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Every child in the eight to fourteen age groups develops a passion towards sports, arts, movies or some other hobbies. So it is important for parents to monitor closely their child’s interests and to see that they do not turn into obsessions and thus damage their academic careers. Now-a- days viewing of cricket matches continuously on the Television and watching movies in the theatres is the single-most significant reason for a child’s drop in grade in the exams.
Negative aspects of the passion of cricket: -
I remember pretty well my childhood days, when as a young boy of nine years, I was extremely fascinated with cricket and aped the bowling action of my favorite hero, Kapil Dev, whenever I was playing with my friends and on occasions, even when I was not playing and simply loitering in the verandah of my house. I and my friends not only followed the test matches very closely but also went into lengthy discussions, about the various aspects of the day’s play like why the captain did not open the bowling with one particular bowler and what would have happened had one particular batsmen been sent one spot up in the batting order etc. Eventually we used to forget that there was an examination in our school the next day.
Those were the days (early eighties), when there was no television and we had to depend on the radio to enjoy the live action and the occasional chance we had of seeing the test match in action was when we went to a movie and a trial part was shown, (before the commencing of the feature film), which consisted of the action that took place in a just concluded test series.
For most of us, whenever the cricket series and examinations coincided, our performance at the examinations dipped. We were able to tell very easily the itinerary of the Indian cricket team but were not so convincing with regard to rendition of formulae in Mathematics. It was an altogether different matter that when there was no cricket match around we were able to finish our exams with aplomb.
Positive aspects of the passion of cricket:-
1) Notwithstanding the negative side, there were some positive aspects of this passion also. Most prominently we became very adept in Geography and especially when it came to pointing out some important places on the map in our social studies examination like Melbourne, Perth, Kingston, Manchester etc. We even remembered other important things about these places the names of the rivers on whose banks these places were situated, the important products from these places etc. Thus we were ahead of the students who did not have any specific interest in cricket.
2) By listening to the cricket commentaries by the famous commentators like Christopher Martin Jenkins, Brian Johnston, Tony Cozier, Ananth Sethalvad, and our command over English language grew by leaps and bounds.
3) Whenever there was a school vacation or a holiday, we played the game with great intensity and rigor and thus most of us became very muscular and healthy when compared to those who had little or no interest in the game.
Our Moment of truth about the passions:-
As years rolled by and as we were passing through our teens, some of us gradually realized that these passions (Sports and movies) were fast turning into obsessions and our academic lives were getting swallowed by them and that we should limit ourselves to watching the one-day matches on the television and watch only those movies which have run for at least one month. The rest of our friends who could not control themselves failed to perform in the exams. Thus many a promising career got nipped in the bud, as they could neither flourish in cricket nor in their academic lives.
Disturbing trend of increase in number of cricket matches: -
Taking aforesaid matters into consideration, I became extremely disturbed on seeing the number of test matches, one-day matches and twenty-twenty matches that are scheduled to be played by the Indian cricket team in the ensuing calendar year and up to April 08. It is no secret that young people love cricket to the craziest extent possible and there were many occasions when the colleges and schools were found to be empty on the days of cricket matches.
Passion for watching the movies:-
As it can be seen from the above that, while some useful information can be drawn from the passion towards cricket, with the case of watching movies nothing important can be obtained. On the top of it, as most of the modern movies preach violence as solution to the problems in the society and also teach the teenagers the methods to engage in love at a younger age, there is a great danger that there is a possibility of the youth getting consumed with these imaginary solutions and temporary happiness.
Some remedies: -
It is now pertinent that all the people concerned evolve sufficient precautionary measures to see that these young people will be able to enjoy cricket, watch movies and perform well at the exams. Any evolution or revolution should start from home and then only it can flourish in the streets. So the parents on their part should
1) Make their children grasp the difference between the concepts of relaxation and entertainment.
2) Make their children become aware of the importance of academics and harness only the finer aspects of the sports in bettering their performance in the academics.
3) Restrict the children to watch the television only when those serials that are informative are being played.
Similarly the administrators of the sport and the producers of the movies should
1) Limit the number of test matches in a year to eight, one-day matches to ten and twenty-twenty matches to one tournament.
2) Limit the number of films in a year to a maximum of 60.
3) See that all the matches and films do not clash with the examination schedule of the students.
Today’s children are the future of tomorrow. So everyone should see that the commercialization of the sport and films should not become a bane for the Youth of the country.
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