Beyond the Cricket World Cup 2023
We are a slightly presumptuous nation that had mentally crowned ourselves as champions before actually passing the final test and in our hurt at this totally unanticipated turn of events, we take jibes at our leader for entering the team’s dressing room with a television crew and act horrified when a doctored picture of an Australian player with a beer bottle in hand and foot on the Holy Cup emerge on social media
Our country deserves no less and we need to make it happen
Indian cricket has always been an enigma. For diehard followers like me who have lived, breathed and hoped for victory every time an Indian team marched out into the field, the results India has achieved over the decades has fallen short of expectations. All the sophistication of a Pataudi and all the panache of successful leaders like Wadekar, Ganguly and Kohli did not yield the consistency we had hoped for though the wins fashioned by Kapil Dev and Dhoni on global stages served to keep the flame of hope always alive in our hearts.
After successive losses in international competition to our bête noire New Zealand, the build-up to the Cricket World Cup was moderate. If anybody had predicted at the beginning that we would vanquish all that came in front of us in the first ten games and ten out of eleven players would be in sparkling form and delight the spectators in the grounds and the billion on-line beyond their own expectation, we old-timers would have done a “tut-tut” and warned the fans to wait for that bad hair day when nothing goes right for the team. Such is the confidence this team has shown that at the time of starting this piece, a day after the India- Netherlands game when our top five batsmen got fifties with the last two getting facile tons, this writer could not see any side raising their game to a level where they could deny India the World Cup.
Fortunately, I got preoccupied with other matters and did not send this article till our ever-conscientious editor of Corporate Citizen sent me a reminder a couple of days after the debacle in the final. But, I am being brave and retaining what I wrote and adding some thoughts to the huge volume of words that have already been written on why we choked on the final day. Much has been said about the partisan crowd that were literally waiting for India to win with no thought of a possible loss. The pundits have also pointed out that the superb performance of the top five never gave a chance for the lower order batsmen including the much-maligned SKY to be tested. And the success of the seed merchants with occasional cameos by the spinners did not show us that against a resolute batting pair we might come up short. And of course, that horribly wrong decision about pitch preparation made for a perfect disaster – on and off the field, in captaincy, batting, bowling and fielding, on a day when the resurgent Australian side could do no wrong.
We are a slightly presumptuous nation that had mentally crowned ourselves as champions before actually passing the final test and in our hurt at this totally unanticipated turn of events, we take jibes at our leader for entering the team’s dressing room with a television crew and act horrified when a doctored picture of an Australian player with a beer bottle in hand and foot on the Holy Cup emerge on social media. “How dare he do this” and “How could we lose such an important game when we were clearly the best team” are just responses emerging from a wounded psyche that has been fed for the last many months on what a world leader India is becoming, how well we are performing as an economy and as a sporting nation and how wise we are in all our thoughts and actions. I must confess that as a keen student of human nature, I had said on the eve of the final that while I wanted India to win as much as the rest of the nation, it would be interesting to watch the reactions if we managed to fail the final exam. Sadly, all reactions have been predictable and its now time to swallow some bitter medicine and move on.
We are struggling through a winter of some discontent. The fog that pervades Delhi every winter did not fail to appear and the Uttarakhand tragedy of 40 helpless men trapped in a tunnel has again raised questions on our level of preparation when we undertake major projects. The never- ending conflict in Ukraine and the seemingly impossible situation emerging in Gaza, puts the entire world and the possibility of continuing economic progress at risk. All of us will need to hunker down and focus on nation building to ensure that our country’s position in the world and our own families are not put to risk.
The high tempers and intemperate language emerging from political pulpits continue to border on a lack of decency and personal abuse. Much vile rhetoric will have to be aired before the local elections and finally the national elections yield victors, who can get on with the task of building prosperity and livelihoods for hundreds of millions who need them today and must get them tomorrow.
In closing, let us hope that by the time the festival of lights rolls around next year, good will indeed have begun to triumph over evil – in our thoughts, in our actions and in the outcomes we see emerging. Our country deserves no less and we need to make it happen!