Marketing Moguls

Sunil Gavaskar's quotes:

Sunil Gavaskar on how some cricketers achieved success with dignity without having to show undue aggression and 'ugly' body language: "Anyone who says that toughness is shown by ugly gestures and body language is talking nonsense. Vishy, Mohinder Amarnath and Dilip Vengsarkar are prime examples of players who went about their jobs quietly, without fuss and scored runs when the situation demanded."

Gavaskar on the near perfect behaviour of champion performers Sachin Tendulkar, Pete Sampras and Tiger Woods: "Pete Sampras, Tiger Woods, Sachin Tendulkar are three sportspersons who are colossuses in their respective sport and wonderful role models too. You won't find them creating a scene on or off the courts, courses or fields."

I agree with his comments, but why different yardsticks for different players? Guys like McGrath, Donald, Shoaib Akhtar are always condemned for sledging and called all the bad names in the world whenever they happen to intimidate other cricketers. Steve Waugh's team was ostracized for sledging. However, when cricketers like Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Andre Nel vituperate opposition players, they are touted as aggressive heroes by the media and other cricket experts. These guys are the most notorious cricketers who are actually lauded for their filthily abusive vociferation and lewd gestures. Hypocrites like Gavaskar hail their 'attitude' and always kiss their ass, but then if others do this, they are mercilessly detested. It's sad to see how marketing moguls have taken over the game of cricket. The notorious Indian cricketers are backed for their evil deeds, only to be used as marketing tools to boost TRPs. Unfortunately, these notorious acts are given more prominence than the game of cricket. In reality, the marketeers use the brash 'attitude' of such scallywags a positive light to promote them, because their performances are just not good enough to have them in the team. This is what they are good at: manipulating facts, cheating, and stealing.

A marketing executive once said, "In contemporary cricket, you are only as good as you are promoted." It's up to the marketeers to make an ordinary cricketer look talented and to hold back a talented player who isn't the captain's favourite or who poses a threat to his favourites.