Cricket heroes let down advertising industry, board washes hands off defeat

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty has said that the Indian cricket team's collapse cannot be blamed on the five-man selection committee headed by former Test player Dilip Vengsarkar.

Prominent admen Alyque Padamsee and Prasoon Joshi have also said that the team's elimination from the 2007 World Cup has hurt the country's advertising industry.

Winners in 1983 and finalists in the last tournament, India suffered a 69-run defeat in their crunch Group B match against Sri Lanka and their slim hopes of progressing now hinge on an unlikely defeat for Bangladesh by debutants Bermuda on Sunday.

If anybody should pay the price for India's debacle, it won't atleast be the game's cash rich national governing body, as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was quick to wash its hands off.

"One must not forget that when this team left, the entire country-including former cricketers, experts, the media, everybody- had concluded this was the best team that was selected. So, obviously, therefore one cannot put the blame on the door of the selectors. It is upto the individuals who ultimately play the game. On that particular day, the eleven were playing the game. If they don't deliver, how do you really go back to the selectors?" asked Shetty.

BCCI's powerful head Sharad Pawar, earlier in the day, said team's coach Greg Chappell's contract was till the World Cup and would be reviewed. The BCCI President also called for grooming young players to raise a team for the next World Cup.

Cricket is taken very seriously in India, where players are treated as huge celebrities, paid big money to endorse major commercial brands and put on pedestals by cricket-crazy fans. The World Cup-frenzy in the country has been fuelled by a multitude of television channels and media houses who have touted the team as favourites and are tracking the action minute-by-minute since the team's arrival in the Caribbean.

The advertising industry estimates said nearly 1.5 billion rupees worth of money was at stake and a television audience of 280 million would certainly plummet.

"If this goes on and we keep losing, then I tell you all cricketers will be off the clients' list. They'll say 'No I don't want any cricketers (because) you can never tell (if) their form is up, their form is down. Give me movie stars (instead)," said Alyque Padamsee.

"Definitely this is going to have an impact. I would be lying if I tell you no, cricket is a beautiful game and everybody will watch the game. If your team is out of the race then I think the interest reduces," said another adman Prasoon Joshi.

Television pictures showed furious cricket fans in towns and cities across India taking to the streets to show their outrage at their national team's defeat.

Even soldiers deployed in Kashmir were disappointed.

"These are players, it is just a game, up and down. They used to be good and we were proud. But now they are old. We respect them still, but it is not their time anymore," said Sunil Pradhan, a paramilitary soldier based said in Srinagar.

"They should make a new team, new players should be tried out. In five years a new team will be ready. Let the current lot be put on duty, like us at Lal Chowk, in bullet proof vests," said Hukam Singh, another paramilitary soldier.

Security has been stepped up outside the residences of some of the cricketers, including captain Rahul Dravid's home in Bangalore, over fears of an attack or stone-pelting by fans.

In Kolkata, travel agents said many fans planning to travel to the Caribbean to watch India compete in the Super Eight -- the last eight remaining teams -- had cancelled their bookings. (ANI)

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