The Engine Room Of Indian Cricket

We often harangue The Times of India for its shoddy, sensationalist and amateurish journalism. However, to reinforce the old addage that the exception proves the rule could not hold any truer in this instance.

An excellent article by Nilanjana Sengupta illustrating the real heart of Indian cricket. The stars often get hung out to dry in the press for earning more money in a year than most of the kids mentioned in the article will see in a lifetime. But, most of the players who earn the exorbitant sums have also come up the hard way, as testified by John Wright in his book, then why do some try and deny them the fruits of their blood, sweat and tears? Jealousy, maybe?

Alas I digress, have a read for yourself. I found the following piece very touching, chilling to an extent:

"Siddharth Bhatt from Surat who distributes newspapers at 3.30 am in the morning has been told by his tailor mother, Kavita, that she will somehow send him to the Sarita Sagar cricket academy where pace bowler Munaf Patel also plays. "She now stitches more so that I can have proper food to maintain my fitness," Siddharth says. The family of five often sleeps on just daal and rice, while a well-balanced Gujarati thali is kept aside for Siddharth."

(Links via Ganesh and Cold Dog)

Tags: The Match Referee

• cricket
• india