Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Vision 2020

I don't think this is quite what Dr Kalam had in mind when he wrote his book. But then again, the Indian cricket team did not seem far from his vision of a confident, self-reliant, youthful, spirited India.

India, yesterday, won the inaugral Twenty20 world cup. And in what style! Sure there were troughs of despair and crests of joy, but in the end, we managed to keep it together. That was what mattered.

A study (read numbers guessed by me) has revealed that 90% of men cry at-least once a year. That number used to be at-least 10-20 times for the Indian cricket fan. Oh! the melodrama... Indian cricket finally has a happy ending! And somehow, I can' help but compare the Indian cricket fan to your average soap watcher. Indian cricket over the last couple of years, has all the makings of one:

Anger: Mob destructions of cricketers' homes
Elation: Victory laps
Sorrow: Loss to NZ
Jubilation: The mob mentioned above lighting crackers and doing 'bhangra' outside the same cricketers' homes.
Suspense: The Final of T20, the first India-Pak match
Animosity: Saurav - Chappel
Camaraderie: The huddle
Rape: Ahem.. what else would you call Yuvraj's 6 6s to Broad?
Litigation: BCCI...
Conspiracy: ICL!...
Melodrama: Sree(anything but)Shanth
and much more.

Now, all this comes in a power-packed 3 hours! That to me is the success of T20. Purists will berate me for the alleged 'bastardization' of the gentleman's game. They may gladly come over to do my work and the chores at home while I leisurely sit, relax, occassionally doze off, and watch the 5 days of 'Pure' cricket. I refuse to fall into the category of a gentleman who vegetates in front of his television for 5 days. Oops... I don't want to start a debate on that.

But what is heartening is that India wins the World Cup the same year it was bundled out by Bangladesh(!) and that too without the 'Trinity' of Rahul, Sachin and Saurav. Finally, for the Indian cricket fan (which I do not claim to be one), there is a light at the end of the tunnel. In this assurance (and at-least till the 'dream team' stumbles again), the fans shall Keep Walking.

3 comments:

stardust said...

hmmmm, finally u have written on subject close to the heart of milinon of Indians,what happened yesterday was "PURE Cricket", as in the sport .Both the side played good cricket and took the gmae to a different level, for once the player were not burderned with the glory of their owm fame and name they just played with their heart not for some god forsaken stats.

Anonymous said...

Cool write up... and yes the collective BP of the nation must have gone up a few notches till sreesanth took that heart stopping catch ...what a WIN... i am now thoroughly enjoying being sporting abt pak playing well...read losing!!!

Anonymous said...

@ Walker: Sree(anything but)Shanth... ha ha ha ROTFLMAO