Indian Cricket & Brazilian Soccer: A Comparitive Case Study

Transmuting National Passion to International Excellence

At the outset the reader can wonder as to what is similar between
Brazilian soccer and Indian cricket. They are after all two different
sports, played by two different countries that are geographically and
culturally apart from each other. Yet I see interesting parallels in
the sense when it comes to passion for the respective sport. Soccer
is to Brazil as to what cricket is for India. Both sports have
penetrated deep into the national psyche of the respective countries.
Both sports go beyond the boundaries of national passion and
transcends to the definition of national prestige and honor. Soccer
is played everywhere in Brazil; in its backyards, on the streets, in
garages, on basketball courts (futsal), on terraces, on beaches, on
grounds and anywhere two makeshift goalposts can be defined. In a
similar vein, cricket is played in the subcontinent. As ex-Sri Lankan
cricket captain Arjuna Ranatunga once said about cricket in Sri Lanka
and one can extrapolate it to the subcontinent: "People here eat and
drink cricket." Similarly in Brazil (and one can extrapolate it other
South American countries) people eat and drink soccer. These sports
are in the blood, are an important cultural parameter, and in many
ways a way of life in both countries. Both India and Brazil are
upcoming developing nations with a growing affluent middleclass with
similar challenges. Both have fierce sporting rivalries with
neighbors: Brazil/Argentina and India/Pakistan. Incidentally both
Pakistan and Argentina are also cricket and soccer mad respectively.

And yet one sees a glaring fundamental difference. Brazil has been
able to translate this frenetic passion into a record 5 World Cup
victories and always been a genuine championship threat even in those
World Cups that it did not win. In the recently concluded FIFA WC at
Germany, Brazil was again strong favorites to lift the cup until their
shock loss to France, which IMO was due to a managerial bungle. They
could have easily repulsed the Zidane inspired French attack had they
gotten their younger players like Robinho play the entire game.
Instead they persisted with a listless Ronaldo and Ronaldinho for that
crucial game against France and allowed Zidane to weave his artistry.
(The current Brazilian team consisting of new super talented and
upcoming youngsters is once gain ranked as a genuine contender for the
upcoming 2010 World Cup in South Africa). Brazil is also a Futsal
(indoor football) superpower. It has won the World Futsal
Championships many times. They have players like Falcao who are
master magicians in Futsal possessing mind-boggling dribbling and goal
scoring skills even in impossibly crowded and stifling goal mouths.
Brazil also won the recently concluded World Beach Football
championships. But cricket crazy India has never been able to
translate its cricket passion into genuine world cricket dominance.
Apart from that improbable triumph in the 1983 Prudential WC inspired
by the brilliance of a never-say-die Kapil Dev, India has never
achieved the kind of aura that Brazil has been able to create in
soccer. And one asks why? Left brain logic tells us that one should
excel in areas that one is innately passionate about.

For this we have to look into the state of the respective sport in
each of the two countries. As mentioned earlier, both countries are
upcoming developing nations with similar economical challenges for the
future. But where Indian cricket has an advantage over Brazilian
soccer is that the BCCI (Indian cricket's governing body) is the
richest cricket national governing body in the world today. Now I do
not know the corresponding state of affairs with Brazilian soccer's
apex body, The Brazilian Football Federation. But suffice to say that
the major chunk of world soccer money is in Europe. Otherwise, why
would all the top Brazilian soccer superstars spend their time playing
for European clubs when they are not representing Brazil? Of course
there are anomalies like David Beckham signing a multimillion contract
in the USA. They are also indications that Asia may become the next
Europe when it comes to football money. But coming back to the main
theme, Brazil is somehow able to overcome its relatively low financial
muscle in world soccer in comparison to some rich European soccer
superpowers and be a perennial World Cup contender. But then why is
Indian cricket, in spite of its huge financial muscle, is never a
consistent World Champion contender in world cricket?

The answer, IMO, lies in the grassroots. And before we go into that,
one has to take a huge point into consideration: Soccer is cheaper
than cricket to play for the poor man on the streets of both Brazil
and India. (Again I'm not comparing soccer to rubber-ball street
cricket) All one needs in soccer is a ball and the legs to play and
rocks that act as goal posts, but real cricket needs equipment like
good quality balls, bats, stumps, gloves etc etc and consequently not
everyone in India can afford this. The poor Indian on the street has
to make do with tennis and rubber ball cricket with stumps drawn on
the wall with chalk (That's how I have played my cricket on the
streets and building courtyards of Mumbai during my formative years).
And here's where I see the surplus money in BCCI's coffers could be
put to good use. BCCI has the funds to establish free facilities in
each village hamlet where even the common man can play real cricket
with the full quality accouter; it only lacks the will. Whereas in
soccer, other than the ball, all one needs is decent pair of shoes,
uniform, and a good ground to play on . No funds are needed for
equipment. (One needs decent shoes, uniform, and a good ground in
cricket too and so that levels the comparison platform)

