Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
Members of Samjivani Youth Club of Talcher, in a disdainful reaction to the disgusting defeat of India in the world cup competition, shaved their heads on March 25 after burning down effigies of the members of Indian Cricket Team (ICT) and performed their funeral rites befitting death of family members in Hindu society.
But it is not a solitary occurrence. Failure of Indian team was so very gross that peoples have not only been maddened to act such bizarre everywhere in the country, but also have emotionally broken down at places to the extent of cardiac casualties.
This is no love for cricket. These fellows do not love cricket as a game. The game is a medium of gambling for them.
Gambling is a pervert assertion of the instable against uncertainties and therefore under its sway one runs for an erratic mental compensation for chronic and discernible deficiencies, the secret agenda being to become eligible to hold fate, not self, responsible for happenings.
This reminds us of how these fellows had tried to invoke Gods grace in support of ICT through oblations organized everywhere in the country before the teams departure. The present fits of funeral rites that they are observing post defeat of the team has its roots in the said oblations preceding posting the team for the world cup.
Where were their Gods when the team failed? Why the fellows that are burning down the effigies of the cricket players are not burning down the images of their Gods, who despite having accepted the bribes through oblations to make the team win, have betrayed it?
Both these actions organized oblations to Gods preceding the teams posting and symbolic funerals organized post defeat, are anti-sports in reality. These are actions of mentally instable fellows who by invoking Gods had played with the confidence of our players before they left the country.
Gods are invoked for only one purpose as we know. That is: for rescue; rescue from diseases, rescue from enemies, rescue from sins, rescue from seizures, rescue from pains, rescue from plights, rescue from dangers, and rescue from defeats. Imagine any difficulty; there is a God or a combine of Gods prescribed by scriptures as a factor of rescue.
So by invoking Gods in support of the ICT, the invokers had vehemently, though inadvertently, infused a sense of inadequacy in our players to the extent of feeling for the need of rescue in the playground but for which the Indian team in manly confidence could have contributed its best as was expected and won the cup.
The captain and individual players have admitted that they were under so much pressure that they failed to display the best in themselves. This pressure was nothing but the pressure of the presence of so many Gods invoked to rescue them from attack of rivals, which went on affecting their psyche through reverberations of a feeling of inadequacy and inefficiency, playing thereby anathema to their self-confidence that resulted in their defeat, notwithstanding world recognized proficiency individual players of the team had acquired by pursuit and practice.
The effigy burners, suffer as they from lack of ability to locate the real reason of defeat, may do better by finding out where the Gods they had invoked to the rescue of the Indian team were when it got vanquished.
And, then perhaps they can know that a country cannot and must not be allowed to run on invocation of Gods but on implementation of scientific methodology in every sphere of life, strengthening of self-confidence of sports persons being one such methodology.
They must know that the sacrificial fires they had ignited in invoking Gods to grace the players before they had left for the field is in no way different from the fire into which they are now throwing the effigies of players after their defeat. Both the fires are one inasmuch as they burn down the self-confidence of the players. And, lack of self-confidence is the main cause of defeat in any competition.
As long as Gods are there India cannot revive.