Are small towns India's ticket to the big league?

SMALL TOWN, BIG DREAMS: Panelists discuss the rise and rise of small towners and the apparent end of elitism.

        

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New Delhi: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the 26-year-old, long-haired poster boy of Indian cricket has been named the captain of India's Twenty20 team for the inaugural World Cup in South Africa in September.

Dhoni is from Ranchi and is the first captain in Indian cricket who does not come from any of the major metros. In fact, in every sphere of activity, be it in sport or Bollywood or talent contests or even industry, it is increasingly the talented young men and women from outside the big cities who are rising to the top.

Small town India is is becoming the hip and happening India. The Buntys and Bablis of these small towns are all set to conquer, while the babalog of the big cities are fading away.

The question that was being debated on CNN-IBN's Face the Nation with Sagarika Ghose was; Dhoni as Captain: Does the future of India lie outside the big cities?

On the panel of experts to try and answer the question were: TV host and Indian Idol anchor, Mini Mathur; former cricketer, Shishir Hattangadi and Jawaharlal Nehru University Sociology Professor, Anand Kumar.

The Essence of Dhoni

There was a time when cricket was dominated by Bombay, by Madras, by Delhi, where the clubs and the boys' networks in the same school and same colleges dominated the game, but it seems as if the essence of Dhoni has ended all the elitism in cricket.

To this Shishir Hattangadi said, "It sure has and I am proud that it is so. Being from south Bombay, I'm proud that cricket has gone back to Lagaan and the Lagaan boys, because I think they dream better, don't they? Move over Shishir Hattangadi, time's up."

He stated that this phenomenon was not unique to cricket and that it was spreading across India in every sphere of life. Take for example people like Sunil Bharti Mittal or even Narayana Murthy who made it big in the IT sector, or even talented young men and women who were taking part in the popular show, Indian Idol. Most of them were not necessarily from metropolitan backgrounds and there seems to be a fluorosence of talent from the smaller towns.