What's the game of cricket got to do with horse racing? Well, unless one is hopelessly naive, it should be obvious that colossal amounts are being wagered on cricket, especially the one-day variety, in India. Not only on the identity of the winning team, but also on individual items, such as whether a particular player will score a fifty, or a bowler might capture five wickets in an innings.

All this wagering, with bookmakers operating from various nooks and crannies, armed with banks of telephones and TV sets, is downright illegal. And there is little doubt that the enormous enthusiasm for one-day cricket, and for betting on it, has been encouraged bythe extensive television-coverage cricket receives. Because the ball-by-ball action is visible continuously, punters are able to alter their positions and hedge throughout the eight hours a typical game takes.

In contrast, horse racing in India is associated in the public mind with gambling, as a pejorative term, precisely because official wagering is permitted! And because it bears this cross it is denied television coverage. Even though the nature of the sport - the typical race taking between one and two minutes - makes hedging during a race almost impossible.

So we have this wonderful, truly Indian, dichotomy of horse racing being denied popularity and exposure on the "idiot box" because betting on it is legal, and cricket being given a disproportionate status, because the hundred-fold higher volume of betting on it is illegal. What hypocrisy!

One cannot speak about the whole world, but it is pertinent to take note of the situation in certain countries. Take, for example, Britain, from where Indiainherited its interest in cricket and horse racing. Most television channels, whether private or official, have full-fledged coverage of different sports, be it the Wimbledon final, the second test match at Lords, the Cup Winners Cup, or the Epsom Derby. No attempt is made to hide the fact that wagering is taking place; in fact, Britain has officially licensed betting shops where one can wager on almost anything sporting, and even on a few exotic sidelines such as the margin of victory in a parliamentary election.

That country also has a Queen who is one of the world's most knowledgeable bloodstock breeders and who attends races whenever her schedule permits. One occasion she never misses is the Royal Meeting at Ascot each June, where her entourage drives onto the track in horse-drawn carriages amidst ceremonial pomp and splendour. The nation watches the spectacle on television -- and its moral fibre is not shattered!

In America, last year's Kentucky Derby drew a wide variety of celebrities to Louisville,encompassing the likes of actors Sylvester Stallone and Jack Nicolson, former TV news anchor Walter Cronkite and Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis, amongst 143,211 others. Surely they were not slumming!

Studies have shown that a sport that is not on television is "dead", while in contrast the hypnotic effect of the boob tube has given a new dimension to hitherto exclusive sports such as snooker and golf. Why should horse racing in India be confined to the world of dark alleys and secret gossip?

Barring All India Radio's live commentary on the Indian Turf Invitation Cup run at Guindy, Madras (as it then was) in 1972, which this writer remembers hearing on the short wave, and Doordarshan's live coverage of a couple of Invitation Cups in the 'nineties, the electronic media in India have given short shrift to horse racing. It is nowhere suggested that cricket should be jettisoned. But how about a sense of perspective?