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Sunday, March 25, 2007

Coping with the Cricket World Cup tragic loss!!

Srilanka managed to win only twice in previous 10 encounters against India, with 2 series losses. But they had their revenge by winning once when it mattered most to India! And no matter how many times we win them over and over again after yesterday, well it will hardly matter!

The very same beauty of cricket can be its cruelty as well. Unpredicatabilty. Glorious uncertainties of Cricket as we often say! For most of us it will take time to sink in that the unthinkable had happened, India is out in the first round!! For the unrealistic optimists in us, we will be rooting for Bermuda when they take on Bangladesh! Oh yeah..you have company. Anything is possible. May be can call it Cricket's beauty this time.

Its not a World Cup without India! (even literally, the whole money comes 4m India). Its like Mahabharata without Arjuna, the World Cup has lost flavour without India right? NO! WRONG! Early humans thought they were at the centre of the universe. We must be more evolved! Lets face it, our team wasn't good enough or atleast didn't perform well enough. We have to realise it, accept it and cope with the hurt now.

The best way to cope up with the hurt is to turn your attention away. Some ideas ..

1 all of us will have a second mind favourite, other than our heart's India. switch your support to them. for me it was srilanka. was, but now I may not be able to as srilanka pushed out india.

2 try following another sport event, the english premier league may be!

3 get out and actually play some game! get involved in some sport instead of following something on TV, then may be we will learn triumph and failure are twin impostors in sport as in life and may be we will realise cricket is just a game. loosing in cricket is not a national disaster.

Hmmm ok alright i can see its going nowhere..was trying anyway! Fine..

1 No! The bond between a team and its fans is like a pact written in blood. It cant be washed away or switch companies like we change jobs or like the players change their endorsements.

2 No! We cant suddenly develop love for another sport. One of the first toys we got as babies is a tiny plastic cricket bat. We grow up on cricket, we look back our lives in between world cups as times frames. and anyways we dont have much choice. As a nation we are lazy asses to bend our back in anything else, Cricket is convinient and suitable to us. We excel in anything to do with the mind, like math and software. Leave out individual games like Chess, we have only Cricket. Cricket is essentially an out and out mind game.

3 And NO..Cricket is not just a game. May be it wasnt meant to be anything more. But no, its not just a game to us in India. And its irrevocable. The common thread than binds us as Indians which is essentially 27 countries of different languages and cultures where everything else differs. Everything else. We got our own different food, films, music and dance. But we instantly forget our differences at the sight of the tricolour flag, the sound of the national anthem, the mere thought of the Indian Cricket Team. Cricket is not just a game, its our Indian way of life.

Dont for a moment feel less proud of Indian Cricket. The home of cricket shifted from Lords and stands firmly rooted in Eden Gardens since the days of Kapil Devils. The soul of Cricket lives in the narrow dusty streets of remote villages in India, without electricity, with kids with no school to goto, but playing - Gully Cricket.

Cricket needs India. India needs Cricket. And at the bottom of it all, we need Cricket.

Cricket is both our comforting pillow and punching bag.

Its punching time now and we will make a kill, just as we make a Star life, when in pillow mode.
Emotions will run high, 1/6th of humanity will go into mourning, depression starts today, the stock market will crash next week and gloom will encompass the whole country.

But then, who said you can love without pain? To go through ordeal is part of loving something. And we will.

Indian cricket will survive this setback. And so will our love for our team.

Jai Hind!