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India pays a high price for
cricket
By Raja M
MUMBAI - A funny, morphed image of
Pakistani cricket captain Inzamam ul-Haq and
India's captain Sourav Ganguly yelling and rushing
out to battle in gladiatorial attire was splashed
in Indian newspapers last week as prelude to the
Pakistan team's 50-day cricket tour in India
starting on Thursday. Little do the two sporting
warriors know that they will also,
unintentionally, spearhead an attack on the
subcontinent's economy. When cricket starts, work
in South Asia suffers.
Usual off-field
attention to India's cricket addiction mainly
spans scandals such as the match-fixing mess that
officially erupted in 2000 and the big money made
by cricketers, administrators and satellite TV
channels flashing US$240 million bids for
exclusive TV rights. But Asia Times Online began
asking for another number: a ballpark figure on
losses from decreased productivity, wasted
man-days and the impact of cricket on India's
development. Estimates range from a conservative
$30 billion loss, arrived at by assuming a loss of
5% working time on the 2004 gross domestic product
(GDP) as a result of cricket viewing.
"Losses
from cricket watching work out to $10 billion a
year, even if we take a conservative 2.5% loss in
GDP," said Prabhakhar Mundkar, chief operating
officer of Percept, a leading advertising media
house that also does cricket celebrity management.
In 2004, India played 12 Test matches
(each scheduled to last five days, so a potential
two months of cricket) and 32 one-day
international matches. Unlike any other sport,
each cricket day involves six hours of scheduled
play for Test matches and at least an hour longer
for one-dayers.
Alex Chamberlen, head
of sales for Wisden Cricinfo, the world's
largest single-sport website, conveyed the inherent
work-distracting nature of cricket in an
interview. He told the London-based Sport and
Technology last July: "Cricket is ideally suited
to Internet coverage as it is a game that is
played during working hours and it is a game that
involves a wide range of statistics."
Anti-cricket noises are often dismissed as
the green-eyed devil's jealous ranting. But
leading cricket personalities, too, have begun to
express concern. Harsha Bhogle, a popular TV
commentator and writer, agrees India has a lost a
sense of proportion in its interest in the game.
"Cricket has become a form of escapism,
particularly the one-day game," Bhogle told Asia
Times Online. "Even after the match-fixing
scandal, we didn't turn away from cricket. It
worries me," said Bhogle. "I know it sounds
strange coming from a person who earns his
livelihood from cricket ... but we tend to turn to
cricket and forget about everything else."
Some Indian companies have reportedly
blocked cricket websites. But with satellite TV
and cellular phone services providing updates,
India Inc still bears the brunt of cricket mania
on match days. "Definitely there is a change in
the mood at work, with people more interested in
knowing the score," Pritam Panday, a Federation of
Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)
official, told Asia Times Online. "Work and
entertainment tend to get mixed."
A
weblogger moaned about this unprofessional work-play
combination last July: "One of the things no one
tells you about doing business in India is that
there is a 5% cricket tax to be paid in terms of
lost productivity. People think nothing of
watching the game during work hours - it's not
even a topic of debate."
A
typical response to a big cricket game, as a
newspaper reported after an India-Pakistan one-day match
in Kolkata on last November 13, is how
government offices were deserted and ministers
kept themselves updated with the scores. An
unnamed senior bureaucrat was quoted as saying: "I
caught the first 15 overs of the match at my club
before heading back to office for a couple of
hours. I cancelled all important meetings."
Often called a religion, cricket in the
subcontinent at times fits the "opiate of the
masses" description. An excessive dose of it was
poured during India's tour of Pakistan last year,
when Indian victories were hailed in the
mainstream India media with ridiculous front-page
blaring headlines such as "Karachi captured". But
far worse reactions can happen. After India lost
the Kolkata match against Pakistan on November 13,
a cricket fan, Rabindranath Adhikari, committed
suicide, setting himself on fire at his house in
Batikar village of Birbhum district in West
Bengal. Such fits of insanity are not rare.
Urban India has half a mind at work during
big match days. Ganesh Kotalkar, a sales
executive, finds government offices particularly
distracted during cricket matches. During a sales
call to a senior Western Railway official in
Mumbai, Kotalkar found him and his colleagues
glued to the TV in his office, watching cricket.
So what did Kotalkar do? "I too sat down and
watched the match," he sheepishly grinned. "What
else could I do?" Kotalkar's regional manager
Ralph Pais agreed: "It's difficult to meet people
on match days. All kinds of strange excuses are
trotted out."
Reggie Pai, director of
operations at Kelloggs India, finds colleagues at
all levels of hierarchy distracted in office when
India plays a cricket match. "I'm sure there are
other avenues for recreation and entertainment,"
he said, expressing his amazement at the
extraordinary attention that cricket gets in
India. "A reasonable interest in the game is fine
but it seems to have become an obsession in India.
Youngsters seem to be missing out on a more
all-round personality development."
Ardent
cricket
fans in corporate circles blame inefficient
time management rather than cricket for
slackening of work. "If you are able to finish your
assignments on time, then whether you watch cricket
or not is your problem," said Sushil Jiwarajka,
managing director of Salora International
and chairman of FICCI, western India.
He mentioned his nephew studying in Berkeley, California,
who teams up with friends and hires a local cinema
hall to hook up to satellite TV during India
matches. "He still turns out an excellent academic
performance." Jiwarajka feels cricket cannot be
pared down to economics. "In an emotive culture
such as ours, cricket becomes an outlet for our
suppressed emotions," he said. "We cannot look at
our love for cricket in Western terms or see it as
a loss in business terms."
Others dismiss
the cricket frenzy as artificial media hype. "You
go to a major first-class game [national league]
and there are hardly a few hundred spectators,"
said Mario Rodriguez, a veteran sports journalist
and author of the controversial book Ranji -
Batting for the Empire. Rodriguez feels that the
hype level has soared but genuine interest has
dived. But Bhogle, who worked for an advertising
agency before becoming a cricket media star of
sorts, does not see interest waning in India. "The
younger generation is as much hooked to cricket as
the older ones," said Bhogle.
Some future
generation, decades away, might forget cricket.
But for the next month or so, India at work will
have more than its eyes peeled for India at play.
And pay for it.
Raja M is an
independent writer based in Mumbai, India.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact us for information
on sales, syndication and republishing.) |
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