just players. They are sought after celebrities! There is hardly any commercial on television these days in the country which doesn't feature a cricket star.
In 2008, the BCCI, emulating (atleast in an attempt to do so) football's English Premier League brought in the Indian Premier League - done with an intention to discover latent hidden talent in the vast hinterland of the country. Well, atleast that's what the BCCI said at the presser! Here's my take - the BCCI wanted to choke out the rebel Indian Cricket League set up by Zee Network's Subhash Chandra which had the big, influential support of Kapil Dev. Here's how the ICL started - Zee Sports was denied broadcasting rights by the BCCI for a particular India series. Zee Network vowed revenge, and they had it. The ICL took the stuffings out of Indian domestic cricket, pulling young talent out and mocking the BCCI. The BCCI had enough! They let loose Lalit Kumar Modi and his fantastic brainchild - the IPL. The IPL was a big hit! It had everything that a business enterprise in India ought to have to succeed - Cricket, Corporates and Celebrities. Millions of dollars in cash were being doled out by the Rich and Famous of the Indian society, and players were being sold like goats in a butcher's shop. In short, Indian cricket and the Indian Rupee, both, were losing their value, being mocked at.
In the 2009 edition of the IPL, lured by the whopping success and the astronomical digits of currency that featured in the previous edition, many in the ICL fold began to leave, and through the generous and humanitarian 'amnesty' offered by the BCCI, joined the IPL and started to count the cash. The IPL moved to South Africa - due to security concerns following the 26/11 fireworks in Mumbai. Well, again, that's what the BCCI said at the presser. But LK Modi had bigger ideas - he was moving out to capture a whole new market, one that promised more cash to the kitty. Another success, and Modi promised South Africa that he'd be back one more time. He came back alright! But this time, not with the IPL. He came back with something completely new! Something at the international level - modeled (or so he claimed) on football's Champions League. Now, South Africans, rather than supporting Mumbai and Bangalore, got the chance to support Cape Town and Durban!
Yet another success. Lalit K Modi was becoming a phenomenon - one that was growing even bigger than the BCCI itself! The BCCI now had enough of him. "How on Earth could one non-cricketing individual take over attention from the sporting world's largest governing body?! Who the hell is this idiot?!" They let the cat out of the bag. Scams started flying all over the place! In a couple of days' time, Lalit K Modi, the phenomenon, was becoming the Most Wanted Man to sleuths across the country. Lalit K Modi was finally dumped into the nearest gutter. He was gone. And to this day, he lives in a God foresaken locality, somewhere in the world where none shall trouble him (only he can trouble others!)
Meanwhile, the players were basking in the glory, bathing in money. Some of them bought motorcars, aircraft and choppers with the money, some others used it for hair transplant and still others threw it around the house, not knowing what to do with it. Young men 17, 18, 19 years of age were earning in a day what Sunny Gavaskar and Kris Srikkanth earned in half their careers! Money took centrestage, cricket followed it closely behind.
But the IPL wasn't all bad - it threw up raw, young, energetic talent that might have gone to rot if it hadn't been detected. Meanwhile, the national team sat in the sidelines. Gary Kirsten, the erstwhile coach, cried from behind the stage that his players were slowly tiring out, getting exhausted and losing match fitness. India failed in a couple of World Twenty20 tournaments, ironically, both held immediately after the IPL. What was supposed to be training for the World Championship, became the cause for failure! Foreign legends like Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke wisely chose to stay away. "Australia is more important than Mumbai or Kolkata," they said. It was out in the open - 50 days of non-stop, rigorous, competitive T20 was taking its toll on what people finally discovered to be 'human bodies'. "T20 letting down the nation!", people cried.
