Lost faith: Cricketers chucked out
‘Living’ legends not to find space in state school textbooks

"Text books should desist from making heroes out of humans who are still alive. Kapil Dev is a lesson well learnt and we should take a leaf out of this," says education minister Anandi Patel an ardent cricket fan. Ms Patel firmly believes that heroes should be paid their dues only after their death to avoid confusion being faced at the moment. The match fixing controversy that has shaken the very roots of the capital game in the country has rubbed off the shine from the game that attracted millions of women and men across the globe.

Textbooks of class eight also have skectches of cricketing heroes Sunil Gavaskar and Azharuddin and with the integrity of Azhar being questioned the education minister is not too far out in having a distaste for hero worship of living idols.

But the craze for cricket is a thing of the past for Ms Patel who is as flustered as the rest of the cricket loving fans with the legend known as Kapil Dev. Cricket no longer interests the education minister and she had decided not to watch cricket matches henceforth. For Ms Patel the suspicion will always remain at the back of her mind whether the country loses or wins a match.

The education minister has written to the Gujarat Secondary Education Board and the Gujarat State Textbooks Board to discard a 14 page chapter devoted to the star that had taken India to dizzying heights only to bring it down like a pack of cards.

"The whole chapter in the class 10 English text book has been devoted to Kapil Dev which speaks highly of the talented cricketer as a patriot and a man of discipline and the feats achieved by him. Frankly, I am confused as the student’s whose parents posed disturbing questions like we do believe in what the textbook says or the reports that have discredited the cricketing hero," Ms Patel said. The education minister said not only will the chapter be omitted in the current academic year so that it is not taught by the teachers and no questions are asked in the examinations but also it will be removed from the syllabus itself in the next year. "It first struck to me when Kapil Dev cried in the BBC interview in front of the whole world. The confusion and the suspicion was there. The chapter devoted to him thereafter looked redundant to me," Ms Patel said. When told that the charges against the great all rounder are yet to be proved, Ms Patel admitted that it may need proof to prove that he is involved in match fixing but the IT raids and the unaccounted assets disclosed subsequently has exposed the hero and confused every one. The education minister was of the opinion that Kapil Dev should confess his guilt to save himself a bit of sympathy like former South African cricketer Hansie Cronje.

"In fact one parent phoned me up and said it is good that cricket has been besmirched with such allegations as his son had failed in class 10 for devoting all his time to the game. The match fixing has brought about a realisation that everything that looks good on the face of it is far from truth," Ms Patel said.

Republished from Asian Age