What do they know about cricket, those who only cricket know

“Team aissi hi nehin jitti hain , jitana parta hain” this is a very well-known and oft-repeated slogan currently being used for marketing and promotional ways during the current world cup cricket. One thing that struck my mind after watching to this particular slogan is what can we do to make sure that our glorious nation of more than 1 billion wins? And for that matter why do we need to do anything in this regard apart from watching (and cheering loudly as well as jeering the opposition) our boys play? After all when we won the world cup in 1983 did the Kapil’s devils needed our help in such a way like in one of our very famous television ad-s couple of very famous Bollywood actors saying that they will not eat anything during the matches ? I do not think so.

Now let us think from another perspective. Why do most of us the middle-class Indians need to cheer madly for our cricket team? After all most of our celebrated cricketers will probably end up being crorepatis even they do not do anything in the competition thanks to a recent phenomenon called the “Indian Premier League”. And if they really play well and go on to win the cup they will probably end up being khaarabpatis anyways. So what is in it for us middle class Indians? Mr. Indian cricket fan if you argue that we should watch the game for only the love of game , I will counter you by saying that very few of our die-hard cricket fans watch the games for the love of the game ; they simply want their “Team India” to win. And why do we otherwise irrelevant people should care about these would-be “crorepatis/ khaarabpatis” (depending upon their performance of losing/winning the world cup)? My own understanding is that the present life of an average middle-class Indian is pretty dull and doubly boring. We face a lot of challenges throughout each day of our life for example the skyrocketing of daily food prices, the ratio of income taxes, the attitudes of traffic polices on the road, the rage of our angry and ever demanding managers at work, the fury and attitudes of our girlfriends and wives at home/outside, the constant concern of our parents and relatives. Among all these we just want our “Team India” to win not because we realize how great a batsman “Sachin Pazi” is but for our own selves. If Sachin Pazi scores a century or if Bhajji gets a hat-trick or if Mahi wins the cup then at least for some very few moments we can forget who we in reality are i.e. a completely irrelevant class of people in the nation and we for that very moment feel that it is such irrelevant people like us who are at the top of the world, not those famed cricketers.

On a different note, I for one will not be too disappointed if our team loses say in the quarter finals. After all in my view (and probably some of my readers will agree) that this current team of ours is not a complete all-round team but a team which is dependent upon certain great individuals starting from Sachin and Viru pazi. I for one will be happy if a team say as the proteas go on to win the cup after all they are a preity all-round and formidable side which includes probably the best first bowler going around. And of all they are the team who deserves the helping hands of lady luck most since they are the one to have been at the receiving end of the story for so long. Anyone remember 1992 and 1999 world cup semi finals? The next team I have my favorite list is …. Woops do not shout at me o glorious Indian cricket fan … Pakistan. After all in the last decade that country has seen all sorts of problems and ironically everything started to going badly for that country from their lose in the 1999 cup final. What could be better for the people of that grieving and beleaguered country than an India-Pakistan clash at the quarter finals in say Bangalore and those hated Pakistanis defeating us in the last over with that hated and reviled Rawalpindi express uprooting the middle stump of Sachin Pazi? Now I know of my readers will be nodding their heads in anger and disbelief. I know it will be a great anti-climax (and tragic also since probably some innocent boys and girls would probably end up hanging themselves from their ceiling fans after the match) but then sometimes one also needs anti-climaxes in our lives. That is why a very famous cricket writer from West Indies wrote “What do they know about cricket, those who only cricket know”