But, IMO, the main difference comes in spectator participation in
domestic competitions. In Brazil, the local soccer competitions
generate tremendous spectator interest. The intercity games have long
established traditions of fiery rivalries. Pele talks a lot about how
these rivalries shape and hone the competitive psyche of the players
in his recently released autobiography, which IMO is a sports-readers
must. The spectators can follow the fortunes of an upcoming player
right from the time he shows promise. The passion to excel in the
national championships is at a very high level. Consequently, the WC
expectations for any given national Brazilian side expand enormously
as Pele says aptly in his autobiography. A Brazilian team is
considered a failure even if it finishes second in the WC as happened
in France-98. Any given Brazilian team sent to the FIFA WC is
realistically expected to return nothing short of the prestigious
trophy from its campaign, unlike India where the realistic expectation
this time around in the current 2007 ICC WC was only to make it to the
Super8s. And India dismally failed in that too. The pressure to
perform is higher on a Brazilian soccer side than on an Indian cricket
team in international meets and yet Brazil thrives on this pressure
while India habitually gets snuffled. It could be that the Brazilian
players have already handled such expectation pressures in domestic
tourneys and they have no problems in doing so at the WC. However,
this grassroots spectator participation has got a flip side. It
establishes some level of transparency in the selection process for
the national side. Spectators and fans have a decent idea regarding
the potential of each newcomer to the national side in meeting fan
expectations. This results in a fairer selection process even though
there are still accusations of discrimination leveled at Brazilian
selectors, especially when it comes to selection of players of African
origin. Whether Brazilian players of Hispanic origins get underhanded
preference is moot.

India unfortunately lags far behind when it comes to spectator/fan
participation at a national/domestic level. The virtually empty
stadiums at domestic cricket meets bear testimony to this fact. Very
few of us (and I include myself) have an idea as to which upcoming
player is creating a sensation at the Ranji/Duleep/Deodhar trophy
level. Every now and then we see new faces/ hear new names in the
Indian test team, but we can't be sure as to what their domestic
cricketing credentials are. Did they do the hard yakka as they say
here in Australia? Did they really make a mark in the number of runs
that they scored or the wickets that they had taken in the national
competitions or were they beneficiaries of their powerful connections
roosting on the BCCI selection committee? Who were their godfathers?
A bookie mafia don or a political megalomaniac or just plain bribes;
one wonders. And since Indian cricket fans do not follow domestic
cricket with passion, we also have ourselves to blame regarding the
selection tamasha that regularly goes on regarding the national test
side.

Another prominent factor is team gelling and dynamics. We Indians
never have a dearth of so called superstars on the team, yet India
fails regularly to gel as a team especially when we see super teamwork
regularly dished out by the likes of Australia on the world cricket
field. Even Brazilian soccer teams over the years have suffered and
continue to suffer from the same malaise, i.e.; being a team of
superstars. And they have paid dearly in this regard in WCs where
they have not gelled as a team as happened in Germany 2006 in spite of
having superstars like Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Robinho, and Carlos to
name a few. (In the opinion of many Brazilians and that includes the
great Pele himself, the Brazilian side that played in the 1982 FIFA WC
under the captaincy of the brilliantly gifted Socrates was one of the
all time great Brazilian teams never to have won the cup, upset 3-2 by
the dogged brilliance of Paolo Rossi of Italy, who then went on to win
their third WC title. But extraordinary magic does explode when the
Brazilians do gel as a team as happened in those great Pele engineered
WC triumphs of 1954, 1958, and 1970 (which resulted in the original WC
trophy to be gifted permanently to Brazil) and the recent team of 2002
starring the great Ronaldo. (The 1994 WC winning Brazilian team in
spite of being a good team somehow pales in comparison with these
teams. It lucked out in the penalty kicks lottery in the finals
against Italy where Italian forward Baggio became notorious for that
hugely wide missed penalty kick that ignited their demise.) And that
kind of magic rarely happens for the Indian cricket team and if it
does happen, is very fleeting as in Prudential WC 1983 under Kapil Dev
and the Benson & Hedges WSC triumph of 1985 in Australia under
Gavaskar. Why does this happen more often for Brazil in soccer? How
does Brazil negotiate team dynamics in sides filled with superstars
with massive egos? One needs to find an answer for that as some
Indian cricket players have unnaturally huge fan boosted unrealistic
egos.

Lastly, Brazil is a country of higher Athletic Index [1] (see
definition below) than India. Soccer is no doubt more physically
demanding than cricket, but Brazil not a one dimensional sporting
power like India. Brazil is also a world power in International
Volleyball as well as Basketball. One would also believe that they
have a better record at the Olympics (a constant soccer gold medal
threat) and also other traditional events. India's international
cricket is always heaving between the middle and the lower ranks and
now even its Asian rank is under threat of eroding. All this points
to India's faltering fundamentals. The road to excellence, as
everyone aptly knows, has no shortcuts. But our chalega and
shortcutting approach to various walks of life is making us fall short
at crucial junctures. In other words, we consistently falter in the
clutch. When we see the dismal performances of many of our cricketers
in the clutch, we are left to wonder whether these players really
trained the hard way, burnt the hard yards during their formative
years in the domestic and grassroots cricket tourneys and leagues.
Are their fundamentals really strong and sound? These are the myriad
questions that come to our minds regarding the present state of Indian
cricket.

And therin lies a big lesson for Indian cricket to learn from
Brazilian soccer: Transmuting national passion to consistent
international excellence.

Shiva IYER
290307
Personal website:
http://om.sriguru.googlepages.com/home
(Ps follow the links on my homepage to other sites hosting my writings
on a variety of topics... Thanks Shiva)


[ [1] Athletic Index is the ability of a country to produce Olympic
class athletes in track and field and water sports, including winter
sports and disciplines that demand high physical endurance (It's a
self coined term and so please excuse me for that)

.

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