More proof that the most imaginative cricket writing in India comes not from cricket writers but those outside the press box.
Spurred by Uttar Pradesh’s Ranji Trophy showing, Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar—a fully certified cricket freak—sticks his neck out and suggests a correlation between cricketing success and economic clout in today’s Sunday Times.
Aiyar says the fact that UP has been a finalist in three of the last four years, winning the trophy once, is a sign that India’s largest state is poised for economic take-off.
“I noticed this in my youth in regard to Karnataka. In the 1950s and 1960s, Karnataka was not economically backward but not a powerhouse either. Nor did it boast great cricketing prowess. But then it produced a string of great cricketes in the late 1960s and early 1970s—B.S. Chandrashekhar, Erapalli Prasanna, Gundappa Vishwanath, Brijesh Patel. The State was Ranji Trophy finalist in four of the ten years between 1973-74 and 1982-83, winning twice.
“Karnataka’s cricket upsurge was followed by an economic upsurge. It gained stature first as an engineering hub, then as a hub of information technology. It had some good industries even in the 1960s but only later did it become a powerhouse…. A look at other Ranji Trophy finalists through the years [Bombay, Bengal, Delhi, Gujarat] also shows similar trends, however halting.”
Conversely, is Karnataka’s depleting fortunes in domestic cricket also related to the setting of the economic sun, to the shine going out of Bangalore?
Read the full article: Is UP about to take off?
Also read: Who killed cricket writing in India?
‘Nationalism has replaced cricket journalism’
churumuri 
Rise of UP in cricket has also seen a dramatic increase in corruption, casteism and lawlessness in UP. So according to this Karnataka should enjoy very less corruption from now on ( and there should be no corruption in Bihar). Yay :)
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In the article Aiyer doesn’t even provide some explanation about
why he thinks there is a relation between winning Ranji cricket
and economics upsurge, except for a reference to a study which showed relation between Olympics and Nobel medal in Economics.
AFAIK AP has done better economically post liberalization
and it was Ranaji winner only during 1937-38
1986-87 and runner up during 1942-43, 1964-65, 1999-00.
(Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranji_Trophy)
As regard to Bengal Aiyar says economy of Bengal began its revival
in 90s and mentions that it was a Ranji finalist in 1993-94, 2005-6 and 2006-7. But what is the explanation for absence of Bengal team in the national cricket arena during the years 95 to 2004.
His article seems to me more like a case of confusing association with causation.
Confusing association with Causation:
This is similar to the post-hoc fallacy in that it assumes cause and effect for two variables simply because they are correlated, although the relationship here is not strictly that of one variable following the other in time
(http://www.theskepticsguide.org/logicalfallacies.asp)
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typical undergraduate mistake.
as sateesh has already pointed out, the respected Prof. Aiyer seems to have confused association with causation.
A little bit of digging will tell us that in UP, cricket is the only viable source of escape from poverty and obscurity that does not involve violence, casteism or religious hatred. The phenomenon is similar to the success of Biharis in IIT & IAS entrance exams.
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true, Karnataka made tremendous progress in 1980s and 1990s, but not because it produced three cricket stalwards during that period. It may be only a co-incidence. There were many patriots who strugled hard to uplift the state and they should be remembered. Of course criket has given its own status to the state.
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I agree with Prof. Aiyer. Moderate success in Cricket gets great success in economy. As soon as teams start winning, betting money starts flowing in and then matches get fixed to the great advantage of gamesters and fans. And there will be more money in circulation and economic outlook improves.
My economics teacher always disagreed with me and did not allow me to play cricket during his period at IIT Kharagpur and because I did not play cricket, Bengal is backward.. Shucks I just talked myself into being responsible for Bengal’s pathetic state..Oh..no.. I feeling sad for what I did to Bengal…and as I feel sad US is now going to Depression.!!!
Professor’s theory makes sense.. Prof.. Go play some cricket!!!
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Much stupid as the inference may be, I hope it turns out to be true. Just imagine – the no. of UPites migraiting to bengalooru and mumbai might just decrease. Yo!! The world lives on hope.
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@Alok:
Biharis keep talking about IAS officers hailing from Bihar. Do these Bihari IAS/IPS people do even a minute of work? I keep hearing these Biharis boast about Biharis dominating GOI. If that is the case why don’t they take responsibility for the red tape, inefficiency and sleaze that characterizes the sarkar? If Biharis are indeed dominating the IAS/IPS why don’t people look at the state of administration and law & order in India and draw their own conclusions about the quality of these Bihari IAS/IPS?
All that Biharis can say is that they dominate the IAS/IPS-but look at the state of the government of India!!
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I disagree.
I wouldn’t take the ToI too seriously. They copied a few things I wrote on Wikipedia verbatim, including when I made errors in them, and those by others as well
http://monkeyatthecricket.blogspot.com/2009/01/do-journalists-from-times-use-wikipedia.html
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