cricket----an emotional affair

India won the world cup in 1983 about a month before I was born. That means I have witnessed only one Indian world cup victory in my life so far. It happened in 20-20, the format which we had not been dreaming of winning but a world cup is a world cup after all.

Cricket is more than a game for most of the people in this country. Some define it as a religion here. For me it’s the greatest passion I have had. There have been many unforgettable memories that this wonderful passion has given me. One unpleasant occasion that I will never forget is that I flunked for the first time in my life in biology in std 9 becoz I cud nt stop myself from watching the India-pakistan match during the independence cup.

My relation with cricket goes back to as far as I can remember. I still remember mcgrath splitting the helmet of the young sachin tendulkar with a hostile bouncer in the 1992 world cup. How I thought we were going to be the first team to beat newzealand in that tournament which we didn’t. I remember following five world cups from 1992 to 2007, not to mention all the cricket I followed between those world cups. Like most of the Indians I also consoled myself with the brilliant performance my sachin to be the top scorer in 1996 and 2003 and the fact that we have always defeated Pakistan whenever we have played against them in the world cups. After the 20-20 quest we can say that we never lost to them as one match ended in a nail biting tie.

What has been happening in cricket is very comparable to how we have been growing as a nation in this world. We have for long been the nation that tend to overlook the failure of team and enjoy the records that some outstanding individuals hold. We people are not much bothered about loosing to aussies but we are really concerned about sachin’s record for most test centuries that is under threat from ricky ponting. What could be the reason for this attitude. Why the hell are we too docile to just accept the defeats and just feel happy with some sparkling individual performances? Maybe it has something to do with the history of our country. Maybe becoz of the lack of self belief.

Is all of this going to change. Will the young and vibrant India make its mark in cricket also like it has been doing in the world economy. We are being recognized as the emerging power in the world. The people responsible for that are the youngsters who are not afraid to spread their wings. Its such a delightful sight to see an aggressive sreeshant sledging hayden on the cricket field. He epitomises the attitude of today’s India. The future lies in the hand of these youngsters who have the appetite for success. They certainly need guidance from the stalwarts like sachin, saurav, rahul and anil but they need the freedom to play. The seniors should be willing to hand over the reigns to the future performers. I had a diary in which I wrote down all the scores of sachin for 4 continuous years. I worried about the time when he would have to retire. It will still be very sad to see him depart but there is no fear about the future after his departure.

Nobody missed the three biggies after we won the 20-20 world cup. Success is very sweet and the game is always bigger than the players. Indian fans wont complain about departure of their heroes if team India delights them with the taste of success more often. More importantly players like sachin and rahul deserve to leave like warnie and mcgrath did, at the top of their game. Let the question being asked at the time of their exit be why rather than why not……