India - Do we really have a spirit?
in the picture above, you can see two people. Two well-known captains from two very powerful and most respected teams in world cricket and both the shots are from two different press conferences after a bit similar kind of situation.
The first image is of Steven Smith, captain of Australia (this moment, ex-captain and a suspended member of the team). The image is from the press conference held after the shameful ball tempering scenario happened in the test series against South Africa. Cricket Australia banned him for a year. The incident happened under his captainship. He took the full responsibility. In his eyes, we can see regret. He said it was the greatest honour to represent Australia and be the part of cricket and such thing is a really big deal. Besides this, Cricket Australia has banned him for a year. Lots of people said that was too much. The crime was bad but not that worse for such penalty.
The next image is of another iconic captain the world cricket has seen. The captain who got India two world cups. The first ever T20 world cup winner and also the captain who brought the world cup to India again after 28 years. The glory continued in the biggest league of the cricket world as well, when the shameful spot-fixing came out. This was a black patch on the cricket world and especially for India. The league was already questioned for a long time, including the people like Lalit Modi. But nothing was precisely done. But in the worst way, when the things came out with the proofs that the fixing took place and the big names were involved. Including Mayappan, who was very close to him. They were flying buddies.Mayappan was illegally coming on the ground with the team in the dugout and MSD was unaware of such thing. A smart captain who also has a sound business mind, could not figure out such thing. And after proven such heinous thing has happened, as a captain nothing came from him. Afterwards, the press conference was there before the next Indian team tour in which there was specific instruction given to the reporters to not to ask the questions on the IPL spot-fixing. This is.. the biggest democracy in the world!! Even after some of the journalists asked about it.. see the reaction in the picture.TBH, he was the most responsible person in this scenario, but nothing like that could be seen from the attitude. The contrast from both the images can be seen here clearly. And matter of fact, the fixing was a bigger issue and way more serious than the ball tampering.
Australia has a global reputation, which they never fail to maintain. The cricket Australis's decision and attitude shows their spirit. How seriously they are willing to take the actions. It's all about the people who believe in you. The people who have faith in the system and cricket and sports are not some small matter, they are emotions. The same can be seen anywhere, UK, USA or other 'real great' countries of the world. The ability to take the actions and take the responsibility. Do Indians have that?? The answer is: NO
Since the 90's India is facing the challenges of match-fixing. The great names are included like Azhar, Ajay, Prabhakar and so on. The CBI had the records. The situation was too bad. Still, people like Sachin Tendulkar were behaving like they had no idea and this came out of nowhere. Even today, no one is talking clearly about it and the culprits are very respectable people and working as experts. I am sure this would not have happened in other countries. A simple question - Do we have the guts to make a public testimony like happened with Kronje?
The real answer is, India neither has the spirit towards sports or any emotion or towards the humanity. You can see from the level of service and facilities provided to the players or students. And also, the attitude towards law and order, administration and other things. In everything, we are laking the spirit. Doesn't matter it is on the moral ground or fulfilling the duty. The answer is still to be searched.