In 2011, India entered the World Cup tournaments as hosts and frontline favorites. The team prepared hard, Gary Kirsten worked hard, trying to help India win the Cup after 28 years. The world, seemingly, was behind India. They were fascinated by India's meteoric rise - dethroning the all-conquering Australians and claiming the top spot in Test cricket. Legends and experts warned India against lowering their guard. Sir Vivian Richards famously said, "I'll tell you from experience that the favorites don't have a divine right to victory." Finally, by God's grace and by some fantastic display of guts, grit and gamesmanship, Mahendra Singh Dhoni lifted the World Cup trophy on the 2nd of April, 2011 at the Wankhede in Mumbai. Sachin Tendulkar made a record 99 international hundreds (a figure on which he remains to this day). Amazingly, Rahul Dravid was left out of this historic squad (not that he was ever under consideration in this form of the game). The talk of senior citizens to be phased out from Indian cricket was immediately overshadowed by what is today the third Golden Star on the Indian jersey. Gary Kirsten resigned as his contract came to an end. Many begged him to stay him on, some even offered him citizenship! (not a bad idea) But Guru Gary was homesick and wanted to go back to Cape Town. At any rate, he'd done for the Indians what he had initially promised he'd do!
But as summer comes to an end, winter follows on its heels. And so, Indian cricket quickly ran into trouble. No sooner had Gary Kirsten's flight landed in Cape Town than the Indian team lost quite remarkably and most shockingly in England, meekly surrendering their top spot to the Poms, only after a week or two ago, beating the Caribbean schoolboys black and blue in their own backyard. A whitewash of the cleanest proportions! Indian cricket's weaknesses were quickly exposed - their senior citizens (or the Terrific Trio) were aging faster than the speed of light. Their young batters, fed well on flat tracks back home, couldn't cope up with the swinging fortunes of the Duke ball in England. The Indians returned without a game in the bag, but the troubles were downplayed and quickly forgotten as the Englishmen came over to India, only to get pummeled. Shortly afterwards, the Caribbean schoolboys came over as well, and left with fractured ambitions, taking quite a beating at the hands of a suddenly furious and ferocious Virender Sehwag. "Yes, I need to get some runs. I will now go get some runs," said Sehwag a day before he decided to, not just surpass, but shatter to pieces Tendulkar's record for the highest ODI score. 219 - Sehwag was basking in glory. Gayle called the mauling 'child abuse'. Pietersen said he hadn't played like that even in his dreams! And so, just a few weeks after the England mauling, Indian cricket was back, basking in the glory. It became certain that the Indians were tigers at home and cats outside.
Soon, the Australia tour followed. The recent successes at home pushed the Indians to think that this was 'India's best chance to win in Australia'. After all, the Aussies had just gotten thrown out of South Africa, made to break dubious records, before neighbors New Zealand came over to aggravate the tensions and add insult to injury by winning a Test at Hobart!
The Aussies are angry and wounded. Their ego had taken quite a beating! And who better to pour out the emotions on than the Indians? After all, it was the Indians who, the last time they'd come over, beat a legendary Aussie team in the Commonwealth Bank! It was the Indians who, just last year, dumped them out of the World Cup Quarterfinals! Going back even further in time, it was the Indians who, in Kolkata, had ended Steve Waugh's amazing run in Test victories! The kangaroos waited at home, sharpening their knives, looking to slice away at the famous Indians who were still basking in the glory of having stamped their authority back home. The Indians, sure enough, landed at Melbourne. And the Aussies, sure enough, feasted on them. It was nothing short of a pasting! Another whitewash of the cleanest proportions - and the Aussies had undone all that the South Africans and the New Zealanders had done to them over the last half year. Michael Clarke basked in the glory as the Indians, for the second time in less than a year, rolled in the mud. Clarke broke all his personal records at will as his teammates had a ball. The out-of-form senior citizen of Australian cricket, Ricky Ponting, won back some pride towards the sunset of his career (hasn't retired yet, mind you!).
The Indians called for reinforcements. The senior citizens ran back home as people called for their sacking - all except one - the man who was above all scrutiny, perhaps even above the team - Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin, the Legend, was still on 99. And even though his friend Shane Warne predicted with definite certainty that the magical 100 would be on Australian soil, Sachin unfortunately proved the famous fortune teller wrong.
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