CWG 2010 and cricket

Published>Sun, Aug 01 10 02:21 AM

There is a serious concern in the country's sporting circles that the Commonwealth Games, India's biggest sporting event ever, stands to lose out because of a clash with the high profile India-Australia cricket series. With the BCCI going ahead with the series as planned, a rumour is rife that the Games OC will even ask the cricket board for a monetary pay back to make up for its loss of eyeballs. In this atmosphere of competition between cricket and the Olympic sporting disciplines, a serious opportunity is being lost. Cricket, it is important to understand, can be harnessed for the Commonwealth Games. This point was eloquently made by Abhijit Sarkar, head of corporate communications, Sahara India Pariwar, at a recent summit on the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. "Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir should be used as brand ambassadors for the Games. Their endorsing the Games will only help further its appeal", suggested Sarkar. Drawing a leaf out of this comment, it can be suggested that the OC should request the BCCI that in the lead-up to the Games it would like India's single-biggest icons, Tendulkar and Dhoni, to be seen with the Games baton, lending the Games support in any way they can and also endorsing the Games on television. After all, the Games are for India and the OC and BCCI can't just continue to be at loggerheads when India's prestige and image is at stake.

Drawing on sporting icons from other disciplines isn't a unique practice in world sport. Rather, it is a time-tested mechanism used by mega event organisers for decades. It was only natural the Zinedine Zidane would endorse the French bid for the Olympics, in the process making a case for a socially inclusive France where Algerian immigrants are welcome. David Beckham, too, played a significant role in London winning the Olympic bid for 2012 in Singapore in 2005.

In India, where Sachin, Dhoni and Sehwag are three of the nation's biggest icons, it is only foolish that their services aren't being utilised alongside that of Abhinav, Vijender and Saina for the Commonwealth Games. Hype could surely have been generated had Sachin bought the first ticket of the Commonwealth Games online the day tickets went on sale. Again, it hardly takes much to get messages recorded from the cricketers wishing their sporting colleagues like Saina all best as they get ready to lead India's charge in the Games. If the sporting greats and Bollywood celebrities can go gaga over Saina on Twitter, one wonders why they can't be drawn upon by the OC in a systematic manner to promote the Games?

With just about two months left for the Games, CWG 2010 is in need of every bit of positive publicity it can generate and draw upon. With national magazines unleashing cover stories under the headline, 'Shame Games', the Suresh Kalmadi-led organising committee truly has its task cut out, as does Havas and Percept, the two PR firms entrusted with the task of creating a positive feel about the Games. In such a climate, cricket, it can be suggested can emerge the unlikely saviour. Anything Sachin Tendulkar suggests in India has a biblical effect and there's no reason why CWG 2010 can't benefit from the maestro. It is time the right chords are tapped and right buttons pressed to make the best of the time left. With Delhi tourism all set to unfurl plans for international tourists making Delhi home during the Commonwealth Games on August 16, the countdown to the Games has begun. And, with scepticism still the prevalent tenor of the day, it is time the OC sheds all apprehensions and draws upon some of India's biggest champions to lobby for the Games. India is on show and 'India', not the OC or the BCCI, will be pulled up for a failed CWG 2010.

?The writer is a cricket historian

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