So the sentencing on Harbhajan is complete, he has retired home to Jalandhar with a fine that is, effectively, more than a hundred times that imposed on Zinedine Zidane for headbutting a player in a World Cup final and everybody is making the right noises about discipline. We have come down heavily on the deed and we have ignored the cause. We are chopping off the leaves and keeping the roots intact. Prevention is better than cure but it seems a boring exercise because it seems to excite no one. And unless we are serious about it, this will not be the last time something like this happens.
I have heard of an enquiry commission being set up. I have heard nothing about educating players on their responsibilities and about the hazards of fame and money. The IPL is going to provide both in plenty and unless it takes upon itself the job of telling a few home truths to young men, it will turn out to be a seductress rather than a provider. Travelling around as I do with the Mumbai Indians, I have had the opportunity to talk to a few people and I suspect the disease of arrogance, and therefore the path to under-performance, is well and truly upon us.
A lot of our cricketers start early in life and since university education is considered unnecessary, and inter-university cricket is long dead, they step into a bubble very early. They are indoctrinated into a brotherhood where cricketers are considered hallowed, where favours are meant to be received as a matter of right and the arrogance that is the inevitable result closes the door to further education. As a result most of our young cricketers, so good at putting bat to ball, know very little else and indeed are woefully unprepared for a life beyond cricket. You would have thought that if there was only one thing they were good at, they would bow before it every morning, pay obeisance to it. But humility is not a very well understood word, I suspect it is not a very popular way of life either.
... contd.
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