Is cricket a sport ?
When we ask somebody to be a sport, we want him/ her to be accommodating forgiving and forgetting an unsavoury incident or mishap. The term sportsman spirit also conveys a similar meaning of accommodation - let the bygones be bygones and let us continue our journey.
But the game of cricket seems to be different in some aspects as a sport. Where else do you find visiting teams being pushed into Test matches with only perfunctory three day match thrown in for acclimatisation after the visiting team lands on a foreign soil ? The visiting team is also made to follow a punishing itinerary pushing it from one far off corner of the country to another with different climatic conditions with short intervals between matches. Added to that, the pitches are doctored to favour the hosts. Normally a host does his/ her best to accommodate the guest and fulfill the guest's needs. But the home association hosting a visiting Test / One day cricket team does not behave the way English dictionary defines a host to be. The home association makes the visitors life as tough as possible. If an Indian team or Pakistan visits New Zealand, there will be a Test match at Duneden, a damp cold windy town, where it is so cold that the cricketers from Indian subcontinent can not grip the ball without developing blisters. Similar is the fate of foreign teams when they come calling to India or Srilanka- dust bowls are presented as pitches. In some venues the teams are accommodated in hotels far away from the venue making them spend a lot of time on commuting. Added to that, the aggression shown on the field borders on the boorish.
So is cricket a sport, leave alone, a gentleman's game ?
But the game of cricket seems to be different in some aspects as a sport. Where else do you find visiting teams being pushed into Test matches with only perfunctory three day match thrown in for acclimatisation after the visiting team lands on a foreign soil ? The visiting team is also made to follow a punishing itinerary pushing it from one far off corner of the country to another with different climatic conditions with short intervals between matches. Added to that, the pitches are doctored to favour the hosts. Normally a host does his/ her best to accommodate the guest and fulfill the guest's needs. But the home association hosting a visiting Test / One day cricket team does not behave the way English dictionary defines a host to be. The home association makes the visitors life as tough as possible. If an Indian team or Pakistan visits New Zealand, there will be a Test match at Duneden, a damp cold windy town, where it is so cold that the cricketers from Indian subcontinent can not grip the ball without developing blisters. Similar is the fate of foreign teams when they come calling to India or Srilanka- dust bowls are presented as pitches. In some venues the teams are accommodated in hotels far away from the venue making them spend a lot of time on commuting. Added to that, the aggression shown on the field borders on the boorish.
So is cricket a sport, leave alone, a gentleman's game ?
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