11 fools play and............

''Cricket is a game where 11 fools play and 11,000 fools watch'' is the observation made by George Bernard Shaw .I am in total agreement with that British seer.

I fail to understand as to why instead of just enjoying a game by hitting a ball around there is so much ado about lbw,no ball ,googly etc,etc even more tortuous than the civil procedure code.The umpires and refrees even quote precedents [duckworth rules etc] like it is done in a court of law whilst settling disputes!

What baffles me is that little boys barely out of their cradles know all these complicated rules[much better than their multiplication tables] and enforce them furiously whilst playing this game!
Cricket is like the bureaucracy left to us as the legacy of 300 years of rule of British in India.Full of procedures,and rules, that makes it slow ,lumbering and time consuming , merely to hit a ball with a bat!

Foot ball is not only simple to play and follow but also less time consuming and inexpensive.You kick a ball from one end to another. And it is all over in few hours.

Yet millions of of Indian boys [half of them uneducated and poor] play this complicated and costly game[ bats,ball,stumps, gloves ,guards etc,etc,are a must] with great gusto at every nook and corner of our country relishing every moment of the game with its maze of rules more complicated than a game of chess !

It is virtually defunct in the land of its origin but has taken deep roots in her colonies and the toast of its millions and has spread its tentacles through out south Asia.That cricket has a firm grip on the imagination on the populace[male] of S.Asia is testified by the fact that one cricketer[across the border] even suggested that the festering dispute of Kashmir be settled by playing a game of cricket! The winner take's it !This is an uncanny parrelell to the days of yore when a game of dice was played to decide the overlordship of Bharat by ancient dynasties the Pandavas and Kauravas !

What was truly amazing was that our Kargil hero's ,the young soldiers who deftly dodged enemy bullets and threw bombs and grenades at the enemy and fought tooth and nail so as not to cede an inch of Indian territory to the Pakistani's in the frozen heights of Kargil shedding their blood and life in the process had in the few moments of recess ,enquired eagerly of the news correspondents who were covering the war about the progress of one day cricket that was being played in some other continent in a safe and secure environment by their compatriots against the players of the adversary they were actually facing head on ! And the news of victory of Indian cricketers over their Pakistani counterparts was greeted with loud cheers!

Thus the 'Soma Russ' called cricket has intoxicated crores of Indians and S.Asians so much so that they all sway in unison like a snake before a charmer!