Playing For (just) Pride

What it means to represent your nation in a sport? And how important is money for you? It’s amazing that in different contexts these perennial questions have resurfaced again. It started with ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed responding to players’ complaint of too much cricket. He said that they (players) were in their chosen profession and no one forced them to play cricket. It’s not too surprising either to see players playing club or country cricket while complaining of too much cricket at the same time. Shahid Afridi is a very good example. Just days after retiring from tests in the name of too much cricket he is playing in England now.

Ex Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar also disagreed with notion of too much cricket and said he was willing to work hard 365 days of year for India. Gavaskar is a proud Indian and his nationalism is well known for years. Another Indian great Tendulkar was rather diplomatic two days ago and asked for balance. So does it make him less patriotic? Ex Pakistani captain and coach Javed Miandad also rubbished the call for less cricket and claimed in his days they wanted more. West Indian fast bowler Michael Holding (who played against both Gavaskar and Miandad) and now a reputed commentator has views in sync with modern players though. He thinks there is too much cricket and he couldn’t last as long as he did if he was to play today.

Is there really a connection between nationalism and playing day in and day out? West Indies cricket is in turmoil for a number of years now and one of the reasons for that is constant dispute between WICB and players. West Indies remain only international team without retainer contracts for its players and negotiations never seem to be over. Richie Richardson (who captained West Indies in 1996 world cup) criticized that present generation takes no pride in playing for their team but only worry about money, unlike (obviously) his generation and the ones prior to that.

Wondering why these past players often don’t agree with present crop? It seems like a generation gap struggle often seen in families, between a father and a son. With all due respect to Gavaskar’s patriotism (And I am one of his biggest admirer) it’s not directly convertible into physical limits a body can extend to. As a matter of fact if only a will to win can do everything no batsman will ever get out due to exhaustion or cramps. No soldier will die on a battle field for reason other then getting shot at the temple.

It’s always important to be in others’ shoe before making a judgment and I have little doubt if these past players were to play cricket today, they would have been feeling the heat too. Coming to Richardson’s remark it’s also not in tune with time. There was a time when there were no radio, TV or even newspapers and generations lived through it without complaining. In Richardson’s era no international team had retainer contracts and most didn’t have coaches either. You demand things when they are available to your contemporaries but not you. True West Indies players despite being best in the world were not the richest but that’s a generational thing. 80 s team was surely better paid than 60s team. Even today West Indian players won’t be richest but they too deserve a decent retainer contract as is the norm in this 21st century for international teams.

With pride alone you can sacrifice your life for your country but to continue living and serving it you will need to keep giving your body rest as needed and make some money to give a life to your family. And this wouldn’t mean that pride is missing by any degree of imagination.