There is money in the game of the cricket. Men pitch more on one purchase than their parents had made in a couple of years or in a lifetimes. The young aspiring players look on from the sidelines as the elders of the cricket generation did to them. These are the people who need constant mentoring, and a reminder of what it actually means to play for their country, India, where they need to be told of the heavy responsibility they carry and also of the inequities in the society. It’s a long endless list.
This is an interesting debate where there is an urgent need of mentorship. As the game of cricket grows, one can see an increase in opportunities, as a simple tug on the shoulder can seek to drag young aspiring athletes away from the path from where they have come to such success. They surely need someone to nudge them back, to drag them back and realize their importance of victories to the nation. For some, it may seem as a cakewalk to the pitch where they tend to forget their value addition to the nation and the masses around them.
A need arises where one may feel a strong sounding board, where the young men will be constantly given the reminders of their standard, of the importance of the game, not only to them but also to the entire nation, where people with bated breath and high expectation, expect their team to win. With such board, men can know why they have started playing this game, what they have achieved through it and how they can grow as people, because of which, the best time to mentor the players is in their late teens.
It is not always mandatory that growth as a player and as a person go hand in hand. Sometimes, one can be a giant in one area, whereas the same person can be a dwarf in another area. However, it helps if the two blend together. It is useful since in the Indian cricket and the players, one can get to see the history and a legacy of pride. The message sometimes imperceptible and direct is that the world does need these players more than they need the world. And as it is a known fact for some, cricket field is a momentary high and can be also a devastating high.
The role of a mentor can be loud with the need which can be felt more in the mentor’s mind than by his ward, as every parent has experienced at some point of time. The day one feels the need to be disciplined and respectful to his profession from within himself, he will acquire a work ethic, and then nothing can stop him from being as good as he can be. If he needs to be reminded than he hasn’t felt it and with his best smile and nod at a mentor. Within a short course of time, he will realize that living with money, success and fame is a challenge similar to learning to play the short pitched ball.
The debate that the young men shouldn’t be offered too much is simplistic and is not possible to deliver. These men possess skills which command a price and one cannot insulate them from the buyers. The selectors need to be sharp, as they are critical and vastly under-exploited resource. If they are of integrity, they are seen to be putting the interest of the team first and they can be the agents of growth and progress that mentors sometimes cannot be. But, this is not the case. The position of a selector is an unusual appointment, where before and after his tenure, he wants to be seen as a close buddy to the players as he is now expected to judge over. It cannot be like this, where in the case of Ferguson work as the nature of the system, where one plays for a franchise and also for heavy money on the platter than they do for their country.