Cricket cannot afford to throw up meaningless games before its benefactors, which is what spectators and television audiences are.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
We've just got to be careful - with all sports, let alone cricket - I think there's so much emphasis on doing the right thing all the time, but I think the public want to be entertained when they come to watch sport.
People need to take as much interest in other sports as they take in cricket, and that's where we come across a vicious cycle of performance, sponsorship, recognition, jobs and TV visibility. It's a typical chicken-and-egg story; each one is directly related to the other without an answer for what comes first.
The public want to see people play an exciting brand of cricket.
For a long time, television said, 'We won't cover cricket unless you pay us to cover it.' Then they said, 'OK, the next rights are sold for 55 million dollars. The next rights are sold for 612 million dollars.' So, it's a bit of a curve, that.
It is amazing how the public steadfastly refuse to attend the third day of a match when so often the last day produces the best and most exciting cricket.
Cricket is a self-sustaining industry; but corporates need to realise that other sports don't have that luxury. This is the time when they need to invest, and keep the faith. Every sport has the potential to create world champions. Imagine India as a country full of world champions. Why imagine? Let's just make it happen.
Cricket, like all sport, offers glory to few and a lifetime of it to even fewer. For the investment it demands, it offers short careers that end when people in other professions are starting to flourish.
My point of view is that when I am playing cricket I cannot think that this game is less or more important.
For its health, cricket needs to look outward to the sharpest minds, to people who sustain and nurture brands and often take hard but necessary decisions. Cricket cannot be bound by cricketing minds alone.
Cricket pays well, so a lot of people are naturally drawn towards the game. But to carve a niche in non-cricket sports is not easy. So state governments need to be proactive. Indians need to be made aware of the power of an Olympic medal. It should be treated at par with an Oscars or a Nobel Prize.
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