as in other areas of activity – has no place. Who knows this better than the cricketers themselves. One slack shot and the batsman loses his wicket; one loose delivery and the ball goes for a boundary; a moment of laxness on the field and the fielder finds himself in no man's land. Yet two cricketers took their country's fourth highest civilian honor so casually that they did not even bother to attend its awards function. No alibi can justify Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh's absence to accept the Padma Shree from President Pratibha Patil in New Delhi last week. Yet the alibi Harbhajan gave added a tinge of sarcasm to the disrespect shown by him to national honor. “There were a few family commitments, some serious things... that is why I could not go,” he was quoted as explaining his absence from the awards function. What “family commitment” could be bigger than national honor? What could be more serious and important than accepting the Padma Shree from the president of your country? All recipients of Padma awards are informed one month in advance about the awards-giving ceremony date. They are expected to respond to the invitation to confirm their attendance or excuse themselves from it. I do not think there are any instances of recipients excusing themselves from a function of national honor. However, there are instances of people declining to accept the honor on principle or as a mark of protest. The Dhoni-Harbhajan episode points to two things: either these cricketers were so ignorant that they did not realize the importance of the function or they are so vainglorious that accepting a national civilian honor appeared infra dig to them. In either case they need to be reprimanded. What adds insult to injury is the media report that these cricketers could not make it to the President's House because they had commitments to shoot commercials before leaving for South Africa. I do not think they are so naive as to be ignorant of the importance of the Padma honors. In fact, they are puffed up with conceit. After all, they are cricketers! And cricketers in India enjoy the status of deities. I hold the authorities, the media and, of course, the common man equally responsible for giving cricket such a stature that it belittles all other sports, including India's national sport – field hockey. Only recently the Indian hockey team returned home victorious from Malaysia where they won the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup after a gap of 14 years. There was no media hype, no ceremonial parades through the cities, no firecrackers on the streets. It's too early to raise a question as to whether any member of this victorious team will be recommended for the Padma Shree? The question, however, is valid considering the fact that at least two people, representing sports other than cricket, who brought laurels to India recently, were not given the Padma Shree this year. Conspicuous by their absence from the list of this year's awardees were the names of Olympic bronze medalists, boxer Vijendra Kumar and wrestler Sushil Kumar. There have been rumors of slip-ups in the nomination process. Early this year, Tehelka Magazine revealed how two women of the same name received the Padma Shree awards for education and social service in 1960. The genuine nominee was a nurse named Miss Lazarus, but a telegram was wrongly sent to Miss Lazarus, the educationist. The magazine also mentions this year's controversy over the nomination of Hashmat Ullah Khan, the so-called skilled craftsman of Kanni shawls from Jammu and Kashmir. “Skeptics sought him out, only to find that far from being a master weaver, Khan was only a shawl exporter,” writes the magazine. It also quotes Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty as saying: “Harbhajan Singh was not recommended... I won't comment beyond this.” If BCCI did not recommend Harbhajan's name, then how was his name added to the list of awardees? Was the non-inclusion of the two Olympic medalists an oversight or the inclusion of the two cricketers an over zealous act? Whatever the case may be, the snub by the cricketers should come as a wake-up call for all those who are mad about cricket in India. Don't make superhumans out of cricketers. They are gifted with some talent, as everyone else is. They are only different because they have polished their talent to excel in their field. – SG Comments: [email protected] __
